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PLAYA ENTERS THE CARIBBEAN 12
PUTTING SINA WEIBO TO WORK 14
INTERCONTINENTAL RESTAURANTS CERTIFIED GREEN
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OCEAN HOUSE GOES OLD SCHOOL
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ON THE WEB 19
When Allen Smith was named as the next president and CEO of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts , it seemed to come as a bit of a surprise to the industry , as he was not the marquee name many expected . However , for the private company ’ s long-term shareholders — Kingdom Holding Co ., Cascade Investment and Triples Holdings — Smith had all the right answers during the search process , and he is now charged with growing the 92-hotel brand while maintaining the integrity of its performance standards .
The 56-year-old former CEO of Prudential Real Estate Investors led that company ’ s global expansion , which today consists of 23 offices worldwide and US $ 53 billion in real estate assets under management , including many hotels . A little-known fact , Smith says , is that he interned in 1985 at a Four Seasons hotel in Chicago while attending the Cornell hotel school .
HOTELS won the first interview with Smith in October , after he had spent no more than a month on the job , to talk about his broad plans as well as his point of view about how to take Four Seasons into its next era . HOTELS : What was the interview process with Four Seasons like ?
Allen Smith : As I engaged with the shareholders , it was clear they were looking for someone who could think like an investor , someone who had experience managing and growing a business globally and someone who could fit culturally with this very unique company . H : Beyond immersion , what is your top job walking in the door ?
AS : When you think about the competitive advantage of the business , namely its culture and people , clearly one of my priorities is to protect that , to nurture it and strengthen it . When you talk about how to manage the global expansion of the company , what underpins that is the integrity of the culture and strength of the people we have . Certainly that is number one .
10 HOTELS December 2013 www . hotelsmag . com