PERSONALITIES
power washer . He eventually made it up to becoming a sous chef , but at the hotel he was working at , he began to spend more time in the front of the house . His vigor caught the eye of the hotel ’ s owner , who said , “ I ’ d like to pay you to be a manager , rather than a cook ,” Azarbarzin recounted .
From there , it was a sprint up the luxury ladder . He started with Four Seasons , before moving on to management roles with Starwood Hotels & Resorts . In 2005 , he became president of SBE ’ s hotel group , the company headed by Sam Nazarian , a mentor who he said made him look at the world through a different lens . ( Azarbarzin even had a two-episode run on the widely popular reality dramedy “ The Hills ,” when it featured some scenes at the Sahara Hotel in
Las Vegas .) At SBE for 12 years , he eventually became CEO of SH Hotels & Resorts , a hotel operating platform owned by Starwood Capital and headed by hospitality guru Barry Sternlicht , of whom Azarbarzin said , “ I ’ ve never seen anyone in the business who works so well with his left brain and his right brain .” He calls him “ a creative genius ,” someone who is at similar ease discussing design briefs or plant varietals . “ He knows exactly what he wants .” Mentors matter . So much that Azarbarzin calls himself a poster child for what mentors can do . It ’ s a big part of the focus of LMS , whereby leaders are assigned mentees and success is measured as an outcome for each . In 2022 , Highgate made 56 operational promotions and 46 corporate promotions .
Arash Azarbarzin became CEO of Highgate in 2021 , moving from a company that operated 12 hotels to one that has some 87,000 rooms under its management belt .
A room at The Newbury Boston , formerly the Taj Boston , which was acquired by Highgate in 2018 .
28 hotelsmag . com May 2023