Who has joined the pantheon of HOTELS Hotelier of the World award winners? Readers have voted, and here are the results for 2019:
Corporate Hotelier of the World: Nakul Anand, executive director, ITC Ltd., Kolkata, India
Independent Hotelier of the World: Edward Staros, vice president and managing director, The Ritz-Carlton Resorts of Naples, Florida
Both share an earnest belief that adding value, creating metrics and passing their knowledge forward are of the utmost importance. Read their profiles here.
Now in its 39th year, HOTELS print and online readers voted for nominees in both the corporate and independent hotelier categories based on criteria that include how the nominees have defined standards of service; achieved operational excellence and outstanding performance; creativity in management; and how much they have done for the greater good of the global hotel business as well as inside the communities in which they serve.
“Call them old-school values, but they stand up today and have proven to be successful quotients for Anand and Staros to deliver on all of our award criteria and the bottom lines for their organizations,” said HOTELS Editor in Chief Jeff Weinstein.
Anand, winner of the corporate award, was nominated by past winners and advisers to HOTELS. Other nominees included Tim and Kit Kemp of Firmdale Hotels, London; Alan Fuerstman of Montage International, Laguna Beach, California; and Frank Marrenbach of The Oetker Collection, Baden-Baden, Germany.
Independent winner Staros was nominated along with contemporaries Laurence Geller, Geller Capital Partners, Chicago; Olga Petroni of the Alvear Palace Hotel, Buenos Aires; and Nathalie Seiler-Hayez, Beau-Rivage Palace, Lausanne, Switzerland.