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Features by Susan Salter Reynolds development: The brand builders

hen it’s four a.m. Like Capuano, Simon Turner ’83, Four of the five biggest hotel in New York, it’s nine a.m. in , president of global development for companies in the world—, ten a.m. in Cape Town, noon in Dubai, Starwood and InterContinental, Marriott, and and four p.m. in . For Tony Worldwide, hits the floor early. “My eyes —have graduates of Cornell’s Capuano ’87, in other words, it’s time to open each morning and I instinctively School of Hotel Administration get up and go to work. Capuano, who reach for my Blackberry. I look at overseeing their global development is ’s executive vice incoming emails from , Singapore, operations. The job is one of the hot president for global development, reach- , the Middle East, and Europe and seats in the hospitality business, es for his iPhone before he even takes respond. I shower. I head to the office. and yes, it can be glamorous, but there’s a shower. By five he’s in the office, talk- More emails and meetings involving the a lot more to it than crisscrossing time ing with his team in Asia. Americas. Six, seven, and eight o’clock zones. It’s a high-pressure, high-risk job and China has woken up again. The big that requires a firm grounding in opera- Capuano is responsible for all of challenge for me is working across tions, real estate, international deal- Marriott’s hotel brands and real estate multiple time zones in a 24/7, urgent, making, management, branding, and development projects around the world. deal-driven environment.” development. It also requires less tangi- He spends 50 to 60 percent of his time ble qualities, like vision, pure instinct, Won the road, and having a life means Kirk Kinsell, MPS ’80, president and a willingness to delegate, to trust— taking his family with him. His daugh- for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa across borders. ter is in fourth grade and her passport, at InterContinental Hotel Group he said with obvious pride, “looks a (IHG), wakes up these days thinking The job The Grand Hotel InterContinental Paris lot like mine.” about how to build the presence of their six brands across emerging mar- The global development field, generally travel patterns, real estate, local busi- world. If you look at our development kets like Russia/CIS (the allied speaking, involves finding new places ness. After all those numbers have been offices around the world, you’ll see that Commonwealth of Independent States), to build or run hotels. Dealmaking, evaluated, intuition and judgment must fully 80 percent are staffed by locals.” Turkey, and Africa. He opens his eyes to creating new brands, designing hotels, be applied. You must take some risks. issues of infrastructure, branding, and building a staff, and staying one step These days, most of the company’s “The big challenge building a sales force in such far-flung ahead of the competition on the ground “There is a lot of passion in this indus- portfolio is composed of managed and markets as Central Asia and East are just a few of the challenges. It is not try,” he said. “There’s the strength of the franchised hotels with long-term Africa. The game certainly has changed unusual for Marriott, Starwood, IHG, service industry, then there’s the design contracts. “We have an asset-light strat- for me is working across in recent years. Kinsell recalls with and Hyatt to be bidding on the same aesthetic—sometimes strange bedfel- egy,” said Capuano. “We operate 3,500 amusement a conference in the early piece of real estate in a remote part of lows. In 2010 we launched the Waikiki hotels around the world and, of those 1990s where “most of the people in China, for example. But the real chal- Edition hotel—a partnership between 3,500, we own exactly six. This means multiple time zones the room didn’t recognize Asia,” on a lenge still lies in protecting the credibili- Ian Schrager and Marriott. This will be we don’t have the earnings volatility map of the world on the wall. ty and quality of existing brands. an industry changer, but ultimately associated with real estate ownership. what matters is authentic service. With all the competitive pressures, the in a 24/7, urgent, As Hyatt’s global head of real estate In addition to the emerging markets of stability of our contracts really matters. and development, Stephen Haggerty ’90 India, China, and Brazil, Capuano has “It’s so much easier to do this job Marriott has a reputation for long man- is responsible for all strategic global been investigating possibilities in Africa. if you believe in the product,” continued agement contracts—30 to 50 years.” deal-driven environment.” development (acquisition and manage- “I’ve been spending some time looking Capuano, who feels the Marriott culture ment agreements) for all Hyatt lodging at opportunities across the African con- makes his job a whole lot easier. “Bill Beyond the profit and loss, Kinsell and brands. Three of his tinent,” he said. “Regardless of the Marriott’s dad always said, ‘Take care of is keenly aware of the responsibilities of four children were born in Asia. He has market, the question becomes which is the associates; the associates will take the job, namely supporting growth in traveled so much and lived in so many the best brand to deploy. Most of these care of the customers, and the customers a particular area. He is responsible for different countries that when he moved decisions are based on the metrics— will return.’ We are very associate-inten- 700 hotels—121,000 rooms operating back to the in 2003, it felt sive. This means we have the ability like terra incognita, “a new geography.” to attract high-quality talent around the

16 School of Hotel Administration Hotelie 17 The career path

Tony Capuano joined Marriott in 1995 and swiftly moved through the ranks, adding chunks of the world to his portfolio: first the western United States and Canada, then Central and South America, then the rest of the world. He has found Marriott a great place to build a career. He is especially proud to work for a company that was started, just 83 years ago, by a hotelier, Tony Capuano ’87 J. W. Marriott, and to have worked for a “visionary” leader in the industry Hawaii. After six years of interactions As a master’s degree student in the like Jim Sullivan, Marriott’s former with Marriott, I ended up joining the School of Hotel Administration, Kinsell executive vice president of lodging devel- company in 1995, working for Jim remembers being assigned to work with opment. When Sullivan retired in 2008, Sullivan. It was a very exciting time. I Dick Moore, a professor (now emeritus) Capuano, who had then been with the worked on the acquisition of both Ritz- of information technology at the school. company for 13 years, stepped into his Carlton and .” “I learned some very practical stuff— shoes as head of global development. hotel applications in accounting, reser- Rule-breakers: Two hotel brands, JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton, plus Ritz-Carlton Residences, share space at LA Live, a new entertainment Kirk Kinsell has tried, for much of vations systems, locking systems, etc. district envisioned as the “Times Square of the West” After graduating from the School of his life, “not to be tethered to one source It was a window on the future.” Hotel Administration in 1987, Capuano, of stress,” and this philosophy has influ- under six brands—and is perhaps best sitting in someone’s files as a workout!” is a consensus-driven company—most like many graduates, joined a consult- enced his career path. “I went to U.C. Kinsell joined toward the known among his colleagues for expand- he said. How large a role does intuition decisions involve several colleagues. One ing firm, Laventhol and Horwath, , but surfing got in the way of end of the 1980s. “It gave me a larger ing IHG business into Russia and play? “It’s not enough to be intuitive,” third of my time is spent overseeing before settling in with a hotel company. organic chemistry. All of my part-time geography and taught me some different the Middle East. “I like to focus on the he asserted. “We need to move from the global growth, another third evaluating “Somewhere along the line I became jobs were in the hospitality business. business models—we had Hampton, things people have in common—individ- intuitive to the explicit, identifying ways to maximize shareholder value interested in real estate,” he said. “I When I graduated, I went to work with Embassy, —multi-segment ual purpose, leaving a legacy, communi- and ranking the markets we are not in, for the approximately 50 hotels wholly joined Kenneth Leventhal in Century Trammell Crow real estate developers and franchise models.” In 1988, Holiday ty-building, children, God, a passion using indicators like population trends owned by Starwood. The remaining City, Los Angeles. The entirety of in —the largest private developer Inn was sold to U.K.-based Bass for life. The hotel business is all about and GDP.” He also spends a lot of third is spent as a member of the seven- their practice was real estate. At the there. (When the show Dallas was PLC. Bass sent Kinsell to the London supporting dreams and hopes. That’s time cementing relationships. “We are person team of executives who report time, there was significant Japanese on TV, we’d look at it and think, ‘That’s Business School for a bit more what hotels do—they’re open all of the working with third-party capital, creat- to the CEO considering all major issues investment in the U.S. I spent a lot of pretty much our world!’)” polishing. In those early days he was time, they’re a place of refuge,” he ing relationships. I involve myself in that impact Starwood’s business.” time in , New York, and given the opportunity to create Holiday said. He listed a common set of decision those conversations.” Inn Express. But in the mid-1990s he guidelines: GDP, infrastructure, peo- Sometimes the luxury, the exotic wanted a change. He went to Sheraton ple—the owners and employees. “Our “A large part of my job,” explained nature of international travel, escapes for a while and then “on a bit of biggest growth markets are currently Turner, “is to drive near-term unit Turner, but he tries to remember to an entrepreneurial journey involving the U.K., Germany, Russia, and— growth for Starwood, but it is also to grab opportunities to see amazing a restaurant company [Applebee’s looking to Africa—South Africa, but think about where Starwood’s nine things—the Great Wall of China, the and McCormick & Schmick] and then also the mineral-rich areas in the brands should be five years from now. jungles of Cambodia and Angkor the technology industry.” east and west.” This entails answering questions like, Wat, the Sydney Opera House. His how are we going to grow in Africa or enthusiasm for the industry still makes In 1998 Bass acquired InterContinental Haggerty chalks up much of his Brazil? How do we dominate the him feel like a kid in a candy store. “I Hotels and later became IHG. From success to serendipity, but he spends Chinese market? How do we expand get energized by all the different cultur- then until 2007, Kinsell was senior vice much of his time on the hard, cold each of our nine brands globally most al approaches to this business—being president and chief development facts, following growth trends, for exam- effectively?” Does that involve able to adapt to doing business with peo- officer for IHG in the Americas. After ple, in Brazil, India, and China, identify- instinct? Or just a close eye on macro- ple throughout the world adds a degree launching (which now ing emerging markets. He credits failure economic and socioeconomic trends? “I of variety and challenge that makes has stylish boutique hotels all over the as a big part of the learning process, don’t operate solely on my own instincts each day different. You don’t go into the world, including on the though. “One of the first deals I ever —I operate with the input of a global, hotel business if you don’t like people.” Bund, Xiamen-Fujian China, Toronto, organized—the Guam Marriott—is still cross-functional team,” he answered. , London, Liverpool, and many “Starwood under Frits van Paasschen other locations), Kinsell has steadily Kirk Kinsell, MPS ’80

18 School of Hotel Administration Hotelie 19 Features

increased his responsibilities to more of talent at Marriott at that time offered on the board of directors of Four in at Pannell Kerr Forster. and more parts of the globe: the many strong mentors for Haggerty as Seasons Hotels and Resorts and on the Chuck Henry ’74 hired me at Salomon Americas, the Middle East, Europe, he progressed through the ranks, and he board of the Fairmont Raffles Hotels Brothers in 1987, and then he and I Russia, and Africa. never looked back. After serving in International. Three years of Turner’s worked for Prince Alwaleed for 12 years regional development positions and fea- life were spent negotiating the acquisi- starting in the late 1980s. Three years Chance played an important role sibility and market planning roles tion of the George V, “one year to ago I brought Todd Noonan ’89 to in setting Steve Haggerty’s career path. in and the U.S., he rose to shut down the hotel, create a social plan Starwood. It’s all six degrees of separa- “I accepted a job at HVS in New York become Marriott International’s senior for employees, and engage architects, tion. Going to Cornell is like getting before graduating,” he said, “but then an vice president of global asset manage- designers, and contractors, and two the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval opportunity came up to join the newly ment and finance, and finally senior years ripping the guts out and building in the business, and the Cornell network established HVS London office.” The vice president of international project a new hotel—picking shower heads to is so valuable. When I connect with opportunity came because Haggerty’s finance and asset management for general managers. My role there was someone I’ve known for years through friend Stephen Mendell ’82, the head of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, one inch wide but a mile deep.” the Cornell association—we might be the London office, was in a car accident before accepting his current position at negotiating on opposite sides of the and in need of assistance “to keep the Hyatt in 2007. “But these things are Turner had worked previously in table, but the familiarity and shared trains running.” As Haggerty explained not lost on me—if Steve hadn’t been hit the investment banking department at DNA help us work through issues.” it, “I came home to a voicemail from by that car….” Salomon Brothers in both New York Steve Rushmore asking me to fill in, so and London, with a number of Cornell The five-star Hyatt Capital Gate, opening this year in Abu Dhabi Perhaps the most important connection off I went. I’d never been abroad. I had When Simon Turner joined Starwood alums at Pannell Kerr Forster in Turner made at Cornell was meeting an opportunity to build that business Hotels and Resorts Worldwide in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., and Turner also TA’ed for Professor Robert on campus. There was a big emphasis at his wife, Jeri ’83, during their freshman with Steve in an environment that pre- 2008 as the president of global develop- in Saudi Arabia for Gustar Hoteliers, Chase, Eng. ’60, MBA ’61, an association Cornell on industry experience, so year. “She went the pure operations sented more challenges and rewards ment, he’d spent more than a decade a Swiss hotel management and market- that would give Turner his turn at I spent my summers working in opera- than I ever could have imagined experi- in hotel finance and real estate develop- ing company. happenstance. “I was sitting in his office tions.” The single biggest benefit encing at that early stage in my career.” ment at Hotel Capital Advisors, an grading papers when the phone rang,” that he got from Cornell, though, was advisory firm assisting Prince Alwaleed His first job was behind the front desk he said. “A Swiss operator was looking the friends and colleagues—relation- Haggerty developed his chops bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, the man Time of a Sheraton hotel in Worcester, Mass. for a corporate operations analyst for ships that gave him “an irreplaceable in foreign markets and on a multitude magazine dubbed “the Arabian Warren It wasn’t until his sophomore year a group of hotels in Saudi Arabia. Chase advantage.” of different types of hotel real estate Buffett.” While in this role, Turner at Cornell that Turner realized what he cupped the phone. ‘How about six transactions. “Marriott was a client, worked on such high-profile deals as loved about the hotel business—not so months in Saudi?’ he whispered. I had Kinsell also noted that advantage. and after a few years I went to work for the acquisition and total redevelopment much the front-of-house, guest-intensive already accepted a job with Rowland “There is a great belief in the goodness them, partly because I wanted to be of the George V Hotel in Paris and aspects, but more the bricks-and-mortar, Bates [’79, MPS ’84] at Pannell Kerr of people in this business. The biggest a principal, not a consultant.” The depth the Copley Plaza in Boston. He also sat capital-intensive real-estate-deal part of Forster, but Rowlie generously said, ‘Go door-opener is Cornell—all you have the business. “I wanted to build hotels, ahead, get the experience, you can start to do is say you went to Cornell, and buy hotels, finance hotels.” For Turner the job later.’ If Rowlie and I didn’t you’re in.” as for Haggerty and Capuano, that path have the connection that was formed led through the consulting business. through our hotel school relationship, As Haggerty saw it in deciding on “It is a journeyman’s trade,” he said. “I who knows, maybe I would not have Cornell in 1986, “The hotel school was had to have firsthand experience evalu- been given the chance to defer my start the only choice for people interested ating deals.” But Turner was smart date and get that Saudi experience.” in the business, the only place with an enough to know that he needed some on- industry profile.” He chose the real the-ground experience. Throughout All hail Cornell estate and development track. ”By my his time at Cornell he worked at the junior year, the country was in a reces- Statler Hotel and remains an enthusias- Turner, Kinsell, Haggerty, and Capuano sion. I decided to do something practical tic supporter of the Hotel Leadership all agree that the upper stratosphere of and get some internship experience Stephen Haggerty ’90 Development Program. “Rick Adie [’75] global development is a small world; it in operations at HVS consulting. Cornell has done a tremendous job providing doesn’t hurt that so many of the people was great for getting real-life job route,” he said proudly, “and moved the students with an opportunity to get one gets to know and work with also training.” rapidly through the ranks at Hyatt. real life experience while pursuing went to Cornell. When we travel together and look at their education,” he said. Turner speaks very fondly of the properties, her insight, particularly into “The Cornell hotel school is such a clear friends he made at Cornell. “Rowland the operational aspects of hotels, pro- leader in the industry,” Capuano said. Bates! Class of ’79! Rowlie was the vides a valuable added perspective.” “When I graduated, all the leading com- guy who gave me a summer internship Turner also commented, “I look to the Simon Turner ’83, third from left, with EMEA team members Karl Bieberach ’96, Niall Kell, panies in the business were recruiting people in the industry who graduated IMHI ’96, and Neil George, MMH ’98

20 School of Hotel Administration Hotelie 21 Features The new kid on the block

Serena (Stein) Rakhlin ’04 was clearly thinking big when she walked into her inter- view last summer with Donald Trump. Was she nervous? Of course not. “Why hotels?” from Cornell in the years before me as the job, he focuses on the community- that being a club manager would be adjust your plans along the way as mar- Trump asked his future vice president of friends and role models—alums like Bill building aspects of the work, the a terrific job—he could work on his golf ket circumstances change and unfore- strategic planning and hotel business devel- Eaton ’61, Bob Alter ’73, Rocco Angelo corporate culture, the staff-building game during the week when the club seen opportunities arise.” opment. “Because they’re sexy,” she ’58, Lee Pillsbury ’69—and I continue to in foreign countries. was slow and oversee dinners, parties, answered. learn from them.” and events on the weekend. His What counts in the end These aspects also appeal to Haggerty, parents moved to the States when he Rakhlin is probably the most recent It’s great not knowing what tomorrow Made for the job who talked about “authentic hospitali- was 16, and two problems faced him Randomness, real estate, mentors, SHA alum to join the ranks of hotel devel- will bring, but I am always confident that ty.” As he learned in making deals immediately: the SATs and college. trust, and a certain commitment to one opment executives, but she is not the I’ll meet uniquely accomplished individuals “This is a very demanding, very and pioneering innovative new brands What did he want to be when he grew company—these are some of the first woman in the group. Several alumnae with diverse backgrounds while learning results-oriented job, and I wouldn’t want in Asia, “This is people-driven work.” up? Fortunately, a guidance counselor words that bubble up in conversations helped pave the way for other exceptional about the world and myself in the process.” any other,” said Kinsell. But then again, At Hyatt he has helped create a team suggested Cornell for club management, with these leaders of global develop- women like her, including Ruth Ormsby, he was primed to love his profession culture, setting goals, providing and his career evolved from there. He ment. They all have a lightness of being CALS ’80, MPS ’82, vice president for devel- After buillding a close relationship with from early childhood. “When I was six, I resources to people in the field, and considers himself a risk-averse person —a steady focus on how lucky they are opment at Carlson Hotels Worldwide; Ellen Mary Tabacchi, SHA associate professor of used to bop around the Clift,” he said, training employees in the fine arts of and yet, he said, “If there’s one thing to be doing what they’re doing that (King) Brown ’88, executive vice president food and beverage management, Rakhlin referring to the famous hotel built and collaboration and accountability. I tell our interns and recent grads, it’s seems to come with a dose of humility for development at Denihan Hospitality; interned with the food and beverage depart- owned by his great-grandfather (and take a calculated risk early in your and an openness to opportunity. Amy (Broderick) King ’96, senior counsel ment at Golden Door and then at Universal now owned and operated by Ian Turner grew up in and around golf career. Think big and always have a This could be a function of the volatility for development at ; Studios Hollywood. “At the hotel school Schrager’s ). It’s clubs in his native England. As an longer-term career strategy, get interna- they’ve experienced in their career and Allison Rohn Hope ’04, director of I took a lot of law classes but ultimately no surprise that when he talks about impressionable adolescent, he thought tional experience, and be prepared to years, fluctuations that likened the job hotel development for . Still, decided after graduation to go to PKF to bronco riding. “I would not have been Rakhlin is one of relatively few women Consulting in Los Angeles, where I learned so presumptuous,” Haggerty said quiet- in the field. “Yesterday,” she related from about feasibility, valuations, and working ly, “to have prescribed my own career Singapore, where she had gone to scout with developers and lenders,” she said. “I path. I always had a plan, but the plan new deals barely a month after landing the enjoyed the face-to-face work, and I became changed every year or two.” Turner job, “I went to a meeting—there were more and more fascinated with the art of has a Charles Darwin quote in his two other women there. Do you know how the deal. I wanted to understand what office, something along the lines of “It’s unusual that is?” drives a deal.” not the strongest or the most intelligent who survive, but the most adaptable Rakhlin is the first person of either An early job in the legal department to change.” In Turner’s career, a period sex to occupy her position with the Trump of Starwood Hotels and Resorts exposed of wildly shifting markets, these have Organization, a hotel upstart at the other Rakhlin to licensing and management proven to be good words to live by. end of a very wide spectrum from the agreements. She later earned a juris doctor likes of hotel corporate giants like Marriott, degree at Duke University School of Law All four subjects of this article Hyatt, InterContinental, and Starwood. and went to work as a real estate associate recognize that personal relationships ( is not related to in the New York office of Skadden, Arps, and trust become more and more the company known for casino properties Slate, Meagher, and Flom, a huge law firm. important the higher you rise in a com- in Atlantic City.) She reports to Ivanka It wasn’t long before she realized that big pany and the more money there is Trump, executive vice president of develop- law wasn’t where her heart was. “I wanted at stake. “Ultimately, it’s easier to take ment and acquisitions, and also works to use the thinking, negotiating, and risks when you trust the people you closely with Eric and Donald Trump, Jr. deal-making skills I gained as an attorney,” work with,” said Capuano. Kinsell left “Trump Hotel Collection represents the she said. As the market crashed in 2009, the hotel business to open a few restau- next generation of luxury hospitality—our Rakhlin the lawyer learned a bit more about rants, but it didn’t take him long to brand currently operates five iconic hotels, foreclosures. “You learn more when you come back. “Outside the hotel industry with properties in Panama and Toronto face problems than when things are it’s, well, not as nice,” he laughed. slated to open later this year,” she said. dandy—I worked very closely with owners “Out there, it’s only about the money.” “I am focused on growing our international and lenders on commercial real estate footprint, with a specific focus on Asia- deals gone sour.” Pacific, South America, and other emerging markets. Rakhlin’s advice to other job seekers is this: “Tell people exactly what you are look- “This is my dream job,” she continued. “I ing for; while you do have to pay dues, Starwood’s W hotel on Hollywood Boulevard travel to the world’s most desirable destina- don’t just take whatever is handed to you. tions, identifying management opportuni- Be proactive, go to sleep every night and ties for a brand that is intriguing. I’m some- wake up every morning thinking about one who loves adventure, loves deal-mak- creating value, and execute with intention ing, and I’m good at sleeping on planes. and integrity.” 22 School of Hotel Administration