Prabhjot | Tell us about your journey, how did it all start?
Ian | Like many others, I first entered the industry during summer school breaks. My first job was to polish silver in a nearby luxury hotel restaurant and although perhaps not the most flamboyant job in the world I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant world.
I progressed through the ranks in the F&B department both in Sweden and internationally. At the age of 25 I was F&B manager in a large ski resort with multiple outlets including cafes, restaurants and night clubs, which also meant working 17 hours a day in a high octane environment. It became very obvious that such a lifestyle would not be too sustainable so I decided the best way to continue to elevate my career was to gain a university degree in marketing, finance and human resources management.
After completing my studies at Oxford Brookes University I worked a few years in London as Human Resources Manager and later assistant General Manager in luxury hotels. In 2000 I was offered a job at the Rezidor Hotel Group’s head office in Brussels as Operations Manager for all new hotel developments. It was a job I probably was not entirely ready for but thankfully someone must have seen that I was not a person that would make the same mistake twice so gave me a chance. I worked with some very talented, hard working and experienced people and from them I learned what needed to be done to successfully build a hotel and to make it a commercial success. When I was promoted to Director of Future Openings I was looking after new hotel builds, brand conversions and take overs, which saw me manage 175 projects in 42 countries in seven years. It was an absolutely amazing experience and a dream job but it also meant I was constantly travelling and too often short on time. My life encompassed of airports, taxis, hotel rooms, meeting rooms and again working long after midnight in a hotel room somewhere in the world, instead of being home with my wife and young family.
Therefore in 2007 I returned to day-to-day operations in the capacity of general manager at the Radisson Blu Bosphorus Hotel in Istanbul. The hotel became Radisson hotel of the year in 2008.
In 2010, I transferred to Dubai to open the Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Downtown, which opened in May 2011.
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