Front & center: Hotel Business ‘covers’ Hunter Hotel Conference award recipients
The Hunter Hotel Conference launched in 1989, a couple of years before Hotel Business was founded (in 1992). That being said, the magazine didn’t start listing it in its calendar of events until the January 7, 2005 issue when it was the 17th annual Hotel Investment Conference, held at the Crowne Plaza Ravinia in Atlanta. This was followed by a short list the next year (Feb 21, 2006 issue) of speakers/panelists.
In 2010, however, Hotel Business began the annual tradition of featuring the intended recipient of the Hunter Conference Award for Excellence & Inspiration on the cover, starting with owner/developer Gary Tharaldson, then president/CEO of Tharaldson Executive Management, on the March 7 cover. The award was created to celebrate an owner “who has exemplified high standards in leadership, citizenship and innovation and who has been an inspiration to the industry,” according to the conference founders.
From that point on, Hotel Business “covered” (left to right, after Tharaldson): White Lodging Services’ Bruce White; JHM Hotels’ H.P. Rama; Value Place’s Jack DeBoer; FelCor’s Tom Corcoran; industry icon Mike Leven; Loews Hotels & Resorts’ Jonathan Tisch; and, in this issue, Starwood Capital Group’s Barry Sternlicht.
While Barry Sternlicht, chairman/CEO of Greenwich, CT-based Starwood Capital Group is on the cover of this issue of Hotel Business—and will be honored at the 29th annual Hunter Hotel Conference later this month—he is certainly no stranger to being the featured face of the magazine.
Appearing twice before during the magazine’s 25-year history, this industry icon is still making headlines, not only for his award nomination, but for the opening this month of the highly anticipated 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge. Located in the growing Dumbo neighborhood of this NYC borough, this property marks the brand’s third hotel, but first ground-up development.
This flagship property underscores the brand’s commitment to sustainability and luxury, combining them in a design-driven, nature-led, 194-room hotel.
Hotel Business featured Sternlicht in the March 7, 2006 issue (left) when the cover story queried readers: “Will Crillon Be Heavenly for Sternlicht?” Again, we covered him in the May 21, 1998 issue (far left), when the magazine featured an exclusive interview about life in the fast lane or, more specifically, the completion of Starwood’s $10.2B acquisition of ITT and its $708-million purchase of Westin Hotels & Resorts.
