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The Honourable Sir Rocco Forte | |
|---|---|
| Born | Rocco Giovanni Forte 18 January 1945 Bournemouth, England |
| Occupation | Hotelier |
| Known for | Rocco Forte Hotels |
| Spouse | Aliai Giovanna Maria Ricci (m. 1986) |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent |
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Sir Rocco Giovanni Forte FCA FIoD Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (born 18 January 1945) is an English hotelier and the chairman of Rocco Forte Hotels. [1]
Born in Bournemouth, the son of Charles Forte, Baron Forte, and his wife Irene, he was educated at St Peter's Catholic School, Southbourne (at the time an independent and fee-paying Roman Catholic grammar school) and Downside School. He read modern languages at Pembroke College, Oxford, [2] where he won a blue for fencing.
He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1969, later becoming a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1979.
Forte took over from his father as CEO of the Forte Group in 1992. In the mid-1990s, the Forte Group was faced with a hostile takeover bid from Gerry Robinson's Granada. Ultimately, Granada succeeded with a £3.87 billion tender offer in August 1995 that left the family with around £350 million in cash.
In 2001, following the de-merger of Compass Group from Granada's media interests, the use of the Forte trademark was returned to Forte in a gesture intended to dispel the bitter legacy of the takeover.
After the takeover, Forte set up his own chain of hotels in 1996, initially known as RF Hotels and re-branded as The Rocco Forte Collection after the return of the Forte brand name. He bought the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh and Brown's Hotel in London for £51.5m. As of April 2013, The Rocco Forte Collection operates eleven hotels in Europe, Russia, northern Africa and the Middle East. [3]
Forte's family wealth in 2013 was listed as £250,000,000. [4]
Forte was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1995 New Year Honours list for services to the UK tourism industry. [5] In March 2005, he received the highest Italian accolade, the Gran Croce dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana , for his entrepreneurial merits and strong links with Italy. He was President of the British Hospitality Association from 1991 to 1996.
He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the World Travel & Tourism Council and chaired the appeals to send the English teams to the Commonwealth Games for many years.
Forte is patron of Les clefs d'Or (society of the Golden Keys) for the UK.
Forte funded a series of lectures at Westminster Cathedral in April 2008 organised by Cardinal Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. [6]
In 1992, Forte and Martin Landau opened a City Technology College in Derby named Landau Forte College. In 2006, they changed to an academy. In 2010, they took a Tamworth High School (Woodhouse Business & Enterprise College) and turned it into Landau Forte Academy Tamworth, but in 2011, when they opened Landau Forte Academy QEMS in Tamworth, they changed their name to Landau Forte Academy Amington. There has since been a Sixth Form centre open next to Landau Forte Academy QEMS named Landau Forte Academy Tamworth Sixth Form.
Forte paid for a victory party for Boris Johnson in one of his hotels upon his winning the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election. [7] He donated £100,000 to the Conservative Party during the 2019 general election.[ citation needed ]. Sir Rocco is an advocate for Brexit and supporter of removing immigrants rights, appearing in interviews with Nigel Farage often.
In 2023 he declared in the Times Newspaper that the UK had failed to take advantage of the opportunities presented by Brexit and was considering emigrating to Italy.
On 15 February 1986, in the Aracoeli church of Rome, he married Aliai Giovanna Maria Ricci, a twenty-one-year-old Italian (b. 1965). [8] She is the daughter of a Roman neurologist, professor Giovanni Ricci. [9] They have three children together: Lydia Irene (b. 1987), Irene Alisea (b. 1988) and Charles Giovanni (b. 1991).
Other notable Forte family members include his sister Olga Polizzi [10] and her daughter Alex Polizzi, a hotelier and the presenter of Channel 5's The Hotel Inspector . [11]
Charles Carmine Forte, Baron Forte was an Italian-born Scottish hotelier who founded the leisure and hotels conglomerate that ultimately became the Forte Group.
The Lowry Hotel is located by the River Irwell in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The five-star hotel is named after the artist L. S. Lowry. Although within the boundaries of the City of Salford, it is close to Manchester city centre and is known as "The Lowry Hotel Manchester". Upon opening, Marco Pierre White was the overseeing chef of the River Room restaurant.
The Balmoral Hotel is a hotel and landmark in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located in the heart of the city at the east end of Princes Street, the main shopping street beneath the Edinburgh Castle rock, and the southern edge of the New Town.
Le Méridien is an American upscale, design-focused international hotel brand with a European perspective. It was originally founded by Air France in 1972 and was later based in the United Kingdom. Marriott International now owns the chain. As of June 2021, it had a portfolio of 109 open hotels with 29,439 rooms and a pipeline of 37 hotels with 9,585 upcoming rooms.
Sebastiano Ricci was an Italian painter of the late Baroque school of Venice. About the same age as Piazzetta, and an elder contemporary of Tiepolo, he represents a late version of the vigorous and luminous Cortonesque style of grand manner fresco painting.
Charles Lamb Allen, Baron Allen of Kensington, is a British businessman, broadcaster, and chairman of Balfour Beatty, Invictus Games THG plc, Global Radio and Advisory chairman at Moelis & Company. Lord Allen was chief executive of Granada Group from 1996 to 2000, executive chairman of Granada Media plc from 2000 to 2004, chief executive of ITV plc from its formation in 2004 until 2007, and chairman of the music company EMI. He was chairman of Endemol, 2 Sisters Food Group and ISS, a non-executive director of Tesco and Virgin Media. In March 2012, he was appointed by Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, to the position of chairman of the executive board of the party. He has been chairman of the British Red Cross.
Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini was one of the leading Venetian history painters of the early 18th century. His style melded the Renaissance style of Paolo Veronese with the Baroque of Pietro da Cortona and Luca Giordano. He travelled widely on commissions which brought him to England, the Southern Netherlands, the Dutch Republic, Germany, Austria and France. He is considered an important predecessor of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. One of his pupils was Antonio Visentini.
The Hotel Inspector is an observational documentary television series which is broadcast on the British terrestrial television station, Channel 5, and by other networks around the world.
Landau Forte Academy QEMS is an 11-16 secondary school with academy status located to the north of Tamworth, a market town in Staffordshire in the Midlands north of Birmingham. It is often known simply as QEMS . Since 1 September 2011, the school has been owned and operated by the Landau Forte Charitable Trust, after being transferred from the Staffordshire LA control.
Brown's Hotel is a 5-star hotel in Mayfair, London, established in 1837 and owned by Rocco Forte Hotels since 3 July 2003. It is considered one of London's oldest existing hotels.
Travelodge Hotels Limited, trading as Travelodge, is a private company operating in the hotels and hospitality industry throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain.
Tommaso Ziffer is an Italian architect and interior designer. Ziffer designed The Accademia Valentino and in 2000 as well as Rome's most successful hotel, Rocco Forte's Hotel de Russie. Ziffer has also designed several private residential projects.
Forte Group plc was a British hotel and restaurant company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Granada in 1996. Its head office was in the London Borough of Camden.
Rocco Forte Hotels is a British hotel group that was established in 1996 by hotelier Sir Rocco Forte and his sister, Olga Polizzi. The group owns and operates 14 hotels across Europe. Sir Rocco Forte is Chairman and Chief Executive, while Olga Polizzi is Deputy Chairman and Director of Design.
Landau Forte Academy Amington, is a high school situated in Amington, a suburb of Tamworth, Staffordshire. The school has around 100 teaching staff and over 900 pupils.
Oliver Peter Patrick Peyton,, is an Irish entrepreneur, restaurateur and television personality.
Alessandra Maria Luigia Anna Polizzi di Sorrentino, better known as Alex Polizzi, is an English hotelier, businesswoman, and television personality. Since 2008, she has appeared on The Hotel Inspector on Channel 5.
Olga Polizzi, Lady Shawcross is a British hotelier and interior designer. She is a former Westminster City Council councillor, representing Lancaster Gate ward for the Conservative Party.
Stefano Ricci is a private family-owned Italian luxury lifestyle brand with headquarters located in Fiesole. With 60 monobrand boutiques worldwide, the brand produces menswear and accessories, a line for juniors "SR Junior", homeware "SR HOME" and lifestyle products. The brand also offers bespoke and interior design services for both yachts and residences. Stefano Ricci S.p.A. was rated as EE (average) by the London-based Standard Ethics agency for three consecutive years 2015, 2016, and 2017. The New York Times calls Stefano Ricci "clothier to the 0.001 percent".
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