Christopher Cowdray

Last updated

Christopher Cowdray
Born1955
Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) [1]
NationalityBritish
Education Falcon College
Alma mater Columbia University
OccupationCEO of The Dorchester Collection [2]
Years active2007– present

Christopher Cowdray (born 1955) is a Zimbabwean-born British hotel manager. He is the chief executive officer of the Dorchester Collection, a hotel operator in Europe and the US.

Contents

Early life

Christopher Cowdray was born in 1955 in Zimbabwe. [3]

He was educated at Falcon College in Zimbabwe. [3] He received a degree in hotel management in his home country before attending Columbia University in New York City. [4] [5] After graduating from the Columbia Business School's Executive Program. [6]

Career

Cowdray managed hotels in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and the United Kingdom. [7] In the United Kingdom, Cowdray was previously the managing director at London's Claridge's. [8] In 2004, Cowdray became the general manager at The Dorchester Hotel. [9] Cowdray was appointed to chief executive officer of The Dorchester Collection in November 2007. [10]

The Dorchester Collection is owned by the Dorchester Group Ltd. [11] After managing The Dorchester, one of the ten hotels included in the Dorchester Collection, Cowdray became the CEO of the luxury hotel operation in 2007. In 2008, following his appointment to CEO, Cowdray added Hotel Bel-Air and the New York Palace Hotel to the Dorchester Collection. [12] Since then, the New York Palace Hotel was sold off, but the Dorchester Collection has expanded with additions such as Le Richemond in Geneva, Coworth Park and 45 Park Lane in England, and Hotel Eden in Rome. [13]

In 2013, Cowdray was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the European Hospitality Awards for his achievements in the hotel community with the Dorchester collection. [14]

Related Research Articles

The Beverly Hills Hotel Famous California hotel

The Beverly Hills Hotel, also called the Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, is located on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. One of the world's best-known hotels, it is closely associated with Hollywood film stars, rock stars, and celebrities. The hotel has 210 guest rooms and suites and 23 bungalows, the exterior of each designed in the signature pink and green colors that are a trademark of the hotel.

Hotel Bel-Air

The Hotel Bel-Air is a boutique hotel located in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California. The hotel is one of the nine luxury hotels operated by the Dorchester Collection, which is owned by the Brunei Investment Agency (BIA). The hotel has a total of 103 rooms, 45 of which are suites. The Bel-Air hotel has an overall old Hollywood style and is surrounded by 12 acres (4.9 ha) of gardens in the Bel-Air Estates neighborhood.

Plaza Athénée Luxury hotel in Paris

The Hotel Plaza Athénée is a Brunei-owned historic luxury hotel in Paris, France. It is located at 25 Avenue Montaigne in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, near the Champs-Élysées and the Palais de Tokyo. The hotel is part of the Dorchester Collection group of international luxury hotels. The hotel has five restaurants and a bar, and it has room rates ranging from US$1,254 to US$20,000 per night for the hotel's premier suite.

The Caterer is a weekly UK business magazine for hospitality professionals. It covers all areas of the hospitality industry providing news, analysis and features about senior industry professionals, businesses and trends. It also includes monthly reviews of the latest hospitality products, from kitchen equipment to food and beverages.

Dorchester Collection is a luxury hotel operator owned by the Brunei Investment Agency (BIA), an arm of the Ministry of Finance of Brunei. Dorchester Collection owns and manages nine luxury five star hotels: The Dorchester (London), The Beverly Hills Hotel, Plaza Athénée (Paris), Hotel Meurice (Paris), Principe di Savoia (Milan), Hotel Bel-Air, Coworth Park, 45 Park Lane (London) and Hotel Eden (Rome).

William Curley is a Scottish patissier and chocolatier. Curley is the owner of the London chocolate company William Curley Ltd., and has won the Academy of Chocolate's 'Britain's Best Chocolatier' Award four times. In 2012 William became a member of the prestigious pastry association Relais Desserts.

The Hotel Collection

The Hotel Collection was a group of 4-star mid-market hotels operating in the United Kingdom. The group also included 18 health and leisure clubs. It ceased to exist as a separate entity, in 2015, when it was injected into the Amaris Hospitality portfolio who progressively sold off all the hotels

Hotel Principe di Savoia, also known as "The Principe", is a five-star luxury hotel in Milan, Italy. The hotel has long been one of Milan's landmarks. Given the name "Principe e Savoia" in 1927, a time when Milan had already established its position as the financial center of the country, it soon became a home for businessmen.

Anton Mosimann

Anton Mosimann OBE, DL is a Swiss chef and restaurateur who was Maitre Chef des Cuisines at the Dorchester Hotel for thirteen years, during which time its restaurant achieved a rating of two stars in the Michelin Guide. After leaving The Dorchester Mosimann created a private dining club called Mosimann's, a cookery school, and other enterprises in the hospitality industry. He has also presented television programmes in the UK and Switzerland. In 2016 a museum dedicated to his life and culinary arts was opened in the César Ritz Colleges, located on the shores of Lake Geneva, in the town of Le Bouveret.

Alan Murchison is a Michelin-starred Scottish chef and restaurateur, living and working in England.

Skye Gyngell, is an Australian chef who is best known for her work as food editor for Vogue, and for winning a Michelin star at the Petersham Nurseries Cafe. She first trained as a chef in France, and afterwards moved to Britain.

Aubergine (London restaurant)

Aubergine was a restaurant in Chelsea, London. Owned by A-Z Restaurants, it was opened under chef Gordon Ramsay in 1993. Aubergine was awarded two Michelin stars in 1997, which it held until Ramsay left the restaurant in July 1998 following the sacking of Marcus Wareing from sister restaurant L'Oranger. It subsequently reopened and held a single Michelin star under William Drabble until he left the restaurant in 2009. Aubergine closed in 2010, pending a relaunch as an informal Italian restaurant.

The Whitebrook

The Whitebrook, formerly known as The Crown at Whitebrook, is a restaurant with rooms in Whitebrook, 6 miles (9.7 km) south-south-east of Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales, near the River Wye and the border with England. The building is thought to date from the 17th century and by the 19th century it was used as a roadside inn. Its restaurant was run by Chef Patron James Sommerin until 2013; it gained a Michelin star in 2007. It contains eight double rooms and a 2-acre (0.81 ha) garden. On 7 March 2013, it closed because of financial difficulties; at the time it had the longest held Michelin star in Wales. Critics praised the food under Sommerin, but have criticised the difficulty in finding the restaurant. It re-opened in October 2013 under new chef and owner Chris Harrod, and regained the Michelin star in 2014. Harrod serves a menu using locally produced meat and vegetables along with foraged ingredients such as charlock, hedge bedstraw and pennywort.

Angela Hartnett at The Connaught

Angela Hartnett at The Connaught, also known as MENU, was a restaurant owned by Gordon Ramsay Holdings and run by chef Angela Hartnett. It was located within The Connaught in Mayfair, London. The restaurant was opened following Ramsay's successful opening of Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's, within the Claridge's hotel, which is owned by the same equity group. Ramsay had originally been asked to move Restaurant Gordon Ramsay into the space, but suggested that Hartnett should run a new operation there instead. The restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in the 2004 guide and held it until it closed in 2007.

Benugo (benúːgoʊ) is a British catering company. It operates high street cafes, restaurants, dining spaces inside public buildings as well as in-house corporate cafes. As of March 2014, Benugo had more than 70 individual locations; most of these are in London, with some locations outside including Bath, Oxford, Edinburgh and Stirling.

Robin Hutson is a British hotelier, listed by The Caterer in 2019 as the UK's second most powerful hotelier.

Kit Kemp British Decorator

Kit Kemp MBE, is a British interior designer, and founder of Firmdale Hotels, a collection of ten hotels in London and New York. She is married to Tim Kemp. They were awarded the MBE together in 2012.

Tom Aikens

Tom Aikens, also named Tom Aitkens, is an English Michelin-starred chef.

References

  1. ↑ Barbara DeLollis (22 October 2012). "Ultra-luxury Dorchester Collection looks to grow in N.Y., elsewhere". USA Today. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  2. ↑ Kitty Bean Yancey (19 October 2011). "Stars bring Glitz, but Hotel Bel-Air adds Glamour; Hotspot reopens after its face lift". USA Today.
  3. 1 2 Christopher Charles Blanshard COWDRAY, Debrett's
  4. ↑ "Hotels that Speak to History". LEADERS Magazine. January 2012. Archived from the original on 10 June 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  5. ↑ Mary Winston Nicklin (20 November 2012). "The Fashionable Dorchester Collection". Travel Agent Central. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  6. ↑ Megan Brickwood (November 2013). "Cowdray Wins Lifetime Achievement Award". TravelAge West.
  7. ↑ "A Clear Vision". LEADERS Magazine. January 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  8. ↑ Samantha McClary (6 May 2004). "Cowdray moves from Claridge's to Dorchester". Caterer & Hotelkeeper. 193 (4322).
  9. ↑ "New GM for London's Dorchester". Conference and Incentive Travel Magazine. 4 July 2008. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  10. ↑ Kerstin Kühn (9 November 2007). "Christopher Cowdray becomes CEO for the Dorchester Collection". Caterer & Hotelkeeper. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  11. ↑ Patti Pietschmann (6 June 2012). "Tasty treats spice up summer at Dorchester Collection hotels from London to LA". Examiner.
  12. ↑ Walsh, Dominic (28 July 2008). "Bel-Air and New York Palace join Dorchester stable". The Times (London). p. 39.
  13. ↑ Doug Gollan (10 May 2013). "In Conversation With Christopher Cowdray, CEO, Dorchester Collection". Luxury Society. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  14. ↑ Emma Eversham (4 November 2013). "Brown's Hotel GM Stuart P Johnson named Hotelier of the Year at European Hospitality Awards 2013". Big Hospitality. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.