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Alan Fuerstman: CEO of Montage International | Enriching Lives Through Customer Service

Feb 2, 2022

Alan Fuerstman is Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Montage International, a luxury hospitality management company encompassing Montage Hotels & Resorts, Pendry Hotels & Resorts, Montage Residences, and Pendry Residences. Before founding Montage in 2002, Alan was the opening vice president of hotel operations at Bellagio in Las Vegas. He served as president and managing director of The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he also oversaw The St. Regis Aspen and The St. Regis Houston. Alan currently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA), the Board of Directors for Environmental Media Association’s Corporate Sustainability Board, Board of Trustees Emeritus for Gettysburg College, and the Northern Arizona University School of Hotel and Restaurant Management Advisory Board.

 

Alan joins me on the podcast to discuss how his long experience in the luxury hospitality industry and his time working in different hotel departments gave him a broad perspective on building a forward-thinking company culture that makes a hotel really successful. He shares when he decided to indulge his entrepreneurial spirit and build a brand around his first hotel and why naming the brand was such a struggle! Alan also shares the importance of learning how to lead and the importance of developing the tools to inspire others how to do a great job.

 

“I think the lesson is you never know who it is you're talking to, and what the potential or possibility is.” - Alan Fuerstman

 

“I had an entrepreneurial spirit that drove me to want to create something new, but first, I had to develop the skill set to be successful.” - Alan Fuerstman

 

“As you grow and mature as a leader it becomes less about how you individually interact with a guest, and more about how you motivate others.” - Alan Fuerstman

 

This Week on The Wow Factor:

  • Lessons learned from Alan’s first job as a hotel doorman
  • Why Alan pivoted away from Political Science towards the hospitality industry
  • How a chance meeting led to a tremendous career opportunity for Alan
  • Alan’s experience of working for Marriott for nearly 20 years
  • What resort development involves and when Alan moved into that niche
  • Why Alan felt he wanted to found his own luxury hospitality brand
  • Entrepreneurs and mentors that Alan has looked up to throughout his career
  • How Alan raised the capital for his first hotel, who his first investor was, and how they made the deal
  • How Alan models the culture he wants to prioritize in his organization, and why the value-driven aspect of his company is their North Star and the aspiration of what we want to be
  • What Alan enjoys about working with his son on the Pendry Hotels brand

 

Alan Fuerstman’s Words of Wisdom:

The essence of Montage is to enrich lives — whether it's enriching the lives of our associates, enriching the lives of our guests that stay with us, or enriching the lives of the communities in which we operate. As leaders, we have a huge responsibility and innumerable opportunities to influence and enrich lives in the way we behave and the things that we do.

 

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