In 1984, at a time when South Africa was beginning to feel the consequences of international isolation and sanctions, and when the tourism and hospitality industries faced bankruptcy and failure, Protea Hotels was launched – without a cent of capital and with just four hotels. Under the leadership of Arthur Gillis, the Protea Hotels Group grew from the initial four hotels to over 130 hotels operating in seven African countries, and is today the largest and leading hotel operating company in Africa.
Arthur is currently the CEO of Platinum Hospitality Holdings, a leading hotel asset management company with approximately 15 hotels in South Africa.
He has been extremely active in all facets of the hospitality industry and has received many industry awards. He was recognised by a highly esteemed business community, having received the ABSA Jewish Achiever of the Year Award for non-list companies in 2008.
Where do you think your ‘MAGIC’ comes from? | Insatiable curiosity.
What do you think is often the difference between people who are good at what they do and people who are great at what they do? | Persistence and getting up again when knocked down.
What are the principles and values that you believe are important to live by? | Respect for human dignity.
What is your biggest weakness? | A belief that everyone around me is honest.
What are the most important lessons you have learnt so far, in your career or life journey? This could be anything from very simple small lessons to much larger bigger lessons. | To remove myself from toxic relationships as soon as possible.
What is the best advice you have ever received? | Narrow your business focus and pursue it relentlessly.
Who inspires you and who are your role-models? | My wife Lauren who sees only good in people and works tirelessly for those who don’t have opportunities.
Mr. Ian Moir has been the Chief Executive Officer of Woolworths Holdings Limited since November 18, 2010. Mr. Moir served as Managing Director of Retail at Country Road Ltd. since January 1, 2010, served as its Chief Executive Officer from November 2000 to January 1, 2010 and served as its Chief Operating Officer. He served […]
Lee Colan Legacy Project, Ph.D., co-founded The L Group, Inc. in 1999. Lee’s passion for serving leaders enables him to deliver cut-through-the-clutter tools that elevate leaders and their teams. He was nominated for the 2013 Thinkers50 Award for best management thinker globally. Lee possesses an in-depth understanding of business, people and organizations. He blends this […]
Lucy Bloom | The Legacy Project is an award-winning leader and speaker. She’s a change maker, exceptional communicator and business fixer with the best mohawk in the business. Lucy led an advertising agency for 20 years before she became the CEO of a brand new women’s health organisation, funding a network of hospitals in Ethiopia. […]
Alex Seropian made his name as one of the founders of Bungie, the developers of Halo (the most successful box games of all time with $4 billion in revenue and more than 50 million games sold). Alex recently founded Industrial Toys a company focused on revolutionizing mobile games for core gamers and who are very […]
Ernie Els has 70 professional career victories to his name, including four Major Championships, two World Golf Championships and seven World Matchplay titles. He is ranked No.1 in all-time career earnings on the European Tour and is known as “The Big Easy” due to his imposing physical stature, along with his fluid golf swing. I […]
Orrin Woodward TLP has co-founded two multi-million dollar leadership companies and serves as the Chairman of the Board of The Life Leadership. He has a B.S. degree from GMI-EMI (now Kettering University) in Manufacturing Systems Engineering. In addition, he attended University Of Michigan’s prestigious MBA program, completing half of the requirements for his MBA, before […]
Manuel Lima is a designer, author, lecturer, and researcher based in New York City. Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Founder of VisualComplexity.com, Design Lead at Codecademy. Nominated by Creativity magazine as “one of the 50 most creative and influential minds of 2009″. WIRED describes Lima as “the man who turns data into art” […]
Roman Rezac is a prolific South African retail entrepreneur with 25 years experience in a constantly evolving environment. He was an International knee-board surfer before he made his passion for beach lifestyle into a career. He opened his first Surf store in 1993 in Durban with borrowed capital and with hard work and perseverance he […]
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