What was your very first job, and what did it teach you about people?
My job was working at the front desk for Drury Hotels, a brand that, if you know it, you know consistently rates with luxury resorts for client satisfaction. Not because of the thread count but because of the way the people are treated.
Working the front desk teaches you something you can’t unlearn: Hospitality is about people, period. Once you move away from guest-facing employment, it’s easy to forget that. The job is meetings and figures and deadlines and just
the day-to-day of marketing a hotel. But none of that counts if you lose sight of the guest from the first time they hear about you until they check out and hopefully start planning their next trip back.
When did you realize hospitality was your calling, not just your career?
It took a while to figure it out. After college I went into e-commerce, selling ideas, digital products, nothing tangible. An opportunity arose to go back to hospitality, and I loved the complexity of it, how it was constantly changing, and how physical and present the work is. A guest arrives exhausted from a long flight and leaves having actually exhaled.
When I came back to hotels in 2007, I wasn’t sure I’d stay, but the constantly changing nature of the business has kept me curious and engaged ever since.
What misconception do people have about your role?
That it’s mainly creative. I enjoy the creative work, the brand voice, the campaigns, the content, but my job is to really drive revenue. Everything that a guest touches, everything they interact with, from the first time they learn about this hotel and long after they’ve checked out, needs to make them want to book, come back, or tell somebody.
The brand and the business are not two independent functions; one gives rise to the other. What I think is really undervalued is what it means to represent a property like Hotel Wailea. We’re one of the few locally owned, independently operated hotels in Hawaiʻi. It’s not about optimizing to some brand standard set in a corporate office. That’s a privilege and I don’t take that lightly.
What daily habit keeps you grounded?
A long walk with my dog, Banjo. As early as possible and non-negotiable, regardless of the weather, my mood, or his mood. If I can’t solve a problem, can’t come up with a fresh concept, or am dreading a difficult talk, the walk helps me untangle it. It does not always occur during the walk, but rather as a result of it.
What legacy do you hope to leave within Hawai‘i’s hospitality community?
That independent hospitality is worth protecting. There’s real pressure in the industry to consolidate or flag and let a larger brand absorb what makes a place singular. The economics can make sense on paper, but something essential gets lost in that trade.
Hotel Wailea has been named a top five hotel in Hawaiʻi every year since 2016 by both TRAVEL + LEISURE and CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER. Those aren’t critic picks—they’re voted on by guests. That year-on-year consistency is the clearest proof I have that independent hospitality isn’t just viable, it’s remarkable. I hope the work we’re doing here is evidence that you can be world-class without being a chain, that you can honor a destination without flattening it into a product.
If I leave anything behind, I’d want it to be that: proof that independent hotels, run with intention and genuinely rooted in their community, don’t just survive at the highest level, they belong there.
