and I was very fortunate to be hired to join The Ritz-Carlton , Buckhead in Atlanta in the Spring of 1989 .
Thus ensued a 13-year career with this amazing company , progressing from a Front Desk agent position to becoming a Vice President in the Corporate
Office . I lived and worked in amazing places like Sydney , Hong Kong and Naples ( FL ), opening and operating some beautiful hotels and then moved over into the Corporate Office to be part of overseeing the conception , birth and operation of The Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences divisions .
In 2002 , I felt a draw towards exploring the boutique and lifestyle spectrum of our business and I joined Ian Schrager and his Morgans Hotel Group as the General Manager of the beautiful Clift Hotel in San Francisco . Initially , I felt like a complete fraud , not feeling hip enough to be part of such a cool hotel and company , but then I quickly realized that it was not about me being hip and cool , it was about how we made our guests feel . The service fundamentals I had learned at The Ritz-Carlton fully applied here as well , I just had to translate them into a different language .
After spending five years there and successfully leading Clift out of Chapter 11 and stabilizing the property as one of the leading hotels in San Francisco , it was time to move on . With my passion lying in the global and strategic aspects of the business , I was ready to move back into a corporate role and when Sage Hospitality in Denver knocked on my door asking me to join them to establish and run their Premier & Lifestyle Division , I knew it was the right thing .
I joined Sage in 2007 when the P & L Division had two hotels and during the next six years I was part of an amazing team that helped me grow it to 15 , generating over $ 220M per year in revenues . I was fortunate to be involved with