Simon van Kempen
I was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia to an Australian mother, Elaine (neé Reeve) and Dutch father; Francois van Kempen, and lived in various cities and towns in New South Wales and Queensland while growing up.
At 16, I developed a fervent interest in politics and became very active in Australian politics and got heavily involved at both State & Federal levels. While continuing study after graduating high school I started working part time at the then newest and largest 5 star hotel in Brisbane and just fell in love with the hospitality industry. After almost two years working in hotels in Australia I left to spend what I thought would be 12 months in London and thirteen years later I was still there. Although I did spend a year living in Paris; and learning French in between jaunts in London.
In London, I worked at the Sheraton Park Tower and Lowndes Hyatt in Front Office Management; in Paris with Mercure Hotels in Food & Beverage and upon returning to London moved into a financial position at London's famous Ritz Hotel. After studying for a professional accountancy qualification I became Controller of the Chesterfield Mayfair and helped build up a group of five London Hotels as Finance Director of Red Carnation Hotels.
In early 1999 I moved back to Australia as a consultant to the management company of Small Luxury Hotels of the World. That year, with clients in Sydney, Australia; Qingdao, China; New York City and several countries in Europe, I spent one week each month in each continent. With the constant traveling becoming a grind and by January 2000 Alex and I had fallen madly in love and gotten engaged, I decided to base my consulting work out of my then company's New York City office.
After another year the NY company I was consulting for asked me to work for them full time and thus I found myself as the opening General Manager of Hotel Chandler. We opened the week before 9/11 which wasn't the best time to start a new hotel in New York City, but in the scheme of things the only thing we lost was money so no complaints here. By 2002 the NYC economy was rebounding and the hotel's been doing fabulously ever since.
In late 2003 our first beautiful son, Francois was born and just over two years later Johan was too. In addition to my job which is very fulfilling, spending time with my wife who I adore, I look forward to many years of being a father to my two young boys; something that an extended stay in Changi, a WWII prison camp, and subsequent health ramifications deprived my father of being to me and my family.
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