Abid Butt has personal goals to study law, learn percussion and lower his golf handicap - once he gets some time. Abid Butt has personal goals to study law, learn percussion and lower his golf handicap - once he gets some time.

The people who inspire me

Abid Butt is a source of inspiration for many in the hotel industry, but who are the people that have spurred him to success?

  1. MY FATHER: My Dad always used to say “whatever you do, do it the best possible way you can and better than anybody else can” and that thought stuck with me throughout this time period, so whether I was at school or during my undergraduate level, that value has kind of stuck with me throughout my life.
  2. MY BROTHER: My eldest brother is a very successful transplant surgeon, this gentleman has work ethics that are just unbelievable. Even now as a very, very successful transplant surgeon, if there is an organ available, no matter what time of the day it is, he’s ready to make sure that the organ gets used by some deserving patient and he will work around the clock to save the organ and save the patient. He was very encouraging when I wanted to move from a medical career into hotels, his support has been tremendous in me being able to do different things.
  3. ROBERT MELGRAD: When I was going to hotel school, our dean of culinary education, a gentleman by the name of Robert Melgrad, was a very accomplished chef. I’ve still stayed in touch with him off and on. He’s retired now but I do speak to him on the phone every so often, unfortunately not often enough. The guy was very quality conscious, very organised, he would always tell the students that we must make sure that we put our best foot forward. Later, when I was teaching there, I got a chance to work with him, again he had tremendous values that he imparted in students, so that was very good.
  4. ED WALTER: The CEO of Host Hotels & Resorts is a very high profile individual but down to earth, very analytical and organised in his approach. On one hand he would be discussing with Wall Street analyists and bankers different transactions and then you would sit down and talk to him about a baseball game that your kids were going to go to or what you were going to do at the weekend. That was very impressionable that a person of such high profile looking after a multi-billion dollar Fortune 500 company could be so down to earth, that was very nice. Prior to Ed, Chris Nassetta, now CEO of Hilton Worldwide was president and CEO. Both individuals are fabulous, fabulous people.
  5. HO KWONPING: The executive chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings is a terrific, very inspirational gentleman, a person that manages a tremendous work life balance, a very caring person, down to earth but very driven individual. I’ve stayed in touch with him for a very long time from my first time with Banyan Tree and learnt a lot from him. I enjoyed working with him quite a bit hence the reason I’m back.
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