People who inspire me: Wyndham's Bani Haddad

Bani Haddad 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: A great source of inspiration for positive energy, great ambition, and values such as integrity and honesty, but the positive energy at all times is probably the one thing that I keep. At that time, it was almost a shame for somebody from our family not to be a doctor or a lawyer and he was probably my big defender.

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2. Yann Caillère: My former COO at Disney [who recently left his role as CEO of Accor] is another person to whom I owe a lot because of the trust he put in me when I worked with him and the opportunities he gave me. He gave me my GM position, I was 26/27, no GM experience before — for anyone to be told ‘you are now a GM’, that’s huge.

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3. Eric Danziger: The WHG president and CEO is another person who trusted me from the first day we met. He’s probably behind the drive that I have for the group here. During one of his first visits here, after a successful conference and a few deals he turned around and said, ‘by the way, did you meet the new VP of the company? Well, meet yourself’. It was an amazing thing to be done by the president of the largest hotel company. He is such a charismatic person and he has such a great vision for the company.

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4. Nelson Mandela: Every time I read one of his books or read about him or watch Invictus, I am inspired; his great communication skills, great drive, and unbelievable tenacity. He always wanted to do and be better no matter what people did to him or the suffering that he went through, he always wanted to be better and forget and move forward.

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5. Napoleon: You might find this funny but Napoleon is a great inspiration for his management skills,. He came from the island of Corsica; he had great ambitions — from a small town village boy he became an emperor. He was able to mobilise hundreds of thousands of people.