The Courvoisier The Future 500 network has announced Steve Lowy, founder of Umi hotels, as the businessman predicted to be the best in the travel industry in 2009, just months after BigH recognised his talent.
The CVTF500, launched just last year, recognises the country’s most innovative and creative business minds, handpicked by a high-profile panel of judges to join an exclusive network of like-minded people.
Lowy received recognition from BigH last July for his exceptional achievements at such a young age, as at just 26-years old, he owned two hotels under the Umi brand, as well as being a director of British Education Travel Association (BETA). Umi now trains hundreds of hospitality students for a career in the hotel industry through placements at its sites in London and Brighton.
He said: “To be honest, the award was a great surprise to me. The challenge of opening in Brighton this year has been really tough and getting recognition like this makes it feel all worthwhile. It is also a credit to all my staff who work so hard for me. I hope it will open a few doors that were previously closed and may allow some exciting collaborations in the future with like minded people in this network.”
Reed Paget, chief executive of Belu Water and panel judge for the CVTF500 said this year’s chosen 500 were picked from hundreds of entries from a variety of business sectors. “We were looking for extraordinarily smart and passionate people, with ideas which were both clever and well thought-through, which genuinely stood out and which we thought had the potential to really take off, even in this economic climate,” he said.
Also highlighted in the new list is Jamie Barber, chief executive of the Foodstore Group and founder of restaurants Hush and Villandry. His move from the entertainment industry to hospitality has resulted in a growing £20m restaurant portfolio, which now also includes Kitchen Italia and Sake No Hana.
Richard Bigg, Cantaloupe Group’s managing director, also made the list after plans to expand the group’s portfolio, which includes Cargo and the Big Chill bar chain, outside of London.
World mixologist of the year Nick Strangeway, Chris Witney of Crazyblend Cocktails. Richard Vine of RV Baby Salads, and Andrew Coath of Pure Peach Ltd, were just some of the other hospitality names to make it onto the CVTF500 list.