Biography of Conrad Hilton, Founder of Hilton Worldwide

History:

Conrad Hilton was born in San Antonio, New Mexico. He was a American with a German descent. He grew up with 8 siblings.

He is the founder of Hilton Hotel and it started from because he could not buy a bank in texas, therefore he decided to buy a hotel instead. The business was really good that he change dining rooms into rooms for guests. Business was good and well until the economic downfall, he was nearly forced to being bankruptcy but was kept to being a manager instead. He later got back at the hotels that he nearly lost and continued buying more.

His company is now doing well that currently the organization has 3,897 hotels with over 642,000 rooms in 91 countries.

Hilton Worldwide

Biography of Ho Kwon Ping, Founder & Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings

“ Adversity is not a bad thing. That's how Banyan Tree was born - because we had no beach front.”

Ho Kwon Ping
Founder and Executive Chairman
Banyan Tree Holdings

About:

Ho Kwon Ping, referred to as "K.P.", founded luxury chain Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts in 1984. Banyan Tree Holdings is a Singapore-based leisure business group , which owns both listed and private companies engaged in the development, ownership and operation of exclusive luxury hotels, resorts, spa, residential homes and retail galleries based in Asia.

In his early life, K.P. worked as a journalist for the Far Eastern Economic review where he was detained for two months in the result of writing incendiary pro-Communist articles. 

After being tired of his writing job, K.P. took after his father's business called Wah Chang Group. When he first joined, he made a detrimental business decision in his first project, which nearly bankrupted the company. His father did not allow him to quit, but instead urge him to face the crisis and help recoup the losses. It was from here, K.P. grew stronger in business and rose to become one of Asia's most successful businessman.

Now, Banyan Tree has grown to more than 30 hotels and resorts and close to 150 spas and retail galleries, not forgetting three golf courses. Banyan Tree will open 16 new properties by 2015 as part of the ambitious expansion plan in China.

Ho Kwon Ping

Banyan Tree Hotel & Resort Group

Biography of Steve Wynn, The Casino Developer & Owner

Stephen Alan "Steve" Wynn starts in the gaming sector by taking over the family bingo parlor business when his father passed away.

His success brought him to invest for the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, then he and his wife, Elaine, moved in. The creative businessman moved to Las Vegas and started gripping shared in local casinos. He inflated and revitalised the “Golden Nugget” casino, which resulted in prosperous visitors visiting the place. Wynn built another Golden Nugget in Atlantic City in 1980. By then, he was estimated to be worth about one hundred million dollars.

Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino

Treasure Island Hotel & Casino

After getting interests in other casinos, Wynn built The Mirage on the Strip. Wynn's next project was Treasure Island Hotel and Casino at a cost of $450 million. The Cirque du Soleil show at the Treasure Island was the first permanent Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas.

His next high-end casino is The Bellagio, included an artificial lake and a gallery that housed museum-quality artworks, is the priciest gaming resort in the world and a real luxury destination.

After selling Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand Inc. In 2000, Wynn opened the Wynn Las Vegas in 2005; it is his most expensive project to date. In 2006, he opened Wynn Macau, China, the largest gaming jurisdiction in Asia. Lately. He further added Encore Las Vegas and Encore Macau.

The casino collector opened a high profile gaming resorts that further multiplied Steve's profit margin. Wynn became a billionaire in 2004, when his net worth doubled to $1.3 billion.

Steve Wynn has brought luxury to Las Vegas. He has defined Las Vegas luxury. No one does it better than Steve Wynn.

Here's some pictures of his hotel & casino:

The Mirage, Las Vegas

Bellagio Hotel & Casino at night

Lobby of the Bellagio

Encore at the Wynn, Las Vegas

Wynn Encore at Macau

Biography of Tony Fernandes, Founder & CEO of AirAsia

“In AirAsia we consider ourselves basically a dream factory…We deliberately decided that we wanted a company where people can pursue their passion and we wanted to make use of all the talent that we have in-house.  The culture that we have stems from the fact that we want openness and we want people to be creative and passionate about what they do. In order to do that, we’ve got to inspire them.”

Tony Fernandes
CEO and Founder
AirAsia

Credit: Chris Forrest Harvey

About:
Anthony Francis Fernandes, better known as Tony Fernandes, is the perfect fit as the “ultimate dreamer and adventurer in business”.

In October 2001, Fernandes mortgaged his home and used up his personal savings to acquire a heavily-indebted Malaysian government-owned airline called AirAsia.  Even after knowing that he was buying two ageing Boeing 737 jets, 200 employees and $11 million debt, Fernandes went ahead with his “purchase” as he was a risk-taker and a believer of making the impossible possible.  Fortunately, despite his inexperience in airline operation, the former managing director of Warner Music Malaysia was able to reform AirAsia into one of the most successful low fare carriers in the world.

The secret to the success of AirAsia lies in the recipe of great management style and unique culture which Fernandes has passionately concocted.  He works hard and finds creative ways to create an environment for his “Allstars” (what AirAsia call its employees) to continuously improve, learn and most desirably, achieve their dream.

Biography of Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks Coffee

In 1982, Howard Schultz was hired as director of retail operations in Starbucks. He was impressed with the concept and feelings from Starbucks, however, he was disappointed with the leadership of the original owners, and left in 1985. He opened his own coffee chain, Il Giornale, which became very successful. 2 years later, Schultz purchased Starbucks and merged it with Il Giornale. Subsequently, he became CEO and chairman of the Starbucks. He stepped down as CEO in 2000, but returned again in 2008.

Starbucks has achieved financial success for two reasons. First, the company excels at building relationships with customers and other stakeholders through language and symbols. Second, Starbucks uses language and symbols to exercise power, create a community based on aspirations. Consumers yearn to live a Starbucks lifestyle.