5 Minutes With Adam Stewart

At age 26, Adam Stewart is one of the youngest chief executives of a major company in the world.

By Staff -- HOTELS Magazine, 5/1/2007

At age 26, Adam Stewart is one of the youngest chief executives of a major company in the world. The Jamaican-born Stewart was appointed head of Sandals Resorts International in November by his father, Beaches and Sandals Resorts Founder Butch Stewart, following a stint as Sandals' director of resort product. Stewart calls himself "preprogrammed" for the hospitality industry, having spent his life around the family business before studying hospitality management at Florida International University.

HOTELS: How often do people give you a hard time about your age?

STEWART: Not very often. Our organization has been built as a family-style operation, and I've known the major players in our organization since I was very young. I've worked on a professional level with them since high school, and I've always been very conscientious of being professional and knowing when it's time to get serious.

HOTELS: When your father told you he was putting you in charge of Sandals, what were your first thoughts?

STEWART: It didn't just drop out of the sky as simple as that. I've known for a long time that it was his intention. I knew for a long time I wanted the opportunity. The discussion really came up because we were in the middle of a time when we wanted to make some changes in the organization and take Sandals to another level. We don't have boards; we make decisions on the fly and we make sure we're surrounding ourselves with the most capable people. I've been integral in all the operations for a long time now. I didn't feel overwhelmed, I just wish there were more than 24 hours in a day. I've been trying to talk to the big man upstairs about that, but I don't see anything happening there.

HOTELS: Did your father give you any great advice?

STEWART: My dad is a real big-picture kind of guy-he wants you to figure it out for yourself. You watch him and learn, or figure it out for yourself. He never sat there and said, 'This and this and this.' He said, 'If you had to restructure this organization, how would you do it,' and that's how the discussions started. I talk to him five times a day on various different topics.

HOTELS: What are some perks to being a 26-year-old CEO?

STEWART: Besides losing my hair? I don't know, I guess it's a powerful position. As far as I'm concerned, it's an opportunity to show the organization what I can do. I thrive on two things: customer satisfaction and staff appreciation. When I walk up into a hotel, and the staff call me Mr. Stewart-I don't like it when they call me Mr. Stewart, I prefer Adam-and they say, 'We believe in what you're doing,' and I can go home and tell my kids that, that's the real perk. But really, there's not a lot of perks. It's an everyday battle.

HOTELS: Is your youth a burden or a blessing?

STEWART: It's a blessing. I love what I do. I love getting up every day and trying to make things better. I love showing the world that the Caribbean has the world's best resort product. It's fun when you're doing something you genuinely love.

HOTELS: Does your vision for Sandals differ much from your father's?

STEWART: No, our visions are very similar. I have an advantage over him, because he's the chairman, he's at the top, and he's overseeing so much more than Sandals, and so he can't be involved as much on a day-to-day basis. When you sit in your bed at night, when you think of a new program, you have to make sure that all 8,000 employees buy into it, and that's my job.

HOTELS: What are your plans for growing and advancing the brand?

STEWART: The Sandals brand has a lot of equity. It's known for being Caribbean, it's known for being all-inclusive. What it may not be known enough for is that it's a truly luxury all-inclusive experience. All-inclusive resorts usually pour US$2 bottles of wine-we pour US$50 bottles as our house wine. Our greatest challenge is to show the world just how committed and serious we are to quality. We're not cheap food and rum punch.

HOTELS: You basically grew up in tropical resorts -where is your favorite place to go just to relax?

STEWART: I love the beach-I'm a beach bum at heart. I love Exuma in the Bahamas, I love the Turks and Caicos, I love Negril, Jamaica. There's nowhere I'd rather be than next to the ocean if I have five minutes.

HOTELS: What are your thoughts on the all-inclusive resort industry in general?

STEWART: The future is in quality and services. That's what people want. The saying is mass follows class, and it always tends to be true. Everyone aspires to staying at the Ritz-Carlton or the Four Seasons. Nobody aspires to stay in the Holiday Inn. Sandals has led the way in quality, especially in the last five years, with the invasion of all these Caribbean resorts. It's just blown up. I don't want to compete with the US$50-a-night resort -I want to stay with the US$400-a-night resort. I want to give people something they've never seen before.