Dr. Natale Rusconi, managing director, Hotel Cipriani, Venice
After a 30-year career at the helm of the iconic Cipriani in Venice, Rusconi, winner of HOTELS' 2007 Independent Hotelier of the World Award, will retire at the end of the year. On a recent trip to New York, Rusconi reflected on growing up as the son of hoteliers, his education, his path to the Cipriani and the need for hoteliers to have patient wives.