It's Personal Stories, A Hospitality Podcast

Roger Hill, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of The Gettys Group and Ridgeline Development Partners, interviewed by Lan Elliott

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Roger describes how overcoming adversity made his companies stronger, and how rewarding others with the opportunity to lead provides continuity.  He also explains how preparation and hard work can turn calculated risks into success.  In addition to sharing how one builds a strong career, Roger discusses the benefits of becoming a hotel owner as soon as possible.

Lan Elliott:

hello, and welcome to its Personal Stories, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering personal success. My name is Lan Elliott, on behalf of its personal stories, and today I am delighted to have Roger Hill with us, who is the co-founder and executive chairman of the Gettys Group and Richline Development Partners. Welcome Roger.

Roger Hill:

LAN, it's such a pleasure to be here. Thank you very much for having me, and I hope you're doing well today.

Lan Elliott:

Doing great, and I've been looking forward to our discussion for a while. So I'm really pleased to have you here with us today. Roger, you have had such an amazing career. I watched it from afar from many years, and then I was lucky enough to start being in meetings with you and you've just had an incredible journey. Could you share a bit about your career journey and if there was a factor that contributed to your success?

Roger Hill:

Sure. And thanks again for inviting me to be here today. Really, I'm looking forward to our conversation. There. There were a few key moments that, really shaped my career and honestly have been a guiding philosophy for me and in my youth. I had the opportunity, my mom and dad had nothing to do with the hospitality industry, but. I travel with them and experience hollo domes and enjoyed that when I was super young. And then I got to be a little bit older, eight or nine. My parents worked together, nothing to do with hospitality. They'd travel, go to trade shows, I'd go with them. I put on my little blue blazer and I'd go and operate an elevator in a hotel or guide people around. And I became that self-appointed lobby boy and just fell in love with hospitality. Didn't really understand necessarily how to make a career in it, but I just, I had an early joy in, serving others and it really set a foundation that followed everything forward. And then I fast forwarded to going to the college counselor. I was like, Hey, I kinda like hospitality. If you like hospitality and you're lucky enough, there's a wonderful school in upstate New York, you should try to go there. I was lucky enough to get in there. I literally met my co-founder, Andrew Faye, in registration. And for the viewers that are, participating in this back in the day, you'd register manually, cards, paper, and he and I became fast friends and then we graduated, worked in other places. We started our business together and what we learned from Cornell at the time. Was a lot about creativity, a lot about business. We were also starting our business at a point where the financial markets had changed. A lot of people were investing in hotels that didn't necessarily need to make economic sense because of the fact that they could offset losses that they had in a hotel against income that might have come from a doctor or a lawyer. So a lot of hotels were built for the wrong reasons and didn't necessarily have to make financial sense. We thought, gosh, we could start a business and maybe support some of the people that were becoming reluctant, hotel owners, insurance companies, but with the idea of balancing creativity, procurement and business. So that was, obviously an extremely major. Inflection point for us. And then fast forward started our business. We got in, involved in investing in projects.'cause our clients were like, gosh, you guys are really smart at this. Why do you consider investing? And then we had the opportunity to cement that philosophy of always thinking like owners when we launched, ridgeline development partners. And we're investing again as co-gen partners. And then finally, I'd say a key moment for us in relationship to our trajectory was a moment where Hyatt invited us early in our years to renovate a big project, a public restroom women's and ladies restroom in the hotel in the outskirts of Chicago. We were paid a few thousand dollars. The renovation budget was probably$30,000, and that led to, in 1998. Renovating the Hyatt on Wacker here in Chicago, over 2000 rooms and at that time had revenues that were comparable to large casino hotels in Las Vegas because at that point, the rest of gaming and relationship to entertainment and food hadn't really evolved. So it was a huge responsibility for us. And we really had an opportunity to do some incredibly creative things there. And it taught us the power of innovation and empathy and utility, because literally we did things that had not been done before. We put in, believe it or not a the first outlet in a lamp that people could plug their devices into. Of course, they weren't as horrific back then, but that kind of innovation is the kind of innovation that we still try to do today. In every project.

Lan Elliott:

You've definitely worked on some of the most iconic hotels and resorts around the world, and it's just incredible to see the start of where the inspiration came from. Thanks. Was there a particular factor or factors that you think contributed to your success?

Roger Hill:

I'd say one of the factors that contributed to my success was interestingly enough being dyslexic. And I learned at a very young age, the challenges of that and turned those challenges into opportunity and recognized that I had to work harder just to be at the same level of somebody else. And then for me, from a dyslexia perspective, preparation is really important. So anything that I would do. Required more preparation, but if I was really prepared, it allowed the outcome to have that much more high likelihood of success.

Lan Elliott:

That's incredible. I would've never known that about you. So thank you for sharing and how it impacted your journey. That's really interesting.

Roger Hill:

Yeah. Thanks for asking.

Lan Elliott:

Now, you recently stepped back from running the companies that you started. How did that come about and how were you thinking about this next chapter?

Roger Hill:

Yeah. Thank you for asking that question. That came about by Andrew who, incredibly close friend of mine. As I mentioned earlier, co-founder of the business with us. He had said, Roger, I wanna step back and really become very involved on our board. He's our lead independent director, and we also both recognized that we had some great leaders within our company. And we needed to create opportunity for them and. Over the decades we've gone through, many different crises, weathered wars, the dotcom bubble, the Great Recession, which there was nothing great about it. I don't know why people called it the Great Recession most recently COVID. And now the uncertainty as it relates to tariffs and all of the issues that are going on now with the, in our economic environment. And that, allowed us to really become stronger. But obviously through all that, a big part of leadership is making sure that you can harness all that institutional knowledge and making sure the lessons and the stories that come from all of those events and the culture can get passed onto the next generation. And the best way to do that is through succession. And to me, and it's not about stepping away, but it's actually a really about creating continuity and about. Building a company that can outlive its founders. So today, Ron Swidler, the first person we hired after we started the business, is leading the grad Gettys group in an incredible way, with a lot of heart and a lot of vision. And he and his team have United our services, our branding, our design, our procure. Strategy and a seamless platform which has just been incredibly exciting to see what he's been doing and taking the foundation that we created and truly taking it to the next level. And while I continue to serve as the executive chairman and Andrew is our lead director, I'm also proud that our broader family's grown through the creation of Ridgeline development partners, which Jerry Zeidner leads, which we actually met we met him when he was working for Hyatt when we were renovating. That Hyatt Regency on Wacker Drive 28 years ago, and he's now our CEO. So I'm super proud of the continuity. And also know those two gentlemen, if they weren't running their own businesses today, they'd be running'em for somebody else. So it was clear and it was the right time to reward them for all their contributions to. Our organization. And that really created an opportunity to continue to feel confident that these businesses would live on long after Andrew and I were gone. And then that also tied back nicely to the ethos I was talking about earlier about when Andrew and I started the business about thinking like owners, obviously now serving ridgeline. All of the Gettys group team members that are involved in those projects, do that every day. And it's now allowed me to move into this new role as a steward of our culture. I'm doing mentoring, I'm supporting other organization. I certainly have key sort of chairman relationships that I continue to work on. And then helpfully, pushing forward our DNA and then. Our curiosity for pragmatism and owner like thinking, endures both at the Gates Group and all the projects we're doing at Ridgeline. It's been been exciting and we've obviously survived a lot of storms and, one of the things that we often think about is, a willow tree is a very sturdy tree, but also has flexible branches and we've tried to be flexible and going through. All this change. And that's part, a big part of why, we wanted to, go create the succession and I'm sure hopefully within the walls of the Gettys Group and Ridgeline, there are future CEOs there. That'll be and those roles of responsibility sometime in the future.

Lan Elliott:

It's extremely long-term thinking to think about the future of your company, but also stepping aside and giving others opportunities. But that can also be really different for you, having been so involved in your business for all of these years and being the key decision maker a lot of the times to then step back and say, you know what, it's someone else's turn.

Roger Hill:

Yeah, you're right. And I've gotten better at that. I know there were a couple of missteps on my part at the beginning, but I think right now. Both Jerry and Ron and I have good relationships, where, they're Batman and I'm Robin for both of them. I'm there to support them wherever I can. And and also it just makes me so proud to see them, flourishing. We're ridge lines. Co-developing a very large project in Nashville right now. A couple hundred million dollars. It's about$225 million development we're coming out of the ground. It's a mie apartments and apartments by Marriott and Jerry's managing all that. And he's just doing a fabulous job and I'm really enjoying supporting him. But it just makes me proud that we're in these tough times, have a project of that magnitude going forward. And, jerry's leadership has really allowed us to do that. And then Ron and his team at the Gays group are doing the branding, interior design and procurement and really doing some incredible placemaking there. This overall project's gonna be called The Bend, and it's when it's complete, we'll be three acres. It's being developed adjacent to our Talent Place Suite. So proud to see those guys doing such a great job on those projects and making great decisions for our investors as well.

Lan Elliott:

Amazing. Roger, you don't get to where you are today without taking a number of calculated risks, such as creating the Gettys Group and starting Ridgeline Development Partners. Although you started investing earlier than the launch of Bridgeline, you've also been investing all along. How do you prepare yourself mentally to take a chance on something?

Roger Hill:

Yeah. Thanks for asking that question about taking risk. And it's just an important one for people, both personally, is they take risks to buy their first home or take on that, accept that first job or. That first relationship I was fortunate, had a really good friend that taught me yeah, young in life about, calculated risk taking. And for us, risk has always, been about preparation and not gambling, but we certainly have taken some really big swings. And many of them have been really successful. So that's important. But part of how we prepared ourselves to take those big swings was. By intentionally, diversifying our business, by service and by geography, complexity. So we were never a one trick pony even when we started the business. But fortunately for us, prior to the, financial crisis, we already had an office that was successful in Hong Kong. We opened up another office in the Middle East and things had ground to the halt here. The Middle East was really starting to. Take off. So we were fortunate to do many significant projects in oh 9, 10, 11, 12 in the Middle East that, allowed us to be on a stable footing and take the kind of risks that I'm about to share with you. We, along with Oxford Capital co-developed the Langham Hotel here in Chicago and it was, as office building conversions to hotels are horrific. Many of them don't make sense. We've studied hundreds, been involved with dozens. The IBM building laid out beautifully. We, along with Oxford and LaSalle Hotels bought 13 floors of the building. So the rooms laid out beautifully for us to have a 15 foot wide module, so a really nice luxury experience. And then because it was designed as an office building, really nice high ceiling heights. And then we also, because the building was engineered in the seventies, structurally, we were able to cut out floors, crate volumes of space for ballrooms. Beautiful senses of arrival. Incredible. Hellos and goodbyes. And we took a really big risk. It was the last great work that me vanderau designed. We acquired it prior to the crisis with Oxford and LaSalle Hotels, and seemed like a really smart decision. Then the financial crisis occurred and it was quite a nail biter. But one of the things that we did in a situation like that prior to making that investment was. Grounded in research, lots of careful analysis. And we also knew that me Spandau had built a building that was just gonna be beautiful as a hotel. And one of the things that makes me very proud today when I'm in the lobby listening to people, remark on the elegance of it, is they view it as a purpose-built hotel. And obviously it was designed as a massive office building. And during the crisis, there was a, a possibility that the project might not go forward because the city wanted to impose a requirement for the hotel to be union operated. And our partner did not want that. And mayor Daley wisely stepped in and said to the city council, there was nothing happening. We were about to create. Hundreds and hundreds of co construction jobs, which were all union laborers and put a lot of people at work. And he got the council to approve us building the hotel without a union. And that put the project to go forward and that, taught me, the importance of you. Having great preparation and, doing the work that you needed to do and having conviction allowed you to trust your gut. So you know that in that case, we took a risk but it, the risk was financial, but it was tied to creativity, which turned to success and sometimes it's a financial risk and other. Interesting risk we took in preparing us to do an incredible project in Hong Kong was an interesting exercise that Ron created called the Suitcase Exercise. We were designing the Hard Rock and Macau and Ron had the really interesting idea of going out and buying all the items that, a. Business traveler and a leisure traveler, both male and female might pack in their suitcases. We brought all the stakeholders together, packed those suitcases on a series of occasions and that helped us drive forward in understanding, what someone might wanna do for Fawn or work at the Hard Rock Macau. And that, laid the foundation, for the design brief. And it was a really nice balance of taking a risk. But, balancing that with. Curiosity, conviction and preparation allowed us to take chances but not be reckless in both of those instances. So that's our secret sauce in a relationship to risk taking and things that I started to learn at a young age thrilled that I could help to bring those forward to the Gettys Group and Ridgeline.

Lan Elliott:

I love that. And I'm really curious if people in different parts of the world pack different things in their suitcases now.

Roger Hill:

They certainly do. They certainly do.

Lan Elliott:

Very interesting. We hear from a lot of leaders that curiosity is a big part of their journey and this need to continually evolve. Your skills. I'm wondering if there is a skill you found over time that you thought, I'm going to really need this in the future, but I haven't had to develop it just yet.

Roger Hill:

That's a great question. And I, what I'm still trying to live by and, being a continuous learner and man, the ti the time of change we're in today it's really exciting. I think for me though, a leadership skill that I wished I'd learned at a younger age was knowing when to let others, lead and Richard Sr. Took over a family business in South America that was a pump making business and he believed, the future of the company would really depend on embracing people within the organization and having them have an opportunity to bring their curiosity forward that would. Allow the business to ultimately be diversified and be that much more successful and, create opportunities for them. And we talked earlier about Ron and Jerry evolving and the opportunities that they had. And I think that's something that I didn't quite understand. When you start a company, you think. Better have all the answers. Real true leadership means making space, for others to shine. And over the years, I think we've built an entrepreneurial culture, a place where people can launch, new ideas. And Getty's one and the branding group for Born within our organization, obviously our development company was as well. And those initiatives, came within and then were supported whole-heartedly. Now to be clear, and I'm sure you're, some of the people listening to this now are watching this. It's yeah, not every experiment works. And I would acknowledge that. And if we had time for another episode, I could take you through a bunch of things that didn't work. So I wanna be sincere in saying not everything we've done has been perfect. But if you take smart risks on people, not just projects, often you're gonna be re rewarded. Staying curious keeps you growing. And I've always been fascinated about innovation as we talked about earlier, and the kind of things we did at the Hyatt. And what's really exciting today is what we're doing both at the development company and at the Gettys Group with. Innovation and ai. And I would be shocked if Ron doesn't launch some new business, with the incredible things we're doing with artificial intelligence, not only for our clients today, but there's and no doubt in my mind that there's a business there to support others that are trying to make creative business decisions and. We've developed some tools internally that can allow decision making, both from a design perspective but also consumer research incredibly much more reliable and cost effective. And, I'm concerned and I'm sure you are too, there are a lot of people that are embracing AI and there are a bunch of people that aren't. And I think the only people that should be afraid of artificial intelligence are the ones that aren't experimenting with it. Those tools are not gonna replace creativity or business people. But they're gonna expand what's possible. But the people that don't embrace it, I think, really have to be concerned. I'm continuing to embrace my passion for lifelong learning and openness and curiosity. And if you're not evolving, me you're standing still and it's gonna even be more. Acute today for everybody that doesn't embrace, at least exploring these new tools that we have to not only help your personal life, but also your professional life.

Lan Elliott:

Absolutely. Yeah. It is a continuous journey and there's always new things to learn, right? I wanted to talk a little bit about developing a network, and one of my favorite things about hospitality is how long people tend to stay in our industry. Like you, I discovered a love for hospitality when I was traveling, when I was very young with my parents and the relationships I built at college and even in my early part of my career continue to be really important to me. And you obviously have built a business with friends. That you met very early in life. Could you talk a little bit about developing a network? Because we do develop these incredible friendships and hospitality, but walking to that cocktail party at a conference can be intimidating for anyone. How do you think about developing a network in a way that suits your personality?

Roger Hill:

Yeah, thank you for asking the question about how one goes about developing a network and I just can remember vividly to your point, being very young at NYU or Alice now the, I guess the L lodging investment conferences was called in our youth in la and yeah, it was super intimidating. Those rooms were so grand and yeah, I didn't really know anybody. So for me, I think one of the things again that I learned before attending Cornell and I guess I got some of this just from watching my mom and dad and, their interpersonal skills. I think some people can treat networking like a transaction and, gosh, I'm gonna, this conference, I gotta meet these certain amount of people. I gotta collect these certain amount of business cards or and for me. I am taking much more of the approach of really taking an interest, a genuine interest in the people that I might meet, and trying to find out about them personally, their journeys, what motivates them and. For me you were talking about how long people, particularly in this industry work, it's just super gratifying for me to start a conversation with somebody that is might, we might be doing work with or is interested in doing work with us and before we're even talking about work. Catching up and seeing, where they are on their journey, where they are with their children or they're having children, et cetera. And that's just the way that I'm wired. But for me, that certainly made my, professional life that much more interesting because of the interwoven nature of. Taking the time to learn about someone personally and then being on that journey with them is much more rewarding. So I would encourage people, and I think those skills that we just talked about or I just shared with you in relationship to my thinking, can help you personally too when you're just out socializing in a non-work environment. I, for me, I like to. Be politely persistent. And when I see an opportunity to really get to know an organization I'm gonna pursue that. But do that in a polite, respectful way. And that maybe takes a little more time. But if treat individuals the way that you want to be treated, that's really how you build trust and in a business. And your personal life. And I think there's so many corollaries between the way you work professionally and personally, trust is really everything. And in today's fast-paced world, you may not be able to get back to somebody with a full answer, but just acknowledge you received the text or the email. And again, just if that was your partner reaching out to you, you'd wanna do the same thing for your partner. So I think, networking is absolutely a skill, but I really think for me it's been much more rewarding. Looking through that personal lens and to your point not only did I start a business with friends, but I do a lot of business with friends and I know I care about all our clients, but I care even a little bit more about somebody that I have a deep personal relationship with. And I will absolutely and do whatever and we will do whatever to make sure that. The project is taken care of and that, is just enriched from a personal perspective when you have that friendship with someone.

Lan Elliott:

Yes. One of those wonderful things about our industry. I wanted to touch on mentors and champions. Because this can be really an important part of career progression is finding those people to give you advice and to help you and talk about you in those rooms where you're not in, where big career decisions are made. How have you thought about mentorship and champions?

Roger Hill:

Great question. From a mentoring and championship perspective boy I've been so lucky to have numerous people that have. Played a key part in my life for my youth to still today. And getting back to, just back to that Hyatt project I mentioned earlier, Don Deporter taking a big risk on us, professionally and. We delivered in hi for him. Really made me very proud. I remember sitting down with the general manager of that hotel, and it was right out of, central casting, giant, boardroom table. He was on one end. He intentionally sat me at the other end at the table, and, said, Hey, you've been given a huge responsibility here and I really look forward to, you making this a successful project. But if it's not a successful project, I will assure you, I'm gonna tell everyone within Hyatt that we should not be working with you again. And I'm very influential in this industry. He made it clear what his expectations were and, accountability and what he expected us to do. But it made me really proud to, to deliver for him and for the owners of the hotel. And and so sometimes you can have a mentor that pushes you and but that's not a bad thing at all. And then from a champion perspective Cornell at Cornell Professor Redland took a great interest in us and he went on Sabba and took a semester and came to work with us, and he helped us create our first. Mission statement and, those values, still live on today and are a key part of our culture. So I really appreciated him championing us and being the mentor. And then from a personal perspective. My, my parents were an incredible influence in me. And, my father taught me something that was simple and powerful, always do things the right way and not the easy way. He too was dyslexic, so I learned a lot from him and, his dealing with dyslexia. And then my mother was a really, a kind woman, and she used to always say, it doesn't cost anything more to be polite. And I really appreciated that and treat everybody the way that I'd wanna be treated. And then my dad, another part of his mentoring to me was that, work is obviously a. A challenge, if you work hard, you probably are gonna be rewarded for that. And I definitely, again, because of this dyslexia, took that to heart and understood sometimes, luck plays a part of it, but, he was like, Hey, you really can make your own luck. And then I've added too, for our kids, the harder you work, the luckier you can be and hard work often, does, really pay off. My lastly as it relates to mentors I think people today that are older. Think, gosh, you've learned the most from people that are industry veterans. But I think today it's just exciting to really stay open-minded.'cause wisdom comes from every direction. And I am learning a lot from people that are very young. In our organization and others. So I encourage people to look through that lens too, in relationship to mentoring and learning. And then I'd also say I've been giving back and mentoring people and it's really rewarding to me to have some mentees that I see doing great things and encourage your listeners to, take that in consideration. If they're not in a position to do it today, pay it forward and do it for somebody else in the future.

Lan Elliott:

I love that. I definitely share those sentiments.

Roger Hill:

You do. I know you live by that for sure.

Lan Elliott:

I want to talk about advice to your younger self, because I'm thinking back to 22-year-old Roger. What would you want him to know? What advice would you give him?

Roger Hill:

I wish I could do that for sure. And then fast forward to today, but I'll offer a couple of pieces of of wisdom. If I could sit down with my 22-year-old self, I'd say don't just think like an owner, but, become one as soon as possible. For the years that we've served developers. And owners and brands and investors, you don't really develop a level of empathy and understanding what owners' expectations are until you start writing checks yourself and taking the risk personally changes your perspective'cause you really understand the stress of me signing personal guarantees bad boy carve outs, et cetera. It really deepens your level of empathy and it teaches you the difference between, creative ambition and true accountability. And I think if we'd made that leap even sooner, I think that would've helped us even grow faster as a business and as entrepreneurs and growing our platform. So I tell my younger self to not just think like an owner, but try to find a way to become one as soon as you can. Yeah. Responsibly do that.'cause that's the real opportunity to have, true dimensional learning happens when you're in that position of having to take on those risks.

Lan Elliott:

Absolutely. It is a very different level of risk, and I do find even. After being an owner and working in other areas of the business, the level of almost instant credibility when they know you felt what it is to be in their shoes. It just helps you anytime you're working with owners and I think anyone in any role in hospitality, if you get to a certain level of success, you're gonna be across the table talking to owners. So a really important skill.

Roger Hill:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Lan Elliott:

Roger, you've given us so much great advice during our conversation. Do you have one final nugget of advice you'd offer to our audience who are looking to advance their careers?

Roger Hill:

I would be happy to, and I would say for the listeners, I'd say, build your foundation, on timeless principles. And if you happen to be in the hospitality space, try to think like an owner as soon as possible. Be politely persistent. Yeah, stay curious and always have the highest degree of integrity.'cause you only have yourself. And it's just so important to not take the shortcut. Don't take the easy way, but do it the right way. The world's gonna keep changing, which I find incredibly exciting. Technology markets, expectations, brand creation. But if you have those strong roots that I talked about earlier you're gonna be an. Position to, embrace change and bend and weather, whatever storm you know, comes at you. And that's how you build not only a strong career but I think those things all apply to your personal life as well. You can build a company, a personal legacy at home, and a personal legacy. And professional legacy at work. And if you choose to be an entrepreneur, find yourself some great co-founders as I did, and recruit the type of people that you can help to nurture and grow and steward the legacy that's important to you. And then probably most importantly, I should have started here. Find yourself a great life partner as I found, and my wife, Eva Wasserman, who I know is a friend of yours. And and if you're lucky enough, as we were to have two wonderful children, our. Daughter, Madeline son Getty. No greater legacy and no thing that's more important to me than the relationship I have with all three of them. But if you can have that balance by having a great, personal life and a professional life. It's just extremely rewarding.

Lan Elliott:

That is a wonderful sentiment. And yes, Eva Wasserman, who has been on our show as well and was fabulous as well. Thank you so much, Roger, for this wonderful interview. I so appreciate you and the warmth and generosity that you have for the people on your team, but also for others in the industry. So thank you so much.

Roger Hill:

My pleasure. And to, on that note, I'd lo I'd be happy to any of your listeners, feel free to reach out to me. I know that my, our, my email address is gonna be shared and I am very much the spirit of wanting to give back. So happy to help anyone that might like to chat post this, and thanks again for giving me the opportunity today.

Lan Elliott:

Thank you so much and for our audience, if you've enjoyed this conversation with Roger, I hope you'll go to our website, it's personal stories.com, where you can find many more interviews with hospitality industry leaders.