It's Personal Stories, A Hospitality Podcast

Anne Larcade, CEO Sequel Hotel and Resorts Interviewed by Dorothy Dowling

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As her career advanced, Anne describes finding her voice through preparation and experience rather than position. Confidence, she notes, developed over time as she learned to trust data, ask questions, and take responsibility for outcomes. She speaks candidly about moments that required courage, including taking calculated risks and ultimately buying out partners to form Sequel Hotels and Resorts. Those decisions reinforced her belief that leadership demands ownership, conviction, and a willingness to stand alone when necessary. Resilience became a defining theme in her journey, strengthened through personal loss, reinvention, and navigating uncertainty. 

Dorothy Dowling:

Welcome to its Personal Stories, a podcast dedicated to sharing the personal journeys of leaders across the travel, hospitality, and tourism industry. I'm Dorothy Dowling, and today I am delighted to welcome Ann Lark Cod. Anne is a trailblazer in our industry, an operations leader, a p and l owner, and a real estate developer. And today she's doing all kinds of advisory work to boards and developers. But today our focus is on her personal journey, the experiences, choices, and values that have shaped how she leads and how she shows up today. Anne, welcome. It's so wonderful to have you with us.

Anne Larcade:

Thank you, Dorothy. It's really a gift to pause and reflect and especially with someone who understands this industry and the personal journeys behind it.

Dorothy Dowling:

Wow. We are delighted to have you. So I'm gonna just jump right in if you're okay with that, Anne?

Anne Larcade:

Sounds good.

Dorothy Dowling:

Okay. So we'd like to go back to the early chapters of your career and what experiences people the kind of things that influence the kind of leader you would become. Was there an early moment when you realized, this is how I wanna lead, or perhaps this is how I don't.

Anne Larcade:

Yes. Yeah, great question. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I was really shaped early on in my career by strong women my mother and other senior leaders in the industry that I was privileged to work with. And I'm going to say that my mother is a foundation, believe it or not, because I learned early on about responsibility and independence and integrity. And she had very high expectations, but she didn't lower them for me. She raised my confidence by trusting me to meet them. So those strong maternal influences learning through responsibility and not entitlement early exposure to accountability and expectations, and. I learned early in my career as much from the leaders I admired as from those that I promised myself I would never emulate. Watching how people were treated when power or money is involved can leave a lasting impression. So I learned early on in my career that I wanted to be a leader and not a manager. I learned early on in my career that I had an entrepreneurial. Thread going through me and to lead by example, to love the numbers and data. And I think I also learned early in my career that I was really privileged to have an education. 40% of Canadians have a post ed post, not have a university education. And I realized I was privileged to have that and to travel and to have a global perspective to live and work in both Canada and the us. And that formed a lot of my leadership approach. I learned that I wanted to treat people with dignity and kindness and that there was no I in team. And you have to work hard and pay your dues.

Dorothy Dowling:

Wow. Those are amazing value statements and also just that learning journey and'cause I do think that. We're all shaped by our earlier experiences, and I do think having a parent that was so instrumental in shaping and guiding you and holding you accountable and really building that commitment to responsibility, I now understand a lot more in terms of how you have driven in this industry. I'm wondering if we can talk a little bit about finding and trusting your voice, because that's a really important quality in leadership, and I would love to know how you grew into your confidence and authority as a leader. And were there any moments of self-doubt along the way, and what helped you stepped into your voice when it really mattered?

Anne Larcade:

Great question. Confidence didn't arrive all at once. It was built through preparation and patience and pattern recognition and trusting my instincts. I'm, I've learned later in my career that my instincts and my intuition were quite well developed, which was a gift. So finding my voice meant really realizing I didn't need permission to speak, only responsibility for what I said. Sometimes I was the most seasoned person in the room, but I didn't claim that seat earlier in my career. I found my voice and confidence in my career by learning not to underestimate the weight my voice carried, that I didn't need to wait for consensus when my insight was already decisive and later in life. I learned boundaries were my weaker muscle, and in order to be confident and have conviction, I learned how to look at ROI internally and what to say no to when it didn't align to my personal values or my personal outcomes of what I wanted to derive from an experience or a piece of business or a meeting in the boardroom. So my key themes were. Confidence was something that's earned. It's not innate that speaking with preparation, data and clarity were important. I had to let go early in my career of the need not to be liked or to be liked. My mission built the confidence and the outcome, and then I had to find a certain level of authority as a woman without losing my humanity. I did learn that I over functioned and I think a lot of women in my generation of boomers felt like we had to really outshine to succeed. And that was a measure of confidence. And I learned that for example, in a board re board meeting I had, in terms of confidence, I was. Very concerned. I was in a board meeting, I was the president of a company and there was a decision to be made. I was the only woman in the room. And their decision making process was being derived by financial motives. And long-term ethical considerations. I was motivated by my fiduciary duty and my reputation, which were measured risk for me, which were very important to me. So in the end, I had a strategic move, which was to architect buying out a hundred percent of the shares of that company, buying out the other shareholders and directors. I found my solution, my authority, and my conviction. Which is now 20 years of sequel hotels and resorts.

Dorothy Dowling:

There's a lot that you've offered in there and I'm wondering if I can just, there's two things that really connected to me. One was the internal ROI and the boundary set that came later in life to you. Then this journey that you were on in terms of deciding to own your own business as an entrepreneur. I don't know if there's more that you can tell us about that, because I think those are particularly interesting to me and I'm certain to our audience.

Anne Larcade:

Earlier in my career, I'd worked for public companies, private companies, really large companies. I, as a gm I, as I say, I paid my dues early on through high school and university. I had two degrees from university, not related to tourism, my aunt, but I had the advantage of sitting in some larger corporate boardrooms and privately working with some very, significant men in business and I learned through observation, the strategic maneuvers. And I think finding my voice and conviction to realize, Hey, I can do this as well as they can. But I have to learn how to articulate it. I have to learn the chessboard, when to speak and when not to speak. And, learning how to say no, as I say, came later in my career. Because I think in the early part of your career, again, you're trying to prove yourself so much through the earlier parts of your career. You're saying yes to, to everything, every promotion, every ask if it, earlier when you're a gm, the more you could do, the more you could outshine. There weren't that many female GMs when I was starting to manage properties and large properties, in fact, really large iconic properties. So I think the ROI of saying no is. Having two or three or four set measurements, and every time you're asked something, whether it's a speaking engagement, whether it's a piece of business, now it's as advisory or asset management. If they don't meet those four principles that I personally have of what I wanna get out of it, then it's a no. And I have, it has, all four of them have to be met. It's nice to be able to say no. May I add?

Dorothy Dowling:

I, I think that's really good guidance then.'cause I do think that's something we all struggle with particularly when it's somebody that we like respect. That has a real need for our support. But I love the way that you said you have four non-negotiables and those are the things that really dictate the kind of commitments that you make today. So thank you.

Anne Larcade:

You're welcome.

Dorothy Dowling:

I'm wondering I'm wondering if we can talk a little bit about how you've managed risk and how you really have developed your own personal resilience.'cause you have taken on. In becoming an entrepreneur, taking that business on, buying out all the other shareholders in your business. I'm just wondering if you can talk about, owning that uncertainty, what that experience taught you and how it really shaped you and built this resilience and adaptability that I know you bring so much to all of us.

Anne Larcade:

For most people, resilience isn't theoretical. It's lived over and over again. And I think the ability to withstand adversity and recover quickly is a skill and a mindset. Some of the most defining moments in my life came from stepping into uncertainty professionally and personally. There were no guarantees. I started as an entrepreneur, then I worked my way up to gm, then I worked in public large companies. We, bought 41 hotels in 18 months and then started my own company. The mindset for me was built in when I learned the saying, failure is not an option. So at first resilience was a tactic because it was survival mode. I was a single parent in my early thirties. I wa my father died when I was 16. My mother was left in her early fifties. As a widow, I knew that building my career was important to my survival and to be an example to my children. In my early thirties I put together my first deal. It was 500, it was 5 million. I needed a million down. To put together. And I only had 750 and I thought, and it's from a bank, I'm buying a distressed asset. How am I? And I needed a million dollar line of credit, and the interest rates were 17%. And I thought how the heck am I gonna do this? And I think the risk example is I just decided to sell the banker on me. And so I learned in terms of risk, what you don't try, you don't get. So that was a good risk example, and I became GM of that hotel, and that was my first management company. So Entrepreneuring taught me that lesson. What you don't try, you don't get calculated risk, reinvention after disruption or loss growth through uncertainty, as painful as it is. Does happen most of the time. And then I learned reinvention and emotional resilience. As a leadership strength. So reinvention, I reinvented myself a number of times. I took a step back when I had a senior leadership role in Toronto to go work for an American company ownership and management company. And on paper it would've looked like a step back, but to me it was one of the greatest five years of my life. So being. Obviously looking at what those steps are, what the measurements are, and being able to take risk when you work for other people is important. And then I would add that personal responsibility, strengthen my professional resiliency, which we all have, right? Grief shows up in our lives at the boardroom. At the corporate table with owners, with and with personal experiences. I think that muscle of resiliency is strengthened each time you learn to embrace. And work your way through that. Resilience is a muscle and a skill and my hardest lesson was last year. My, my son Alex died, and I wouldn't normally share that, but in being my authentic self, I probably learned, I learned a great amount in the last year in terms of resiliency and how to walk back, walk away from your career a bit, and walk back into your career in terms of strategically how to rework your priorities. So I, I'm grateful for being able to work through adversity and into opportunity.

Dorothy Dowling:

Again, I think you offered a lot of lessons in the information that you shared. And, a couple of threads that came through for me, Anne, was that it was stepping into uncertain situations. And that's a big conversation today because there's so much ambiguity and change that's going on that we have to embrace it. But I think the other part was just talking about resiliency as a muscle and adversity builds strength and it teaches us lots of lessons about ourselves and it also can help us in terms of how we approach business. So I really thank you for sharing that because I do really admire your resilience and your positivity and how you bring it to others. So thank you. Thank you, Dorsey, that. So one of the things that I really admire about you, Ann, is your extraordinary business acumen, which, I think about, it's been developed, I suspect very intentionally. I would love to hear more about it, but it's really your p and l, your operational experience, your real estate development. These are areas that many leaders find intimidating. It is very unusual for women to have really developed acumen in all of those areas. You had it in spades when many of us did not. I would love to hear about how you built all of that kind of competency and really, how you knew that was gonna be so important to you in terms of your leadership development, and then really when you realized how right you were in terms of understanding that.

Anne Larcade:

I'm not sure. I did know actually in the beginning how important it would be, but as an entrepreneur you have to know your numbers. And that's why I say I'm a hotelier, but I'm an entrepreneur because you have to, so your data and your numbers, your guests are, and your associates are at the core and the foundation of everything you do. So I think staying open to opportunity and. Seeing the opportunities and I visualize the opportunities. If you, if. You take the call, you consider what's possible, you show up prepared. I'm a systems thinker with a human core, so I don't just see people, I see systems. So I see where policy, procedure, leadership, and structure breakdown. Then I see how small changes and the way you can inspire those among great talent can have positive impact. So I enjoy the architecting of alternatives. And I also see eq, an emotional intelligence as a skill. So I learned how to read a room well, whether it's bankers or employees or owners. I learned how. To sense the undercurrents and anticipate the reactions. I hold multiple perspectives without losing my own. So I like to gather from all of those different sensory emotional body language numbers, data. And I like to make people feel safe with me because I think at the end of the day, our industry is all about trust. So if it's like alchemy, mixing it up in a bowl, whether it's a restaurant, a golf course, a hotel, but if you can be open to the opportunity, have that global mindset and collect that information, then you developed that entrepreneurial zeal. I'll, and I'll end with an example. I got back from Calgary on one a Friday before. The Canadian Long weekend in September, labor Day. And is it the same in America Labor Day?

Dorothy Dowling:

It's

Anne Larcade:

the same, yeah. Okay. So Labor Day, I find myself on a Saturday on the phone with Tony Robbins. Now, how many people would be lucky enough to get a call from Tony Robbins and he wanted me to fly. He wanted me to fly to Fiji. And which quite away from Toronto, and wanted me to talk to him about advisory and third party management of Namali Resort, which is a beautiful resort in Fiji. And that just speaks to take the call. I said, okay. Booked a flight and flew to Fiji. And I had a week, which changed my life because I, they, gave me the house right beside Tony. I was only there an hour and I was in his living room and. I had a weak masterclass with Tony. I think in terms of entrepreneurial mindset, it's just be prepared. Put the work in, make the relationships, keep the relationships, and don't be afraid to say yes when it meets your lipid stick of the four standards.

Dorothy Dowling:

I'd like to actually unpack some of that a little bit further with this next question because. Leaders early in their career are always looking about what kind of foundational investments they need to make in terms of powering their future and. I do think a lot of your data and financial literacy that you spoke to, Anne I'd like you to talk a little bit more about that and I'd like to, that thread of understanding sort of the real estate mindset, the developer mindset, because I fundamentally believe it doesn't matter where you are in the ecosystem, that you have to understand the owners in terms of their investment and their assets and being able to bring, the right narrative back to them. I'm just wondering if you can talk about sort of those foundational concepts that for you were really important in terms of establishing that credibility and capability for the business partners that you worked with.

Anne Larcade:

Sure. As I say, I believe in teams, so my entire career. Whether it was a limited service hotel, a boutique hotel, a large resort asset, whether I owned it or I was managing it for someone else or I always treated the asset like I owned it and I taught the associates that were senior leaders or executive. Everyone had to learn how to read the p and l and you'd be surprised how many people. Don't know how to read a p and l. Or how many owners are concerned to share the p and l right down to the bottom after depreciation. But to teach people, look, just because we're making this much on the bottom doesn't mean that it doesn't go back into the asset or into other opportunities that give you other career opportunities if we make other acquisitions. So I think one really makes sure that everyone knows how to embrace. What you're doing and why you're doing it. And to some extent, sometimes I would train right down to the bottom line with lesser information. So even housekeepers, everyone has to embrace and understand. I remember in a large resort hanging the dishes in the cutlery and putting the price on each piece of China or porcelain or colory, teaching people the cost of doing business and why we drive towards these. These strategic goals. And then I would share the goals. So when we write strategic goals weekly, monthly, quarterly, and they tie into a budget and a forecast, really breaking down the strategy for owners and for associates with their input so that we can celebrate and making sure you stop to celebrate. I know a lot of properties achieve the goals and they never celebrate, and it's like. There's a lot of marginalized women at the front line of hospitality, and sometimes after a long day of making beds, they're like, why am I doing this for x per hour? So if you can breed that teamwork into your p and l knowledge so that everyone feels they're part of a bigger whole I think that's important. I just, it goes without saying whether it's a large group of assets or smaller revenues, that knowing where every single penny is and what the benchmarks are in the industry, but not just how to fall within them, but how to innovate. So I would close with saying, i've had a lot of success. I'm very fortunate. I hired incredible people, hiring the best team members that know their numbers and how to drive innovation in this industry. It right now is incredibly important. So when I talk about numbers and strategy, where are we going? What's the crystal ball? And how to get ahead of the trends is part of the strategy, and that plays to the numbers.

Dorothy Dowling:

Yeah, I think you know, anyone that was under your leadership, and they had a huge benefit because I do think many leaders don't take that kind of. Time to really help people understand numbers and how their role really drives some of the performance. So I do think finding a leader that is someone like you that will teach them and allow them to really, how understand their value proposition in terms of the organization is really important. So I'd like to move on to learning and growth if I may, because part of that is really what kind of formal learning once you were post. Like postgraduates for sure graduated from university, but are their books, are their courses mentors? It, for the listeners what would you encourage them to do to invest their time to really strengthen their commercial and development acumen?

Anne Larcade:

I certainly had allyship mentors and supporters throughout my career. Bonnie Buck, Heister, Menez Abgi with chip reit, Katie Taylor, who's the honorary chair of with org, former president of Four Seasons CEO and president Brian Wisser and Jerry Chase from Newcastle Hotels out of Connecticut. Those were all people that, gave me opportunity, encouraged me, championed me, gave me autonomy, celebrated with me. So very much impacted my journey. I belonged previously. I'm an alumni from women's president org. Find your community, whatever it is, whether it's. With org, whether it's tech, whether it's WPO, and often not just within our industry, step outside our industry because those industries may stimulate you and inspire you towards the innovation. And we learn from other industries when we immerse ourselves. So that's a strong theme. Reading has been a strong thing theme throughout my career. I love reading business books and learning that from that perspective. I'm doing a lot of AI courses right now, actually just did with one, with Tony and someone else. Immersing yourself in new technology so that you're leading. I always like to be ahead of the trend. So not behind it. Really immersing yourself so you can be a master of that before it becomes mainstream is important. And just I think it's very important to have your network. So everyone texts now I've started calling people really maintaining those relationships on a regular basis is, when you're in a stabilized career path, very important. Life shows up, things happen in between. But when you're able to really having those people that you can call and ask a question or an opinion, and Dorothy, you're one of those for me. So it's just a gift to be able to call someone and say, what do you think about this? So those are the relationships and the, I would encourage people that, growth today for me comes from curiosity, reflection, and contribution. It's a little different at this stage of your career, making sure I also find bubbles of joy is important. And I'll add that, women are 80% of the caregivers. And I think I've also learned and what encouraged people, you have to find those bubbles of joy and nearly schedule them in. Yeah. And that's important.

Dorothy Dowling:

I really appreciate you giving us all of that guidance and'cause I, a couple threads. One is that learning and curiosity is something that has powered your career and I think the elements of that personal investment you make in terms of continuous learning is another thread that you've spoken about. And then just all the peer mentorship and that. Community of really building those peer relationships so that they can become trusted advisors to you, I think are important lessons for all of us as takeaway. So thank you. Pleasure. I'd pleasure. To move on to something a little bit more personal, if I may, because with. In hospitality is something I've had the privilege of having a front row seat to many of your events, and you and Sanna, Kyra have made a tremendous investment personally, time-wise putting a lot of your network and equity in terms of really building this organization. I'd love to hear a little bit more about. The commitment why, and what keeps you doing it?'Cause this is a huge commitment year over year to keep doing these, this for the community. I would love to hear more from you.

Anne Larcade:

It matters because it changes outcomes and not just the conversation. So it personally matters to me because it allows me to contribute beyond my own career and help open doors for others. It matters to me because, hey, women like being self-sufficient and earning money just as much as men, and the data shows us they don't earn the same, they earn 83 cents on the dollar. Less than 5% are CEOs. Less than 11% are in senior leadership, and less than 2% own hotel assets. Women like owning homes, they like owning hotels, it, the why is because there are barriers and when we get together with a mini Davos and we're inspired that senior level thought leadership within the industry and outside, we have the data from America, from Europe, from Canada, that's unique. But we have an intersectionality there that we can speak about. I naively thought, look what industry crosses all continents. Where we would hold hands post Me too, and time's up and remove these barriers. Tourism, hotels, restaurants airlines. I was naive 10 years ago, but I do still believe that if we open our eyes to the potentials, there is a business case. So we know. We know from McKinsey from Harvard that when you have a proportion of diversity on at your board or in your level, senior levels of your company, your executive, you make higher profits, period. So it's not just the right thing to do, it's a good business imperative. And we also know in business what gets measured gets done. So I hope very much that in the next 10 years we can see some of the needle moving and we have an opportunity to help those women that are not at intersectional are not just women, but black women, deaf women, autistic women, everyone that would like a chance that makes 82% of travel decisions and would like to. Aspire to C-suite or to own a hotel to have the opportunity to do so

Dorothy Dowling:

I wanna say thank you and because having had the privilege of. Attending many of your with events that they are extraordinarily well architected the level of investment that you make in terms of securing the right people to be on main stage in your breakouts. But it's also just the diversity of ages, the diversity of individual contributors and their stories in terms of. How they have powered through some of their adverse situations and become successful in the in their own right. And so I agree with you. I think being in a community, I think hearing from others, understanding how they navigated setbacks and how everyone champions each other, I think is something that I would love to commend both you and Rose on because I know it is a huge commitment that you both make every year to put that event together. So I thank you for that.

Anne Larcade:

It's a pleasure. We're stronger together.

Dorothy Dowling:

We absolutely are. But you give so much to make it happen, Ann. So I just wanna recognize that.

Anne Larcade:

Thank you very

Dorothy Dowling:

much. Appreciate

Anne Larcade:

it.

Dorothy Dowling:

We're coming up. Yeah. We appreciate you. I would love to come up, we're getting near the end of our interview, Ann, and one of the things I'd like to ask about, and I think you alluded to it a little bit earlier, but when you think about success today, not early career sex, but the personal success. I'd love to hear what that means to you now.

Anne Larcade:

Ah earlier it meant external and measurable and financial. It was earned after endurance improving, and reputation. Now it has a total different meaning. It's in it's internal alignment and visible it means living my values, using my wisdom where it matters most. It does include experiencing joy, good health connection and contribution. I believe that I'm at the point in my career where the alignment for me is the culmination of the tapestry, Carol King's tapestry, weaving it all together. My life has been a tapestry, a rich and royal hue, and, I can be selective now. I can be more intentional now with who I'm mentoring or what piece of business I accept. And above all, it's the relationships, as you say, are the lifeblood of this industry. So success for me means having the time or making the time to enjoy those hospitality, family global networks that have been based on trust and using them in a way. To benefit a client, to benefit an owner, to benefit with org or you know what, to benefit the housekeeper. Let's come with a degree in medicine from another country and start it all over again. That really wants to become a hotel gm. That's personal success for.

Dorothy Dowling:

I very much appreciate you talking about how that thread of what success meant earlier and where you're living it today.'cause I do think we're all on that journey and you are an incredible representative of really defining values and living by your values and giving back to our industry. So I am very grateful to have you a part of my life and I'm grateful for you to have done this interview with our audience today. So thank you.

Anne Larcade:

My pleasure, Dorothy. I'm honored to have spoken with you today and I hope it resonates with even just one person. I feel very honored to have had this conversation.

Dorothy Dowling:

Thank you, Ann. So what I'd like to do now is just say thank you again to Anne and just extend again my appreciation for all that she does for our industry. To those of you in our audience, I'd like to thank you for joining us and just to remind you that if today's episode resonated with you, I invite you to explore more stories@itspersonalstories.com, where you'll find conversations with remarkable people like Anne, people who are charting. Bold paths, building meaningful careers and reminding us all that leadership is deeply personal. We hope to see you there.