Adrian Zecha
Founder, Azerai
In a career spanning close to 50 years, Adrian Zecha has founded a series of hotel management companies and conceived and developed more than one hundred award-winning resorts and hotels. He is recognized globally as one of the foremost visionaries within the hospitality industry. He has received accolades throughout his career including the most recent Lifetime Achievement Award on March 5, 2018 from the International Investment Forum in Berlin, Germany.
Initially a journalist and publisher, Zecha entered the hospitality industry in the 1970’s when he was one of the founding partners of Regent International Hotels. His role with Regent was focused on the creation and development of the hotel product and the marketing position of the brand. The hotel brand was quickly acclaimed as the market leader in luxury hotels within Asia and later as it expanded to Europe and the USA it became a benchmark in the hotel industry.
Selling his interest in Regent in 1986, Zecha went on to participate in new hotel management companies.
Together with former Regent co-founder, Georg Rafael, he started Rafael Hotels which focused on the acquisition and management of luxury five-star resorts and hotels in Europe and the USA. He was a non-executive Director and shareholder of the company which was eventually sold to Mandarin Oriental Hotels.
He became a Director of Beaufort Hotels which opened luxury hotels in Brisbane, Darwin, Singapore and Bangkok.
In 1987, Zecha launched Amanresorts, when he built a small luxury resort in Phuket providing both room accommodation and private villas. Amanresorts, under his executive leadership up until 2014, expanded to comprise 30 hotels in 20 countries and is to this day considered the international benchmark in luxury hotel-keeping.
In 1992, Zecha formed General Hotel Management, which has developed and operated three-star, four-star and five-star hotels and resorts in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.
In February 2017, Zecha and his team under a new management structure, launched Azerai, a hotel brand positioned as a new benchmark in affordable luxury. Today Azerai operates three hotels in Vietnam – the first opening in the Mekong Delta’s capital city, Can Tho. Azerai, Hue is located in the historic imperial city and Azerai, Ke Ga Bay offers a seaside retreat. The properties reflect the brand’s ethos of simple elegance, refined design, discreet and attentive service, in a location of unique beauty and cultural interest.