Speaker Profile

Simon Wright

C.O.O, Qoot & MD, TGP

Simon has a career spanning over 30 years in the hospitality industry working in London, Paris and Sydney for companies such as Inter-Continental Hotels, Conran Restaurants and Ian Schrager Hotels.

Having carried out his ‘apprenticeship’ working for various international hotel companies in London, Simon joined Inter-Continental Hotels in 1991 and was immediately selected to join the company’s ‘Fast Track’ Management Development programme. In 1995 he won the industry’s prestigious ‘Acorn Award’, a UK national award for under 30 year old, in the same year he successfully completed his MBA at Henley Management College.

In 1996 he was approached by Conran Restaurants to become General Manager of their flagship restaurant Mezzo – at the time this was the largest and busiest restaurant in London. Once this business was established profitably he was asked to open the Great Eastern Hotel for the company. This project involved working personally with Terence Conran on the concept development and see the opening of 5 restaurants, 4 bars, and 12 private dining rooms within this 285 bedroom hotel in 1999.

The following year Simon was asked to take over the food and beverage operations for Ian Schrager’s Hotels in London. Over the following 3 years he established these highly successful and profitable businesses working with the various partners involved – Ian Schrager, Jeffrey Chodorow & Alain Ducasse.

Since forming TGP in 2002 Simon has worked as an operations and project management consultant in the hospitality industry helping companies such as Intercontinental Hotels, Harrods, W Hotels, Ministry of Sound, Automat, Home House, Mahiki and Whisky Mist as well as carrying out contracts in Spain, France, Holland, Germany, Lebanon, Russia and the UAE. Simon’s focus on operations and project management has been key to the success of the numerous openings and events he has been involved in since 1999.