Kurt Ritter receives honorary doctorate of Oxford Brookes University
Kurt Ritter, President & CEO of The Rezidor Hotel Group, has received an honorary doctorate of Oxford Brookes University. “This award is in recognition of Kurt Ritter’s extraordinary vision and leadership”, comments Professor Janet Beer, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford Brookes. “We also award his commitment to environmental issues, business ethics and to a positive organisational culture”, continues Janet Beer.
“I feel very honoured and proud to receive this doctorate”, says Kurt Ritter. “It not only means a personal achievement to me, but is at the same time highlighting the close relationship between Rezidor and Oxford Brookes University.” For more than ten years, Rezidor and Oxford Brookes’ “Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism Management” department have had an active collaboration which covers education and training, research and scholarship, consultancy, work experience and career employment. “This partnership is a true symbiotic, two-way relationship with a huge future potential”, underline both Janet Beer and Kurt Ritter.
Swiss born Kurt Ritter has been at the head of Rezidor for two decades now – and the company’s Board of Directors recently extended his contract until 2012. Under his management, Rezidor became one of the fastest growing hotel companies worldwide. The group’s multi-brand portfolio features five distinctive brands encompassing 380 hotels with close to 81,000 rooms in operation and under development in 59 countries. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Rezidor operates Park Inn, Radisson Blu Hotels & Resorts (formerly Radisson SAS Hotels & Resorts), Regent Hotels & Resorts and Country Inns & Suites. Under a worldwide licence agreement with the iconic Italian fashion house Missoni, Rezidor also operates and develops the new lifestyle brand Hotel Missoni. Since November 2006, Rezidor is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
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Winner of two Lifetime Achievement Awards, by the prestigious MKG Group (2008) and the International Hotel Investment Forum (2004), Kurt Ritter is considered one of the most respected and accomplished leaders in the hospitality industry. He was also awarded the title of “Corporate Hotelier of the World” (2002) and received the “Brillat Savarin Plaque” (2005). In 1997, he received an honorary doctorate of Business Administration in Hospitality by Johnson & Wales University (Providence, USA).