Consumer >> CEO Interviews >> July 9, 2001
ROGER P. SONNABEND is Chairman of the Board and CEO of Sonesta
International Hotels Corporation. Mr. Sonnabend has made the hotel
business his life's work. After earning his undergraduate degree from
MIT in 1946, he joined the family hotel business, established by his
father, A. M. ('Sonny') Sonnabend. At the age of 21, he became the
General Manager of the Nautilus Hotel & Beach Club in Atlantic Beach,
Long Island. He earned his MBA degree from the Harvard Business School
in 1949, then served as Manager of several Sonnabend-owned hotels,
including the Whitehall Hotel, Palm Beach, Florida; the Somerset Hotel,
Boston, Massachusetts; and the Samoset Resort, Rockland, Maine. In the
early 1950s he created, with his father, Sonnabend Operated Hotels,
which became the Hotel Corporation of America in 1956. Outside his
involvement with Sonesta, Mr. Sonnabend has demonstrated a strong
commitment to the betterment of the community. He has been active with
Boston-area arts organizations such as the Institute of Contemporary Art
and the Museum of Fine Arts; educational institutions such as Harvard
University and MIT; and government service, including the Office of
Economic Opportunity, the Job Corps, and the Presidential Task Force on
Urban Unemployment Opportunities. Mr. Sonnabend is married with four
children. Profile
International Hotels Corporation?
Mr. Sonnabend: Our interest in hotels dates back to the late 1930s, when
my father began
