Richard Alexis takes years of experience to Great Huts
WHEN HOSPITALITY Jamaica spoke with Richard Alexis in mid-August, he was only six weeks on the job as general manager at Great Huts Resorts Paradise on The Edge, located at Boston Bay in Portland, and he was loving it.
He is “rejuvenated” by the eco-friendly, Afrocentric space, exercising more, and loving the happy, laid-back atmosphere at a place where everybody and everything is “important”. He said he had never been on a property for which people have so much love. “About 15-20 years came off my life since I came to Great Huts. I feel younger,” he revealed.
He had gone to Great Huts from another hospitality property in Portland, a parish that he and his family love. He grew up visiting hotel properties in the west at a time when hotels were where people went for night-time entertainment, including floo shows. He said the Saturday shows at Great Huts remind him of those days.
So, what has Alexis brought to the table at Great Huts? He was born in Jamaica to a Jamaican mother and Trinidadian father; grew up partially on the Howard University campus, which his parents attended; studied at the University of Miami and John Hopkins University; and has a master’s degree in accounting.
In the United States, mainly in his collegiate days, Alexis worked at many fast-food restaurants. He forayed briefly into studying medicine, but his passion was for entrepreneurship. He worked as stockbroker for a year, was general manager at the National Housing Trust in Montego Bay, St James, and operated a food and beverage concession in a hotel chain for years in Barbados.
He also has a wealth of experience in information technology, customer service, marketing, maintenance, and community relations, all of which he intends to link to achieve his goals. He said he has “a natural knack for inter-relationships between different elements”.
“I am a systems kind of person. I believe in having good systems in place because that allows staff, guests, owners to not worry about certain things. My goal is to set up a proper system to allow Great Huts to grow beyond the vision of the owner/designer Dr Paul Rhodes,”Alexis said.