Leather helps 'old slipper' win award

摘要

For an outsider, Fredrik Aspegren is doing extremely well. A few weeks ago, the Monaco Hotel Industry Association named him as the principality's hotelier of the year for 2008 in recognition of the work he has done as general manager of the Columbus Hotel, an establishment owned by Scottish Formula One driver David Coulthard. Mr Aspegren is winning a reputation as a creative visionary for the luxury hospitality industry, and leather features prominently in that vision. Born in Spain to parents from Sweden, he has spent his whole professional life in the hospitality industry. He studied at the Ecole Hoteliere in Lausanne before beginning his professional career in Switzerland and Sweden. Soon, he moved to the Meadowood Hotel Resort in St Helena in California's Napa Valley before moving to open his own restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa, where he spent some 15 years.