Rocco Forte

Sir Rocco Giovanni Forte, FCA, FIoD (born 18 January 1945) is an English hotelier and the chairman of Rocco Forte Hotels.^[1]

Early life

Born in Bournemouth, the son of the late Lord Forte, he was educated at St Peter's Catholic Comprehensive School, Southbourne, and Downside School. He read modern languages at Pembroke College, Oxford,^[2] where he won a blue for fencing.

He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1969, later becoming a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1979.

Career

He took over from his father as CEO of the Forte Group in 1992. In the mid-1990s, the Forte Group was faced with a hostile takeover bid from Gerry Robinson's Granada. Ultimately, Granada succeeded with a £3.87 billion tender offer in August 1995 that left the family with around £350 million in cash.

In 2001, following the de-merger of Compass Group from Granada's media interests, the use of the Forte trademark was returned to Forte in a gesture intended to dispel the bitter legacy of the takeover.

After the takeover, Forte set up his own chain of hotels in 1996, initially known as RF Hotels and re-branded as The Rocco Forte Collection after the return of the Forte brand name. He bought the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh and Brown's Hotel in London for £51.5m. As of April 2013, The Rocco Forte Collection operates eleven hotels in Europe, Russia, northern Africa and the Middle East.^[3]

Forte's family wealth in 2013 was listed as £250,000,000.^[4]

Honours and awards

Forte was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1995 New Year Honours list for services to the UK tourism industry.^[5] In March 2005, he received the highest Italian accolade, the Gran Croce dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, for his entrepreneurial merits and strong links with Italy. He was President of the British Hospitality Association from 1991 to 1996. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the World Travel & Tourism Council and chaired the appeals to send the English teams to the Commonwealth Games for many years.

Philanthropy

Forte funded a series of lectures at Westminster Cathedral in April 2008 organised by Cardinal Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. The first of these was given by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who launched his "faith foundation" there. Later, Forte was reported to have criticised Blair for passing anti-Catholic legislation.^[6]

In 1992, Forte and Martin Landau opened a City Technology College in Derby named Landau Forte College. In 2006, they changed to an academy. In 2010, they took a Tamworth High School (Woodhouse Business & Enterprise College) and turned it into Landau Forte Academy Tamworth, but in 2011, when they opened Landau Forte Academy QEMS in Tamworth, they changed their name to Landau Forte Academy Amington. There has since been a six-form centre near QEMS named as the former name of Landau Forte Academy Amington.

Personal life

On 15 February 1986, in the Aracoeli church of Rome, he married Aliai Giovanna Maria Ricci, a twenty-one-year-old Italian (b. 1965). She is the daughter of a famous Roman neurologist, professor Giovanni Ricci.^[7] They have three children together: Lydia Irene (b. 1987), Irene Alisea (b. 1988) and Charles Giovanni (b. 1991), who are all involved in the family's business.

One of his nieces is Alex Polizzi, a hotelier and the presenter of Channel 5's The Hotel Inspector.^[8]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Rocco Forte Collection.

• Rocco Forte Collection
• "Rocco Forte Revealed", CNN
• Interview with Sir Rocco Forte, Hotel Management International