Arthur Gillis
Arthur Gillis
Arthur Gillis is the Group Managing Director of Protea Hotels: a hotel-owning, management and franchise company which was formed in 1984. The company`s growth has been rapid and Protea today has some 120 + hotels in 14 countries across Africa under its umbrella.
 
Arthur Gillis is the Group Managing Director of Protea Hotels: a hotel-owning, management and franchise company which was formed in 1984. The company`s growth has been rapid and Protea today has some 120 + hotels in 14 countries across Africa under its umbrella.
 
Protea has been rated the largest hotel group in Africa by the prestigious international magazine, Hotels. The group has an annual turnover of approximately US$100 million.

Arthur has been with Protea since the company started and even before that. His first job after graduating from Hotel School was assistant purchaser at the Heerengracht Hotel, which subsequently became one of the first hotels under the Protea Banner. He is South African - schooled in Oudtshoorn and hotel trained at the Witwatersrand Hotel School .
 
In October 1988 he was given the Hotel School Award (the first of it`s kind) in recognition of his contribution towards the School and the hotel industry in South Africa. In August 1994, he was given the Technikon Witwatersrand Alumnus Award (also the first of it`s kind) as the Technikon`s most outstanding alumnus in any faculty. In addition, he has studied at Cornell University in America on several occasions and completed their first Advanced Management Programme.

Arthur has been extremely active in all facets of the hospitality industry in Southern Africa . Among other things, he has served as Chairman of the Technikon Witwatersrand Hotel School Development Committee, Vice-President of the Hospitality Industry Training Board and Member of the South African Tourism Board Standards Committee.
He has been nominated Newsmaker of the Week by the Financial Mail magazine and Businessman of the Week by the Argus Newspaper.

Arthur is active outside of the hospitality industry as well - he is a member of the board of Herzlia School , which has five campuses and some 2000 students, and he is a trustee of The Drug Education for our Nation Trust. In addition, he is a member of the Cape Town Chapter of the Young President`s Organisation, which consists of chief executives of corporations ranging from 50 employees to over 50 000, and with turnovers well over US$20 billion.
 
All the executives have attained positions of top leadership before the age of 40. Arthur has served as Education Chairman and Chairman for the Chapter.

Now Arthur brings his vast knowledge and experience of both business and the hospitality industry, together with his own unique style of presenting in a talk entitled `The Ten Golden Keys of Success`.
He is in great demand as a Public Speaker, enthusing his audiences with his passion and great sense of fun.
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