SIX-FOOT-FOUR-INCH SIMON F. COOPER, president and chief operating officer of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, strides into his unpretentious corporate office in Chevy Chase, Maryland, like a Kentucky Derby horse headed for the winner’s circle. Cooper, who heads the $3 billion operation of a brand he has expanded to 66 luxury hotels and 13 Residences and Clubs, gazes out the window, which overlooks a major new building construction, possibly contemplating his involvement in the development of 34 new Ritz properties around the word.

Unlike many corporate chieftains whose workplaces are trophies of their accomplishments, this 61-year-old’s office is almost void of his achievements. The shelves hold a scattering of objets d’art: a rooster from China, a Japanese teapot from the Ritz in Osaka, a medal from Israel. He picks up a heavy Roman lion’s head, not a Ritz lion but an antique he thinks might have come off a door lintel. Next to pictures of his wife, three children, and two grandchildren is a signed photograph of him with Jack Nicklaus, a partner in Ritz’s golf venture and frequent golf buddy of Cooper’s. Modest to a fault, Cooper won’t tell you he has a golf handicap of four or that he’s a talented rugby player; nor will you ever find out that he answers his own phone, writes hand-written notes, and never uses prepared speeches, preferring to talk off the cuff. His staff calls him “The Renaissance Man.”

Cooper is also a polymath of cultures. Born in London, he immigrated to Canada in 1972. These days, he travels the world 50 percent of the time to oversee the operations, development, and strategic positioning of the Ritz-Carlton brand. The remainder of the time he can be found at corporate headquarters in the U.S., except for a couple of weeks a year when he and his wife vacation in their French country home. When asked what he is—British? Canadian? American?—he answers, “I’m displaced.” Then he laughs and says, “It depends on who’s asking.”

Cooper studies an antique map hanging on the wall, one of the many he’s collected over the years and one of which he is particularly fond. He explains that it’s of Java, dated 1719, and on it, Jakarta is called Batavia. “What’s nice about this,” he says, “is that it has all these little elephants, paddy fields, and a boat building area.”

Boats are something Cooper knows well: for five years, he was captain of the Lord Jim, a charter yacht that took him throughout the Caribbean carrying such passengers as Hugh Downs and Walter Cronkite.

But Cooper didn’t see his future as a charter captain, so in 1972 he immigrated to Canada and entered a management training program with Canadian Pacific Hotels and Resorts. He transferred with Canadian Pacific to Israel where he later became managing director of Dan Hotels, Israel’s largest luxury hotel chain. He picked up his MBA at the University of Toronto, then spent 10 years as president and chief operating officer of Delta Hotels and Resorts. In 1998, Cooper joined Marriott International and oversaw all brands for the Canadian market, increasing them from six to more than 30. He was also one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Canadian Tourism Commission.

There isn’t a company that Cooper’s been involved with that didn’t grow, including The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., which Cooper joined as president and chief operating officer. Cooper modestly insists, “I chose the right companies to join.” He took over the position from the legendary founder of the brand, Horst Schulze. “I always said I would never try to step into Horst’s shoes—my shoes were going to be my own,” he says. “[Horst was] a true visionary who was clearly associated with a brand the way Richard Branson is with Virgin. Whenever a brand begins, it needs a very charismatic, legendary-type leader. Those kinds of people like Richard Branson or Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines are larger-than-life. You need that out-front champion to get the brand going. They become the persona of the brand, and that’s great, the first time around. The next leader, in my mind, has to ensure that the brand has a life of its own, that it doesn’t need that legendary cult-like leader. I couldn’t imagine trying to follow Branson or Kelleher. To me, the legacy is the strength of the brand. I want the brand to take over and do the talking.”

The Ritz brand, which represents 14 percent of the world’s luxury hotel rooms, speaks for itself, but Simon Cooper is responsible for directing a significant portion of its growth. Since he’s been at the helm, the Ritz has opened more than 30 new properties. In 2007, he debuted properties in Tokyo, Moscow, Beijing, Dublin, Tenerife, Jakarta, Dallas (the first new Ritz hotel in the U.S. in four years), Denver, and Westchester, followed by Sanay, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, scheduled to open next year. Under his direction, the Ritz portfolio also plans to add more than 15 private residential developments (the Residences) and six fractional ownership projects (The Clubs) over the next couple of years. In addition, the Ritz has invested more than $1 billion in capital improvements to upgrade properties around the world.

There’s more to Cooper than his contribution to the brand’s bottom line. Cooper flew to Baton Rouge to personally greet his New Orleans Ritz staff as they exited the buses to safety after riding out Hurricane Katrina. He didn’t go back home until everyone had been safely evacuated, meaning he didn’t sleep for days. As one Ritz employee says, “When the president of your company comes to check on you, it certainly speaks volumes about that person.”

Cooper, says his staff, is self-effacing, gracious, and understands the intricacies of different cultures, making him capable of communicating with potentates as easily as bellmen. He remembers the names of his employee’s children, never forgets special occasions, and goes out of his way to talk to everyone from the front desk staff to the housekeepers.

Cooper is also considered a visionary, and in spite of the Ritz’s long association with luxury (which some equate with stuffiness), Cooper knows that in order to retain customers and attract the next generation of business and leisure travelers, the Ritz has to blow the dust off the brand. “We’ve changed our brand from elegant formality to one of more relevant and relaxed luxury,” he says, calling it casual elegance, though he admits the Ritz still has some more traditional hotels with devoted clientele, such as Naples.

“There are people who love tradition,” says Cooper. “But I think if you look at today’s luxury traveler, especially globally, they’re looking for a more casually elegant experience. They’re changing the dress codes at the golf club, the office, and in their favorite restaurants. We don’t want to be identified as contemporary, but we have some contemporary hotels. We don’t want to be identified as traditional, but we have some traditional hotels. We don’t want to be at either end of that scale but would rather sit nicely in the middle with a sophisticated casual elegance. We recognize the fact that every single hotel we build today is going to be consistently inconsistent.”

The one consistency, says Cooper, is size. “Everything needs to be bigger,” he admits. “You need more suites and more connecting rooms because intergenerational travel is happening much more. Three or four generations are going off together on holiday.” The customer who may have just come from a Ritz-Carlton in New York or Paris has very high expectations that have to be met.

But even more difficult than meeting expectations, says Cooper, is getting the right project. “It took us at least 12 years for Tokyo,” he says, “and probably 10 deals to arrive at the one that we did. It’s really important that you get the right location, the right product, and a great team.” Cooper is in awe of what his employees manage to do. “It’s not like we pay them extraordinarily well, but sometimes you find these jewels on two legs that just want to really make a difference. They do. They really do.”

So what is his goal? “I’ll try to leave it in better shape than when I took it over,” he says, “and most importantly, try not to screw it up.” 

Photo Captions:
Picture 1: Simon Cooper, president and chief operating officer of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.
Picture 2: The Presidential Suite at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, California, has earned its name, hosting Presidents Reagan, Nixon, Carter, and Ford.
Picture 3: The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain Villas & Spa is a beachfront retreat overlooking the Arabian Gulf comprised of 23 elegant and spacious villas strategically located along the beach and tucked into lush greenery.