Hospitality Design - July 2013 - 95

Joan Cardy

owner, the Cardy Group, Toronto
My career has been a combination of
happenstance and luck. During my
first week in Toronto in 1982, over a
casual lunch with friends who owned a
hospitality-focused design firm, I landed a
job as director of sales and marketing. The
company also employed a fellow who ran
their ‘one-person’ purchasing department.
When he abruptly left the company, I
was nominated, by default, to take over
a conversion project in Rochester, New

Jean-Michael Gathy

founder and principal designer, Denniston, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
When I was five or six years old, each morning my mother and father would give us money to
buy milk and lunch at school. I would buy lunch but I would keep that milk money—behind my
mother’s back of course—to buy geographical maps of countries, which showed rivers, lakes,
mountains, cities, and seas. Every week I would study a different country, reading everything
about it—population of cities, the main industries, whether it was Iberia, the United States,
Canada, or Japan. At the end of the week, I would put a pillow under the door so my mother
didn’t see the light and I would test myself on these maps. I would take the blind map and fill
it up. My whole life I have done this. And now I am an absolute addict of Google Maps. Since
I was five years old, I was a maniac for traveling and for places outside of where I grew up
[Belgium]. I was always traveling in my dreams.
The first real trip I organized was when I was nine years old. My father said, ‘Oh,
you like maps Michel, you are going to prepare the trip for the family this year.’ I prepared
a trip to Italy. I studied all the roads, the kilometers on every road before every turn; I would
know who designed the windows of each cathedral we visited. I studied like hell because I
could not fail in front of my family. And by doing this I actually studied the architecture of the
cathedrals, the famous buildings, and the museums. The idea of going to places and studying
their architectural components, I was born with it.

York. It was definitely a case of ‘learning
on the fly,’ albeit with the help of a few key
vendors who helped me navigate through
myriad commodities. I loved the job from
the very first purchase order I issued. I
couldn’t believe that someone was paying
me to shop all day while spending someone
else’s money. My tenure with this firm
was short-lived, but I learned that to be
successful at hospitality purchasing one
had to understand the importance of ethics,
fiduciary responsibilities, and the ability to
execute the designer’s vision.
As for luck, that came knocking not long
after when I attended a dinner party with
a few other industry people. Gerry Brown,
ultimately the person most responsible for
my success today, announced he was leaving
his position as vice president of purchasing
at Four Seasons Hotels to start his own firm.
I danced all the way home from that dinner
as I knew where my next job was going
to be—working with Gerry. I was positive
(some would say overly confident) that he
would hire me, so I called him the next day.
He immediately shot me down, telling me
he didn’t have any projects. I called him
back the very next day and offered to work
for free until we secured enough work to
warrant paying me—a ‘win win’ for us both.
We worked together for fourteen years;
Gerry is still a close friend and advisor.

hospitalitydesign.com July 2013

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http://www.hospitalitydesign.com

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