“One of the trademarks of hotels are just how fun it is,” claims Karin Sheppard. For her, all roads lead to hospitality. Initially working as a dish washer in an Italian restaurant as a teenager before going on to work in the IT industry, Sheppard found herself falling back in love with hospitality when she returned years later. According to her, the personal touch that working in hotels brings is what “makes it so much more rewarding” and helped her realise her passion for the industry. With 20 years of experience at IHG, in nine different roles and six different locations around the world, Sheppard now serves as the company’s managing director for Europe. For Sheppard, that is just “one thing that is so special about [the job], which is the opportunity to travel the world and just see the diversity of what’s on offer”. Hospitality is more than just a job to Sheppard – it is a passion. And it is one that allows her and many other employees to experience the world and different cultures, which makes the job all the more fascinating and rewarding.

It is not just about the travel either, Sheppard is very aware that, at its heart, the industry is all about people. “What we do in hotels is so reliant on the people, and what we all remember as our wonderful memories from hotel stays is all about the people and it just makes it so much more rewarding,” says Sheppard. Whether it is guest or employees, hotels need people to create that “moment of joy” that comes from a hotel stay.

Bridging the gender gap

Sheppard feels very blessed with her experience of working in the hotel industry and she puts this down, in part, to her “very supportive male colleagues”. In an industry where 53.7% of its employees are women, according to RegiÔtels, there is still a big gap when it comes to top management in hotels. But, for Sheppard, when IHG CEO Keith Bar set up the Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion board, she got the opportunity to be a part of that and see just how passionate he and the group is about diversity and inclusion.

“I’m in a company where, from the top, there is absolute advocacy for creating a more diverse and inclusive environment. So that would have made my journey as a female leader significantly easier than others,” she adds. But that is not to say that Sheppard has not experienced this gender gap. “I have experienced being the only woman in the room, whether that was in internal meetings at a senior level, which fortunately has shifted over time, or out and about in the industry, and I guess that made me very aware of it. And also gave me the desire to want to change that for the future.”

As Sheppard explains, there was a moment of truth one night where she asked herself if she wanted to sit back and accept this or do something about it. And do something she did. “With my team down in Australia we created a programme called ‘Rise’, which was designed to actually help those younger female leaders – emerging leaders – that we had in our hotels that had the aspiration and the ability to go on a track towards general manager, to be supported on that journey with mentoring and actually [have] male sponsors to advocate for them.

“It was incredibly gratifying to do that. I’m still in touch with the first group that went through it and I get emails from them when they get a promotion. And, since then, we’ve taken it globally within IHG,” she continues. Sheppard is especially proud of her senior leadership team in Europe, which is practically 50/50 according to her – which would not have been the case five or six years ago.

For Sheppard, though, it is not just about gender. Through her Rise scheme she admits that on her path towards narrowing the gender gap she has become passionate about diversity and inclusion overall. “It’s something that’s big on the agenda within IHG,” she adds. As a leader, it is something she prides herself on. “I love assembling great talent. I passionately believe that the best outcome is when I find people that are much smarter than me at their respective areas, which I’m fortunate to have around me.

“Creating a diversity of opinion and experience and backgrounds, to me, is part of the recipe for how I lead. My job is to create enthusiasm for the road ahead and make sure that great talent can really rally together to believe in that.”

When she is not striving for diversity and inclusion, Sheppard has been focused on expanding the IHG brand within Europe – something she describes as a “virtuous circle” where quality, clarity and values drive strong performance. “It’s always important when you think about growing a business to come back to the core principles of doing an excellent job.”

IHG is not playing around, either. During the pandemic, IHG launched ‘Journey to Tomorrow’ – a set of commitments the hotel group hopes can help make a difference. As Sheppard sums up, “[it] is our ten-year plan for how we can impact the environment, people and communities in a positive way.” With this set up, Sheppard feels they are positively positioned to grow the business. “Getting the model right, being in the right places in terms of my teams that are there to support hotels and owners, enhancing our existing brands through quality programmes and launching new brands, [this] really sets us up for success and expansion in more markets than perhaps ever before.”

A zero-carbon future

For Sheppard, and undeniably IHG itself, an important part of this growth is sustainability. “This is one of these issues that are bigger than IHG, they’re bigger than you and me. But small efforts everywhere can make a big impact,” she says. “We’re very much focused on giving the right tools, the right help, the right advice to our hotels so that they can make their enhancements.

“We are also looking at new builds for the future – how can we get to a zero-carbon footprint on a new build? So that’s an exciting project we’re working on, and then in existing hotels how can we help owners decarbonise by some of the solutions that we have learned from what we’re doing in existing hotels – and exploring new ways as well.” Sheppard is well-aware of the guest demand for increased sustainability, as well as the expectation of employees for the companies they work for. “This is becoming front and centre for anyone investing in hotels,” Sheppard adds.

Environmentalism makes up one side of IHG’s ten-year plan, however. The group’s focus also expands to its impact on communities and its “people agenda”, as Sheppard puts it. It is abundantly clear, speaking to Sheppard, that she is truly passionate about the people and the places she works with – and IHG seems right alongside her. “We want people to work in our hotels, work in our offices and feel that they truly belong, and doing that means that we need to be aware of how we create an environment where everyone feels truly welcome, whether you come from different ethnic backgrounds, whether you come from different genders […] we want our hotel and our corporate offices to be a place where everyone can have a voice.”

Top-shelf hospitality

Whether its diversity and inclusion or the environment, IHG seems set on providing top-tier hospitality. This is nowhere more obvious than its latest arrival in its luxury and lifestyle brand. Slated as the “last piece of that puzzle of expansion” by Sheppard, the Vignette Collection allows independently branded hotels to come into IHG’s brand while retaining their own identities. This offers many small and independent hotels the benefits that the breadth and scale of IHG can provide in terms of loyalty programmes and sustainability offering. Announced in late August 2021, Sheppard believes this definitely speaks to any hotel affected by the pandemic. According to her, it allows hotels to tap into the group of potential customers available through IHG’s reservation engines, its IHG One rewards, as well as the tools and support that comes from such a global hotel group. This is exactly what is driving the success of the latest collection.

“It was really exciting that, before the end of the year – within three months – we could announce the first three within Europe [as] two fabulous resorts in Portugal on the Algarve and a lovely hotel in Vienna, and we have just announced the fourth one, which is a beautiful hotel in Porto called Casa da Companhia,” Sheppard continues. “We expect this to be well-timed for the market where we know there are more owners looking for branded affiliation.” It is clear that there is a great future ahead for the Vignette Collection.

When talking about the past few years, Sheppard cannot help but praise the resilience of people in the face of a global pandemic. “We could never have had so much adversity and yet we’re coming through on the other side and we’re seeing recovery incredibly quickly.” For Sheppard, the ability to work together through tough times and provide solutions and support has only reinforced her love for the industry. The industry-wide effort to boost recovery has, for her, outlined the core purpose of delivering true hospitality.

“We have the opportunity to impact people’s lives, whether they’re with us for one night, whether they decide to propose in our hotels, whether they’re celebrating or coming together and rekindling business or personal relationships – that for us is just so fulfilling.” If the future of hotels is anything like Sheppard suggests, it certainly has a bright one ahead.