President of Coakley & Williams (C&W) Lodge Control Corporate Mark Williams is on the helm of the trade that has been in his circle of relatives since its founding in 1961 with a handshake between his grandfather Fred Williams and his spouse Neil Coakley. He described for LODGING how he and his corporate have evolved over time, together with the formation of a strategic partnership with Lodge Equities, the place his identify is lately SVP trade construction for the Northeast.
Whilst the unique companions all for creating warehouses and place of business constructions, the corporate ultimately developed right into a developer of resorts, with their first assets opening in 1971 outdoor Washington, D.C. Services and products expanded from building to in-house lodge control, assets control, and leasing.
In 1996, Mark Williams’ father, Gary, who labored carefully with Coakley, assumed possession of the lodge control department and started working resorts up and down the East Coast.
First Encounters With Hospitality
In keeping with Williams, early jobs at his circle of relatives’s resorts didn’t encourage goals of a hospitality profession. “When I used to be between 10 and 12, my dad had me coming to paintings at our Vacation Inn in Maryland, first simply selecting up trash however later running at different jobs together with the entrance table. Beginning off, I felt like this was once now not going to be the profession trail for me,” he similar.
To start with turning clear of a profession at C&W, Williams began faculty in western Maryland, majoring in theater; alternatively, a summer season within the Disney Faculty program brought on him to take a 2d take a look at hospitality, and ultimately, the circle of relatives trade. As a substitute of returning to school in Maryland that fall, he persisted to paintings at Walt Disney International in Florida, the place he remained for greater than 4 years. “Operating there, particularly in several hospitality segments from sights to accommodation, shifted my mindset in regards to the chances with hospitality, along side issues I sought after to be part of,” he mentioned. It was once there in Central Florida that he met his spouse, Stephanie, who was once within the hospitality program on the College of Central Florida’s Rosen Faculty of Hospitality Control, the place he therefore enrolled and finished his stage. Upon commencement, each went to paintings at C&W—she at the human assets facet and he in operations.
Increasing the Skillset
Williams mentioned he got here to like the lodge trade, the place “there are lots of portions to understand, and each day is an journey.” When his spouse stepped again from her HR place to boost their kids, he moved from operations into the educational and construction facet of the trade. Then, when the corporate’s trade construction director left, his father, who was once then president of the corporate, suggested him to tackle that a part of the trade, which he discovered particularly thrilling. “I spent a few years doing that. It allowed me to turn into considering all sides of the corporate and have interaction with all of the other folks/departments that have been a part of our trade,” he mentioned. “What I’d say I like maximum about trade construction is operating at the long run alternatives, serving to folks resolve issues, and seeing visions come to existence.”
Ascension to President
In April 2017, his father passed him the reins of the corporate, naming him president of the total endeavor whilst nonetheless holding possession.
The more youthful Williams served in that function within the years previous to and throughout the darkest days of the COVID pandemic, which he described “like being in a struggle,” explaining, “We have been preventing for the survival of our trade with all arms on deck, suffering to determine what we had to do to scale back bills whilst additionally keeping up the boldness of our group individuals and shoppers.”
Not able to have wisdom of—and far much less overall keep an eye on over—what lay forward, he mentioned he became to his religion, deciding now not to concentrate on results however to “accept as true with God and to not fear about as of late or day after today.” He referred to as this manner “my greatest takeaway from the pandemic, and my manner with no matter I’ve completed ever since.”
Williams mentioned that once the corporate got here out of the worst of COVID in 2021, they made the verdict to shape a strategic partnership with Lodge Equities (HE), an alliance that has allowed C&W to stick intact whilst profiting from HE’s assets, operational oversight, and nationwide make stronger to all resorts inside the C&W portfolio. The alliance additionally puts him in acquainted territory: Even if he stays president of C&W, as SVP of commercial construction with HE, he specializes in new construction and growth within the northeastern United States—together with an expanded center of attention on rising the midscale extended-stay section this yr.
Williams described his management taste as “servant management,” explaining, “This can be a adventure that you’ll’t and shouldn’t really feel the want to take on my own. Leaders are handiest as just right because the group that’s round them, the group they’re serving.” Williams incorporated in that group now not simply personnel from C&W and HE, but in addition his circle of relatives and associates. “I’m so grateful I’ve were given a really perfect make stronger device round me. I may just by no means do all of it on my own,” he concluded.
The ‘Servant Management’ Mindset: Prioritizing Other people, No longer Simply Income
Mark Williams, president of Coakley & Williams (C&W) Lodge Control Corporate and SVP trade construction of Lodge Equities, mentioned he subscribes to the “servant management” control philosophy. The objective of servant management, a motion based via Robert Kiefner Greenleaf within the early Nineteen Seventies, is to serve the wishes of workers first, to assist them expand and ship their absolute best efficiency, which, after all, advantages the group. In step with this, Williams mentioned, “I don’t see buck indicators on the subject of what I do, however relatively the folks. My viewpoint is one in every of developing alternatives for folks to assist enhance their lives and attain the issues they need to do.”
This manner has confirmed a success in all kinds of companies, however, as he noticed, in hospitality, “serving and taking good care of folks is on the core of what we do. In our trade, we get to be a favorable affect on all stakeholders, which incorporates our shoppers and group individuals. We get to be an instance of sunshine and like to the folks we paintings with and serve.”
