About Mark Dickinson
Focus - Intensity - Excellence
40 years of hospitality, management and events have very quickly added up.
Today it is hard to sum it all up, I mean how do you put 40 years of experience into a few paragraphs?
I began at age 14 washing glasses behind the bar, and tasting everything I could. Back then it was cool. The world was a different place. The health and safety rules were under one banner: common sense.
I climbed mountains at an early age. I think that created a sense of self-accountability and responsibility in me that at 19 led me to become a manager in a four star hotel. It was so exciting and sparked my dreams for greatness. I dreamed of working in the famous Gleneagles Hotel and sure enough just a few years later I was one of the youngest managers they had.
That fanned the flame. I wanted to go onto the international field and get to the top. I left the UK to China, then Uganda, and onwards to Thailand. I opened hotels and restaurants and operated others, I managed events, worked with Royals, presidents and personalities. I became the Director of Food & Beverage Operations at the Royal Orchid in Bangkok in the early 90's where we claimed the crown as Number 1 City Resort in the World. What a day that was, until the following year we did it again!
From Thailand I moved to Tokyo, working as a director at the prestigious one-of-a-kind Tokyo American Club.
I had the travel bug and started to circumnavigate the world for fun, experiencing new cultures and dining experiences, hotels and hospitality, a magic tapestry of tastes and flavors.
One day I landed in Lebanon, and became attached to The Middle East. For over two & a half decades I have dedicated my energy and efforts to building systems that help people to learn and grow at their workplace.
I have opened burger joints, fine dining restaurants, five star hotels, budget hotels, resorts, been to Guam to train entertainers, Hong Kong to train wildlife people, to Cambodia to train refined hoteliers, to Bangkok to train in restaurants, pastry shops and cafes, Kuwait to run Arabic restaurants, Dubai to train international stars, real estate corporations, finance houses, back to Lebanon, back to Dubai, to KSA, to Jordan, to Egypt, actually to a lot of places.
The last five years saw over 7000 people attend one of my training sessions and the total number of people I have trained must be way past 50,000, but who's counting?
There's been a lot of learning and a lot of growth and that's what I want to share with all the people that connect through my programs.
Gulf Business Academy
Extensive Learning
We generate extensive content for Gulf Business Academy bringing interesting inter views and articles that address important issues of the day