DESIGNER Focus

C ongratulations on the official opening of ESPA Mondrian Doha! Tell us how you started out in the wellness industry?

I’ve had a passion for health since childhood - my grandmother was a herbalist and my mother was in medicine, so it has always been an inherent interest of mine. My early career in the 60’s began in health and beauty journalism, though a deeper interest in spa therapies soon developed and I opened my first business, a salon in Toronto, in the 70’s, where I learnt therapy from a medical perspective through my Eastern European therapists. On my return to Europe in 1980 I managed a Thalassotherapy Resort in France and on my return to the UK I spent four years as General Manager of a destination wellness resort. I was MD of a spa company with 11,000 therapists at sea before I founded my own spa company in 1988 and launched ESPA the brand in 1993.

The spa industry back then didn’t exist in the way that we know it today, and it was my early experiences that gave me the vision of combining health and beauty, mind and body, natural and scientific. It sounds so straightforward now, but back then it was quite revolutionary!

What’s your advice for someone who wants to start a business in the wellness industry?

It’s important to have a deep knowledge of the subject, not just an interest in health and wellbeing. It needs to be a passion and you need to have a strong interest in people and what makes them tick. You need to be able to choose very good and talented staff who can work together as a team sharing their knowledge and with a true passion for making people better and living a better life.