CEO (FREEDOM GROUP MANAGEMENT)

In its two years of existence, Freedom Group Management has succeeded in acquiring and managing two of the most representative resorts on Grace Bay; The Royal West Indies Resort and The Regent Grand.


What is the history behind the creation of the group?

My history is one of many similar hard-working immigrant families. I was born in Cyprus and my family was part of the first wave of immigrants to emigrate to London (where I was brought up and educated) in the sixties,. After qualifying and working as an accountant, I realized that it was going to be a dull lifestyle for me, I had the determination to look for more excitement in my chosen profession. This was the beginning of my involvement in the hotel industry, a career that would take me from London to Cairo to Dubai in the eighties and back to London for a year and then on to Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire, St. Lucia, Antigua, Barbados and St. Kitts.

Arriving back in Cyprus in 1995 after the Caribbean experience, I first established myself as CFO of a large development company that was involved in developing hotels, villas and condominiums. I then went on to develop a chain of small hotels and restaurants. After 2004 when Cyprus joined the EC, there was some euphoria as most Cypriots believed the EC would take Cyprus under its wing and help with the reunification of the island, this didn’t materialize and the political situation was not comfortable after the referendum in 2004. Foreseeing the economic crisis that was going to hit the country, I decided to leave the island for more prosperous shores and I ended up in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

I was contacted by the developer of the Third Turtle Club in Turtle Cove and offered a wonderful position to be the Finance Director and take part in the project, unfortunately I arrived in June 2008 and the financial world fell apart in October 2008. This damaged the economy of Turks and Caicos very seriously and caused many development projects to fall into the hands of receivers.

I was lucky enough to meet an established developer and spent the next 6 years as CFO for the group. Once the economic crisis was over, my partner Jim Nappo and I decided to create Freedom Group Management to manage condo resorts in an innovative way; he knew the condo resort business from the owners side and I had the expertise from the operational and financial aspect.


Turks and Caicos Islands are growing rapidly as a high-end tourist destination, a model that offers many business opportunities for investors and owners. The predominant model in the islands is the condominium model, the niche market where Freedom Group Management operates. How does this industry work?

The condo model is basically an innovative way of financing a development project. The developer builds resort facilities and apartments, the apartments are sold to private buyers instead of selling shares in the business. In parallel, a rental and maintenance agreement is signed with the management company. It is usually the developer who either sells the whole complex to a management company or sets up this sort of company itself.

As Freedom Group Management, we have purchased two resort management companies; the Royal West Indies in 2015 and the Regent Grand in 2016, where the majority of the units belong to private investors and we operate the various facilities and own some units also. At the Royal West Indies, we manage 107 out of 115 units making a handsome return for our owner partners by renting their properties as a professionally run resort operation (this includes all the normal resort services: reservations, reception, sales and marketing, maintenance, payroll and accounting).

This type of investment is a lifestyle investment that improves the lives of many of the buyers. The owners make an income every year that is higher than deposits in the bank, and they can enjoy their investment. Therefore, most of the owners keep it as a long term investment.

We try to make sure that they understand that their profits are supplemented by their use of the accommodation while on vacation in their unit.


In both properties; The Royal West Indies and The Regent Grand, the units belong to private owners that have acquired the property and trust you to manage it in terms of renting and maintenance, which makes them stakeholders of the business. What does make the owners confident in your company’s services?

We are a relatively new company in Turks and Caicos, but we took the opportunity to buy the first resort because the previous owner was having challenging times dealing with the owners of the condos plus the fact that our due diligence reflected the fact that even during tough economic cycles the resort still made a reasonable EBITDA. We have been able to run the resorts as a successful operation by being transparent with our partner owners and offering a full professional resort service. We have relationships with various OTA’s and we manage a sales and marketing machine that produces results. Our owners are satisfied that their assets are operated by a management team with over 120 years of experience in the hospitality business.

Stability is one of our main guidelines. As an example, we identified the Royal West Indies as a medium-sized and medium market complex, at a price point that allows the resort to stay stable even when the island economy is hit and business decreases. My partner and I completed the due diligence thoroughly to review the last ten years of income and occupancy before purchasing the resort.

Our philosophy is to be as transparent as possible to the owners. We want them to believe that when they purchase from Freedom Group or when their properties are managed by us, they are working with the most transparent management group on the island.


You are also experts in turning around companies boosting the outcome of the resorts that you operate. What is your secret to do so?

First at all experience. There are a lot of management companies that are not experts in the operations that they carry out. Most management companies have metamorphized from development companies because they had to, as there weren’t many “white label” US resort managers coming to the Caribbean. They attempt to manage and fail badly due to a lack of qualification. There are a number of resorts on island that have fallen into that category.

I have been in this business for over thirty-five years and, together with my management team at The Royal West Indies and The Regent Grand, we have over 120 years of management experience.

We are able to give the next level of administration and mangement. The “mum and pop” developers have mostly walked or run away.

We identify properties that need our management skills and expertise, preferably those that are not working so well, so we can turn them around. As an example, in both our resorts we have taken on some upset owners and turned the business around and made them happy.

The owners are people that mostly live abroad so they really need to trust the company that administrates their properties.

That is what we do, we make profits for our owners partners and allow them to relax enjoy their properties when they are on island.


In a previous interview with the Minister of Tourism, Hon. Ralph Higgins, he described the lack infrastructure in terms of hotel rooms in Turks and Caicos to keep growing as a luxury destination. Are you taking into consideration any sort of expansion?

In our first two years of existence we have acquired two resorts, and our goal is to achieve five resorts over the next five years.

We have a diversified expansionist agenda. At one of our resorts we did not buy only the property, but also an acre of available land where we are hoping to develop a small resort in the next few years. We have within the group, the expertise to create and develop this new product. We purchased this resort for three reasons: it had room for growth and expansion. Providenciales has a future and it is a developable complex with a good cash flow and lots of room for improvement.


The two resorts that you manage in Grace Bay are orientated to different profiles of visitors. Keeping in mind the goal of running five resorts in five years, what is the connection or the common point between all your resorts?

The connection between all of them is freedom and transparency for our owners.

The Royal West Indies and the Regent Grand are indeed orientated to different type of visitors and we strive to give a wonderful level of satisfaction at both resorts. Our on line questionnaire system, continuously gives us returns of over 90% and as soon as we get anything in the 80’s we correspond to find out why. This sort of initiatives guarantee that we keep improving our standards.


You have an extensive experience in the hotel business; since you started your career at the Royal Garden Hotel and Trust House Forte in London. You have run resorts all around the world and set up your own business related to the hospitality industry. In addition, you are currently a consultant at MGM Consultancy. What do you feel most proud of in your career?

My hotel background is my biggest achievement; I have been successful in all the countries and islands where I have lived and worked. In Saint Lucia, we turned a loss making hotel into a family all-inclusive resort and brand and the business boomed. When we moved the brand to Antigua, Saint Kitts and Barbados we found the niche market  all-inclusive market to be very hungry for the product we had to offer and our businesses expanded tremendously.

Eventually I decided to leave before it grew too big. The group grew too quickly and became heavily leveraged which was not the direction I felt the company should go. It is a lesson that I have learned many times in my career: if you are very highly leveraged in the hotel business, you are not going to succeed especially when you have some bad years and your cash flow can disappear.


Harvard Business Review readers include the most influential business leaders and top decision makers around the world. As a conclusion to the interview, what is the final message that you would like to transmit to them?

The TCI is an exciting place for business people. If you are a boring run of the mill investor then the Caribbean is not for you; this is the place for those who want a little bit of excitement and risk. It is what makes business special in this place, we are not ordinary people, we are different from the average businessman and we like to take a little bit more risk than the average person.

If you are that special person, with the great weather and beautiful turquoise sea then this is definitely the place for you to be!