Bob Lee originally harboured the desire to be a
professional jockey; however, after that horse bolted, he became a
self-made and very successful hospitality professional.
His story begins in the UK, being born in Plymouth to
an English naval father and a South African mother, a woman that his
father met and married during his sea voyages. The eldest of four
children, Bob went to school in Cheshire in the UK until he was 12 years
old, when the family emigrated to South Africa. After leaving the sea, his
father became a hotelier, and Bob became used to a lifestyle of hotel
rooms and moving around the country. “I was a hotel brat.”
Not
being a very tall boy, he set his heart on becoming a jockey. Every
morning he could be found at the racetrack, but when he turned 15 he was
not accepted into the jockey’s academy as they felt he would grow too
tall. “It was a real knock.”
Finishing his schooling in Durban he was still
undecided on his career. In fact, Bob said, “I didn’t have a clue, but
as accounting was my favourite subject in school I decided to join a bank.
I hated every minute of it!” The young man found the life too slow, too
much of a routine and too formal.
At the end of the boring year as a junior banker he won
a bursary to go to Teachers College in Kwa-Zulu, Natal. However it was
during this time that he started bartending as a part time job in a local
beachfront resort. “I found that this was what I wanted to do, so I
moved full time into the hospitality industry.”
He was successful as a bartender and managed to
successfully catch the eye of the girl next door, Elmarie. Still married
24 years later, Bob said, “We’re still on our honeymoon,” and
that’s despite having two children (grown up and left home).
In those early days in South Africa, Bob found that
bartending was not thought of as a profession, but this was something he
intended to correct. He studied and he moved around South Africa taking
his portable skills and his cocktail shakers with him. This brought him
interesting appointments in places such as Kruger National Park, but still
he pushed on, elevating bartending all the time, until he was chosen to
represent South Africa in international bartending competitions. By the
time he had written a book on the art of Mixology he had become a
celebrity in South Africa and had also elevated bartending to be thought
of as a career.
However, Bob Lee was not one to be stuck behind the bar
for the rest of his life. He was offered the position as food and beverage
manager for a group of hotels in the Kingdom of Lesotho. Similar to his
rise through the bartending ranks, he was made general manager within two
years and director of operations for the entire group within three years.
He dismissed this growth with a modest, “I’m a positive person - that
helped me rise.”
With a need to keep moving, most probably inherited
from a seafaring father, Bob moved around South Africa, taking various
postings as general manager in a number of hotels. He continued to enjoy
the lifestyle, “Not one day is routine” (as opposed to the bank job he
hated).
However, as his family responsibilities grew with his
two boys, he decided to take a job with more “regular” hours than the
GM postings, and took on sales and marketing for Royal Cruise Lines.
“This gave me some home life and the ability to see hospitality from
another viewpoint.”
His next appointment was as recreational manager for
the Rand Mines Group. This was to give him the experience of running clubs
and in keeping the interest of the members. “We ran theme nights, fun
nights and other events to keep them happy and keep coming back.” He was
successful and was promoted to becoming operation manager for the group.
The next step was to join a hotels group as operations
director to re-launch the hotels they were taking over in South Africa,
but three years ago he felt he needed a change, and that change was
Thailand.
Bob and Elmarie had been here on holidays nine times
previously, the first time being by accident. “We had tickets to
Australia but they cancelled the flight and since we’d seen Europe and
America, we came here.” Life in Thailand appealed. “Instead of the
Now! Now! Now! of the hotel business, life was much more relaxed. I joined
clubs so that I could give them the time I was always to busy to give
before.” To that end, Bob has been a tireless worker for such groups as
Skal (the international tourism group), the Chaine des Rotisseurs and the
UK Club. He also gave the O-La-La group some marketing assistance in their
re-launch in Pattaya. However, according to Bob, “The holiday is over.
It’s time to get back to work. It’s time to get involved again.”
Success to Bob Lee is a personal thing. “Anything is
possible if you have the right attitude. There’s never a problem, only a
solution.” His advice is to youth is interesting, “Don’t jump into
the first thing your parents say. Spend three years in gaining life’s
experiences first. It will never be a ‘waste’. Even my years with the
bank and the teachers college were not wasted.”
Bob believes the learning process is life-long.
“I’ve learned a lot after living here for two years, but the
experience will make management more easy. Being from the old school and
having worked my way up through the ranks I can relate to the problems
being experienced by junior staff.”
Bob Lee, the self made hospitality professional, is
ready for work again!
