Chip Conley
Author and Joie de Vivre Founder
No hotel executive in the world has overseen the development and creation of more boutique hotels than Chip Conley, founder of Joie de Vivre, California's largest independent hotel company and America's second largest boutique hotelier. At the age of 26 with no industry experience, Chip transformed a seedy 1950's "no-tell motel" into the world-renowned Phoenix Hotel, a legendary rock 'n roll hotel that catered to the likes of David Bowie, Linda Ronstadt and Nirvana. Inspired by the French expression for "joy of life," Chip created Joie de Vivre with the intention of developing what USA Today called "the most delightfully schizophrenic collection of hotels in America." Building on an innovative design formula that inspires guests to experience an "identity refreshment" during their visit, today Joie de Vivre consists of over 40 unique and award-winning hotels, restaurants and spas across the state, over 3,000 employees, and annual revenues approaching $250 million. In a feature article on the growing proliferation of boutique hotels in the U.S., TIME magazine suggested that "few boutique hotels are as genuine as those run by Joie de Vivre." Chip and his company's time-tested techniques and transformational leadership practices have been featured in Fast Company, Fortune, and the Wall Street Journal.
Also a best-selling author, Chip shares his unique prescription for success in, PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow. Based on noted psychologist Abraham Maslow's iconic Hierarchy of Needs theory, PEAK illustrates how a business's three key stakeholders - Employees, Customers and Investors - are ultimately motivated by peak experiences that address their higher, unspoken needs, and he demonstrates how to create such experiences using real-world examples from his own company and other peak-performing organizations. Chip credits this theory for helping Joie de Vivre triple its annual revenues between 2001 and 2008. PEAK is now being taught in business schools and in hospitality management programs around the country. Chip's latest book is the New York Times bestseller, EMOTIONAL EQUATIONS: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success. A leading practitioner of emotional intelligence in the workplace, Chip takes us from emotional intelligence to emotional fluency in this book that Zappos' CEO Tony Hsieh calls, "An invaluable operating manual for life."
A popular speaker and innovative leader, Chip is regularly consulted by corporate, civic and academic institutions for his opinions, guidance and wisdom on building and maintaining a successful and transformative enterprise - involving areas such as organizational leadership, creative business development, corporate social responsibility, and creating unique culture. Chip has delivered keynote presentations and leadership seminars to hundreds of corporate audiences from Google to Merrill Lynch to Banana Republic. He was invited to collaborate with Whole Foods Market founder John Mackey to organize his annual Conscious Capitalism Conference and he spoke at TED2010, one of the world's most exclusive annual gatherings of thought leaders. Chip's previous books include The Rebel Rules: Daring to be Yourself in Business (with a foreword by Sir Richard Branson) and Marketing That Matters: 10 Practices to Profit Your Business and Change the World, co-authored with Eric Friedenwald-Fishman.
Chip has been honored with the top awards in hospitality including the 2012 Pioneer Award, the highest accolade in the industry. The San Francisco Business Times named him the Most Innovative CEO among business leaders across all industries - and Joie de Vivre the 2nd Best Place to Work - in the entire San Francisco/Silicon Valley region.
Chip is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization, the Global Business Network and the Social Venture Network. He was a board member of San Francisco's Glide Church for a decade and he founded the city's annual Celebrity Pool Toss, which has raised millions for inner city youth programs that now thrive in the troubled neighborhood where he launched his first hotel. He is an active board member for the Esalen Institute, Burning Man, and Youth Speaks and he is the founder/producer of ArtPadSF. Chip received his BA and MBA from Stanford University, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Psychology from Saybrook University where he is the 2012 Scholar-Practitioner in residence.
