Paul J. Fiala
Chief Operating Officer
Paul has more than 25 years of food and beverage leadership experience and is recognized in the hospitality industry as an innovative, creative thinker who knows how to get things done. Most recently, Paul led food and beverage for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. During his tenure, he introduced
over 20 new restaurant and bar concepts including Jean-Georges Philadelphia, Marcus in
Montreal, Milos in Cabos, Mina’s Fish House in Oahu, Zuma in Boston and multiple local chefs partnerships including Greg Vernick, Gavin Keyson, Alon Shaya, Gerard Craft, Eric Anderson, and Jonathan Sawyer.
Leading operations, strategy, and finances for 250 restaurant and bar outlets in 50 hotels across Canada, United States, Mexico, South and Central America, and the Caribbean for this international luxury hotel company with direct oversight of $900M in annual food and beverage revenue. Paul had oversight of 50 Directors of Food and Beverage.
Prior to his tenure at Four Seasons, Paul led food and beverage for Starwood’s full-service hotels, developing restaurant and bar concepts and chef collaboration partnerships for St. Regis, W, Sheraton, Westin and Le Meridien brands. During his tenure at Starwood, he was hand picked to lead the company’s franchise food and beverage division.
Paul’s extensive development and renovation experience allowed him to work with some of the most exclusive restaurant and bar designers in the world such as Avroko, TAL, Meyer Davis, Zebulon, Martin Brudnizki, Alexander Waterworth and EDG.
Paul is also a hands-on operator where he was Chief Operating Officer for Big Red Hospitality, a group of 11 restaurants and two boutique hotels. He led the group through the challenging 2008 economic downturn with a focus on driving results through creating operational efficiencies while growing same store sales.
Paul was a founding member of Four Seasons Restaurant and Bar Council; Starwood’s Food and Beverage Council as well as Starwood’s Franchise F&B council. He has extensive experience sourcing restaurant partners and negotiating deals.
Paul earned his Master’s degree in hospitality from Cornell University. He resides in Westport, CT with his wife Katie and his three sons, Jack, Alex and Harry.