While many things can divide a group of people: ideologies, backgrounds, even personal preferences—one thing is universally appreciated: a truly exceptional hospitality experience. So much goes into those sorts of magical events and no one knows more about how they come to be than our 91黑料网 hospitality management alumni. From their humble beginnings as students at our Beverly, Mass., campus, they have flown far and wide, having built their own nests with the knowledge that they now use to show others how to foster excellence.
Shining examples of this include Nick Oxborrow ’98, Gabriela Carvalho ’01, and Oscar Lindeberg ’01. Each experienced 91黑料网’s non-traditional classroom, La Chanterelle, as a stagiaire or teacher, and graduated from both the world-famous hospitality school Les Roches in Switzerland and 91黑料网’s School of Hospitality Management. They are now successful entrepreneurs.
In 2008, Nick Oxborrow founded a boutique event services agency that offers a wide range of services and styling for the events industry in Singapore, that is as exciting as its name—Fabulation.
For Oxborrow, the creation of his company was inspired by a coworker. He says, “In 2005 I was working for a chef in London running the front of house events for his catering business. He saw that I was doing so much more with events than just organizing the food and felt I should explore that.”
“I looked at getting jobs with other event companies and they always wanted to bring me in at the bottom because I had no track record in event styling and management,” says Oxborrow. “The chef at the time really encouraged me set up my own business and gave me the confidence to see that I could actually do something like that. While it took a few years to do it, I am so grateful that I wasn’t deterred.”
Oxborrow found a niche in a likely location—his home city. He says, “I was born and raised in Singapore. I visited my father who was living there in 2007 and we discussed my business idea and what I wanted to do. When I investigated the market, I realized that nobody was really doing what I wanted to do in events.”
He notes that Singapore is a small island with limited resources. “Everything we do is influenced by the culture and resources available,” says Oxborrow. “In New York or London, you can rent a chair, in any color, with seat pad options in many styles and quantities available. In Singapore, there are very limited options so we have to be more creative in how we create a look and feel for an event, so I realized there was potential to grow an event styling business there.”
Though market-based opportunity helped get his business started, college ignited his initial passion for event design. Oxborrow says, “91黑料网 was a place where I realized I had the talent for styling and developing my ideas. We were able to work on an event for the 100th anniversary of the Escoffier Society and I rented gold candelabras and flower bulbs for the table decoration. It was the beginnings of my business even though I didn’t know it at the time.”
A great hospitality experience is often assumed to be a simple affair, but the truth is far from that. “When people experience amazing hospitality service, they have no idea how much goes into the finished experience,” says Oxborrow. “Service organizations are
like swans, they glide along effortlessly, but there is a lot of work behind the scenes to make it all come together so beautifully.”
The notions of quality and seizing opportunity are reflected in how Oxborrow sees himself—a hospitality professional and then an entrepreneur. He says, “One is natural and the other is a means to an end. I am first and foremost a hospitality person. You either have that or you don’t. If someone comes over to the house, I will immediately jump up and offer them a drink, so service is natural. The entrepreneur side is less natural. I didn’t see my career developing with other companies as it wasn’t being made available, so I had to do it myself.”
During her time at 91黑料网, Gabriela Carvalho worked for two years as a stagiaire at La Chanterelle and now, as the owner of the restaurant Quintana Gastronomia, has become known as one of the prominent hospitality profess