Cameron Leslie
BA(hons) International Hospitality Management, 1995
"After moving round the World a few times with my parents from a very young age and being utterly fascinated by Hotels and the experience of staying in them I was always destined to pick hospitality as my career path. Aged 15 I started working at weekends and in the holidays in a large, busy leisure Hotel in Kent; it was a natural progression that I follow this line once I came to picking my University.
I narrowed down my options to 3 possible Universities, primarily I focussed my short list on the course criteria – I particularly wanted to chose a degree with an international bias, one that allowed me to work abroad during my 3rd year, had good contacts with establishments offering credible placements, was solid on theory as well as practical and was going to give me what I needed socially.
Even during the Open Day at Brighton/Eastbourne, (the first of my short list) I knew this was the place for me. The students taking us round were enthusiastic about every facet of life there and given that everything else I saw ticked all the boxes I knew University of Brighton, School of Service Sector Management was the one.
I know there is a well known phrase that school is the best years of one’s life well I can say quite categorically that the University years were mine – I knew it was going to be hard leaving even during my first Freshers Week. I particularly remember the 2 week induction program; the objective of which was to integrate us into work groups and bond us to our course peers as possibly one of the most beneficial elements of the entire 4 years and looking back possibly one of the most pivotal points in my life. Being grouped together with people I wouldn’t personally have chosen forced me to learn to work in unison with different characters in order to achieve a group goal – a valuable lesson in life – these people are some of my best friends to this day. I use this same principle today getting my Operational division to work well with my Promotions department, the Technical team with the Finance department.
I found the course stimulating while I was there, my 3rd year placement at the luxury 5 star Hotel Conrad (Hilton) Brussels proved a very worthwhile experience but it wasn’t until I was thrust into the many varied situations of working life later on that I realised the full benefit that the broad syllabus of the course offers. A number of times over the past 10 years I have cursed myself for not paying attention during certain modules because I naively assumed that particular one did not matter to me.
On leaving the University I worked at what felt like every possible summer hospitality event, then briefly started my own business with a friend, designing bespoke wine labels for special events and occasions – it was fairly unique and went ok, we didn’t lose money but I realised self-employment wasn’t for me just yet. I went to work for the Hilton group again and then back to the Hotel I had worked at since I was 15 and become Front of House Manager, then Deputy General Manager. At this point I was asked to join Deloitte & Touche in the specialist Hospitality and Leisure Consulting arm. They needed a young hospitality graduate with solid operational experience that they could hone with the in-depth financial and corporate knowledge they are more traditionally famous for. I loved this job and I matured dramatically in a very short period of time, learning about the critical success factors of starting, operating and developing decent sized businesses.
I had no desire to leave Deloitte’s however life can deal you some surprising hands when you least expect it and its just a question as to whether you take them or not. In 1998 I met my business partner and to cut a long story short I decided to leave my very stable ‘career’ with good opportunities to work on an underground building site in Smithfield, London on a project that was driven by a great deal of faith and an unbelievable amount of debt and risk. Our project became Fabric nightclub and we opened in October 1999.
I guess looking back from our seventh year, I am pleased where we are and proud to be the Managing Director. We have 6 businesses within the group, a Club, a record label, a music publishing business, recording studios, a taxi and security business. The group turns over close to £8.5 million and we have around 110 employees. We own and control our own business and rely on no-one, in my opinion that’s a privilege. The main business has traded fantastically well since day 1, welcoming over 2 million people since. It hasn’t of course been without its significant stress and desperate heartaches but I guess those are the times few people see and I suppose they’re also the bits that ultimately define you.
I absolutely know I wouldn’t be where I am now were it not for my time at Eastbourne – I keep in touch with a number of lecturers personally and the School as a whole. I’m deeply proud to have gone there and when I look around at the friends I met there, the one’s I still hold as my dearest, every one of them has achieved in their own chosen field. The course is broad, it breads interesting and versatile characters adapt at working and enjoying the ‘real’ world!"
