Joshua Anwar
Director, Front Office, The St. Regis Toronto
Hailing from England, Josh Anwar took a leap of faith at 18 and moved to Banff, Alta. by himself to work as a room attendant. From there, he continued to build his housekeeping experience at the Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire in England before moving back to Canada to join the Fairmont Chateau Whistler Resort in B.C.
Eventually, Anwar joined Fairmont St. Andrews as a room attendant and was quickly promoted to Housekeeping supervisor. Two years later, at the age of 23, he became the executive Housekeeping manager, with a total of 60 employees in the department. In the first six months of his new role, Anwar promoted two room attendants to supervisors and a night supervisor to assistant manager. In the first year, Fairmont St. Andrews achieved the highest employee-engagement survey and guest-satisfaction scores the hotel had ever seen.
With this experience, he became the director of Butler Service at the St. Regis Toronto, the first hotel in the country with a dedicated butler team. Then, he advanced to the role of director of Front Office and promoted two front-desk agents to managers and achieved a 20-per-cent year-over-year increase in employee engagement along with improved guest satisfaction and doubled upsells in his first year.
Anwar is excited to continue taking leaps of faith while simultaneously paying it forward to future generations of hoteliers by creating opportunities for growth and fostering a happy work environment.
