Caterersearch.com 100: Peter Lederer

01 July 2010

Overall ranking: 38

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Hotelier ranking: 13

Peter Lederer - Snapshot

Peter Lederer is the managing director of http://www.gleneagles.com/home.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Gleneagleshotel in Auchterarder, Perthshire. The hotel, which opened in 1924 in the style of a French château, has an international reputation for high standards and has won more than 40 awards in the past 15 years. It's an AA Top 200 hotel with five red stars and a two-Michelin-starred, four-AA-rosette restaurant run by Andrew Fairlie. Lederer is also a major player in Scottish tourism and hospitality training.

Peter Lederer - Career guide

Peter Lederer, who was born in London in 1950, was educated at City of London School followed by four-year hotel and catering management course at Hendon College, London. He lived in Canada for much of his early career, where he filled operational, administrative and senior management roles with the Four Seasons hotel group and Plaza Hotels. He was also a partner for two years in a hospitality consulting group. He joined Gleneagles as general manager in 1984 when it was owned by Peter Tyrie and was promoted to managing director in 1987.

Peter Lederer - What we think

Peter Lederer has been at the helm of Gleneagles for 26 years and helped drive the major transformation of what was a tired, uneconomic, golf-focused hotel that opened just seven months a year into a thriving all-year leisure resort with a broader client base and a two-Michelin-starred restaurant with Andrew Fairlie at the helm.

In recent years Lederer has overseen an £18m refurbishment programme that included the launch of an £8m destination spa, a Mediterranean-style restaurant, a refurbished top floor "suite product" and a "zone" created for small children and teenagers.

Today there are 232 bedrooms, including 26 suites, following the building of the Braid House extension. The investment, designed to prepare the hotel for hosting golf's Ryder Cup in 2014, appears to be working - Gleneagles was named Hotel of the Year at the AA Hospitality Awards for 2009-10.

But it is perhaps for his work in the industry at large that Lederer is best known, with a list of roles as long as a fairway at Gleneagles. He is chairman of VisitScotland; a board member of the Leading Hotels of the World and Hamilton & Inches; president of the Institute of Hospitality; a patron of the Hospitality Industry Trust Scotland; a trustee of the Springboard Educational Trust; and chairman of the One & All Foundation, which was set up in 2008 to improve diversity in the hospitality industry.

Lederer was awarded an honorary doctorate of business administration by Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, and holds a doctorate at the University of Stirling. In addition, he is a Master Innholder, a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Innholders.

In 1993 he won the Tourism Catey and in 1997 was honoured as Hotelier of the Year. In the Queen's 1994 Birthday Honours list Lederer was appointed OBE for his services to the industry. This was followed by his appointment as CBE in 2005.

Peter Lederer - Further information

Charity launched to improve diversity in hospitality >>

Gleneagles to invest £2.8m in new Mediterranean restaurant >>

Gleneagles' Lederer wins Hit lifetime achievement award >>