A life dedicated to working in the world of hospitality has left Olmedo Herrera with wonderful memories of many of the cities in which he has worked, but he does not hesitate to affirm that his second home, after his native Colombia, is the Dominican Republic.
by Alejandra García Vélez
Precisely in that country he is currently based and serves as general manager of the Intercontinental V Centenario Hotel, but his professional life has taken him to the United States, Venezuela, Buenos Aires, Nicaragua and Colombia.
Personal achievements and goals
According to the professional of the month, his greatest achievement during his long hotel career has been to promote the professional development of people he considers have the potential to go far.
It is in this field of leadership that he has always sought to look for new tools that help him transmit the three elements that he considers necessary to succeed within the field of hospitality: responsibility, creativity, and teamwork.
He also points out that one of his main goals is to maintain quality and transmit to his team that same objective, "when the guest arrives at the hotel I hope he will find the warmth of a personalized service and a friendly smile," says the hotelier.
As for the reality of the industry in the Dominican Republic, with his 35 years of experience and the knowledge that gives him having spent much of his professional career in this country, Olmedo says he admires the way they have positioned themselves in the tourism and rest market destinations such as Punta Cana, Samaná, Bayaibe and Juan Dolio.
However, he also points out that he sees with concern the little attention that has been paid to the promotion of Santo Domingo as a business destination. "There are a number of hotel projects that are being developed in the city and that will lower occupancy and rates when they open, because there is not enough market or the necessary infrastructure, in terms of public services and road network, to meet demand," he says.
A decision
Herrera is prepared to face the challenges that his role as manager brings, but you have to take a look at the past to know where this professional accumulated his experience.
The moment that defined Herrera's life occurred when he was just finishing his basic education; at the end of high school he was selected to be part of a program that allowed him to study abroad.
Among the careers offered in the agreement, Herrera chose Hotel and Restaurant Management despite the fact that, as he explains, at that time the industry in his native country was not so developed and the vast majority of hotels were managed by family businesses.
Despite his concerns regarding job possibilities, on his return he decided to venture into the world of hospitality and after finishing his technical studies at Daytona Beach Junior Collegue, he continued his career at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
His stay in the United States not only provided him with the knowledge and the basis to devote himself to the world of hotels, but also helped him discover one of his greatest passions: gastronomy.
The first step
After finishing his studies he decided to return to his native country, where his first job opportunity would be at the InterContinental Cali Hotel, which he entered after a very specialized training in the area of costs.
His career would later take him to the Colombian city of Medellín, where he moved to carry out training in the field of food and beverages at the InterContinental Hotel in that city; After this training, Olmedo, who was then 23 years old, was appointed Food and Beverage Assistant at El Prado InterContinental in Barranquilla, thus becoming the youngest director of that department of the Intercontinental chain with 25 years.
But this is not the only recognition achieved by Herrera, during his stay in Barranquilla he was accredited with the award for the best operation among the InterContinental Hotels in the world, recognition that he explains, confirmed that his world revolved around gastronomy and quality of service.
Similarly, since then, and in all the positions he has held, this professional of the month affirms that his main objective has been "to help the development of human potential".
After the sale of the Prado Hotel, his destiny and impetus led him to venture to travel abroad again, settling for the first time in the Dominican Republic, where he was hired as director of food and beverages by the Hotel Lowes Dominicana.
From his first approach to this Caribbean nation, he affirms that he learned to work with a new system, in addition to loving the Dominican people and integrating into their customs over time. Herrera says he would have loved to stay and live forever in that country, but because of Hurricane David in 1979, he was forced to try his luck in other destinations.
He arrived in Mexico, where, among other things, he began working for Los Hoteles Presidente and also met Elsa Galeana, a hotelier by profession who would become his wife a year after he met her and the mother of his son Olmedo Jr.
Hyatt and Sheraton were also part of his professional career in Mexico, then he would return to Medellín to work at the InterContinental Medellín, a hotel awarded in 1986 for having the best food and beverage operation in the entire chain.
Managing
Olmedo emphasizes that his main passion has always been the field of gastronomy, so, although he was presented with opportunities to direct different properties, he always preferred to stay in the food area. It was in 1988 when he ventured for the first time accepting the management of the Hotel las Lomas, located in the Colombian municipality of Rionegro, Antioquia.
Then, in 1994, he would be transferred to InterContinental Maracaibo as Operations Manager, he would also go through InterContinental Buenos Aires, in both cases as Operations Manager; to later be appointed General Manager of InterContinental Managua.
Finally, his path would take him back to the Dominican Republic, where he has been the general manager of the V Centenario Hotel in Santo Domingo for 5 and a half years. There he would be recognized by the IHG chain as the best General Manager of the Americas in 2009, he was also recognized in 2010 by Asonahores, Hotel Association of the Dominican Republic, as the manager of the year.
Further
In his personal life Olmedo Herrera claims to lead a quiet life in which he tries to learn something new every day, especially after losing his wife 8 years ago to a fulminating cancer.
He is also passionate about natural medicine, a field to which he believes he would have dedicated himself if life had not taken him so quickly through different hotels and countries; that is why last year he decided and began to study the subject. In addition, he is a lover of healthy living, marked by exercise and healthy food.
He says he would have liked to have four children, life gave him one of blood and he always felt the desire to adopt a child. Today he can say with happiness that he is the father of a two-year-old Nicaraguan girl named Maria Victoria, who is his great joy and company.
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