Beyond business

I am…

Name: Raki Phillips

Age: 31

Nationality: American

Job: Area Director of Sales & Marketing, Middle East, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts

With celebrity tents in Egypt and rubbing shoulders with Elissa, your job sounds like great fun. It's a blast! I love it. I oversee the sales and marketing efforts of up to 12 properties in the region, some under varying degrees of development from the well-established Fairmont Dubai and the soon to open Fairmont Bab Al Bahr to the Makkah Clock Royal Tower that will open next year. The Meshmeshya tent you're talking about is at the Fairmont Heliopolis in Cairo; it has a capacity of 600, and we've attracted all these celebrity singers, including Mohamed Hamaky. Egypt really is the place to be during Ramadan.

And is the Fairmont Egypt offering packages during Eid? Culturally, Egypt just comes alive at this time. Yes, we have an Eid package – if you book three nights at the Fairmont Towers Heliopolis or at Fairmont Towers Cairo, your fourth is complimentary.

You were a sandwich artist at Subways, weren't you? What other cool jobs have you had? That's what they called us, yes. I started as an intern at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, and worked my way up over eight years – at the end I was in sales and marketing, running a division bringing in $80 million a year.

And now you're in hotels. So what do you do to relax? I'm an adrenaline junkie. I decided to stop drinking coffee while I was at Universal, so I'd ride roller coasters in my lunch break. When I moved here, I discovered I love the desert and quad biking.

You're a skydiver too, aren't you? Yes, we did that for a friend's bachelor party and I absolutely loved it! Talk about a way to release energy! The scariest part, though, is the flight up – once you've got your feet dangling off the plane, it's exhilarating!


I'm watching...

The Hangover I watch-ed it on vacation in Miami; it was the one movie I watched from start to finish without a bathroom break! It's hilarious; a simple concept well executed.


I'm listening to…

1. Sunday Morning by Maroon 5

2. Mrs Officer by Lil Wayne

3. I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas

4. Accidentally in Love by Counting Crows

5. Don't Get Me Down by The Walkmen


I'm reading…

MEATBALL SUNDAE This book by Seth Godin is all about marketing and how it has changed. It also looks at social media; why it's so big and how you can leverage it.

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