Brand Awareness

With a hotel collection that includes The Hoxton, 21c, Mama Shelter and Mondrian, hospitality group Ennismore is growing a diverse portfolio. CEO Sharan Pasricha explains its unique approach

- Boyd Farrow

SOME MAY THINK it odd that the CEO of the world’s most dynamic collection of hotel brands—14 in all, encompassing 100-plus properties with 140 more in the pipeline—says he is not a big hotel guy. But, like Ennismore, the “creative hospitality company” he founded in 2011, Sharan Pasricha is greater than the sum of his parts.

“I’m more of a product person,” says the 42-year-old entrepreneur, who moved to the U.K. from India at age 15. “The hotel business is a canvas to express my interest in design, architecture, culture, food and so many other things. Essentially, hotels enable me to create experiences and develop lifestyle brands.”

The first was The Hoxton, a six-year-old hotel in then up-and-coming Shoreditch in East London, which Pasricha bought in 2012 and turned into a buzzy neighborhood hangout. The exposed-brickwork-and-velvet-cushions aesthetic has been replicated in creative districts in Amsterdam, Paris, Brooklyn, Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles, Barcelona and Rome. A Berlin outpost opens this month.