Aspire’s David Collyer: my curry catastrophe at the Cinnamon Club

Square Mile and Me: We dig into the memory bank of the City’s great and good. Today, David Collyer, global senior vice president at Aspire, on being a Ferrari fan and a curry catastrophe What was your first job? A paper round – I used to dread Sundays because of the broadsheets but it’s where I developed my love for newspapers and magazines – I think I was the only 12-year-old that read The Financial Times!

What was your first role in the City? Creative strategy at WPP in the luxury travel team. I spent 10 years in the City and only left when I was invited to join InterContinental Hotels & Resorts (IHG), which had been a WPP client.

When did you know you wanted to build a career in hospitality? In my early career at WPP in London, I worked with a lot of global luxury brands and airlines, including British Airways, Virgin, IHG, and Accor, to name a few. That’s where the passion for hospitality began.

At IHG my role became more strategic, giving me a grounding in guest experience strategy: how experience drives preference, preference drives profit, and profit drives reinvestment and expansion. I bottled this thinking into what I call ‘The Preference Wheel’. Since leaving IHG, I have been guiding premium and luxury brands across sectors to use ‘The Preference Wheel’ methodology to grow revenue and value, and it’s led me my role at Aspire, where the vision is to translate the 4* and 5* hotel guest experience into an exceptional pre-flight hospitality experience.

What’s one thing you love about the City of London? It’s easy to forget London is the best city in the world. I travel extensively, week in week out, and every time I come back, I marvel at its grandeur.

London is very special to me – there’s nowhere on earth like it! And one thing you would change? London probably has the best museums in the world – I think they should all be free to visit, increasing accessibility, a sense of pride, knowledge and culture of our nation.

What’s been your most memorable meeting?