Founder, Island Outpost Hotels and Island Records, Jamaica
Chris Blackwell, the acclaimed hotelier and media entrepreneur who founded Island Records and introduced the world to Bob Marley and U2, recently reopened GoldenEye Hotel. Originally built for novelist Ian Fleming’s Jamaican retreat, it is now an award-winning destination.
Long before sustainability and stewardship became the bywords for responsible tourism, Mr. Blackwell’s Jamaica-based hotel portfolio, Island Outpost resorts, began setting the standard for socially and environmentally conscious travel. Composed of a portfolio of three award-winning boutique hotels and a 2,500-acre working organic farm, the Island Outpost collection has been described by Condé Nast Traveler as “a close-knit family of wildly attractive, intelligent and anarchic kids, they are utterly independent and quite impossible to separate from one another. But something they have all inherited is Blackwell’s easy charm, his amused and iconoclastic view of the world, his sense of fun and style, his instinct for beauty.”
Although Island Outpost resorts have hosted Heads of State and Grammy winners alike, Mr. Blackwell himself often shuns the limelight, preferring to work behind the scene to create lasting cultural change. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and lives with his family on a 2,500-acre organic farm called Pantrepant.