Founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality and Author, PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow

Chip Conley is the founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, California’s largest boutique hotel company which was founded in 1987.  At the age of 26 with no industry experience, Chip created The Phoenix, taking a 1950’s seedy motel and turning it into a world-renowned “rock ‘n roll hotel” that catered to celebrities from David Bowie to Linda Ronstadt.  Building on transformational leadership practices, and an innovative design formula that enables customers to experience an “identity refreshment,” the company now consists of over 40 unique and award-winning hotels, restaurants and spas across the state with over 3,000 employees and revenues approaching $250 million.  Joie de Vivre was awarded the 2nd Best Place to Work in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008.  Chip and his company’s time-tested techniques have been featured in TIME, Fast Company, Fortune, People and the Wall Street Journal.  

In his most recent book, PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow, Jossey-Bass, 2007, Chip shares his unique prescription for success based on the iconic Hierarchy of Needs. His new theory illustrates how Employees, Customers and Investors are ultimately motivated by peak experiences—and he demonstrates how to create these for each using real-world examples from his own company and peak performers like Southwest Airlines, Apple, Whole Foods Markets, and Harley-Davidson.  Chip has delivered numerous key note presentations and leadership seminars to diverse industries from health care to high-tech to non-profit arts organizations.  He has spoken to hundreds of corporate groups from Schwab to State Farm Insurance to Google. Chip’s other books include The Rebel Rules: Daring to be Yourself in Business, Simon & Schuster, 2001 and Marketing That Matters: 10 Practices That Can Profit Your Business and Change the World, co-authored with Eric Friedenwald-Fishman, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006.

Chip has been honored with top hospitality industry awards and, in 2008, Chip was selected as one of four finalists for the 2008 “Corporate Hotelier of World” award by the prestigious Hotels magazine.  Chip is a big believer in giving back to the community and is recognized as a committed and creative philanthropist. He is the founder of San Francisco’s Annual Celebrity Pool Toss, which has raised over $3 million for inner city youth programs now thriving in the troubled neighborhood where he launched his first hotel. He is a member of the Young President’s Organization and received his BA and MBA from Stanford University. In 2007, Chip was named the Bay Area’s Most Innovative CEO by the SF Business Times, among business leaders across all industries in the Silicon Valley, San Francisco and East Bay business communities.