Sir Rocco Giovanni Forte (born 18 January 1945) is an English hotelier and the chairman of

Rocco Forte Hotels Rocco Forte Hotels is a British hotel group that was established in 1996 by hotelier Sir Rocco Forte and his sister, Olga Polizzi. Their 14 hotels are located in European cities, as well as beach resorts in Sicily and Apulia. Sir Rocco Forte is ...

Early life

Born in

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the English ...

, the son of Charles Forte, Baron Forte, and his wife Irene, he was educated at St Peter's Catholic School, Southbourne (at the time an independent and fee-paying Roman Catholic grammar school) and

Downside School Downside School is a co-educational Catholic independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition for pupils aged 11 to 18. It is located between Bath, Frome, Wells and Bruton, and is attached to Downside Abbey. Original ...

. He read modern languages at

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named aft ...

, where he won a

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

for fencing. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1969, later becoming a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1979.

Career

Forte took over from his father as CEO of the Forte Group in 1992. In the mid-1990s, the Forte Group was faced with a hostile takeover bid from Gerry Robinson's

Granada Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...

. Ultimately, Granada succeeded with a £3.87 billion tender offer in August 1995 that left the family with around £350 million in cash. In 2001, following the de-merger of Compass Group from Granada's media interests, the use of the Forte trademark was returned to Forte in a gesture intended to dispel the bitter legacy of the takeover. After the takeover, Forte set up his own chain of hotels in 1996, initially known as RF Hotels and re-branded as The Rocco Forte Collection after the return of the Forte brand name. He bought the

Balmoral Hotel The Balmoral Hotel, originally built as the North British (Railway Station) Hotel, is a luxury hotel and landmark in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located in the heart of the city at the east end of Princes Street, the main shopping street beneath ...

in Edinburgh and Brown's Hotel in London for £51.5m. As of April 2013, The Rocco Forte Collection operates eleven hotels in Europe, Russia, northern Africa and the Middle East. Forte's family wealth in 2013 was listed as £250,000,000.

Honours and awards

Forte was appointed a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are t ...

in the 1995 New Year Honours list for services to the UK tourism industry. In March 2005, he received the highest Italian accolade, the ''Gran Croce dell'

Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic ( it, Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana) is the senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking ...

'', for his entrepreneurial merits and strong links with Italy. He was President of the British Hospitality Association from 1991 to 1996. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the World Travel & Tourism Council and chaired the appeals to send the English teams to the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 British Empire Game ...

for many years.

Philanthropy

Forte funded a series of lectures at

Westminster Cathedral Westminster Cathedral is the mother church of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It is the largest Catholic church in the UK and the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster. The site on which the cathedral stands in the City o ...

in April 2008 organised by Cardinal Archbishop

Cormac Murphy-O'Connor Cormac Murphy-O'Connor (24 August 1932 – 1 September 2017) was a British cardinal, the Archbishop of Westminster and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. He was made cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001. He ...

. In 1992, Forte and Martin Landau opened a City Technology College in Derby named Landau Forte College. In 2006, they changed to an academy. In 2010, they took a Tamworth High School (Woodhouse Business & Enterprise College) and turned it into Landau Forte Academy Tamworth, but in 2011, when they opened Landau Forte Academy QEMS in Tamworth, they changed their name to Landau Forte Academy Amington. There has since been a

Sixth Form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

centre open next to Landau Forte Academy QEMS named

Landau Forte Academy Tamworth Sixth Form Landau Forte Academy Tamworth Sixth Form is a Sixth form centre and academy situated in Tamworth, Staffordshire, England. History The Sixth form was founded in November 2011 and was converted to an academy on 1 August 2013 by the Landau Forte C ...

Political activity

Forte paid for a victory party for

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

in one of his hotels upon his winning the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election. He donated £100,000 to the Conservative Party during the 2019 general election.

Family

On 15 February 1986, in the Aracoeli church of Rome, he married Aliai Giovanna Maria Ricci, a twenty-one-year-old Italian (b. 1965). She is the daughter of a Roman neurologist, professor Giovanni Ricci. They have three children together: Lydia Irene (b. 1987), Irene Alisea (b. 1988) and Charles Giovanni (b. 1991). Other notable Forte family members include his sister Olga Polizzi and her daughter Alex Polizzi, a hotelier and the presenter of Channel 5's '' The Hotel Inspector''.

References

External links

Rocco Forte Collection

"Rocco Forte Revealed"
CNN
Interview with Sir Rocco Forte
Hotel Management International {{DEFAULTSORT:Forte, Rocco 1945 births Living people English Roman Catholics Businesspeople from Bournemouth British hoteliers Knights Bachelor Businesspeople awarded knighthoods English people of Italian descent English people of Scottish descent People educated at Downside School Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Place of birth missing (living people) People named in the Panama Papers British Eurosceptics Conservative Party (UK) donors People educated at St Peter's Catholic School, Bournemouth Forte family Sons of life peers