Bill Spencer has been on the job as the new general manager of the Little Rock Marriott less than 24 hours and he's already working late. The 20-year hotel management veteran started Tuesday, replacing Bill Fontes, who died last month after a brief illness.
Spencer, 62, comes to Little Rock from the Memphis Hilton, where he spent almost four years. Under his tenure, The Commercial Appeal in Memphis named the Memphis Hilton "The Best Place to Work" two consecutive years.
"That just tells you the kind of operator he is," said Patrick Lupsha, chief operating officer for Atlanta-based Davidson Hotels & Resorts, a hotel management company with 46 upscale, full-service independent and branded hotels including the 418-room Little Rock Marriott.
"The way he manages, the way he gets involved in the community, made him the ideal candidate for that job," he said. The Little Rock Marriott, considered to be the city's flagship hotel because it is connected to the Statehouse Convention Center downtown, is owned by Fairwood Capital LLC of Memphis. The hotel underwent a $16 million renovation last year.
Lupsha said Davidson had an interim general manager through the busy Christmas season while the company looked for Fontes' replacement. He said they found Spencer to be a perfect fit.
"We just felt that his personality and knowing the mid-South made him an ideal candidate for the Marriott in Little Rock," Lupsha said.
Spencer started with Davidson in 1994 at the Charlotte (N.C.) Hilton and was there for four years. He left the company, came back at the Raleigh Hilton in 2002 and has been with Davidson ever since. He was named general manager of the year for Davidson in 2006. Out of some 250 Hilton hotels, the one Spencer managed in Raleigh remained No. 5 in customer satisfaction for that entire year, Lupsha said.
For The Commercial Appeal's top workplace honors, Spencer said businesses were nominated and then employees were interviewed, with a minimum of 30 percent of workers participating. Among his competition were St. Jude's Hospital and FedEx. He attributes the Memphis Hilton's success to having a good culture and team.
"There's a sense of that going on here," Spencer said of the Little Rock hotel.
Spencer and Fontes were friends, having worked large properties in such close proximity to each other. He described Fontes as "one of the classic [general managers] within our company."
"He built a legacy that we can all be proud of," he added. "We'll take the torch and keep going."
He described his general manager job as "head cheerleader," keeping the managers under him motivated. He has a red, oversized alarm clock on a bookshelf in his office that he takes to staff meetings to make sure they don't run over on time.
Spencer started in the hospitality industry through the food and beverage business, working banquets to put himself through school.
He said he and his wife, Jan, are planning to move to Little Rock from their home in Collierville, Tenn.
"It's an easy transition to make," Spencer said.
Business on 01/22/2015