As chief operating officer for Benchmark’s Personal Luxury Resorts & Hotels, James Simkins is charged with the development and operations of this newly launched collection of extraordinary personal luxury hotels. Previously a senior partner and the CEO of MTM Luxury Lodging, which Benchmark purchased in 2011, James was responsible for the overall leadership of MTM’s business with a particular emphasis, and love for, the art and science of designing, building and operating outstanding hotels. He was the primary influence in successful development of The Willows, Alderbrook Resort, Hotel 1000, The Ivy, The Liberty and Bardessono, some of MTM’s most unique properties.

Prior to joining his friend Jim Treadway at MTM in 2000, James had a distinguished international career with Westin Hotels & Resorts, beginning at The Carlton Hotel in Johannesburg from 1972 to 1986. Following this assignment James earned executive leadership positions at The Kowloon Shangri-la (operated by Westin) in Hong Kong and The Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles. In 1993, James’ success with these challenging assignments was recognized with a promotion to vice president, operations of Westin Asia Pacific, where he led the development (and served as managing director) of two of Westin most significant gems in Asia-the $620 million Westin Tokyo and the adaptive re-use project that became The Westin Sydney.

James graduated with a business degree from the University of South Africa and attended the University of Witwatersrand, also in South Africa, where he studied Civil Engineering. Simkins earned the AH&LA Institute Diploma and has lectured in Engineering for Hospitality Management for that organization. In all locations, he has assumed a leadership role within the industry and was acknowledged by Leaders Magazine as one of the world’s top hotel managers.