A Ripple Autumn 2023 article

[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]In 2013, the Rabie Property Group commenced with the planning of a world class conference facility as well as additional hotel rooms at Century City. To spearhead this development, we elected to engage with two hospitality professionals rather than appoint a hotel management company to perform this role.

As a result, the services of Gary Koetser and Glyn Taylor to form part of the design team, giving guidance to all aspects of the hospitality offering.  During the construction phase Gary and Glyn organically evolved into the role of Joint CEOs of the Century City Conference Centre and Hotels.  In 2016 Rabie launched our hospitality portfolio to the market. The centre immediately drew both local as well as international interest and the Bridgewater Precinct began to thrive.

The past 7 years has seen the Conference Centre and Hotels weather economic and political struggles, droughts and of course a pandemic, but given the strong business relationships that Gary and Glyn had established coupled with our world class offering, they managed to remain resilient and bounced back far quicker than anticipated.

Shortly after opening the Conference Centre and Hotel, we commenced with planning of the Oasis Life retirement brand. The thought process around these developments would be to identify perfect locations in Cape Town and its surrounds and develop these sites into modern retirement estates for the new-age retiree. For our estates to be different to any other retirement estate, we decided to place a strong emphasis on the hospitality offering and once again engaged with Gary and Glyn to assist us with the designs of the clubhouses and common areas. Once developed, it made sense to include the day-to-day management of these estates in Gary and Glyn’s portfolio, which has proved to be successful to date.

Given the accelerated growth of the Oasis Life brand, the business now requires a leader who will not only be an integral part of the design team during the preconstruction phase, but will also take control of all facets relating to the business post development and has been tasked to grow Oasis Life into the leading retirement brand in South Africa.

We are therefore proud to announce that Glyn Taylor will commence his role as Oasis Life CEO from 1 April 2023 on a fulltime basis. He will leave his current role as Joint CEO of Century City Conference and Hotels and Gary will step into the role as CEO of Century City Conference Centre and Hotels.

About Glyn

Glyn’s résumé boasts extensive yet varied experience in the hospitality sector, complimented further by his visionary leadership style and entrepreneurial edge.

Originally qualifying as a chef in 1993, and then transitioning into management, Glyn’s career includes various managerial roles at several revered establishments throughout South Africa. Glyn’s roles included General Manager at 5- star establishments-namely Ballito Manor and Le Franschhoek Hotel and Spa. He was also the founding General Manager of Le Franschhoek Hotel and Spa.

Glyn was then promoted to a Regional Management post, overseeing 5 hotels in the Western Cape. Shortly after taking this step, he was promoted to Group Operations Director of the Three Cities Group, overseeing 45 hotels, lodges, and conference centres across Southern Africa. During the build-up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Glyn was instrumental in opening 13 new properties in South Africa.

After acquiring several years of executive level management experience, Glyn qualified as a Certified Hotel Administrator, which remains the highest certification an individual can obtain through the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

Fueled by great ambition and an excellent track record, it then became a natural progression for Glyn to break away and set up his own hospitality solutions company. It was at this point that he was approached to take on the Century City Conference Centre and Hotels project – and the rest, as they say, is history. Relatively soon after opening, Glyn completed the Strategic Business Management course at Harvard Business School.