Sheila Johnson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Salamander Collection 
Interviewer:  Diane Brady, Executive Editorial Director, Fortune; Co-chair, Fortune COO Summit

COO Summit 2024: How This Self-Made Entrepreneur Blazed Her Own Trail

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Hi, everybody. And hello, Sheila. We should mention by the way that you are going to be off after this to get yet another award this time from the American Hotel Lodging Association, the Peggy Castel Award for all the work you've done in advancing women in the industry. So, congratulations. Thank you. So I'm sorry, I can't stay longer. I'd love to stay for the whole event. Well, we're enjoying your hotel. You know, one of the things I, well, let me just, I want to talk about the hotel because if you've noticed a lot of your own artwork is incorporated in with a lot of the art here, which I think is amazing. But let's start with, you know, the vision that you've had. We one thing we didn't mention you've also been a musician. You're a violinist in my life. What, what have you not done is probably one of the questions. But if you were to think about the vision that's driven you even to where you are now, what would you say it is in terms of the motivation? I don't know. My mother said it's always been there, but um I talk about the three acts in my life because as a violinist that was really a huge part of my life, the arts and they still are. As you can see, it's all part of this hotel. It's all built around artwork and what really motivates me. When I come in every day. I really fuss about everything that I look at from the, you know, the way the walls look. Um You know, next week we're gonna be starting a film festival. You were a producer, weren't you a producer? So I've done films. I did uh Lee Daniels the butler. Yeah, which did really well. And I've done a lot of documentary work. Don't put your money in that. But anyway, um no, but this whole town will be transformed with screens all over the place. We've got celebrities coming in from Isabella Rossellini to Steve mcqueen. It keeps going and going. And um so I like to bring the arts into my hotel business and I think that's what enriches the lives of so many of the guests that stay here. Can we talk about Central a little bit on the hotel business? What motivated you to make this pivot into this industry because this was not an easy thing to get off the ground at all. After selling black entertainment television, I know I was, I could have retired but I didn't want to but I couldn't see. Nobody wants to. No, and you shouldn't. But I just um realized I, I needed another act in my life and um that part of getting through black entertainment television and selling it, I was at a healing point in my life where I just needed to figure out who I was again and to get my voice heard in the world. And more than anything, I just wanted to recreate something that was going to touch, not only a community but many people. This community when I moved here was totally bankrupt. It was boarded up. There was just a couple of thriving shops. One was a gun shop with a confederate flag in it and I bought it and I presume you converted it to a wonderful market, which I just, I, I just couldn't stand it. So that was one of the things that I did. But then a broker came to me and we're sitting on 340 acres here and it belonged to the late Pamela Harriman in April Harman. So when I came up here, the light bulb went off, I said I need to build an economic engine that's gonna support this town. And I came up with the idea of building this resort and I thought that everyone was going to be so excited about it and wonderful. Well, let me tell you, I forgot I was south of the Mason Dixon line and all hell broke loose. Literally, what was it? That was the pain point that they didn't want you to, they didn't want this area changed. They thought that I was just gonna totally destroy this town and I would make my arguments. I said you all need money. They needed a new water, sewage treatment plant. They needed to bring businesses in here. Fast forward because I know we don't have a lot of time. This is now the wealthiest historic town in the state of Virginia. They get a lot of money from that and that's what keeps this place going. So the other thing that I wanted to do was also tackle the, um, issues of diversity was not only bringing a film festival here with diverse films and to talk about issues that we see on the screen and that they can actually come into this town. But also I started something and this was right when COVID hit, there were so many African American chefs that were losing their restaurants and their businesses all over the country. And um, a friend of mine, well, he wasn't a friend then a very young man, Kwame on a watchi. I had been eating at his restaurant called K Ken down on the wharf. That hotel threw him out of there as successful as this restaurant was, I read about it in the post. I called him immediately. As soon as I finished the article, I said, I want you to come work for me and I want you to be a part of the Salamander family. So fast forward, he has opened up the restaurant, uh, because I sit on the board of the Met He Lincoln Center Foundation then put him in the David Geffen Hall and he has that wonderful restaurant, Tatiana, which is the number one restaurant two years in a row in New York. So I bought the Mandarin in Washington DC and I said, Kwame, we're gonna do a restaurant here, so it has just opened and it's called Dogan. And I think we're gonna do an event there soon. You are. But where I was going with this is we do something called the family reunion where we bring 43 of the top chefs, 43 to 45. It keeps varying um from all over the country to really celebrate them and to bring awareness to the culinary interesting that is built on the shoulders of African Americans that have been coming into the, well, it's actually running on your TV. I was watching it on a loop last night as I was lying down. And, you know, we're at a moment right now where there's such a backlash against, you know, de I whatever and you do celebrate black culture. What advice do you have? Or, or how are you thinking about this moment in time that we're at right now? Well, this is very interesting because I don't wanna throw it in your face and I do it in a very artistic way where you start to see people of color that can also do the same things that everybody else can do. And it was just a matter of integrating and connecting the dots. It's really funny because um we also um run the culinary division of the Aspen Institute Aspen Meadow. So Salamander is part of that and I've done all the renovation. We got a restaurant in there now. But the thing about Aspen in the town, they have a years had done the food and wine that every time people have gone there, they said they don't see chefs of color. And I remember Carla Hall was telling me, she says, I'm not going back there anymore. It's just me and Kwamie are the only two that get invited back. So I went to Hunter who is CEO of food and wine. And I said, hunt, we got to do something about this. He goes, I don't know, what is the problem. I said, I'll show you in a very nice way. So what we did is we started the June 10th event. We brought it up the mountain and up to the Aspen Institute. The word got out and over 250 people, both black and white came up there to celebrate Juneteenth. So the second year we did the same thing and the clientele increased. Hunter got on the microphone. He goes, Sheila, I get it now. Well and good because we have these chefs of color now that are being integrated into Aspen food and wine. I just got back from Charleston, the most incredible food and wine event, not the one that you all have been reading about it. We started a new one which is much more diverse and it's just done in a spectacular way. Al Roker showed up with his uh daughter and um it was that I would be remiss, I know our time is running short, but you are a part owner in three sports teams, all of which have the word Washington in front of them. So look it up. But why? Because women don't get that opportunity. So this happens and I call this, don't burn your bridges because a Poland when he was alive, he and I were good friends and you'll read about this in the book. I don't wanna get the weeds about this, but the ex um was not very friendly to him and, you know, he never said anything. Yes. And so it was just a case where he never forgot it. He never made a big stink about it. But one day Abe Poland and Susan o'malley came to me and they said, we want you to be the face of the Washington Mystics. And I said, what do you mean be the face of? They said, and I knew what he was talking about. We would like you to buy the team. So I looked at the financials and I said, you're really losing a lot of money here. I said, this would not be a wise investment. I said, but I've got a better thing and I called Ted Leones idea. I called him and I said, Ted, I've just been, uh, offered the Washington mistakes, but I would like to go ownership into the Wizards and the NHL team, the capital. And I said, I'm gonna put enough money in there that I am a major partner in this. And so what has happened that has opened the door for other women to step forward and become owners, especially W NBA. Now, look at soccer, look at what's happening. Well, if anybody knows how to invest money and turn something from a losing proposition, which you say was this area into a winning one. It's you, Sheila. So I'm sure many more awards to come and frankly, it's a uh it's a big award to be here in your beautiful property and also to have your presence here. So please join me in. Thanking Sheila Johnson. Thank you and look forward. Thank you for being here.