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

Fortune

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

Transcript

00:00Hi everybody and hello Sheila. We should mention by the way that you are going to be off after

00:06this to get yet another award. This time from the American Hotel Lodging Association the

00:12Peggy Castell Award for all the work you've done in advancing women in the industry. So

00:17congratulations. Thank you. So I'm sorry I can't stay longer. I'd love to stay for the

00:23whole event. Well we're enjoying your hotel. You know one of the things I well let me just

00:28I want to talk about the hotel because if you've noticed a lot of your own artwork is

00:33incorporated in with a lot of the art here which I think is amazing. But let's start

00:37with you know the vision that you've had. One thing we didn't mention you're also been

00:42a musician. You're a violinist. First act in my life. What what have you not done is

00:47probably one of the questions. But if you were to think about the vision that's driven

00:50you even to where you are now what would you say it is in terms of the motivation. I don't

00:57know. My mother said it's always been there. But I talk about the three acts in my life

01:03because as a violinist that was really a huge part of my life the arts and they still are.

01:09As you can see it is all part of this hotel. It's all built around artwork and what really

01:15motivates me when I come in every day. I really fuss about everything that I look at from

01:20the you know the way the walls look. You know next week we're going to be starting a film

01:26festival. You were a producer weren't you a producer as well. Yeah I've done films.

01:30I did Lee Daniels the butler. Yeah which did really well. And I've done a lot of documentary

01:36work. Don't put your money in that. But anyway. No but this whole town will be transformed

01:42with screens all over the place. We've got celebrities coming in from Isabella Rossellini

01:48to Steve McQueen. It keeps going and going. And so I'd like to bring the arts into my

01:54hotel business and I think that's what enriches the lives of so many of the guests that stay

01:58here. Can we talk about center a little bit on the hotel business. What motivated you

02:03to make this pivot into this industry because this was not an easy thing to get off the

02:08ground at all after selling black entertainment television. I know I was I could have retired

02:16but I didn't want to. But I couldn't. Nobody wants to know and you shouldn't. But I just

02:24realized I needed another act in my life. And that part of getting through black entertainment

02:31television and selling it. I was at a healing point in my life where I just needed to figure

02:36out who I was again and to get my voice heard in the world. And more than anything I just

02:43wanted to recreate something that was going to touch not only a community but many people.

02:51This community when I moved here was totally bankrupt. It was boarded up. There was just

02:57a couple of thriving shops. One was a gun shop with a Confederate flag in it and I bought

03:03it and I presume you converted it to a wonderful market which I just I just couldn't stand

03:12it. So that was one of the things that I did. But then a broker came to me and we're sitting

03:17on 340 acres here and it belonged to the late Pamela Harriman and Averill Harriman.

03:23So when I came up here the light bulb went off. I said I need to build an economic engine

03:30that's going to support this town. And I came up with the idea of building this resort.

03:36And I thought that everyone was going to be so excited about it and wonderful. Well let

03:41me tell you I forgot I was south of the Mason Dixon line and all hell broke loose literally.

03:49What was it that was the pain point that they didn't want you to open?

03:53They didn't want this area changed. They thought that I was going to totally destroy this town

03:59and I would make my arguments. I said you all need money. They needed a new water sewage

04:04treatment plant. They needed to bring businesses in here. Fast forward because I know we don't

04:10have a lot of time. This is now the wealthiest historic town in the state of Virginia. They

04:15get a lot of money from it. And that's what keeps this place going. So the other thing

04:20that I wanted to do was also tackle the issues of diversity. It was not only bringing a film

04:29festival here with diverse films and to talk about issues that we see on the screen and

04:36that they can actually come into this town. But also I started something and this was

04:42right when COVID hit. There were so many African-American chefs that were losing their restaurants and

04:49their businesses all over the country. And a friend of mine, well he wasn't a friend

04:56then, he's a very young man, Kwame Onuwachi, I had been eating at his restaurant called

05:01Kithkin down on the wharfs. That hotel threw him out of there as successful as his restaurant

05:08was. I read about it in the Post. I called him immediately as soon as I finished the

05:13article. I said I want you to come work for me and I want you to be a part of the Salamander

05:17family. So fast forward, he has opened up the restaurant because I sit on the board

05:23of the Met. Lincoln Center Foundation then put him in the David Geffen Hall and he has

05:30that wonderful restaurant Tatiana, which is the number one restaurant two years in

05:34a row in New York. So I bought the Mandarin in Washington, D.C. and I said Kwame, we're

05:41going to do a restaurant here. So it has just opened and it's called Dogon.

05:45And I think we're going to do an event there soon.

05:48You are. But where I was going with this is we do something called the family reunion

05:54where we bring 43 of the top chefs, 43 to 45, it keeps varying, from all over the country

06:01to really celebrate them and to bring awareness to the culinary interesting that is built

06:08on the shoulders of African-Americans that have been coming into the country.

06:13Well, it's actually running on your TV. I was watching it on a loop last night as I

06:16was lying down. And, you know, we're at a moment right now where there's such a backlash

06:21against, you know, DEI, whatever. And you do celebrate black culture.

06:26What advice do you have or or how are you thinking about this moment in time that we're

06:30at right now? Well, this is very interesting because I don't

06:34want to throw it in your face. And I do it in a very artistic way where you start to

06:40see people of color that can also do the same things that everybody else can do.

06:47And it was just a matter of integrating and connecting the dots. It's really funny because

06:53we also run the culinary division of the Aspen Institute, Aspen Meadows. So Salamander's

06:59part of that. And I've done all the renovation. We've got a restaurant in there now.

07:03But the thing about Aspen, in the town, they have years have done food and wine. But every

07:11time people have gone there, they said they don't see chefs of color.

07:16And I remember Carla Hall was telling me, she says, I'm not going back there anymore.

07:21It's just me and Kwame, the only two that get invited back.

07:24So I went to Hunter, who's CEO of food and wine. And I said, honey, we got to do something

07:28about this. He goes, I don't know. What is the problem? I said, I'll show you in a very

07:34nice way. So what we did is we started the Juneteenth

07:37event and brought it up the mountain and up to the Aspen Institute. The word got out and

07:43over 250 people, both black and white, came up there to celebrate Juneteenth.

07:50So the second year we did the same thing and the clientele increased, Hunter got on the

07:57microphone and goes, Sheila, I get it now. Because we have these chefs of color now that

08:04are being integrated into Aspen food and wine. I just got back from Charleston, the most

08:10incredible food and wine event, not the one that you all have been reading about it. We

08:15started a new one, which is much more diverse. And it's just done in a spectacular way. Our

08:22Roker showed up with his daughter. It was just unbelievable.

08:27I would be remiss. I know our time is running short. But you are a part owner in three sports

08:32teams, all of which have the word Washington in front of them. So look it up. But why?

08:37Because women don't get that opportunity. So this happened. And I call this don't burn

08:44your bridges. Because Abe Polin, when he was alive, he and I were good friends. And you

08:50will read about this in the book. I don't want to get in the weeds about this. But the

08:53ex was not very friendly to him. And, you know, he never said anything.

08:58He shall not be named. Yes. And so it was just a case where he never

09:04forgot it. He never made a big stink about it. But one day, Abe Polin and Susan O'Malley

09:09came to me, and they said, we want you to be the face of the Washington Mystics. And

09:14I said, what do you mean be the face of? They said, and I knew what they were talking about,

09:18we would like you to buy the team. So I looked at the financials. I said, you're really losing

09:24a lot of money here. I said, this would not be a wise investment. I said, but I've got

09:29a better thing. And I called Ted Leonce's idea. I called him, and I said, Ted, I've

09:36just been offered the Washington Mystics, but I would like to go ownership into the

09:42Wizards and the NHL team, the Capitals. And I said, I'm going to put enough money in there

09:48that I am a major partner in this. And so what has happened, that has opened the door

09:54for other women to step forward and become owners, especially WNBA. Now look at soccer.

10:01Look at what's happening.

10:02Incredible. Well, if anybody knows how to invest money and turn something from a losing

10:08proposition, which you say was this area, into a winning one, it's you, Sheila. So I'm

10:13sure many more awards to come. And frankly, it's a big award to be here in your beautiful

10:19property and also to have your presence here. So please join me in thanking Sheila Johnson.

10:25And look forward to seeing you.

10:26Thank you for being here.

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