Charlie Bird meets hotelier and philanthropist John Fitzpatrick the owner of the Fitzpatrick Hotel Group New York. John Fitzpatrick is one of the most down to earth people you could meet. When he walks into a room he instantly puts you at your ease. Perhaps it’s a talent that he has developed over the years from being in the hospitality industry. He is the president and CEO of Fitzpatrick Hotel Group, N.A., but there more to it than that. He is genuinely interested in people and though it’s his business to meet and greet, behind the scenes he is just as likely to be helping out someone or some group that needs a hand.

John was raised in the hotel business, the second eldest of five children of Paddy and Eithne Fitzpatrick who owned Killiney Castle Hotel in Co. Dublin, Silver Spring Cork and Fitzpatrick’s Shamrock Hotel in Bunratty, Co. Clare. John did not have his career handed to him . He began by cutting grass at Killiney Castle during the summers when he was a teenager. Eventually, he moved on to washing dishes in the hotel kitchen and from there onto washing glasses and, eventually, when he was 17, to mixing drinks behind the bar, working every weekend while he was still in school.

“Dad was always tough on us. He said, ‘if you want to have money you have to work for it,’” John recalled in an interview with Irish America. But even back then as a teenager, his favorite part of the job was meeting customers.