IHG's new CEO groomed for the top job

There is something rather dejecting about a Bostonian who has lost his accent; the non-rhotic diction a captivating curiosity to many a non-New Englander. Keith Barr, who became CEO of InterContinental Hotels Group last July, falls into this category: a Boston native, Barr once dropped his Rs with the best of them. 

 No more; not after a career filled with stops far and wide, from San Diego to Sydney to Shanghai. Barr’s accent now is a self-described mélange: one part European with some Australian mixed in for good measure. His elocution should suit him well in IHG’s Denham, UK, headquarters, where he presides over the company’s 5,300 hotels and 13 brands.

 Barr’s career in hospitality stretches more than 25 years, 17 of which have been with IHG, where he has worn a range of hats, from CEO of IHG’s Greater China business to chief commercial officer, and, as noted, lived throughout the world. His role now might provide the permanency that has eluded him and his wife. “We’ve moved so many times, we realized at one point, when we were into our fourth year in China, it was the longest place we had lived in our adult life since we left university,” Barr said.

 The peripatetic lifestyle has rewarded him; in a sense, Barr has been groomed for the top job. Before joining IHG, Barr held senior positions with U.S. management company Bristol Hotels and Resorts, which, in a serendipitous stroke, was acquired by IHG in 2000. In 2004, Barr left the U.S. and moved to Australia, coaxed, in part, by IHG’s CEO at the time. “I made that move because he was really focused on my professional development and told me, ‘If you ever really want to be a leader in this company, you have to work internationally; you need to understand the breadth and the scope of this business,’” Barr said. That advice had a cascading effect on Barr, who subsequently moved to positions throughout the South Pacific and Asia, and into Greater China.