Keith Barr ’92
The Story
Hotel Ezra Cornell 66 – 1991
Keith Barr, Executive Chef
HEC 66 “Unleashed” encouraged participants to celebrate the power of the imagination. This was evidenced in the creative themes of the weekend’s events – from Mardi Gras to the Cornell Chocolate Factory, to Where the Wild Things Are, to the final banquet aptly named “Surprise.”
A seminar on Innovation Techniques for Hospitality Managers was conducted by Professors Florence Berger and Dennis Ferguson, with Mr. Michael Leven, President – Franchise Division, Holiday Inn Worldwide, delivering the keynote address.
Excerpt from: The Best Ever: Memories of Hotel Ezra Cornell
Keith Barr grew up in Massachusetts, and early on in his life, he developed a passion for cooking and hospitality. Something about the central role food played in his family gatherings captivated him. While his cousins were outside playing, Keith buried his nose in Gourmet Magazine and cookbooks. He carried that passion into his teen years, working nights, weekends, and summers in restaurants. Through these experiences, he developed a work ethic that would serve him well throughout his entire academic and professional career.
A Passion for Hospitality Leads to Cornell
When it was time for college, Keith set his sights on hospitality. He applied to several schools, but was passionate about Cornell as he wanted to go to the best hospitality school in the world. With his strong academic performance, Keith was accepted. There was just one catch: he couldn’t afford to go and was going to have to decline the opportunity. That is, until Cheri Farrell, the Hotel School’s Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, intervened on his behalf. Farrell had noticed a spark in Keith and helped to secure him the financial aid he needed to make Cornell a possibility.
Despite the aid, Keith’s situation required him to work his way through school. After class, he would throw on his chef’s whites and work until close. In the Statler Hotel, at various restaurants in Ithaca, and especially as the student executive chef for HEC, Keith applied the knowledge he picked up in the classroom and honed his broadening set of industry skills. Having become something of a foodie in the process, his plan was to finish school, move to New York City, and work in restaurants. However, a pair of fellow Hotelies in Texas had another plan for Keith’s life.
Executive Chef Keith Barr – HEC 66
Chatting with Julia Child on her visit to Cornell
HEC 66 Culinary Team
Keith, in his senior year as a finalist for the Drown Prize, with Dean David Dittman.
The Climb to Operations
The summer before he graduated from Cornell, Keith completed an internship in Dallas with Harvey Hotels, a small group of ten hotels led by Cornellians Peter Kline ’69 and John Beckert ’75, who loved to hire their own. The culture was unique and, being a smaller group, the opportunities for growth and advancement were endless. In less than nine years, Harvey grew to over 100 hotels, changed its name to Bristol Hotels, and became a publicly traded company. All the while, Keith was climbing the ladder from food and beverage to sales and marketing to operations. Remarkably, he became a general manager at the young age of 28. Soon after, he took on sales and marketing for the Southeast region, and at the age of 30, he became the region’s head of operations. It was an incredible development journey, supported by a few fellow Hotelies who had seen what Cheri Farrell saw in Keith and gave him the opportunity to realize his potential.
As an established brand, Bristol was bought by the massive British conglomerate Bass PLC in 2000. As Bass integrated Bristol into its own hotel business. Keith, along with John Longstreet ’77, were kept on to help coordinate the integration process and serve as brand ambassadors, carrying forward the cultural values and distinctives that had made Harvey/Bristol so successful. For Keith, it was an incredibly intense year, but a period he described as one of the most informative of his entire life. When the time came for Bass to spin out its hotel division into its own company in 2003, Keith was catapulted into senior management.
From Sydney, to Shanghai, to London
In 2005, the newly formed InterContinental Hotel Groups (IHG) brought Andy Cosslett as its CEO. Cosslett saw something in Keith and, during their time together, would later give Keith a piece of advice that would once again shape his career. He said, “If Keith wants to run IHG one day, he will need to go overseas.” Cosslett wanted Keith to oversee the management of the company’s properties in Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific. Given that he and his wife (Diana Barr ’96) had only just recently moved to Atlanta, renovated a historic home, and welcomed the birth of their first daughter, Sophie, this was a monumental ask. But since Diana’s family came from New Zealand and much of her family still lived there, the answer was immediately clear: the Barrs were headed for Sydney. One of the special memories of their time in Australia is the healthy and happy arrival of their second daughter, Tessa.
Keith and Diana Barr
Though Keith had lived all over the U.S., the move to Australia represented a massive cultural shift. Three years later, another key moment would arrive in the form of a move to Shanghai. These experiences abroad shaped Keith’s approach to business and leadership – broadening his horizons, helping him to appreciate difference, and to lead with a deep sense of empathy. This gave him a soft expertise in understanding others’ perspectives and communicating in ways that made people feel heard, respected, and valued. In Australia, these skills helped Keith advance and excel as chief operating officer. In China, which represented only a small portion of the business at the time, his emergence as a true global executive enabled him to lead the transformation of that division into its own regional enterprise and major growth engine for IHG.
After almost five years in China, IHG asked Keith to move to London to become their chief commercial officer, tasked with integrating brand, sales, marketing, and distribution into a common global strategy. After building an impressive enterprise platform that would serve as a springboard for future growth, Keith was appointed CEO following the retirement of Richard Solomons. What sealed the decision for the IHG Board wasn’t so much Keith’s past, but his vision for the future. As a part of the hiring process, Keith produced a four-page memo calling for a significant restructuring and investment in growth. IHG had been outpaced by Marriott and Hilton and needed to double its pace of sustainable growth as soon as possible.
With the US Ambassador – Keith leading a team to represent the U.S. at IGEHO,
Switzerland’s premier international trade fair for the hospitality industry.
Keith Barr, former CEO of British multinational hospitality company,
IHG Hotels & Resorts, commemorating 70 years of the modern Commonwealth
at Westminster Abbey (2019).
The Board agreed and gave Keith the opportunity to implement his vision as their new CEO. Over the next three years, he and his team executed remarkably well. They acquired new brands like Six Senses and Regent. They launched brands in different market segments. They invested in technology and loyalty. They positioned themselves to not only keep up in the industry but climb their way back to the top.
Keith celebrating his colleagues at Celebrate Service Week for IHG
And Then Came 2020
During the COVID pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, hospitality was the hardest hit. Nevertheless, the hard work that IHG had already done had left them in the best possible position to face the crisis, and the business continued to perform successfully. In shouldering a unique burden for the company’s employees and their welfare, Keith grew even more as a leader and communicator. Both he and IHG emerged stronger for having weathered the storm.
A Return to the States
Having prepared IHG for a successful future and created significant value for shareholders, Keith began to consider what was next. It had been a long six years, nearing the end of almost two decades living and working abroad. His oldest child, Sophie, was preparing for college, and his parents were aging. With an exceptional successor waiting in the wings, he made the best decision for both himself and his family. In 2023, Keith stepped down, and, on the other side of a remarkably smooth transition, headed back to the U.S.
Celebrating Sophie’s acceptance to Cornell, Class of 2027
With Sophie in the Food Labs at Nolan.
No chef’s whites, but always “at home” in the kitchen.
Icons and Innovators:
Cornell Award Shines Light on Hospitality’s Finest
Keith Barr was honored in 2024 as the Cornell Hospitality Icon of the Industry, joining an elite group of influential individuals and families to receive the award since its inception in 2009. The Icon Award honors the lifetime achievements of industry visionaries who have transformed the global hospitality industry with their professional and philanthropic contributions.
Kate Walsh, Dean of the Nolan Hotel School, Keith Barr ‘92, former CEO of IHG Hotels & Resorts,
and Jolyon Bulley, CEO of IHG for the Americas, who presented the Icon Award to Keith.
(photo credit: HNR Hotel News)
We are so proud and honored to recognize Keith and his many accomplishments and contributions. He is such a pivotal leader for our industry, and with his strategic abilities and warm, collaborative approach, Keith has been able to strengthen our brands, build travel and tourism, and promote our industry’s seat at the global economic table. He is a model for all our aspiring leaders to emulate.
Kate Walsh, Dean of the Nolan Hotel School
Giving Back to the Industry and to Cornell
Keith was a founding board member of Women in Hospitality Travel & Leisure. He was also one of the founding board members of WiHTL in the U.K., the world’s only collaboration community devoted to increasing inclusion across Hospitality, Travel and Leisure. As a family, the Barrs are actively involved in preparing meals monthly in Hawaii for the families who stay at the Ronald McDonald house.
At Cornell, Keith serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board at the Nolan Hotel School and on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. He is a member of the Cornell University Council and Cornell’s SC Johnson College Leadership Council. He regularly speaks, teaches, and mentors faculty members and students at Cornell, having been invited as a featured speaker in the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series on three separate occasions.
Keith and Diana with daughters Tessa (starting her freshman year at
University of California, San Diego) and Sophie, Cornell Class of 2027.
Hotel Ezra Cornell – 2022
Board and Advisory Roles
Today, Keith serves on the boards of Yum! Brands and MGM Resorts and is also involved in private equity and consulting.
- Non-Executive Director, YUM! Brands (2020 – current)
- Non-Executive Director, MGM Resorts International (2024-current)
- Senior Advisor, Sixth Street Capital (2024-current)
- Senior Advisor, Sierra.ai (2025-current)
- Member of the British American Business Council (2017-2023)
- Operating Committee member for World Travel and Tourism Council (2017-2023)
Keith says he owes his career to great people—especially fellow Hotelies—who have given him incredible opportunities to learn and grow. He is committed to providing those same opportunities for the next generation of leaders in hospitality and will always be available to help them along.
