Jacobi named new GM for Island hotel

After working all over the world and stretching his entrepreneurial legs as a hotel consultant, Raymond Jacobi has come home to Newport Center Drive. Today, the Newport Beach resident will take over as the general manager for The Island Hotel - Newport Beach.

“It’s about coming home,” Jacobi said in a telephone interview.

For the past year and a half, Jacobi has been running an independent hotel and restaurant consultant company in Newport Beach and looks forward to a long career with the Irvine Co. hotel.

Previously owned by the Four Seasons chain, the hotel came under new management last fall. Jacobi served as general manager of the Four Seasons early in his career, and is looking forward to putting his efforts back into the hotel, which is now independently owned and operated.

“One always looks back at their career and life and focuses on those things,” he said. “And maybe you’re the most happiest for personal or professional reasons” at a certain place.

Jacobi said he and the hotel staff are looking forward to providing a world-class guest experience.

“Going forward, it’s more about the journey and the focus on the guest experience, and executing it at a very high level and high frequency,” Jacobi said. “The renovation and capital expenditures here continue; we’re in the process of doing 11 of the top suites of the hotel.”

Renovations from this point forward are primarily cosmetic, and the suites going through the makeover are some of the last rooms to be competed.

“Something that … continues to be important is really reaching out to the local community,” said Jennifer Hieger, spokeswoman for The Irvine Co. “The Four Seasons had done a great job, but we thought we could take it up a notch, engaging the local community, and I think that is something that is a very important focus for us at the hotel.”

The father of two said he’s dedicated to his community and to the hotel.

“Newport Beach and the greater area is one of the … top places to live and work in the world,” Jacobi said. “To further harness that and protect it and grow it in the right way I think is where we need to go.”

The hotel will continue extending its marketing to the international community in order to make the hotel one of the leading resort destinations.

Jacobi replaces Hansjoerg Maissen, who originally joined the company to manage golf properties and oversaw the hotel’s debut. Maissen will remain with the company as a consultant for golf operations.

“We’re very excited to have him on board…. Many of the hotels he’s been involved in have been boutique hotels, like The Island, and I think that’s something that requires unique skills and unique vision, and I think he has both of those in abundance,” Hieger said. “On top of that, he has a feel for the Newport beach community, which is a critical part of the job, so he really is the best at both worlds.”

Jacobi’s resume includes executive positions at some of the most exclusive resorts and hotels in the country, such as chief executive of Telluride Ski & Golf Resort, chief operating officer of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts and chief operating officer at Ian Schrager Hotels.

“I’ve been all around the world and worked at the best places in the world, and when you look at the hotel as it sits today, even as an independent operation, the way it’s been maintained … this is a world-class hotel and a world-class destination,” he said. “It’s about further exploiting it.”