Bachelor of Applied Business, Hospitality Operations Management
Graduated 2008
While many of his peers were kicking back with video games after a hard day of high school, Rahul Sam and his friends were busy whipping up one of Jamie Oliver’s latest recipes.
Not your average teenage preoccupation, but then again there is nothing average about Rahul. Now at the age of 23, the Bachelor of Applied Business (BAB) in Hospitality Operations Management graduate finds himself in the rare position of managing the food and beverage operations of Toronto’s largest hotel. During a busy day as Assistant Banquet Manager at the Sheraton Centre, Rahul can oversee the delivery of up to 10,000 meals and supervise up to 50 food servers.
Managing so many complex details and relationships comes naturally to the Indian native, who grew up in Dubai and immigrated to Toronto at the age of 16. “In Middle Eastern culture, you treat anybody who comes into your house like a guest. I try to apply that to whatever I am doing,” he says.
This simple approach is what initially got him noticed by his current employer. During the first year of the BAB program, he was asked by a professor to volunteer for a weeklong Sheraton-hosted professional conference. One of the managers at the hotel was so impressed with how Rahul handled stress, that he offered him a job on the spot. That opportunity set in motion a second education parallel to his academic studies, and started him on his way to achieving his life goal: becoming a CEO of a hospitality company.
Even though the goal is clear now, working in the hotel business was never his first aspiration. Rahul always thought he would become a doctor, but then realized that his passion of food was more suited to a career as a chef. He decided to take the four-year BAB program before starting his culinary training. “Something happened at the end of my first year; I discovered a love of numbers and an interest in leading people,” he says.
It was a combination of his studies and his part-time job at the Sheraton—which also served as both of his mandatory co-op positions—that brought forth this clarity. His George Brown classroom work involved a lot of reading, presenting and discussion of case studies on industry-specific issues such as the viability of genetically modified foods or how to hire and lead people. “After debating an issue in class, I would go into work and put those lessons into practice. The curriculum was very effective in the way that it complemented my on-the-job training,” he says.
He credits the college and his mentors—professors and employers—for his successes, including a recent Top 30 Under 30 Award from the Ontario Hostelry Institute. One of his supervisors at Sheraton, Cynthia Bond, Public Relations and Partnerships, Starwood Canada, says, “We are so proud of Rahul. George Brown sent him into the industry with the guiding principles of brilliant execution, a sense of urgency and nimbleness, with a focus on guest and associate satisfaction and fiscal responsibility to the company and shareholders.”
