HONG KONG—Like some globe-trotting super agent, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s chief technology office and chief information officer, Nick Price, is a hard man to pin down, but not to communicate with, thanks in no small or ironic part to technology. Whether it’s through newer cutting-edge services like Skype or various hand-held communication devices, he may be found attending to Mandarin projects and properties on nearly any continent.
But it’s been this way for the London-born Price throughout much of his life and career, as he’s called the United Kingdom, the Americas, France, Belgium, South Africa and even Iceland home at different times. But beginning in 1995, Hong Kong became his technical base of operations before later joining the Hong Kong-based Mandarin in 2000 to head up its technology initiatives.
The accidental technologist
Like most technology gurus in the hotel industry, though, hospitality wasn’t exactly a presumed destination for Price. “It was a complete accident,” he said of his transition from a retail company to Mandarin. “I had no intention of working in hospitality. I was simply asked by our CEO with whom I had worked for at a previous company if I wanted to join Mandarin. It’s as simple as that.”
At his core, Price noted is really just a “true blue computer scientist” who began his career working for computer software and hardware companies, networking firms and database companies. “I suppose the only thing I knew about hospitality when I came in was the view of the consumer side of the front desk since I had traveled extensively at that point,” he said. “It was actually not a bad way to critique our industry.”
But Price couldn’t develop the brand-defining luxury technology strategy Mandarin wanted to carry out on a global basis alone. So regional vps of technology were added in Asia, Europe and the Americas later on. Among them was Monika Nerger, who’s become a hotel technology thought leader in her own right within the seemingly close community that’s made up of hotel technologists.
“After eight years with Royal Caribbean, I became an independent technology consultant in the hospitality industry,” said Nerger, who’s actually Canadian with a European Union passport living in San Francisco. “I did the opening of the Borgata in Atlantic City [NJ] and the Venetian in Macau [China]. Even though I was in China, I never met Nick, but his reputation and that of Mandarin Oriental’s technology was renowned.”
Nerger added that via an executive search firm, she and Price met in 2005 and “soon discovered we had many common connections. At the time we met, I was considering options outside hospitality, but after our initial conversations, my mind was easily made. Nick’s vision and Mandarin Oriental’s focus and commitment to technology have been extremely compelling. And that is what has kept me engaged and passionate.” —Chris Ostrowski