Associates
Grant Leisure senior associates represent nearly two centuries of experience in conceiving, planning, designing, marketing and operating some of the world's premier attractions. Grant Leisure brings to a client's project senior managers and consultants who understand the challenges and difficulties in achieving successful solutions in this 'world of attractions'.
Grant Leisure associates are selected for their skills, expertise in specific areas, and their ability to perceive the challenge and develop a team approach to achieving a successful solution, working with clients as partners and developing solutions that, in the end, appeal to guests and visitors. After all, the visitor controls the revenue stream, a concept that is deeply imbedded in our culture.
This is our world...
Andrew Grant, President/CEO
"Andy" Grant has logged more than 40 years in the attraction industry and has headed Grant Leisure since its founding in 1982 in London. Prior to his move to Europe, Andy served as head of personnel for Universal Studios Tour (in its infancy), general manager of Busch Gardens, Director with Economic Research Associates, and head of Wild Animal Park before assuming the post of Deputy Director of the Zoological Society of San Diego. For the past 25 years, he has created and managed one of the world's pre-eminent consulting and operating firms which has provided design, planning, marketing and operations services to attractions in 22 countries, which last year hosted more than 120 million paying visitors. He supervises a broad spectrum of attraction projects from the Grant Leisure office, now located in Montecito, California.
Robert Liljenwall
serves Grant Leisure as its marketing director. He served as head of Advertising and Promotion for Disneyland and Vice President-Marketing for the RMS Queen Mary and Spruce Goose attraction. He has extensive tourism experience, serving as a marketing consultant to more than 30 visitor and convention bureaus in the US. He served as head of Bright Strategic Design, which produced brand identities for National Car Rental, Princess Cruises, Miller Brewing, Virgin Cola, and Fox Studios. He also served as Venue Press Chief for the 1984 Olympics, and worked on the brand identities for World Cup Soccer and Women's World Cup. He received his MBA from Pepperdine University in 1980. He teaches brand identity management, IMC, and strategic marketing at UCLA and is the co-author of "Marketing at Retail" (2004).
Andrew Coates
Andrew trained as an architect and for the last 17 years has worked across the full spectrum of skills needed to make leisure work, serving initially as an Projects / Operations Manager for the Zoological Society of London and until very recently as Managing Director, Leisure for MICE Group plc. Andrew is known for his pragmatic approach, able to balance the various tensions impacting on projects and operations to ensure results driven solutions. He currently consults across the range of Grant Leisure projects as Director of European Operations.
Eddie Hoare
one of the premier events producers and tour operations executives with more than 25 years experience. Eddie serves as Director of European Operations for Grant Leisure. He has previously served as Managing Director and Chairman of the well-known Elegant Days Limited, one of England's leading specialists in client-driven events and hospitality. Elegant Days was the first company to provide corporate events at The Tower of London, Spencer House, and The Victoria and Albert Museum. Currently heads Grant Leisure's themed events and corporate hospitality consulting.
Simon Ody
is one of Europe's leading leisure consultants and has served as Managing Director of Grant Leisure for the past three years and worked with the firm since 1995. One of his main responsibilities was to oversee Real Live Leisure, a Grant Leisure subsidiary, which owned and operated three visitor attractions in the UK. In addition, he is called on to advise major corporate and leisure clients on all phases of land-use development, operations, marketing, and financial viability studies.
Tim Rusby
has worked all sides in the attractions industry for the past 20 years, serving as a developer and operator, contractor, design manager, project manager, and business development and marketing consultant. Tim has a reputation for being a creative professional and practical visionary combined with his hands-on experience in a variety of attractions including the National Aquarium in UAE, Vintebro (Norway), and Liseberg Theme Park (Sweden). He serves as project manager for Grant Leisure.
Marc Etches
has been in the leisure industry for more than 25 years, serving as Managing Director of Windsor Safari Park and with Center Parcs specializing in domestic tourism in the UK. He later became Managing Director of Leisure Parcs, a leisure management company where he successfully led the campaign for a resort casino development in Blackpool. He advises a range of private and public sector clients in Europe on the opportunities for commercial gambling and is currently undertaking a PhD in 'public policy and gambling' at Salford University in the UK.
Barry Upson
is one of the world's leading themed attractions executives having created and served as head of Universal Creative, Universal Studios Recreation Group's master planning and design division. He directed the growth of Universal Creative from one person in 1979 to a 1,500-person team that managed the design/development for Universal Studios Florida, Universal's Islands of Adventure, Universal Hollywood, and the creation of Universal Japan. Barry recently received the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award from TEA -- the Themed Entertainment Assocation. He serves Grant Leisure as senior creative consultant.
Edmund Rowley Williams
has worked on more than 200 projects for Grant Leisure since 1984. He has supervised feasibility studies, business and development planning, and preparation of workbooks covering all operational areas of the attraction, including marketing, operations, retail, food and beverage, and employee training. He has provided key operational and financial planning for Swiss Expo 02 and the Hannover Expo 2000, and was instrumental in the planning and development for tourism integration for the Tate Modern, Tower of London, Rome Museums, and Sony World (Berlin). He provides strategic tourism planning and economic analysis for Grant Leisure.
Val Brown
is a dynamic senior marketing executive with demonstrated success in international arenas. Val is an industry pacesetter with proven ability to create global awareness, delineate trends, and create new marketing protocol. With over 20 years experience in leisure, entertainment and media, Val was instrumental in the global development of the Hard Rock Café brand during her 10 years with the organization, taking the chain from 2 units to 40. Subsequent roles have included music concept for Planet Hollywood, brand strategy for Hard Rock Park, international development strategy for the Cavern Club in Liverpool and concept development of the media division of Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy Camp.
Abderrahim Halaimia
Over the past year and a half, Abderrahim has been consulting with Grant Leisure on a variety of projects in the Middle East, and has been assisting us in the evaluation of entertainment and leisure facilities there. Abderrahim brings an unusual combination of skills to Grant Leisure, having obtained a degree in business and then attended a school for hotel and restaurant management.
Randall Cox
With 25 years experience in developing and financing hospitality, media and gaming projects in emerging markets, Randall brings extensive financial structuring skills and global investor relationships to Grant Leisure and its projects. . Randall is expert in developing and packaging investment opportunities and matching these to the most suitable funding sources.
Claus Frimand
has over 25 years senior retail and operations experience including director of Shop Operations at Disneyland Paris, director of operations for the International Spirit Development Corporation, licensed by the IOC to develop visitor attractions based on sports, and later worked at both EXPO 2000 in Hanover and Expo.02 in Switzerland. Later worked on a number of touring exhibitions with organizations such as National Gallery of Art in Washington and Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg. Claus is currently on permanent assignment in the UAE.
Angela Horsman
has over 25 years' experience in leisure marketing, sales and operations and is a high effective direct marketer. She spent 20 years with Saga Group as marketing director of Saga's holiday division and group communications director. Her expertise includes brand strategy, all aspects of direct marketing, business development, sponsorship, event management, PR and media relations.