Four Seasons Resort Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

Four Seasons Tenure

• Since 2022
• First Four Seasons Assignment: Current

Employment History

• Grand Hotel Kempinski Riga, Latvia; Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Çırağan Palace Kempinski Istanbul; The Stafford, London; Dukes Hotel, London; The Sloane Club, London

Education

• Business Studies, Oaklands College, Saint Albans, England

Birthplace

• Watford, Hertfordshire, England

Languages Spoken

• English

As General Manager of the award-winning Four Seasons Resort Sharm El Sheikh, Leon Baum oversees one of the company’s largest properties and its many-layered guest experience. “The Resort doubled in size only a few months before I arrived, transforming it into a destination within the destination,” he says, noting the Resort’s unique presence on the shores of the Red Sea. “We’re as much a part of Sharm El Sheikh as it is of us, and now we’re introducing a new era of seaside luxury to what has been one of Egypt’s most loved resorts ever since it opened its doors 21 years ago.”

The expansion, completed in early 2022, included the addition of five new restaurants, 89 guest rooms and suites, and two sunlit pools for a total of five. It also added a new PADI dive centre, convention centre, and kids club, while growing the lush tropical gardens and stretching the palm-lined beachfront to a full kilometre along the Red Sea.

There is now a team of 900 that Baum and the management team inspire to deliver the deeply embedded authenticity and service across a wide array of offerings. “I make sure I’m as attainable to guests as I can be,” he says as he details a daily routine of following morning briefings by visiting every restaurant to share his love for meaningful experiences with guests from all over the world, making him the face of the operation. “I’m grateful for the feedback. There aren’t enough hours in a day for me to spend with our guests.”

Baum also counts himself fortunate to have many senior and experienced leaders on the Resort management team, as well as ownership that is willing to invest to ensure the property operates at world-class levels. His door is always open and he has no need for micromanaging. “I believe in providing managers the required tools to motivate their teams and elevate the Resort to new levels of luxury, cementing its position as the ultimate luxurious oasis on the Red Sea.”

Born and raised in a small industrial town northwest of London, Baum followed in the footsteps of an uncle who rose in the ranks of a major international hotel group. “I’d visit him when he managed The Cavendish in London and was just in awe of the glitz and the glamour.”

The visits paid dividends, opening his eyes to the diverse cultures and the hospitality industry, making him long for an international career. “That was key for me.”  

After college, Baum jumped right in, working his way up on both the rooms as well as food and beverage sides of operations at luxury addresses in London, and was a general manager by his third posting. He continued as such in Istanbul and leading an opening team for the first luxury hotel in Riga, Latvia, with a turn as hotel manager of the prestigious Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi in between.

Four Seasons had always been an aspiration for culture and core values, and Sharm El Sheikh continues Baum’s string of international experiences. With its world of amenities, he sees the Resort as a sanctuary for active adventure in a destination combining nature, and adventure – with the desert on one side, the Red Sea on the other – and sites of historic and religious significance, including St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai.