Growing up in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Franklin Jackson had big dreams. Born in 1973, he wanted to see the world, and he had a pretty good idea how to go about doing that: hotels. But not staying in them, working in them.
“A lot of my extended family live outside India,” said Jackson. “When you’re growing up, you see different cultures on television, and you read about different cultures and experiences people have in different parts of the world. And hotels, being in all of those areas, was what intrigued me to the hospitality business.”
In 1990, after high school, Jackson set off to Bharathiar University, obtaining his bachelor of science in hotel management three years later.
He landed a job working as a butler at a Sheraton that was just opening in another state in southern India. He said the interview process in 1993 for that first job, the first ever for him, was something he will never forget.
“It was the most nerve-racking thing I’d ever done in my life to that point,” he said. “You prepare through education, mentoring and teaching, but when you actually sit down in that first interview, and it’s about to start, I’m telling you, butterflies go all through your stomach.”
Jackson nailed the interview despite the nerves and was now well on his career path.
His family had spoken English at home growing up, so he had a huge advantage for someone working in the hospitality sector.
But he still had that dream of travelling, and some of his friends and colleagues had been interviewing for positions at Kempinski Hotel Ajman – a beach resort in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Jackson nailed that interview, too, and in 1998 he started as a butler and worked his way up to front-desk manager and was officially working abroad. Working in the UAE as an Indian, he said, was also a dream come true.
“Everything is big, and everything is shiny, and everything is expensive,” he said. “It’s a different side of life.”
Jackson noted that at that time close to 40% of the population was Indian, so there was no real culture shock in moving to the UAE, other than the heat. “It’s 50 C and 100% humidity,” he said.
During his time in the UAE, Jackson also got the chance to travel to places like Germany and Hungary for work-related meetings and training, further checking off countries he wanted to visit. In 2005 he went to Africa, landing a job within the Kempinski Hotels chain in N’djamena, Chad, working at the first five-star hotel in the country. Chad, a landlocked country in Central Africa, provided Jackson with an interesting challenge as front-office manager.
“Everything in Chad has to be imported,” he said. “So, if you want to run a five-star hotel like this, you have to be not one or two months prepared in advance, but you have to be at least six months prepared in advance so there’s a continuity with the service and product.”
Hiring was also difficult; English is not regularly spoken in Chad, but a lot of Jackson’s hotel guests spoke English. He ended up interviewing about 2,000 people for approximately 75 positions over his year and a half in the country.
From Chad, Jackson was transferred to Djibouti – a country in East Africa – where he was tasked with overseeing front office and recreation and was partly involved in the development of building residential units at the hotel.
Meantime, after he had started working in the UAE, he began the immigration process to come to Canada. Two and a half years later, while in Djibouti, he got the word: he’d been granted his permanent resident status.
Jackson had Canada in his sights for a number of reasons: he had family living and working in the U.S., and also knew the weather in Canada would be a bit different than what it was in Africa and the Middle East.
“I spent 10 years in the heat, and so I wanted to live in the coldest possible place,” he said. “So I chose Canada.”
He left Africa and landed in Vancouver in January 2009 with his wife, whom he married in 2001. He didn’t have a job lined up, but he headed to hotels throughout the area, grabbed a coffee, sat down in the lobbies and watched. He said the idea was to understand what working in the industry would be like for someone like him, who had never worked in Canada.
“I came in like a fresh, clean, empty slate looking to learn,” he said. “I wanted to learn the culture, learn the job market and explore Canada before I started working.”
The move paid off, and Jackson landed a role as the front-office manager for the Blue Horizon Hotel in downtown Vancouver in April 2009. He said landing a job in Canada is one of the highlights of his life.
“It was like, wow, here I am,” he said. “Growing up in a very small family back in South India, these were all very distant dreams. Going abroad and working. So when I first landed in Vancouver, I still remember it took me a good 10 seconds to come back to my senses. I just thought, ‘I can’t believe life has brought me here.’”
A year or so later he became general manager for the Sandman Hotel & Suites in Abbotsford; by January 2012 he was the executive general manager for the Sandman in Richmond – a role he maintained for more than five years. Rahim Lalani, president and CEO of Legacy Limousine Worldwide, is a vendor of the Sandman Hotel Group and became good friends with Jackson through that relationship. Lalani said Jackson takes a lot of pride in his work, but also enjoys winding down from the fast-paced world of hospitality.
“On a personal level, our favourite meal together is barbecued pork,” he said. “When given the option to go golfing for the day or going to get some good old barbecue pork at a hole in the wall in Richmond, we take the latter.”
When the opportunity arose to be general manager for the Civic Hotel, part of Surrey’s tallest building that is nearing completion, Jackson, who is now the father of two sons, jumped at the chance. Looking back on his career trajectory, he recognizes the crucial steps he took to get from a boy growing up in a small town in India to the head of Surrey’s landmark hotel.
“Whether it’s sacrificing something or getting out of your comfort zone, heading to another country or working extended hours to make sure your guest services are taken care of, it’s a passion,” Jackson said. “Everybody should have a passion to get to the next level of a job. You have to have that so when you wake up in the morning you’re ready to go.” •
