“I’m driven, but I’m quite a relaxed individual who enjoys what we’ve created,” says Richard A Sykes. “Although a lot of people wouldn’t agree with that,” he admits. The energetic owner of 33-metre, 1967 Benetti Odyssey III, Sykes has an extensive collection of modern and classic cars and owns numerous hotels across the UK.
His most recent acquisition was the 17th century Grantley Hall manor house in Ripon, Yorkshire, which he bought with his mother, Valeria. Together, they transformed the tired, council-owned teacher training college into one of Britain’s leading luxury hotels – complete with 47 rooms, five restaurants (one Michelin-starred), a spa and a gym equipped with underwater treadmills and an altitude training room, to accommodate the world’s leading sports teams and athletes. Richard’s children, Thomas, William and Emily, are also heavily involved in the business.
His tenacity and business success, he believes, stems in large part from his upbringing. Leaving school at the age of 16, he went to work at his stepfather’s scrapyards in Barnsley. “The idea was that I was going to progress on to sales, but I didn’t get on particularly well with my [step]dad, so I went back to college and studied
