who we are
Gordon & Gillian Wedderburn are hospitality professionals, consummate creatives and life partners. They have a combined 50 plus years of experience in the hospitality and creative industries across a range of entities including Sandals Resorts in Jamaica, The Royal Lancaster, The Savoy and The Sanctuary Spa in London. They have managed the famous eclectic boutique hotel, Strawberry Hill Resort & Spa in Jamaica together.
In addition, they are music creatives, tastemakers, recording artistes, deejay/selectors and curators heavily involved in the London/UK music scene, showcasing talent through their various activities in radio, events, deejaying and music curation. They have helped to create sonic identities for various hospitality organisations such as The Pacific Tavern. They have curated music and sets for art galleries and exhibitions to the likes of Chilli Arts Projects.
Their professional, creative and life experiences place Gordon & Gillian in a unique position to deliver an extensive, multi-faceted, multi-dimensional, bespoke and very personal service with the strength and unity of a couple married for over 25 years. They are fully aware of what their solid partnership and combined skills bring to any organisation they work (collaborate) with.
They are also very much involved in community and charity work. Gordon is currently Vice-Chair of the Clapham Park Project in South London. Gillian has delivered creative workshops in the community and local school.
Gillian’s career in hospitality spans over 30 years and began at the award winning Caribbean Resort Chain Sandals Resorts, where she held important administrations and operations roles. She was the Executive Assistant to the Hotel Manager as well as managing the Guest Relations desk at Sandals Negril.
She has worked in the airline industry with the historic Air Jamaica, dealing with ground transportation logistics and customer service.
She has worked as Front of House Manager, both in Jamaica and UK hotels in addition to gaining solid operations management experience working as a duty manager. Her Experience extends to spas, managing a medical spa in Holborn and helming front of house operations for London’s Sanctuary Spa. With Gordon, She has co-managed the world famous Strawberry Hill boutique hotel with direct oversight of the spa, front of house, reservations in addition to planning & executing the most amazing weddings. Known for her calm persona and calming influence in the most arduous situations, her administrative expertise and her finely tuned & creative solution oriented mindset, Gillian is a quiet force of nature.
She is a known dj/selector in her own right, as well as with Gordon and has played sets at renowned venues like The Jazz Café, KOKO, Scala, Village Underground, in addition to holding down residencies in trendy local pubs. She presents radio shows with Gordon on two popular online platforms and had has interviewed prominent UK music personalities.
Gillian has always been a disciple of wellbeing, healthy living, skincare and a holistic healthy lifestyle. She has set up and operated a hair salon, skincare salon and has recently set up her own skincare line of products using natural oils to heal the skin.
She’s also active in the community, working with the elderly through music and with schools through art & craft projects.
With over 25 years experience, Gordon’s entry into the hospitality industry came seemingly by accident, but is really borne of divine intervention. Having recently gained his degree in English from the University of the West Indies, he started working with a management consultant and on a whim, applied to, at the time, a ground breaking management training program offered by Sandals Resorts. With absolutely no experience in hotels or the hospitality industry for that matter, he was amazingly offered an interview and chosen from an application pool of well over a thousand, to join a select group of 20 people from across the Caribbean and Canada to be part of a comprehensive program that married thorough practical training in all departments, with detailed and in depth academic & theoretical industry learning. Between then and now, He went back to school and did formal studies in Hotel Management, managed the major departments in Rooms Division (Laundry, HK, Reception), and pivoted into solid operations management with a gift for customer service and skilful handling and de-escalation of guest problems.
He has held department management roles and gleaned solid operations management experience with Sandals Resorts, Wyndham Kingston, Comfort Suites, Half Moon Resort and Beaches Resorts, all in Jamaica. He has also held roles in London at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, Holiday Inn Express, Southwark Rose Hotel and the Falcon Pub. With Gillian, he has managed the world-renowned Strawberry Hill Hotel in Jamaica, with direct oversight of F&B, Housekeeping & Laundry, Maintenance, Grounds, and the budget. He has been a trainer in most departments he has managed and is a nurturer of people and talent.
Like Gillian, he is a known dj in his own right, as well as in combination with her on the decks. He has curated music for hotels & restaurant spaces and art exhibitions. He presents two online radio shows with Gillian that showcase the music of the now and next generation and interviewing some of the biggest names in UK Jazz, Reggae and Afrobeat.
Outside of hospitality and music, Gordon is currently the Vice Chair of the community charity Clapham Park Project in London, that administer a raft of projects impacting positively on various sections and demographic groups in the constantly evolving Clapham Park community.