Meet Tommy Nigro | Hotelier & Student

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tommy Nigro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tommy, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I believe that taking calculated risks is directly related to achieving and maintaining happiness. It’s easy to become stagnant, particularly as we age and become set in our ways, and I think it’s easy to ignore the damage that inaction can do. There’s an opportunity cost associated with sticking to the status quo and I try to be conscious of that.

As kids, we usually didn’t have a choice and were regularly forced into uncomfortable situations, like starting a new grade in school, participating in team sports or starting a new job. We tend to forget about the anxiety that may have been associated with those events and generally remember the positives. As adults, we’re forced into new situations much less frequently and all become “experts” in our day-to-day existence. Because of this, It’s easy to be afraid of looking stupid or asking dumb questions and I think there’s a tendency to focus on these negatives rather than the potential positives that can result from taking chances. I saw a t-shirt recently that said something like: “Comfort is a slow death” and that resonated with me. I’m no different than anyone else and find it easier to fall into a routine but try to remind myself that there’s danger in that too.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
While I think being decisive is a critical factor to achieving success, I believe it can be dangerous to force the issue and happiness, for me, has been about letting life come to me and making choices within that framework. I graduated from college with a degree in philosophy and didn’t have much direction; a friend encouraged me to move to Aspen with him and I got a job working as a bellman at a hotel. I quickly fell in love with the industry and, when it was time to move on, I elected to continue my education at DU and earned an MBA specializing in Hospitality Asset Management and Finance, which seemed natural given my brief professional experience working in customer service. From there a took a job as a hotel consultant, where my primary function was conducting hotel appraisals / valuations. Several of my assignments were for Stonebridge Companies and after a few years they asked me to apply for a job in their real estate department. I did and was hired as the inaugural member of the department. I subsequently worked at Stonebridge for nearly fifteen years and was directly involved in the growth of the firm during that time – what started out as buying mid-sized hotels in secondary markets turned into developing high-rise hotels in New York City, Seattle and San Francisco (not to mention Denver). It was fantastic and, for a long time, I learned a ton. The law of diminishing returns caught up with me though and a few years ago I realized I wasn’t learning as much. I missed the early days of the job when I was involved in all aspects of the deal rather than what evolved into managing a team of analysts. I knew I wanted a new challenge and to do my own deals.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I like the outdoors, music and hanging out with friends and family. As a result, I would love to take an out-of-towner for a hike or mountain bike ride in the mountains, to a concert at Red Rocks and a party in my back yard. I feel fortunate to have a close group of friends that I find interesting and would be proud to introduce anyone to.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people that have influenced me over the course of my life including my parents, wife and even my kids. However, from a professional standpoint, my former boss, Navin Dimond, had a profound impact on my professional development. He is the acting CEO and founder of Stonebridge Companies and made me realize that no one has all the answers but committing to an idea and giving maximum effort goes a very long way. In many cases, taking that first step makes all the difference but hard work is mandatory. It’s important to have high standards and maybe more important to hold oneself to those standards.

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