Chitra Stern is the recipient of the prestigious Deloitte Institute Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the London Business School in 2014.
Chitra is of Singaporean Indian origin, an Electronic Engineer, Chartered Accountant and MBA (London Business School). Between 2017 and 2019, Chitra was on the Committee of Portugal IN, a special task force created by the Portuguese Prime Minister’s office to further enhance Foreign Direct Investment into Portugal (portugalin.gov.pt). She is also an invited professor for Luxury Marketing at the Nova School of Business and Economics, is on the board for Internationalisation and Innovation at Catolica School of Business and Economics and is the current President of the Entrepreneurs Organization (eonetwork.org) in Portugal. She is also on the Advisory Board of the Portuguese Association of Tertiary Education Institutes.
Owner and founding board member of Martinhal Family Hotels & Resorts (martinhal.com), Chitra is a passionate entrepreneur and real-estate developer, working alongside her business partner and husband, Roman, on their projects in Portugal. The Martinhal group has a luxury collection of four resorts and hotels in Portugal. The fifth Martinhal is in construction and will open later this year. Martinhal Residences is a 5-star branded hotel residences project and apartments with serviced living (martinhalresidences.com) in Parque das Nações in Lisbon. Chitra and Roman have had four children during the process of building up their businesses.
Their latest project, the United Lisbon Education Hub (eduhublisbon.com) is a large rehabilitation project and is being developed as an innovative ecosystem for education. The first piece of the project, a world-class international school – the United Lisbon International School - opened in September 2020 and already has a student population of over 500 children across 30-plus nationalities (unitedlisbon.school). The school won the prestigious ‘Lisbon Prize’ at the World Architecture Festival recently for its features of repurposing defunct industrial buildings for the higher purpose of education. The rest of the hub with office spaces, further education spaces and accommodation is being built out in the next two years.
We are passionate about education being the driver for good in the world.
What first brought you to Lisbon?
We moved to Portugal in 2007 – first to the Algarve, where we lived for 15 years. The people, opportunities, weather and connectivity are all brilliant in Portugal. Lisbon was the natural progression for us to expand the Martinhal brand after having opened two resorts in the south successfully. Lisbon is the capital city and is unparalleled in being an authentic yet modern European capital. It’s surrounded by a river and the Atlantic Ocean and is well-connected to the rest of Europe, the Americas, as well as the Middle East and Africa. In 2016, we opened two hotels in the Lisbon area – one in Quinta da Marinha, Cascais and the other in Chiado, old town Lisbon. In 2017, we started to diversify our real estate business interests into commercial and education as well.
Was it a childhood dream to become a successful entrepreneur with multiple businesses under your hat?
Not really! I was meant to become a doctor! And then I chose to pursue engineering for my undergraduate degree. Chose to enter Finance and Business by becoming a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse and after six years with PW, I left to pursue a full-time MBA at the London Business School. It was really when I was 28 that I started thinking about becoming an entrepreneur with my husband, whom I had met at the same time.
How did the Martinhal concept come along?
The Martinhal concept was born when we had to figure out what unique positioning we could adopt for our first resort in Sagres. It was exactly then that we had our first child, and we realised the trials and tribulations of travelling with children! It suddenly became difficult to have luxury for parents while travelling with children. We looked at various existing family concepts and realised that there was a niche in the market to satisfy families at the luxury end of the market. This is how the concept was born.
And was the school a natural progression?
It was not natural per se. It was a passion to create positive impact for foreign direct investment in Lisbon that drove that decision. Without enough international schools, we saw back in 2017 that expat families who had to move here for work or investment couldn’t do it. Companies thinking of relocating to Lisbon could not be attractive without international schools for their employee’s children. Understanding children and families from all over the world with our experience in Martinhal obviously helped us to enter the educational world.
How does being a mum of four work alongside running the various businesses?
It is challenging and obviously you’re ridden with guilt on every side! However, children learn so much from entrepreneurial parents – life lessons and how much hard work must go into these ventures. As a mother, I feel much more balanced having to focus on both work and the family.
Are you a pro at multitasking?
Whether I’m a pro or not, I do multitask! I think this is what every entrepreneur has to do.
How does the real estate development business fit in?
All our businesses have had a real estate connection from the start. We started developing the real estate in Sagres before developing a hotel brand. Every new Martinhal has a real-estate angle behind it. What we have done is diversified into other kinds of real estate, as well as businesses.
Can you pinpoint key turning points in your life?
There are probably several. One of the key turning points was my decision to leave Singapore to come to Europe to study – I came to London. This obviously changed my life in ways I couldn’t imagine. The next one was certainly meeting my husband and business partner, Roman. We have complementary skill sets and we are great as co-founders.
Any lessons learned?
There are various lessons learnt in our 20-plus years of entrepreneurial life! Too many to cover here. Top five as an entrepreneur:
- Grit is far more important for the execution of an idea than a good business idea.
- Focus on building great teams.
- You need to always combine persistence with rational analysis.
- Stay positive and optimistic and think about how you’re going to steer the ship in good weather and bad.
- Don’t run out of cash!
How is life in Lisbon now? How has the expat community changed?
It’s great! Lots of good development has taken place in bringing this city to new heights. The expat community has grown immensely and has become more cosmopolitan and diverse.
Are you expat or local?
I am truly both! I am a proud resident of Portugal and an expat with various cultures in me (Singaporean, Indian, British and Swiss).
Follow Chitra
IG: @chitrastern
For more about The United Lisbon School: unitedlisbon.school