TOM JOHNSTON


of Science and Technology (KAUST). An iconic new development on the eastern shore of the Red Sea at Thuwal, about 80km north of Saudi Arabia’s second largest city, Jeddah, KAUST is the vision of King Abdullah himself. Covering 36sq km, this post-graduate research institute is not only Saudi Arabia’s fi rst co-ed university but is also the fi rst to accept academics from around the world, with faculty and students from more than 60 nations already enrolled. So how exactly did this once-small


regional operator become the kind of company able to command so prestigious a project? And where do its founder and his new right-hand man – Tom Johnston was appointed as COO in November 2008 – see its future?


FUN AND PARTICIPATION Although American Leisure started out offering recreational management services to swimming pools and country clubs, it wasn’t long before Kass had achieved his goal of working with residential property developers, designing and managing leisure


july 2010 © cybertrek 2010


offerings that would help them market their real estate. Then, in the 70s and 80s, the business


diversifi ed into tennis, racquetball and eventually fi tness clubs. “We started to introduce the Nautilus line of equipment, which at that time was almost a generic name for exercise equipment, into our racquets clubs,” says Kass. “That was, I think, the beginning of the trend towards fi tness clubs as we know them today.” True to Kass’s original vision, the


design and operation of swimming pools, including several summer-only facilities, has also remained a high- profi le part of the business. But it’s in the arena of lifestyle


services within residential communities that American Leisure has perhaps the greatest claim to be a pioneer. While property developers have been incorporating pools and fi tness centres into their offerings for decades, American Leisure was one of the fi rst companies to take the idea of ‘recreation at home’ and run with it, delivering a complete lifestyle concept. In addition to gyms, pools and spas,


the company equips its communities with cinemas, libraries, communal saunas and demonstration kitchens, as well as extensive social programmes – covering everything from dance classes and sporting events to parties – and the people to run them. In New York, the concept has been


so successful that no self-respecting luxury development is now complete without some kind of lifestyle offering, but American Leisure remains at the vanguard of the trend. “I don’t want to be immodest, but we did start


Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 31


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