Ralph Grippo
President
Resort Properties
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Ralph Grippo is president of the Irvine Company Resort Properties. In addition to his duties as president of Resort Properties, Mr. Grippo also serves as managing director of The Resort at Pelican Hill™, the luxury destination resort the company is creating overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Southern California’s Newport Coast®.
Mr. Grippo oversees all operational aspects of the Irvine Company’s growing portfolio of resort holdings. These include The Island Hotel Newport Beach™, a 295-room luxury hotel; the 536-room Hyatt Regency Irvine, Pelican Hill Golf Club’s two 18-hole courses in Newport Coast, Oak Creek Golf Club in Irvine, and approximately 500 boat slips at five marinas.
In addition, the company is building The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast, a destination golf resort. The company is opening the resort in two phases: Pelican Hill Golf Club®, with 36 holes of Tom Fazio-designed golf, reopened in November 2007, along with the new Pelican Grill restaurant; all other components -- from bungalow and villa accommodations to the function space and spa -- open in fall 2008.
Mr. Grippo has worked in the luxury resort industry for more than two decades, including 17 years with The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company. Most recently, he was Ritz-Carlton’s vice president and area general manager for China, responsible not only for seven luxury hotels with approximately 2,600 rooms but also serving as general manager of the company’s China flagship, The Portman Ritz-Carlton in Shanghai.
Previously, Mr. Grippo was vice president and area general manager at The Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena, where he was responsible for the company’s hotels in Southern California and Hawaii.
Mr. Grippo has a Bachelor of Science degree in hotel and restaurant management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The Irvine Company is a 140-year-old privately held company known throughout the world as a best-of-class master planner and long-term owner, investor and operator of a large and diversified real estate portfolio. The company also is known as a steward of some of the most beautiful, permanently preserved land in California. In addition to its master-planned communities on The Irvine Ranch® in Orange County, Calif., the company also is known for its portfolio of high-quality investment properties -- office, retail and apartment -- it owns in San Diego, Orange County, West Los Angeles and the Silicon Valley. The company traces its roots to the 1860s with the assembly of The Irvine Ranch from Mexican and Spanish land grants. The Irvine Company was incorporated in 1894.