Rocco Forte

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Sir Rocco Forte (born 18 January 1945) is a British hotelier born in Bournemouth.

After Downside School he went on to read modern languages at Oxford University. He is the son of Lord Forte from whom he took over as CEO of the Forte Group in 1992.

In the mid-Nineties, the Forte Group was faced with a hostile takeover bid from Gerry Robinson's Granada. Ultimately, Granada succeeded with a £3.87 billion tender offer in August 1995 that left the family with around £350 million in cash.

Sir Rocco Forte was featured on the cover of a recent edition of Lusso Magazine. In the interview he told the magazine about his brief career as an actor as well as his participation in various triathlons. ^[1]

In 2003, following the de-merger of Compass Group from Granada's media interests, the use of the Forte trademark was returned to Forte in a gesture intended to dispel the bitter legacy of the takeover.

After the takeover, Forte set up his own chain of hotels - The Rocco Forte Collection. He bought the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh and Brown's Hotel, London for £51.5m. The Rocco Forte Hotels group now operates 11 luxurious hotels around Europe, with three more to open within the period 2008-2009.

Forte's family wealth in 2006 was listed as £385,000,000.^{[citation needed]}

Forte funded a series of lectures at Westminster Cathedral in April 2008 organised by Cardinal Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. The first of these was given by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who launched his "faith foundation" there. Later, Forte was reported to have criticised Blair for passing anti-Catholic legislation^[2].