Ethiopian track legend Haile Gebrselassie opens his eighth hotel

It’s another feather in the cap for Olympic legend Haile Gebrselassie who announced on his official social media Twitter account the launch of his latest hotel, the Haile Grand Hotel, situated smack in the middle of Addis Ababa.

The 5-star hotel was launched barely two weeks after the Ethiopian New Year and compliments his seven other hotels and resorts, with another five in various stages of planning and construction.

Haile aims to ramp up the number of hotels within his organization to 20 in the coming years.

What makes his story so fascinating is how he transitioned so seamlessly from the track to the corporate boardroom and now oversees an empire of at least 3,500 employees without even a business degree or diploma.

The Haile Group first invested in hospitality in 2010 when they opened the Haile Resort-Hawassa.

In addition to his interests in the hotel and hospitality businesses, Haile has also invested in the education sector and agribusiness.

He also owns Marathon Motors, a vehicle business that assembles Hyundai cars.

Not forgetting the fact that he operates the first-ever privately-owned movie theatre, Alem Cinema Hall.

The family business known as Haile and Alem International is overseen by Haile, the champion runner and current sports ambassador, along with his wife Alem Tilahun.

Haile has two Olympic gold medals over 10,000m, four World Championship titles, won the Berlin Marathon four times consecutively, has had three straight wins at the Dubai Marathon, won four world titles indoors, and was the 2001 World Half Marathon Champion.