Gordon Arthur Cyril "Butch" Stewart was a Jamaican businessman and hotelier who founded and served as the chairman of Beaches Resorts, Sandals Resorts, and Sandals Resorts International, the parent company as well as The ATL Group and its subsidiaries. Stewart turned a rundown beach hotel in Montego Bay, in his native Jamaica, into the flagship of a chain of luxury resorts. Mr. Stewart began his resorts business in 1981, when he took the money he had made selling air-conditioning units in Jamaic... moreGordon Arthur Cyril "Butch" Stewart was a Jamaican businessman and hotelier who founded and served as the chairman of Beaches Resorts, Sandals Resorts, and Sandals Resorts International, the parent company as well as The ATL Group and its subsidiaries. Stewart turned a rundown beach hotel in Montego Bay, in his native Jamaica, into the flagship of a chain of luxury resorts. Mr. Stewart began his resorts business in 1981, when he took the money he had made selling air-conditioning units in Jamaica and invested it in developing a hotel on the island’s North Coast. Naming it Sandals Montego Bay, it would become the flagship resort of a chain of luxury vacation destinations. Sandals now operates 15 resorts, including six in Jamaica. Mr. Stewart’s work with the Sandals and Beaches resorts led to leadership roles in Jamaica’s tourism industry, including director of the Jamaica Tourist Board for a decade. In 1992, his Butch Stewart Initiative pumped $1 million a week for more than 10 weeks into the foreign exchange market to help halt the slide of the Jamaican dollar. In 1994, he led a group of investors that took control of Air Jamaica, the Caribbean’s largest regional carrier. He put together an investment group that paid $37.5 million for 70 percent of the airline, giving himself a 46 percent stake. Stewart died in Miami, United States, on 4 January 2021 at the age of 79.
