The first thing you notice about William ‘Bill’ E Heinecke is how down-to-earth he is.

The Minor International Founder and Chairman is in Sydney for a YPO speaking engagement, and his team has made efficient use of his time while he’s in town – it’s one media engagement after the next. But Heinecke moves between commitments with surprising calm.

It’s clearly a rhythm he’s mastered over thousands of repetitions – and one he genuinely seems to enjoy. His schedule is tight, and our window to chat is even tighter. But instead of launching straight into business, he zeroes in on something unexpected.

His attention lands on the silver band on my middle finger: an Oura ring. He lifts his hand in response. He has one too, and naturally, we start comparing sleep scores and stress levels. Turns out the self-made billionaire is just as interested in optimizing himself as he is his empire.

“At the end of the day, if you sleep well – and I sleep well anywhere regardless of time zone – eat well for your gut health and exercise regularly, then you’re on your way to a longer, healthier life,” he insists.

Heinecke is a joint owner of MJets, a private jet charter company in Thailand and Myanmar

The line could be a wellness founder’s tagline. But it’s coming from the man behind Minor International – the parent company of Minor Hotels – whose leadership spans close to six decades and whose portfolio reaches from luxury resorts to quick-service restaurants.

The business behind the man

Today, Minor Hotels operates more than 560 properties globally, with the Group forecasting it will surpass 850 by the end of 2027 as it continues to build out a pipeline of new openings, brand launches and conversions.

In Australia, Minor’s footprint is already expansive from Oaks Hotels, Resorts & Suites with more than 50 properties nationwide to NH Hotels also slated to make its debut locally with NH Collection Sydney, scheduled for completion in 2026.

“Minor Hotels Australasia delivered its strongest growth in recent years in 2025, with a record number of signings,” Heinecke says. “There were new openings, including Avani Mooloolaba Beach in 2026, Avani Wollongong in 2027, NH Collection Sydney in 2026 and NH Sydney Airport in 2028.

“White‑label management and franchising remain strategic priorities.”

Balance before scale

Ask Heinecke how he manages to sleep with a life that includes a global portfolio, constant travel and the kind of growth most executives only ever see on a slide deck, and it’s clear he’s not interested in hacks. For him, it’s about balance.

“You must have balance in your life,” he explains. “I wouldn’t call myself a workaholic. I certainly have other passions outside of work, and I pursue them actively.”

Then he maps out a trip itinerary that feels like a real-time illustration of that philosophy. He recently checked in on a Miami development, attended the Cavallino Ferrari car show where one of his cars is on exhibit, then jetted off to Dubai before finally arriving in Cape Town. It’s business, pleasure and passion all stitched together.

Heinecke’s private Phuket residence, known as Villa Similan, is set within the Anantara Layan Phuket Resort estate

Heinecke’s guilty pleasures – or ‘weaknesses’ as he calls them – keep his spark alive.

“I have a very special Ferrari 330 Speciale. They only made four of them,” he says with a grin.

I soon discover he also owns five airplanes and is passionate about diving, praising his NH Collection Reethi resort in the Maldives as a diver’s paradise, alive with sea turtles, manta rays, enormous whale sharks and vibrant clownfish.

“I used to race cars in my youth as well,” he says. “Now, I do a little bit of rallying and vintage car racing.”

Wellness as a strategy

Over the last decade, he has leaned on wellness to keep up with the demands of his lifestyle.

“The Oura ring was a major step in that,” Heinecke says. “But I also have a Whoop, which is upstairs charging.”

His passion for wellness is mirrored in Minor’s strategic direction, where it’s become a cross-brand priority for the Group, including integrative concepts that blend medical technology with local cultural insight.

Layan Life at Anantara Layan Phuket Resort offers bespoke, hyper-personalized wellness journeys

In fact, Anantara Hotels & Resorts, Minor Hotels’ experiential luxury brand, recently partnered with Technogym – the world-leading brand for fitness, wellness, sport and health – to deliver a premium, science-backed fitness experience available through in-room entertainment systems as well as the new Minor Hotels app.

“You want to make sure you stay healthy, so especially as I’ve gotten older, I’ve started spending a lot of time on wellness,” he says. “Now I’m sharing that passion with the entire company and all of our guests.”

More than a personal priority, Heinecke explains that wellness is a top guest expectation in today’s landscape along with experience-led travel moments.

“Guests want authentic, locally rooted experiences and meaningful memories – not just physical hotels,” he says.

“Wellness expectations now extend to prevention, longevity and holistic wellbeing too, so we are responding with integrated wellness concepts, such as Phuket’s Layan Life by Anantara and the expansion of Anantara Wellness.”

Brick by brick

Heinecke’s origin story is famous in hospitality circles. At 17, when he was still in high school, he launched his first company, using US$1,200 in borrowed funds. Since he was under 18, the business had to be registered under the name ‘Minor’ and the name stuck.

Perhaps even more interesting is what he says about his mindset in those early years – and how little it resembles the tidy myth executives like to tell themselves in hindsight.

“We started with one hotel. We started with one restaurant. It’s always been about trying to deliver an exceptional experience,” he says.

“Once we achieved that, we opened a second restaurant, a second hotel and scaled from there – but only once we felt we were delivering a great experience every time.

“Brick by brick, that’s how it went. Then suddenly, we’d stand back and see that we’d built a wall of enterprises. But it certainly wasn’t in the five-year plan,” he continues, with a laugh.

“We didn’t even have five-year plans when I started the business. We were just lucky to make payroll the next month.”

That brick-by-brick approach also shows up in how Minor became global. The Group’s first acquisition outside Asia was in Australia with the Oaks Hotels. Then, The Coffee Club and then Tivoli in Portugal. The biggest came next – NH, a US$3 billion acquisition that expanded Minor across Europe and South America, positioning the Group as one of the largest operators in those regions.

Crisis as a teacher

It was a bold move, and in retrospect, the timing was brutal.

“We bought it just before the COVID-19 pandemic, which was a terrifying experience,” he recalls.

At the worst point, Minor had 550 hotels, with 525 of them closed.

“We lost a billion dollars in eight quarters,” Heinecke says. “I’d never lost anything like that before. It was a huge experience and awakening. In any event, it was certainly a testing moment.”

What got them through, he says, was focus on speed and communication.

“You have to move quickly, communicate well with your team members and make sure everyone is pointing in the right direction because it’s important to pull together during these sorts of things,” he explains.

“Sharing a plan with your team, even during uncertainty, and making sure everyone is on board is critical.”

While it was unprecedented, it wasn’t the first crisis he’s navigated during his career. He also led his businesses through SARS, tsunamis and the September 11 attacks. But the pandemic was the only one that forced the entire industry to confront closure at a near-total level.

NH Collection Reethi places guests within easy reach of Hanifaru Bay, the Maldives’ renowned manta hotspot

Today, the business is back to record earnings, higher than pre-pandemic, which he credits to a structurally diversified portfolio, where hotels contribute around 80 percent of revenue and food the remaining 20 percent.

“A balanced mix across luxury, premium and select brands provides flexibility through economic cycles,” he says.

“Geographic diversification also reduces reliance on a single market. This balance acts as a natural hedge during periods of regional or travel disruption.”

Leading with heart

Minor employs tens of thousands of people across its portfolio, and taking care of staff is Heinecke’s priority.

“You have to have leadership with heart,” he says. “You must have empathy for people, and you have to be working with people rather than directing them.”

Then he draws a distinction most leaders understand, but few live.

“It’s easier to pull people along,” he says. “Great leaders tend to pull people to their way of thinking, not push them. For me, it’s been all about pulling people along for the journey – not pushing them into doing things.”

Heinecke then talks about passion as a lever – the emotional link to the work that keeps all 90,000 of his staff aligned across hotels, restaurants and markets.

“I’ve always believed you have to have real passion for what you’re doing to create an emotional link, which is critical to getting everyone focused in the same direction,” he says.

He also believes in extending credit where credit is due.

“I surround myself with people who are better than I am in their fields – and I trust them,” Heinecke explains.

“I focus on what I do best and rely on the specialized expertise of the team as the organization scales. This allows me to focus on strategy, culture and long-term direction rather than day-to-day operations.”

Growth without ego

This philosophy helps explain why he has never chased being an industry giant. He’s candid about the trade-off: Scale is tempting, but it can dilute a founder’s ability to stay close to the experience.

“We’re very lucky that we’re not one of the giants,” he acknowledges.

“I’ve never wanted to be one of the largest hotel operators in the world because I have too much passion for what we’re doing.

“The whole excitement of creating Minor was about being able to visit the places that I love and share them with other people. While the places we choose to develop may not be the most profitable, they are much more satisfying.”

He names Mozambique, East Africa and South Africa as places that haven’t been easy markets to break into, but they’ve been very exciting, delivering a richer traveler experience.

“I am very involved as the founder, and I also enjoy my hotels as much as our guests do,” he admits.

By the end of the interview, it’s clear what still motivates Heinecke, and it’s not conquest. It’s curiosity and the ability to stay emotionally engaged with the next big thing.

“I pursue anything I go after with passion,” he says. “If I’m not passionate about it, then I don’t want to do it. And that means I don’t do a lot of things.”

He doesn’t garden or do maintenance work on his planes or cars. He hires people for that. But he lights up at the thought of orchestrating a restoration, researching history, picking interiors and choosing paint. It’s the details, the craft and the feeling of making something just right that he makes time for.

I ask what success to him looks like in the next five to 10 years, and his answer is simple.

“Improving upon what we’re doing, always delivering a better experience for our guests,” he says. “Someone recently asked me what decade of my life has been the best, and I simply said, ‘The best is yet to come.’

“I’m still very optimistic that there are some very good times still ahead.”