Brand & Experience Advisory
Three decades of shaping the destinations, observatories, and brands that define how the world experiences a place.
The intersection
Keith Douglas believes great businesses are built at the intersection of people, product, and profit, and that no amount of strategy matters if it isn’t grounded in genuine hospitality.
For more than three decades, Keith has led some of the most iconic brands in travel, tourism, and hospitality, translating bold vision into measurable growth. He founded KD&CO to bring that same discipline to the owners, investors, and executive teams who are ready to unlock what’s already inside their organizations: the talent, the story, and the untapped revenue.
Keith’s approach is direct: define clear objectives, build the plan to hit them, and hold everyone, including himself, accountable to the metrics that matter. Clients come to KD&CO not just for advice, but for a partner who has actually run the P&L, built the brand, and stood in front of the media, the board, and the front line.
Based in Chicago, Keith works with clients across hospitality, attractions, and commercial real estate who are navigating growth, repositioning, or a leadership transition, and who want a strategist who’s been in the room before.
Capabilities
There is power in purpose. It moves people from consumers and associates to advocates and ambassadors.
The journey
Keith’s career has been shaped by a simple pattern: take an organization at an inflection point and build the strategy that turns it into a category leader.
Keith cut his teeth in hotel sales and marketing across Chicago and Miami — Park Hyatt, Inter-Continental, Omni, DoubleTree, and the House of Blues Hotel — earning Omni’s Sales Executive of the Year and Loews’ Marketer of the Year along the way, and rising to General Manager of the House of Blues Hotel. Those years taught him what every strategy eventually comes back to: the guest experience is the brand.
At W Hotels Worldwide, Keith led regional marketing for six luxury properties generating $500M in annual revenue, keeping each hotel atop its competitive set in RevPAR, while building buzz through W Happenings, partnering with names like Moby, Condé Nast, and Hamptons Magazine.
Then came Rockefeller Center. Over nearly a decade with Tishman Speyer, Keith rebuilt the visitor experience at one of the most storied properties in the world — Top of the Rock, the Rainbow Room, 620 Loft & Garden, and the public plaza programming, including the Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting. Annual visitation grew from 170,000 to 500,000 — topping 700,000 in the peak holiday season — and revenue scaled from $14M to $125M, with features on the Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times. Top of the Rock earned Best New York Attraction honors five times under his leadership.
In 2015, Keith struck out on his own and founded KD&CO, serving as strategic advisor to SL Green and Hines on the original business plan and concepting for what is now SUMMIT One Vanderbilt. He then took the top job at One World Observatory, running day-to-day operations for one of New York’s premier attractions — three million visitors a year, $80M+ in annual revenue, and a 400-person team — with oversight extending to Legends’ attractions in London, Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Boston.
In 2020, Chicago called him home. As Chief Innovation & Marketing Officer at Sterling Bay, Keith shaped brand strategy for one of the city’s most ambitious developers, before returning to the work he loves most, relaunching KD&CO to help owners, investors, and executive teams unlock their next chapter of growth.
Today, Keith serves on the Board of Directors for Thresholds in Chicago and the Executive Board of The Magnificent Mile Association, and is the founding chapter leader of Out Professionals Chicago, building on a long history of civic leadership that includes board roles with NYC & Company, the Lower Manhattan Chamber, and the Stonewall Foundation.
Start a conversation
An observatory, an attraction, a landmark asset, or a brand that needs a sense of purpose. Wherever it is in its journey, let's talk about where it could go.
Thank you. Keith will be in touch shortly.
