John Miller

Miller studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received dual degrees in Architecture and Engineering. After working in commercial and health care architecture, he discovered his passion for hotels while working for BBG / Architects. In 1987 Miller relocated to Hong Kong, and “moved across the table” to work with a local hotel owner / developer. In the subsequent thirty years, he has worked for three top hotel companies with whom he has traveled to more than thirty countries.

The first twenty plus years were with Peninsula Hotels where Miller managed the Design and Planning of projects. This entailed all aspects from project selection and site analysis to grand opening and project close-out. The Peninsula Hotels in Chicago, Tokyo, and Shanghai are exemplary of his time there. Each project involved satisfying an owner with the highest expectations of design and quality, while balancing the operator’s objectives with the owner’s priorities of schedule and budget.

Miller followed his Peninsula experience with two luxury hotel management companies: MGM Hospitality and Four Seasons. MGM Hospitality was in the process of establishing itself as an experiential hospitality company, separate from its parent gaming company, MGM Resorts. From regional offices in Hong Kong Miller faced the challenge of meeting operator objectives with a variety of owners in China, India, and Southeast Asia. Four Seasons offered a different challenge as Miller reorganized Four Seasons’ design and technical team to create an efficient team of 25 professionals to provide world class support to the owners and developers of fifty plus pipeline projects across the globe.

The years working on hotel and resort projects around the world have given Miller the technical knowledge to resolve a wide variety of design and construction challenges. But it has also imbued him with insights into successfully working in different business cultures. Currently he brings those insights and his experience and expertise to the independent advisory services of White Walls.