At first glance, there is little in common between beautiful St Davids, the smallest city in Britain, and a high-density Chinese metropolis. The link is Keith Griffiths.
Keith is a saviour of St Davids in Pembrokeshire, investing more than £35 million to restore heritage buildings, create jobs and bring hope to a struggling economy. He has made an undisputed difference to his community, displaying moral courage and vision in making and delivering tough choices. Thanks to his influence, his three Retreat Group historic hotels have brought AA three-rosette dining and 55 AA four-star guestrooms to the city, attracting over 10,000 higher-value visitors a year.
Keith has funded this through his outstanding success as founder and chair of influential Hong Kong-based global architects Aedas, one of the 12 largest architectural practices in the world, renowned across Asia and a watchword for bold innovation in sustainability. In the past five years he has won the world’s top design awards, set new benchmarks for sustainability in high-density cites, lectured internationally, formed architectural training programmes with the top five China universities, and completed over 25 seminal sustainable buildings, including airport, rail, commercial and governmental buildings and skyparks in China, SE Asia, India and the Middle East.