Hermitage Bay Antigua

2 Business View Caribbean Hermitage Bay, Antigua A natural paradise Andy Thesen, the founder and owner of Hermitage Bay, the award-winning, all-inclusive, 5-star resort on Antigua’s western shore, never intended to be in the hotel business, at all. “I was planning to be just an in- vestor,” he says, “rather than getting so involved. But I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. It’s been an extremely rewarding journey – and one that I’m still on.” Thesen, the accidental hotelier, was in the venture capital business in England in 2003, and his initial in- terest in Hermitage Bay was simply to explore the pos- sibility of investing $250,000 to buy a two-bedroom villa on the beach. “That’s why I went to Antigua,” he explains, “to see the beach. There wasn’t anything there; it was a completely virgin beach - the villa was only planned. At the time I went to consider buying, the guy who became my partner, and his son, were trying to raise equity to build the hotel by selling off planned villas.” At some point, though, Thesen decided to join the venture - but only as an investor. Or so he thought. “I thought I’d do the investing bit, and the business plan bit,” he recalls. “Get the money raised and swan out