Joe Hindsley thinks it's no accident that he got into the hotel business.

The general manager of the Hyatt Regency downtown, one of the city's most prestigious lodgers, was always attracted to the service industry.

Sean Drakes/Special (ENLARGE)

'To operate a hotel, you use every single discipline that exists in the working world, but it's under one roof,' Joe Hindsley says.

THE JOE HINDSLEY FILE • Age: 48 • Education: Bachelor's in food service and housing administration from Penn State University. • Family: Wife, Lisa; children, Katelyn, Jennifer and Joey • Hobbies: family, boating, golfing. • Books he is reading: "True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership" by Bill George; "Leadership from the Inside Out: Becoming a Leader for Life" by Kevin Cashman; and "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" by Marshall Goldsmith. BUSINESS Latest Headlines: Georgia banks on brink of collapse? Not quite  Survey: Employees will jet when job market rebounds  One consolation for Atlanta: jobless woes worse elsewhere  Restaurants offering summer freebies  Weather Channel changing up 'On the 8s' tunes  • More business news • Business photo galleries

Going into the hotel business, he said, was an extension of his first love — operating a restaurant.

"My calling was easy because my grandfather was in the Irish pub business. We had one of the first bars in Philadelphia after Prohibition," he said. "So I was raised in the Irish bar business."

That background in making sure customers were satisfied evolved over the years into a bigger goal of seeing them happy from the time they wake in the morning until they fall asleep at night. And what better way to do that than to work in the hotel industry?

"The one thing about the hotel business that is so attractive is that it is like running little cities," said Hindsley, 48. "To operate a hotel, you use every single discipline that exists in the working world, but it's under one roof."

Q: You were the only boy in a family of five sisters. What was that like?

A: At a very early age you can imagine I was called on to do more of the stereotypical male jobs that included not only taking out the trash and doing the yard work, but helping out the family business at a very early age, like mopping the floors, washing dishes. They didn't have those child labor laws back then, especially in the family business. I spent a lot of time as a young person working in the business and just becoming infatuated in the service of people. It was really a fun childhood.

Q: What was your grandfather's pub like?

A: I tell people, when they say, 'What was it really like?' It was like [the TV show] 'Cheers.' It really was. We had a Norm, we had people who came in everyday and sat in the same seat. We called them the board of directors. They always had an opinion.

Q: Working as hard as you did, did you have much time for fun?

A: I played football in high school, both offensive and defensive tackle, mostly because I was a big kid early on. But then I trashed my knee and didn't play anymore after my sophomore year. The orthopedic surgeon for the Philadelphia Flyers actually fixed my knee and suggested I stop playing. He said that if I wanted to avoid walking with a cane at 50, that I should probably forget about football.

Q: With so many hotel companies to choose from, why did you choose the Hyatt Regency?

A: Something just attracted me to Hyatt. I don't know what it was, I just thought it was a really good company. The people that came to the campus (Penn State University, where he received his undergraduate degree in food service and housing administration) were really neat. It was a privately owned company by a family in Chicago. It wasn't a big corporation. I thought to myself, you know it would be great to get some experience outside of the family business before I go back.

Q: But you never went back?

A: I graduated from Penn State in 1982 and started as a corporate trainee with Hyatt hotels in Minneapolis, Minn., and never looked back.

Q: Does your family still own the pub?

A: My parents sold the business three years ago. They are in their late 70s. The one thing about the restaurant business is it's nights and weekends. Growing up as a kid, my buddies were going out on dates and it was like, 'The dishwasher called in sick, can you come in and help? It's the busiest night of the week.' And I'd say, 'OK.'

Q: That dedication has certainly paid off because now you're running one of the most well-known hotels in the country. And you have earned a lot of respect in the business.

A: We are very fortunate because we are one of the largest hotels in the company. The cream of the crop among Hyatt employees comes to this hotel. This is known as a finishing school. I have been here four years and we've sent out five general managers. I am fortunate to have people around me that I am very confident can do their jobs and I am helping them think differently about the business and prepare them for the next level.

Q: This hotel is also historic. In addition to being one of the first to break the color barrier by allowing blacks to stay at the hotel as guests, it was the skyline for Atlanta at one time.

A: When people walked outside their offices 40 years ago, the tallest building in the city was this one. The city has always looked to this hotel for leadership. We were built so that [architect] John Portman's [AmericasMart] visitors had a place to stay. Of course, that evolved into a very successful convention industry.

Know a business leader we should feature on this page? E-mail us at sundaybiz@ajc.com.