2008 12 People You Need to Know: Scott Tarwater

“He’s so much fun to travel with,” Tarwater says of riding “shotgun” with the hotel tycoon. “He’s like traveling with a rock star. All of the employees want to meet him and shake his hand.”

As senior vice president of development for Springfield-based John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts, Tarwater assists Hammons with site selections, market analyses and development plans. He works more closely with Hammons than anyone else, beginning each day with his boss at a 7 a.m. strategy breakfast at University Plaza.

Hammons Hotels operates 74 properties in more than 20 states and has $565 million worth of projects under construction, with an additional $1.5 billion of projects in the planning stage. Tarwater’s thumbprint is on every bit of that.

In 2000, Tarwater moved to Springfield to take the job of senior vice president of sales and marketing for Hammons Hotels. The Texas native was living in the Dallas area and working as senior vice president of sales and marketing for Santa Monica, Calif.-based Windsor Hospitality Group.

He took on his current role in development about three years ago.

This is actually Tarwater’s second stint working for Hammons.

After graduating in 1970 with a marketing degree from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, Tarwater headed to California to earn a graduate degree from Stanford University. He never finished that degree, but he landed a job as catering manager for a Hammons’ hotel in San Francisco.

After eight years, Tarwater had worked his way up to general manager of a Hammons hotel in Redding, Calif. During that stretch from 1971–79, Tarwater met Hammons for the first time.

Tarwater spent the next 20 years working in senior sales and marketing positions, primarily for hospitality companies. He even owned four Dallas-area restaurants for a period of time.

Then, one day in 1999, he ran into Hammons during a business trip, and the rest is history.

Tarwater said his willingness to learn, organizational skills and ability to efficiently pull a project together make him a successful sidekick to Hammons.

Meanwhile, he said Hammons is successful because of his instinct and experience.

“He’s been through every major business cycle that the world-economy could throw at someone,” Tarwater says of his 88-year-old boss. “He is not afraid of the devil himself. He has seen business cycles come and go that would scare most of us to death.”

Scott Tarwater

Position: Senior vice president of development, John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts

Age: 58

Education: Bachelor’s degree in marketing, Stephen F. Austin State University

Career: Sales and marketing positions in hospitality; rental car and property management; restaurant owner

Q&A Date: March 11