“There’s always sunshine somewhere. You just have to find it.”

When Alan joined Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers, the hotel did not even exist yet. COP15 was just around the corner, more than 800 guests were about to arrive, and the new hotel needed to find its feet at record speed. To Alan, it sounded like a huge challenge but also exactly the kind of challenge he wanted to be part of.

More than 15 years later, he is still here.

If you ask Alan why, his answer has little to do with the hotel itself and everything to do with the people.

“I liked the challenge from day one,” he says: “But the reason I stayed has always been the people.”

Alan is not someone who talks much about job titles or career ambitions. When he speaks about his working life, the conversation quickly turns to colleagues, guests, and the leaders around him. That is no coincidence.

As a child, Alan experienced both war and flight. Those experiences still shape the way he looks at life today.

“I’ve been through a lot in my life,” he says: “That’s why I always try to look positively towards tomorrow. There is always light somewhere. You just have to find the sunshine.”

Perhaps that is also why community means so much to him. At Crowne Plaza, Alan feels he works in a place where people are treated as people. Where managers take the time to listen. Where employees are valued for their strengths rather than judged by their weaknesses.

“They focus on what you’re good at,” he explains: “And if there’s something you don’t know how to do yet, they help you learn it.”

Several times throughout the conversation, Alan recalls moments when managers and colleagues made time to teach him something new, support him through a challenge, or help him balance work and family life.

“My family comes first,” he says: “And they understand that. If my son needs me, we find a solution.”

To Alan, that is more than good leadership. It is trust. And trust creates loyalty.

Listening to Alan talk about his day-to-day work, it quickly becomes clear that Crowne Plaza is much more than a workplace to him. It is a community.

He speaks eight languages and often uses them to help guests from around the world feel welcome and at ease. He regularly brings young people from minority backgrounds to visit the hotel and learn about opportunities in the Danish labor market. And he spends a great deal of his energy bringing people together across cultures, generations, and backgrounds.

“We come from all over the world,” he says: “But here, we are one family.”

It is a word that comes up several times throughout our conversation: family.

Not because everyone is the same. Quite the opposite.

Alan talks about colleagues from different countries, different cultures, and different walks of life. He talks about misunderstandings that are resolved through conversation. About people taking the time to get to know one another. About leaders who insist on bringing people together around the same table.

“When people get to know each other, they usually realize they have much more in common than they thought.”

For Alan, that is what makes the difference. Not the building. Not the conferences. Not even the hotel itself. It is the people who show up every day and make everything work.

“You have to enjoy coming to work,” he says: “We spend so many hours together. Why shouldn’t we enjoy each other’s company?”

After more than 15 years, his view of working life remains unchanged.

Work is about people. Everything else can be learned.

And if the sunshine disappears for a while? Alan already knows what to do.

“You find it again.”