Peter Venison

Peter Venison began his career as a desk clerk at the first luxury hotel in London to open after the Second World War. Within a few years, he was promoted to manager. It was there that he met Sol Kerzner, who offered him the job of general manager of Southern Sun, his newly formed hotel company in South Africa.

After several tempestuous and eventful years, Venison was asked to go to the US, to build Southern Sun in the northern hemisphere.

On the tragic death of Sol’s wife, Shirley, he was recalled to take over the management of Southern Sun in Africa while Sol reorganised his life. The Venisons eventually returned to the US, and Peter and Sol parted company not long after – at least for a few years. Almost a decade after they had parted company, Sol again called upon Peter to work with him, this time on the design, construction and operation of Sol’s masterpiece, The Palace of the Lost City. The two men continued working together, conceiving and developing the giant Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas. They finally parted again when Peter resigned following heart surgery; later, after he had recovered, they frequently found themselves on opposite sides of the table in various trade-related legal disputes. Notwithstanding this, the two men had enormous respect for each other until Sol’s death.