Dear Partner,
It is with profound sadness that I must inform you of the passing of our Director, Peter Brown, my husband, father to our young daughter and business partner. A friend, colleague, entrepreneur and an all round super man. He died unexpectedly on August 8th in hospital.
He wouldn’t have wanted a fuss made, so simply I wanted to inform you that Hosts International will continue with no changes.
Peter loved working every single day, he never intended to retire, his passion and enthusiasm for the company and service remained unchanged until his final day, after decades of seeing it all across many roles in the ELT industry and over his long career in sales and business.
We built Hosts international as the leading homestay provider across UK and Ireland and it will continue in the same spirit. He was so proud of our company, our clients (many of you will know his league board!) and our people.
Peter was a vibrant person, full of life and energy, he was always involved, he wanted to be, every single day, we thought he will always be around, he made an impression on all whom he met and always had a story to tell, he had time for everyone and was always interested in people, he loved our clients, hosts and students! He had long lasting and strong, friendly, personal relationships with so many of you, our school partners, agents and the wider ELT and study travel industry. I know the industry and sector will be diminished by this news.
He will be remembered for his friendly, funny northern character and always said it as it was, maybe often with colourful language but he was true to himself, his charisma as well as his amazing leadership, forward thinking ideas along with his relentless positive attitude to growth and enhancements, that has made Hosts international what it is today.
He firmly believed in host family accommodation (he disliked it called ‘homestays’!) as a vital part of any students experience. He made such a difference to the industry through his commitment to providing hassle free accommodation options to schools allowing them to focus on the school and not the challenges of host families or accommodation. We have grown, through good, friendly, personal service and a can do yes attitude with fast responses, that Peter cemented in us all daily. As a result, we are now across 15 UK locations and across Dublin, Ireland and he had no intention of stopping!
His motto was always, “no matter what, it is business as usual”, and we continue his legacy. Myself, my team and Hosts International is here for you now as it was before. I want to assure you, we remain and continue as before.
We have a memorial arranged, if you would like to leave an online tribute, you can click here.
I will speak with you all in due course personally, for now please bear with me, while I take it a bit slow. I am on my email.
With warm regards,
Harsha