Spa Leaders We Love

The Female Founders Who Inspire Us

Female spa leaders are an incredible breed. The industry is built on wellness, health, compassion, beauty, and relationships — and these successful spa professionals have a personal passion for all of these things. They live, breath, and embody the art of wellness. 

Wellness is an active pursuit: a lifestyle of setting intentions, making choices, and taking action, of constantly working toward an optimal state of health and well-being. So what makes up the DNA of a great spa leader? Those that deeply understand the significance of wellness, but also confidence, creativity, diplomacy, integrity, focus, passion, patience, and decisiveness  — all necessary qualities in spa leadership. A successful spa must have a strong culture of nurturing and care, traits that are innate, understood, and valued by women. This culture is woven from top to bottom, with managers empathetic to the needs of the staff and a technical team that delivers a healing experience customized to the unique needs of each guest. 

At Spa Space, we’re incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by a community of inspiring female spa leaders, who are pioneering the industry into exciting new frontiers, as technology evolves, the world changes, and consumer needs unfold. Their listening and communication skills are unmatched and they hold within them a sharp awareness of intuition. They work to elevate their employees because they know that’s what makes a business thrive. These women have devoted their life-long careers to helping people live well.

Here, we tap into the extensive experience of several important female industry leaders to get the lowdown on the opportunities, challenges, and more faced by women in spa.

Amy McDonald

Founder, Under A Tree

A 30+ year health, wellness, and sustainability expert, Amy merges the best in resort hospitality and urban healthcare into integrated business models. A widely recognized and sought after innovator in transformational health and wellness programming, she is an expert in merging the best of resort hospitality with functional, integrative medicine into holistic models.

Under A Tree was born of a desire to deliver world-class wellness experiences that provide transformation within long term profitability.

1. How did you get into the world of wellness?

I did not choose it consciously. I really did not know what I wanted to be or do as a career, so I followed my heart and became dual-licensed as an esthetician and massage therapist in Canada in my early 20’s. By my 30’s, I had moved to Mexico and was working in massage, but since I had some management experience, I took a role as a GM of a small property. I did not know about wellness or spa, but I created a fitness experience, outdoor hikes, an organic garden, and lots of educational and cultural events. It was a wellness retreat property, but that language was not yet being used.

By coincidence a travel writer stumbled upon my remote property and wrote a story that went into all the major newspapers; Miraval recruited me and I moved to the US. Truly the rest is history. Miraval taught me so much about mindfulness, wellness programming, and how combined with great spa treatments and outdoor activities — it can be so transformational. I took all those years of hands-on leadership experience and started Under A Tree based on the same principles, 17 years ago now.

2. What was the influence behind building your company?

When I started the company, I saw a gap in the industry. When I was working at Miraval, I learned that the programming, wellness, and everything that happened outside of the treatment room was so life changing, and I felt that the wellness business model should be applied everywhere. I saw an opportunity for other businesses to be more profitable under this model, and I wanted to help them achieve that level of wellness, not only for the many business benefits, but for the overall impact it can have on their guests.

I also really wanted to create a strong female firm; I saw all these incredible women with a vast array of expertise that no longer wanted to work as part of the corporate machine — a big influence for me. I wanted to hire these talented women with this wealth of experience so that our new firm would become a tree with many branches and the services we could provide, more diverse. This model keeps us fresh and ahead of trends since our branches reach far and wide into different business models (from clinics, to senior living, day/resort/hotel wellness, to sports performance, and mixed-use real estate), different cultures, and yes — always relevant, meaningful, and financially sound.

3. What trends do you see in wellness as we enter 2022?

The pandemic has had significant influence on the fundamental shift towards wellness in our everyday lives. Considering our overall mental and physical health, we are now starting to really focus on the value of sleep, connecting with the outdoors, the importance of play, and with the shift from "working at home" to "living at work" the even greater importance of disconnecting to reconnect. Touchless wellness technology has grown with diverse options, reduced pricing, and consumer openness, so it has seen tremendous growth, and fills an increasing need for "recovery" at a time when we are suffering from staff shortages. There has also been a long-overdue and phenomenal uptake on the use of CBD products to help with sleep, stress, and anxiety, and the movement and research into psychedelics, all have become ever-present since March of 2020.

4. What is your advice for someone looking to become a leader in the spa industry?

I always say that the best way to start in this industry is as a therapist or front desk person, and work your way up, even if you have studied spa management, etc. One main reason Under a Tree has been successful for 17 years is that we are very seasoned consultants who have all managed highly complex and high profile facilities. This has kept us real, grounded, and practical. We all started as therapists or at the front desk and understand the operational complexities of a spa/wellness facility, and that the best ideas are only the best if they can be implemented and delivered in a consistent, financially sustainable way. Starting this way, you then have a good understanding of all facets of the wellness industry, which helps immensely when considering the big picture and how it trickles down through every step, and how those steps can influence your guests (and staff's) overall wellness.

Mia Kyricos

President and Chief Love Officer, Kyricos & Associates (K&A)

A 20+ years globally respected thought-leader in the business of wellness, Mia cultivates wellness, hospitality, healthy lifestyle, and travel brands across 100+ countries. Mia enables public and private entities to thrive in the $4.5 trillion global wellness economy, working cross-functionally and cross-culturally with love and a specialty in brand strategy.

Kyricos & Associates (K&A) is a strategic advisory and referral firm dedicated to the success of wellness, hospitality, tourism, and healthy lifestyle companies.

1. How did you get into the world of wellness?

I enrolled in graduate school at Cornell University in September of 2001, after working at a dot.com company for four years. Everything I ever dreamed of doing was in hospitality, so I took my functional expertise in marketing and communications, and my operational expertise in hospitality, to return to the hotel school for my MBA. Within the first week of classes, 9/11 happened, and it changed my life forever. I knew, soon after, that I wanted to better align my professional goals with my personal beliefs, and a career in wellness was born. I became the graduate assistant of a professor who taught the one and only spa class, worked at Canyon Ranch between my first and second year of graduate school, and the rest is history!

2. What was the influence behind building your company?

I founded my own firm after working for wellness and hospitality-driven companies including Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Spafinder Wellness Inc, EXOS, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Exhale Mind Body Spas, Canyon Ranch Health Resorts and more. During my career, I have developed a vast, global network of colleagues and associates from every corner of the world, traveling and working extensively across 100+ countries. My rationale in founding K&A was to better service the wellness, hospitality, and lifestyle industries by leveraging my diverse network and global reputation as wellness travel and lifestyle expert, in more meaningful ways.

3. What trends do you see in wellness as we enter 2022?

I believe that wellness lifestyle real estate will boom as consumers continue to evolve their preferences from where people visit for wellness, to where they call home. I think companies will reconsider what workplace wellness means given this new hybrid world we are all living and working in. And I think we will continue to see advancements in technology as an enabler to wellness, whether it be through apps, wearables, AI or VR, and that will require us all to become increasingly aware of the positive or negative role that technology plays in our lives. We will need to monitor ourselves and our children to continue to use it for good, which I think is possible!

4. What is your advice for someone looking to become a leader in the spa industry?

I think it’s important to have functional expertise that you can apply to the spa and wellness world. Examples include marketing, HR, customer service, finance, data analytics – etc. To become a leader in the space, operational expertise is important, but functional expertise can compensate for a lack of experience provided that you can provide value in other ways. Beyond experience, you need to have humility, passion, and a sincere desire to leave the world a better place. The sky is the limit if you only believe, and are willing to work hard with grace.

Anne Melby

Senior Vice President, ISM SPA

A 20+ year veteran spa professional, Anne is experienced in every aspect of spa development and operations with a specialty for openings, renovations, rebranding, and turn-arounds. She is highly accomplished and diversified in hospitality and wellness, holding multiple certifications including PMP (Project Management Professional), LCAM (Licensed Community Association Manager), Registered Massage Therapist, and International Spa Association Certified Spa Supervisor.

ISM Spa is a boutique spa and wellness firm that partners with select residential and resort properties, focusing on creating positive lasting relationships with clients by building branded spas that offer unsurpassed service, impressive results, attention to detail, and commitment to continuous improvement. 

Anne is also a leader for ISM Spa's partner company, Privai, which recently opened four new spa store fronts in the DMV area. Learn more here.

1. How did you get into the world of wellness?

I started working in Reservations at Lake Austin Spa Resort in Austin, TX right out of college while waiting on my test dates for The Foreign Service Exam.

2. What was your influence to join Innovative Spa Management?

I was excited to join ISM because of the innovative platform, the broad hospitality umbrella, and because it was owned by two brilliant women.

3. How has ISM helped spas across the US?

ISM has been a pioneer in forward-thinking staffing models to address the current staffing disruption that is rampant in the hospitality industry and specifically to spas.

4. What is your advice for someone looking to become a leader in the spa industry?

My advice to any leader in the spa industry is to be agile, use creative thinking at all times, and lead with empathy.