Feature

Who really is the boss? 

The first man she will remember and the last she will forget, the bond between father and daughter is special from the moment she’s born. With Father’s Day just around the corner Sarah Johnson speaks to three dads and their daughters who work together — and finds out who really is in charge. 

CRISTINA CROLLA (21) works with her dad DOMENICO at the family restaurant, Bella Napoli in Shawlands, Glasgow. “I started working weekends when I was 10 for £1 an hour,” Cristina recalls. “I was really into penny sweets back then so the money I earned went a long way!”

“She’s a mini-me,” laughs Domenico, “a manageress in the making. I can be harder on her sometimes but that’s because I know what she’s capable of. A father always believes his daughter can do anything.
“If we’ve had words I’ll always regret it later but I think it’s important I’m not seen giving her preferential treatment. Genny, my wife, is the mediator.”

Cristina, who still lives at home, adds, “Dad’s like my own personal alarm clock so I can never be late and phoning in sick isn’t an option. I’ll be in here on my last legs because I don’t want him thinking I’m at it. I think the problem is we’re too alike and both very stubborn. It can be hard to separate father from boss sometimes.”

But Domenico (45) is under no illusion over who runs the show. “She’s the puppeteer,” he laughs. “And still gets away with murder, like most daughters!

“I’m very protective of her, and being the only girl in the family of course she’s special.”

Cristina says, “Dad has always taught me never to settle for less than I deserve, and one day I plan on opening my own restaurant, my own girlie place.”

“Cristina’s the people person while I’m the food person. I know it’s her people come in to see, not me,” says Domenico.

“At weekends when I look around Bella Napoli and see Genny, Cristina and my son Alfredo, I think, how can it go wrong?”

He laughs, “It also means I can keep an eye on her!”

When MARY-JO DEVLIN decided to set up her own business she knew exactly who to trust with her accounts — her dad GERRY. After all, a dad is used to juggling his daughter’s finances!

Mary-Jo (44), who runs Emjay PR, explains, “I’d never had to think about the financial side of business before. I’ve always been more creative. Even at school when Dad taught me physics, I failed and we both accepted my limitations!

“Dad always told me off as a teenager about my finances. He still does. Now he works through my expenses and everything is categorised in spreadsheets. I’d be lost without him.”

Gerry (68) says, “The pay’s rotten though! She thought she was going to get away with making me a cup of tea — she blanched when she heard my daily rate!”

“I said ‘but you’re my dad!’ then we negotiated,” Mary-Jo remembers.

“Dad’s saved me so much money by going through my outgoings. When he changed my paper supplier he got me a much better deal.

“Dad always told me you can do anything you want to do and be who you want to be. He always believed in me, no matter what.” 

Gerry, who also has three sons, says, “When I first saw Mary-Jo I thought ‘what a miracle’ and she’s made me proud ever since. 

“I love all my children but there’s a special bond between fathers and daughters.”

NICOLA TAYLOR says her father MAURICE has grown up a lot since they started working together. Nicola laughs, “He still occasionally stamps his feet if he doesn’t get his own way but nothing I can’t deal with.” 

“She keeps me on my toes,” smiles Maurice, Founder and Chief Executive of Chardon Management, one of the UK’s leading independent hotel management companies. 

“We think in a very similar way, it’s often like I have two heads. She’s like me but has her mother’s good looks and a woman’s cunning!”

Their shared humour is clearly a key ingredient to their success and their close relationship has made them the perfect team.

“I feel privileged to have a daughter like her. I wouldn’t have taken the business this far without her,” Maurice adds.

Nicola (44) joined Chardon Management as a director in 2003 when the business operated four hotels. Since then the portfolio has grown to 30 hotels and five health and fitness clubs. 

Hospitality is in Nicola’s blood having been brought up in the hotel business — even her first home was the flat above the Glasgow hotel her father managed. 

Today, Maurice owns a number of Scotland’s most successful hotels and restaurants, including Holiday Inn Glasgow Theatreland and Quality Hotel Edinburgh Airport.

In April the father and daughter team opened Hotel Indigo and the Limelight Bar & Grill on Glasgow’s Waterloo Street. 

“I’ve always believed business is 90 per cent perspiration and 10 per cent inspiration,” says Maurice.
Nicola agrees, “Dad taught me to listen to people and work hard for what I’ve wanted. I’ve learned so much from him.”

“I had a very strict father and always wanted a daughter so I could spoil her,” recalls Maurice. “I was so jubilant when she was born that I drove in the opposite direction from home and ended up on the wrong side of town after leaving the hospital.”