Above Murray Kessler’s desk there’s a poster that reads, “What would you do if you had no fear?” It’s a fitting reminder for Kessler, who has been making tough decisions over a career that has seen him run major companies including Perrigo, Swanson, Lorillard and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company. Kessler, 65, came out of retirement to tackle his latest challenge as chief executive officer of Wellington International, the entity that runs the Winter Equestrian Festival and the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida.

A longtime horseman, Kessler spent years competing as an amateur jumper, though he’s since hung up his hard hat. He served on the board of the North American Riders Group and was president of the U.S. Equestrian Federation from 2017 to 2020, where he took a special interest in growing para-dressage sport. He’s also father to Reed Kessler, who competed on the U.S. show jumping team at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Murray was initially skeptical about Wellington Lifestyle Partners’ plan to build a residential community at Global, but once the proposal was revised, he became an enthusiastic supporter, speaking at Wellington Village Council meetings in support of WLP’s vision. The plan involves expanding the existing hunter/jumper property and moving dressage across the street to host all three sports at the new, enlarged property.

Once the former owners of the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center, a group now called WI FL Acquisition LLC, purchased Wellington International back from the Global Equestrian Group, former majority shareholder Mark Bellissimo tapped Murray as CEO. Murray wasted no time getting to work.

“My belief is you invest in the sport to get the best riders to come,” he said. “You invest in the experience, so people have an amazing experience, and sponsors have an amazing experience. Then you invest in the facilities, and when you do all that, bigger sponsorships come, better riders come, you can do more with hospitality, bigger entertaining—that’s where the real money comes from on income in the horse shows. Then you do it all over again.”

Murray said that his goal isn’t to make the Winter Equestrian Festival the best horse show in the world, but to “keep Wellington the premier horse sport destination in the world.”

“If you go to Aachen [Germany], you’ll be there five or six days as a professional with pretty much just professionals,” he said. “But when you come to Wellington, you ride from short stirrup to grand prix. If you look at my daughter who went to the Olympic Games, she started in the short stirrup here. You look at Lillie Keenan—I was remarking on this in the opening press conferences—she’s riding at world championships, and she started [here] in small ponies. That’s what makes us different. We have a thousand horse farms within walking distance of the grounds; people come here for four or five or six months. This is part of their lifestyle. When I say we want the best of the sport, we do, but I also want the experience to be the best at every level along the way. It’s what makes Wellington better than any other venue in the world.”

Murray, who is married to Sarah Davis Kessler and is stepfather to quadruple FEI North American Youth Championships dressage gold medalist Bebe Davis, has lived in Wellington, Florida, for 49 years. We caught up with him to hear about his vision for Wellington International, and how he plans to achieve it.

What made you come out of retirement for this job?

I was minding my own business, and I got a call from Mark [Bellissimo]. He said, “Listen, I know you know what we’re doing, and you’re passionate about why. I would like you to consider being CEO.” I said, “I’m retired.” And he said, “Yeah, but the community needs you.”

Mark rightfully understood that, for him, going back and leading it again would cause concern. He said, “One, I don’t have time to do it. Two, the community trusts you, and this is an amazing opportunity to get the horse show going in the direction it needs to.”

And I said, “Are you sure you want me? Because if you get me, I’m always going to put the sport first, ahead of business interests. It’s a fundamental belief of mine.”

You were given a very short timeline to work on the facility before this season started—about four weeks. What were your priorities during that time?

In those four weeks, we repainted the entire place, and anything we could find that was broken got fixed. We power-washed stalls that we get from a third-party vendor that had been filthy, and they deliver them filthy, and it had been that way for 15 or 20 years. When people arrived this year, they were sparkling clean.

We landscaped, planted grass, picked up every piece of trash, got truckload after truckload of old junk that was around in the property and took it off. We did the same thing at Global, cleaning up and buying new trash receptacles instead of old broken ones, cleaning and power-washing every stall, and landscaping.

We then went into the main arena, the International Arena. The old owner had realized there was a safety issue with the old stadium lights. We got new LED lights installed that make it daylight in the ring. It’s a massive improvement for the riders, with no shadows when they’re jumping the big classes.

I tapped one of our sponsors, who has done lighting and scoreboards and so on for the Super Bowl and other major sporting events around the country, and we were able to get a new Jumbotron installed before everybody got here that is magnificent and gives us incredible clarity and capability. We took the old Jumbotron, and we put it in where the merry-go-round is. If you have family out there, it feels like the U.S. Open. You’ve got the big scoreboard outside, so you can see what’s happening in the ring while your kids are playing.

We added four video camera operators for every Saturday Night Lights, and we added one or two to dressage, so we now have multiple replay angles in the ring that come immediately after a rider goes. You see the rider’s time, then you see a replay of where a rail might have come down, or a foot in the water, and so on.

We increased the prize money. The biggest class we had in the past was one $500,000 grand prix. This year, thanks to our sponsors and USEF, we have, of our four five-stars, two at $500,000, and one is at $750,000.

In the back area, where a lot of people used to feel they were in “lesser than” stalls, now they love them, and no one wants to move. We put in four riding rings, big ones— 190′-by-300′ riding rings—so you can ride in peace, and flat your horse or your longe your horse without having to deal with the chaos of the horse show.

A big complaint was the cleanliness of the bathrooms. I’ve put on a crew around the clock, so now we have 24-hours-a-day cleaning of all the bathrooms of the property. We put in additional maintenance people to take care of the longeing rings. We added footing in a longeing ring that was old. We put in a rubber pathway that used to get hugely flooded on the way from FEI [stabling] to the main ring. There were other areas where we put in additional drains and padding for the FEI jog. We added a groom’s coffee station in FEI.

Most of those ideas came from riders. I tried to listen to everything they were saying. One example McLain Ward gave me: He said that it’s so crowded for the grand prix [classes] that he didn’t feel it was safe warming up, because people would lean into the schooling area rail and sit on the fence. It interfered with their warm up, and it was dangerous. We bought stanchions going all the way around, and now [spectators] can’t get within 10 feet of the ring.

It wasn’t just about spending money; it was about listening and understanding what would make it better. Even the increase in prize money, I went to our sponsors and said, “We need to do this. We want to attract the best in the world. We need to step up the money,” and they stepped up for me.

Can you give an update on the expansion work at Wellington International and talk about your long-term goals for the facility?

On an average week, we have 250 to 300 dressage horses competing at one facility, and 2,600 or 2,700 horses on the existing show grounds. Our vision is to move jumpers up to the new area, which takes about 1,300 or 1,400 horses off the current grounds. We’ll bring dressage over, and divide it up into dressage land and hunter land on the existing facility. That takes 1,000 horses off the existing facility and spreads it out, which just lets the whole place relax. It lets you be able to have better routing of golf carts and horse paths and landscaping. It just takes the pressure off the existing grounds. That’s a big part of the vision.

There’s incentive from the development company that we’re part of, WLP, as they can’t build the luxury development until the conditions of village approvals are met. The new grounds have to be built first, and they’ve given us until 2028 to get that built. We’re working through all of that now. It’d be nice if it’s faster. People ask me all the time, “When will it be ready?” And I said, “You’ve had different management teams here always promising things. I’m an under-promise, over-deliver guy. All I’ll tell you is that it’s not next year. There’s too much to do.” So next year dressage will be where it is, and jumping will be where it is, for sure.

I will not have competition in a construction zone. That’s not to say that as part of the build-out there can’t be some beautiful, very high-end temporary structures in the beginning, like PGA or Formula One, but it’s got to be ready to go before we transition to the plan I just shared with you.

[I tell people,] “It’s going to be done when it’s done. There are built-in incentives to make that happen. There’s plenty of capital to make it happen, and in the meantime, what I will promise you is: When you came here this year for the horse show, you all acknowledged it was better than it was last year. When you come next year, it will be better than it was this year.”

What should we expect for the short-term future of the Global Dressage Festival grounds and the long-term future of dressage competition in Wellington?

I want it to be improved and feel great, but I don’t want to sink a lot of money into anything that will be torn down. It’s the same on the existing grounds as well. There’s plenty to do, so that we can continue to make improvements and improve the quality of dressage and jumping. We’re maintaining [the Global Dressage Festival grounds] at the highest level and doing the same clean-up, but I’m not going to build new rings.

Longer term, the important thing is to make sure that dressage has a portion of the reconfigured grounds that is theirs and is important, and that it works for them—and same for hunters. That’s actually the harder job, in my mind, than building the new show grounds.

To help me with that, I put together an advisory committee, which includes members of the dressage community, the para-dressage community, the hunter community and the jumper community; some owners; and Hallye Griffin from USEF [the director of FEI/high performance sport]. We also have one member of WLP’s development group, so that I can test ideas, and they go back out to the community, and they’re getting input.

What are the unique challenges for Wellington International in an increasingly competitive horse show landscape?

I view it from my USEF hat. There’s so much density down here that it’s a good thing for riders to have an option once in a while. You’re not going to dislodge Wellington. Wellington has Palm Beach, it has the oceans, it has the airports, it has Miami, it has the culture. There’s no threat that people are going to move away, and it’s going to be a dramatic decline, especially as long as they see we’re investing, and people are happy.

Having a good facility up in Ocala or at TerraNova, that can give people a chance for variety during the circuit. I don’t see that as bad thing. I think it just makes South Florida a better destination. I want the best in the world riding here—and if I have the best in the world riding here, that raises the game.

There needs to be enough places for mid-level grand prix riders who can’t get into five-star weeks. Even though we offer a two-star [during five-star weeks], we’re still turning away a lot of people. For them to have a place to show, that’s a good thing.

How do I think about competition? The same as any business I ever ran: We make our product the very best it can be, and the business will grow. Our numbers are all up. I didn’t expect that. I didn’t expect we’d be up right from the get-go.

It’s not about them; it’s about us. We will be the very best horse show we can be.

What parts of your background have you found most relevant in this position?

All of them for different reasons. My perspective on the importance of sport and horse and rider welfare and SafeSport comes from being the president of USEF. Understanding of top rider needs comes from North American Riders Group. My understanding of the need for a higher level of commercial professionalism comes from decades running very big companies. As big of a horse show as this is, it’s nothing compared to the resources and governance features of a 50-billion-dollar company.

When you’re not working, how do you spend your time?

After I got married to Sarah, I bought a boat, and I had that for a few years and got involved in scuba diving. In the last year, it’s been about tennis and pickleball and enjoying that and the house we bought in Bridgehampton, New York, to be near Sarah’s parents. It was built in the 1820s. It’s still a major project.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?

I have a bunch of quotes I use that I would consider advice in different areas, like, “The first thing you need to do when you’re in a hole is to stop digging,” or, “When you have a toad to swallow, there’s no point staring at it.”

What’s your dream vacation?

My dream vacation always has activities involved. I love the horse world, so I say this cautiously, but all I did for many, many years was go to horse shows. Now I’ve been going and discovering the world in the last few years. Sarah and my daughters have opened my eyes to travel. We love to hike. I just came back in the fall from three weeks in Southeast Asia in Thailand and Cambodia and Laos and Vietnam, and we hiked through those countries. The year before was Africa, and the year before that was Chile and down around Patagonia. Doing it with my family is amazing.

What quality do you value most in a person?

I need to be able to trust them. [I want] open and honest feedback. [I want people to] operate with super high integrity. I just want people to be honest. I never fired a person in my life because they made a mistake; I’ve fired many people over the course of my career for lying about it.

If you could choose one horse to ride around a five-star grand prix at WEF, who would you choose?

I’d have my retired horse All That, “Max” is his nickname, who won a hundred classes. He just won everything. If I could ever ride a horse again, I’d make him young again, because he was the greatest joy in the world. He was circuit champion [at WEF] multiple years, and I tried to get other horses to replace him. I thought I was so good, winning all those championships, and I figured out that it was all him.

What are you reading right now?

It’s called “Unreasonable Hospitality” [by Will Guidara]. I’m also looking at getting the author to come in and speak to the whole crew. It’s the [former] Eleven Madison Park chef, who went on a journey to became a three-star Michelin restaurant, and I know all the things he learned along the way in terms of communication and exceeding people’s expectations. It’s really relevant to what I’m doing.

Simultaneously I started a book called “Inner Excellence” by Jim Murphy.

And I’m writing a book. The topic is advanced listening. It’s a CEO’s guide to success.

Where do you hope to be in 10 years?

My wife and I have talked about it. I love that we have a place in Bridgehampton, because it gets us close to her parents. They’re wonderful, and it’s important to spend time with them.

But I hope to be in Wellington, surrounded by friends, with a wonderful wife by my side, two beautiful and productive daughters succeeding in their careers, and hopefully one day one of them will get married. I have everything. I don’t know what else you could want out of life. I know this is a job, but it doesn’t feel like one to me. I’m not doing it for the money, I’ll tell you that.

[Editor’s Note: WI FL Acquisition LLC also owns The Chronicle of the Horse.]

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This article originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse. You can subscribe and get online access to a digital version and then enjoy a year of The Chronicle of the Horse. If you’re just following COTH online, you’re missing so much great unique content. Each print issue of the Chronicle is full of in-depth competition news, fascinating features, probing looks at issues within the sports of hunter/jumper, eventing and dressage, and stunning photography.