Charles McDiarmid is the maître de maison of the Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, British Columbia, a Relais & Chateaux property he co-founded with his family and opened in 1996. A graduate of the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, he spent thirteen years with Four Seasons Hotels across North America before returning to his hometown of Tofino to build the inn on land his family had owned for decades. Under his leadership, the Wickaninnish Inn has become one of Canada's most celebrated independent hotels, credited with pioneering storm watching as a year-round destination experience on the west coast of Vancouver Island. He serves as one of seven sustainability commissioners at Relais & Chateaux, appointed by president Laurent Gardinier to help advance the association's global sustainability commitments across its 580 member properties.