Historic Hotels of America® Selects Xanterra's Andrew N. Todd to Receive 2026 Historic Hotels of America Legacy of Innovation and Inspiration Award

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 7, 2026--

Historic Hotels of America® is pleased to announce that Andrew N. Todd, President and Chief Executive Officer of Xanterra Travel Collection®, has been named the recipient of the 2026 Historic Hotels of America Legacy of Innovation and Inspiration Award.

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Old Faithful Inn (1904) Yellowstone National Park, Montana. Photo courtesy of Xanterra Travel Collection.

Historic Hotels of America is the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation for recognizing and celebrating the finest Historic Hotels in the United States of America. The program honors the nation’s finest historic hotels, hoteliers, and historians through the Historic Hotels of America Annual Awards of Excellence.

This year, the 2026 Historic Hotels of America Legacy of Innovation and Inspiration Award recognizes the extensive accomplishments of Andrew N. Todd, President and Chief Executive Officer of Xanterra Travel Collection®, whose leadership has helped shape the modern hospitality and travel industry. For over 30 years, Andrew N. Todd has guided Xanterra through significant growth and diversification, expanding its portfolio to include historic hotels, national park lodges, the Grand Canyon Railway, cruises, adventure travel, and destination experiences.

The 2026 Historic Hotels of America® Legacy of Innovation and Inspiration Award will be presented to Andrew N. Todd at the Historic Hotels Awards of Excellence Ceremony and Gala during the 2026 Historic Hotels Annual Conference at the Williamsburg Lodge, Autograph Collection in Williamsburg, Virginia, on October 15, 2026, in front of an audience of owners, general managers, and other senior decision makers representing many of the finest historic hotels from across the United States of America and from around the world.

Andrew N. Todd has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Xanterra Travel Collection® since 1994, guiding one of the hospitality and travel industry’s most respected organizations through more than three decades of growth, diversification, and innovation. Under his leadership, Xanterra has evolved from its historic roots as a national park concessioner into a diversified hospitality company with a portfolio that includes celebrated historic hotels, legendary national park lodges, the iconic Grand Canyon Railway, cruises, adventure travel, and memorable destination experiences. His career reflects a deep belief that preserving extraordinary places and delivering exceptional hospitality are mutually reinforcing goals.

Among Andrew N. Todd’s enduring accomplishments is his commitment to Xanterra Travel Collection’s “Twelve Values Fundamental to Our Success,” principles that have shaped the company’s culture and inspired associates across its family of brands. His leadership has also advanced A Softer Footprint®, Xanterra’s commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability, demonstrating that responsible stewardship, historic preservation, operational excellence, and long-term business success can work together to protect irreplaceable places while creating extraordinary guest experiences. The timing of this recognition is especially meaningful as Xanterra marks the 150th anniversary of its hospitality heritage through the founding of the Fred Harvey Company in 1876, along with the 100th anniversary of Historic Route 66 and the 125th anniversary of the Grand Canyon Railway.

“Historic Hotels of America is pleased to recognize Mr. Todd for his visionary leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and enduring commitment to stewardship,” said Lawrence Horwitz, Executive Vice President, Historic Hotels of America and Historic Hotels Worldwide. “For more than three decades, his leadership of Xanterra Travel Collection has demonstrated how historic preservation, environmental responsibility, and exceptional hospitality can work together to protect America’s treasured destinations while creating meaningful experiences for generations of travelers.”

“I am deeply honored to receive the 2026 Historic Hotels of America Legacy of Innovation and Inspiration Award,” said Andrew N. Todd, President and Chief Executive Officer of Xanterra Travel Collection®. “Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of working with extraordinary people who understand that the places we care for are more than buildings or destinations — they are part of America’s story. The legacy of Fred Harvey, the historic hotels and lodges we are entrusted to operate, and the remarkable national parks that surround them remind us that stewardship is both a privilege and a responsibility.”

For more than three decades, Todd has been a steward of historic hospitality properties connected to the legacy of the original Fred Harvey Company, whose pioneering hotels, restaurants, and visitor services helped define travel in the American West beginning in 1876. In recent decades, Xanterra has become widely recognized for its progressive environmental stewardship and related innovations in the hospitality industry. Todd’s establishment of company-wide environmental standards has led to numerous industry and peer-reviewed awards for Xanterra.

Previous recipients of this award include hospitality business leaders Philip Anschutz, Horst Schulze, Stephanie Stuckey, and Peter Strebel.

Photos courtesy of Xanterra Travel Collection.

About Historic Hotels of America®

Historic Hotels of America® is the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation for recognizing and celebrating the finest historic hotels across America. The National Trust for Historic Preservation was chartered by U.S. Congress in 1949 and is a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is leading the movement to save places where our history happened. To be nominated and selected for membership in this prestigious program, a hotel must be at least 50 years old; designated by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior as a National Historic Landmark, or listed in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places; and recognized as having historical significance. Of the more than 300 historic hotels inducted into Historic Hotels of America from 46 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, all historic hotels faithfully preserve their sense of authenticity, sense of place, and architectural integrity.

About Xanterra Travel Collection®

Known for its “Legendary Hospitality with a Softer Footprint ®,” Xanterra Travel Collection® provides A World of Unforgettable Experiences ® through its operations in national parks, including lodges, restaurants, tours, and activities, as well as through its ownership of resorts, a cruise line, a railway, and tour companies. Xanterra has operations in Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Glacier, and Rocky Mountain National Parks, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Xanterra Travel Collection ® also owns and operates Grand Canyon Railway & Hotel in Williams, Ariz., The Grand Hotel and The Grand Canyon Hotel & Suites in Tusayan, Ariz., The Oasis at Death Valley in Death Valley Calif., Windstar Cruises, Holiday Vacations, VBT Bicycling Vacations, and Country Walkers. Xanterra is also affiliated with two Forbes Five-Star Resorts, The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, CO and Sea Island on the coast of Georgia.

Many Glacier Hotel (1915) Babb, Montana. Photo courtesy of Xanterra Travel Collection.

The Grand Canyon Railway & Hotel celebrated America's 250th with the A250, pictured here (right) next to a historic steam train (left). 2026 is also the 125th anniversary of the railway and the 150th anniversary of the Fred Harvey Company. Photo courtesy of Xanterra Travel Collection.

The Inn at Death Valley (1927) Death Valley, California. Photo courtesy of Xanterra Travel Collection.

Xanterra Travel Collection marks the 150th anniversary of its hospitality heritage in 2026 through the founding of the Fred Harvey Company in 1876. Pictured here is a group of the famous "Harvey Girls," hospitality professionals who worked for the Fred Harvey Company in the late 19th and early 20th century. Photo courtesy of Xanterra Travel Collection.

Andrew N. Todd, President and Chief Executive Officer of Xanterra Travel Collection®, has been named the recipient of the 2026 Historic Hotels of America Legacy of Innovation and Inspiration Award. Photo courtesy of Xanterra Travel Collection.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Scientists Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for untangling mysterious mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs and transformed modern medicine.

Many molecules come in versions that look alike but are not exactly identical, like right and left hands. Kagan, who is from France, and Soai, from Japan, found ways to make chemistry pick a side, describing and designing reactions to produce the desired mirror image.

“The medicines we have today would not be possible without this chemistry,” said Rigoberto Hernandez, president of the American Chemical Society.

Soai was shopping at a neighborhood supermarket when he heard he had won.

“I’m very excited to receive the very nice news,” Soai told the Nobel committee and journalists by phone. “Of course, this is one of the most exciting days in my life.”

Mirror images of the same molecule can have different properties. For example, one version of the chemical carvone smells like mint, while the other has a whiff of caraway, a spice often used in rye bread.

The alternate versions can also behave differently when interacting with other chemicals. When designing drugs to treat diseases, scientists are choosy about which mirror image they use. They want the version of a molecule to treat a cold, not one that will make the sniffles worse.

In the 1980s, Kagan’s work showed there might be a way to design reactions to produce one form of a molecule over the other. Years later, Soai perfected the process. He created the first-ever chemical reaction to efficiently produce only one of a molecule’s mirror images, in what’s now known as the Soai reaction.

“This is probably the coolest experiment in organic chemistry,” said Peter Somfai, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Kagan, 95, is affiliated with the Université Paris-Sud in Orsay, France. Soai, 76, is affiliated with the Tokyo University of Science. The Nobel committee described their work as a feat never previously achieved by anyone “other than life itself.”

The French Academy of Sciences, where Kagan is a member, congratulated him, as did French President Emmanuel Macron, who called the prize “an immense source of pride for the country” and “a recognition befitting a lifetime of research.”

“It might be difficult to say that this drug, or that drug, was developed using this,” Somfai said. “I would say all of them, because we use this as a tool, we use this as an understanding, how to develop catalysts, how they function.”

Life, too, prefers one mirror image over the other. DNA twists to the right, and the proteins in human bodies are made of mostly left-handed building blocks.

In addition to developing better medicines or perfumes, deciphering the mirror images of molecules can help scientists understand the chemical architecture of life, said chemist Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the journal Science.

“There are still fascinating aspects that remain unknown and surely more yet to be discovered,” Soai said at a news conference hosted by his university in Tokyo. "I hope to do what I can, however modestly, to contribute to help advance research in this field."

Japan’s largest newspaper, Yomiuri, distributed an extra edition with a headline proclaiming “Nobel Prize Mr. Soai,” with a big photo of the scientist. The papers quickly disappeared as office workers picked them up on their way home.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winner in Stockholm.

Last year, three scientists won the chemistry Nobel for their development of new molecular structures that can trap vast quantities of gas inside, laying the groundwork to potentially suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere or harvest moisture from desert environments.

This year's prizes began with the Nobel for medicine, awarded Monday to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works. The physics award announced Tuesday recognized a scientist's efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos.

The literature prize is set to be awarded Thursday. After Friday’s peace prize is awarded, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced Monday.

The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, a small group of laureates or an organization.

This story has been corrected to correct that Kagan, not Soai, is 95.

Ramakrishnan reported from New York. Dazio reported from Berlin. Associated Press journalists Alexa St. John in Detroit, Catherine Gaschka in Paris and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

AP Nobel Prizes: https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes

Japanese chemist Kenso Soai receives a bouquet of flowers from a university staff member before the press conference at Tokyo University of Science in Tokyo, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, after winning the Nobel Prize in chemistry. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Japanese chemist Kenso Soai, speaks during a news conference at Tokyo University of Science in Tokyo, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, after winning the Nobel Prize in chemistry. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Japanese chemist Kenso Soai, who won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, leaves home for a press conference, in Shiki, Saitama prefecture, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (Kyodo News via AP)

Japanese scientist Kenso Soai, winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, leaves home for a press conference, in Shiki, Saitama prefecture, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (Kyodo News via AP)

Portraits of Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai are shown on the screen as they are awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on Oct. 7, 2026. Photo: (Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency via AP)

Portraits of Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai are shown on the screen as they are awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on Oct. 7, 2026. Photo: (Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency via AP)

FILE - A close-up view of a Nobel Prize medal at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., Dec. 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)