Accor announced appointments within its luxury & lifestyle division

05.12.2023 - 08:38 / traveldailynews.com / Asia Pacific / Sébastien Bazin / Mark Willis / Vicky Karantzavelou

These organizational changes will be effective as of 1 January 2024.

Gilda Perez-Alvarado and Maxime d’Angeac are appointed Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director of Orient Express respectively. Management of Orient Express will be based in Paris. Gilda Perez-Alvarado will remain Chief Strategy Officer of the Accor Group.

Omer Acar is appointed Chief Executive Officer of Fairmont, replacing Mark Willis who becomes Advisor to Sébastien Bazin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Accor. Omer Acar will remain Chief Executive Officer of Raffles, based in New York.

Gilda Perez-Alvarado has a strong academic background developed across both Europe and North America, at Cornell University and IE Business School. She started her career at PwC before joining JLL in 2004. Working in the company’s Hotel & Hospitality division, Gilda has accrued nearly two decades of experience providing top-tier strategic advice to the industry’s largest owners and investors including sovereign wealth funds, private equity, global brands, and family offices/UHNWIs.  In her most recent role as Global CEO of JLL Hotels & Hospitality, Gilda was responsible for overseeing the global investment sales, debt and equity placement, strategic advisory and asset management services, offering leading expertise throughout the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific. In addition, Gilda led the Global Hotel Desk, the group’s cross-border investment sales team which executed the sale of some of the world’s most iconic hospitality assets worldwide. In recognition of her capabilities spanning both real estate and hospitality, Gilda holds board and membership positions at a number of high-profile organizations, among which: Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc, Cornell University Board of Trustees, World Travel & Tourism Council and IREFAC. Gilda Perez-Alvarado joined Accor in October 2023 as Chief Strategy Officer and member of Accor’s Management Board. As part of her role, she is in charge of overseeing global strategy, relations with hotel owners, and strategic partnerships. In January 2024, she is also appointed CEO Orient Express.

Architect, graduated of Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Maxime is a member of French Architect order. Maxime went through professional education, during which he was a roadie then stage manager on French gigs. He was then joined Hilton McConnico with whom he imagined and collaborated on the scenography of numerous Hermès exhibitions in Paris, the new Lanvin concept, or the “Le Tout Paris” restaurant on the roof of the Samaritaine. In 1992, Maxime got his Architecture degree and founded his own agency. Following these events, the workload started getting heavy – he indeed succeeded in managing both his scenography works (Comité