Club Med has named a new CEO for its East, South Asia and Pacific region, while CHMWarnick and Valor Hospitality have made promotions.
Rachael Harding appointed Club Med CEO of East, South Asia and Pacific
Club Med has named Rachael Harding CEO of East, South Asia and Pacific.
Harding who joined Club Med in 2018 as GM for Club Med Pacific (Australia and New Zealand), will relocate to Shanghai to lead the stewardship of the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Greater China) as the company navigates the current market dynamics.
She succeeds Xavier Desaulles, who has led Club Med Asia-Pacific Markets for the past five years and has decided to leave to take some personal time off with his family. Harding has more than 20 years of experience in the travel sector. Prior to joining Club Med, she spent 15 years working with The Travel Corporation on brands including Trafalgar and Contiki in various sales, distribution and marketing roles. From 2011 to 2018, she worked as director of sales at Trafalgar Australia.
CHMWarnick expands executive leadership team
CHMWarnick, a provider of hotel asset management and owner advisory services, has promoted executive team members Kristie Dickinson, Derek Olsen and Larry Trabulsi to managing director and partner of the firm.
A 29-year hospitality industry veteran, Dickinson is a founding member of the CHMWarnick team. She has advised clients on more than 200 hotels across all product tiers. She specializes in developing asset repositioning plans, identifying value enhancement strategies, underwriting acquisitions and optimizing value through asset management.
In her role as managing director/EVP, Dickinson continues to focus on corporate revenue strategy, business development and strategic growth initiatives for the company and portfolio, while working with the asset management team to enhance client service offerings.
Olsen brings 29 years of hospitality industry experience spanning investment, brokerage, consulting and hotel asset management. As managing director/EVP, he will maintain his efforts to advise owners, developers, investors and lenders to acquire, reposition and enhance the value of hospitality real estate. He is responsible for asset managing a client portfolio of hotels valued at approximately $500 million, including a wide range of operations from newly built luxury/lifestyle assets to select-service portfolios located in primary and secondary markets across the U.S.
Olsen has expertise in development planning and operational ramp-up of new hotels, having opened two properties within the last 24 months alone. He also is responsible for leading a team focused on equity and debt acquisition services and oversees the implementation of special projects related to CHMWarnick’s technology platform, Proph+IT. His experience spans a broad range of land uses, including hotels and resorts, luxury condominiums, condo-hotels, fractional, time-share, whole-ownership residences and golf courses.
Trabulsi has 27 years of hospitality industry experience in operations, consulting and more than half his career dedicated to creating value for hotel owners through asset management. He has extensive capital planning and renovation oversight experience and has been involved in single renovation projects of more than $30 million. Trabulsi also has experience across a wide range of land-uses, including hotels, resorts, restaurants, golf courses, marinas and other recreational assets. His clients range from developers and private equity firms to lenders and public entities, including convention center authorities, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Defense.
As managing director/EVP, he is responsible for overseeing a team and asset managing a client portfolio valued at $1 billion in hospitality real estate. He has extensive experience in development, capital planning and major capital project oversight. He also is actively engaged in advising the lending community on distressed assets and hotel receivership engagements.
Valor Hospitality promotes operations director
Having recently announced its U.K. portfolio growth, Valor Hospitality has expanded its central leadership team with the promotion of Ed Cross to operations director.
As part of his new role, he will join existing operations directors Phil Bland and Mark Thacker in overseeing the running of Valor’s 34 hotels within its portfolio, under brands including IHG, Hilton and Marriott properties.
With more than 20 years of hospitality experience in various managerial positions across the U.K., most recently as the GM at Valor’s DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Piccadilly, he brings a wealth of knowledge to the position, the company reports. He began his Valor career in 2016 as GM at DoubleTree by Hilton Chester.
