Building a Real Estate Design & Construction Leadership Team across EMEA & Asia for a Global Hotel Company

HPG Advisory Services partnered with one of the world's largest hotel companies over an eight-year period to build its regional Design & Construction leadership capability across EMEA and Asia Pacific. Through a series of strategic executive appointments, we helped strengthen the leadership responsible for delivering one of the hospitality industry's largest international development pipelines.

At a Glance

Client
Global Hotel Company

Sector
Hotels & Hospitality

Geography
Europe, Middle East, Africa & Asia Pacific

Business Scale
5,000+ Hotels Across 100+ Countries

Engagement
Eight-Year Strategic Partnership

Assignment
Regional Design & Construction Leadership Team

Strategic Challenge

Our client is one of the world's largest hospitality companies, operating more than 5,000 hotels across over 100 countries with an extensive international development pipeline spanning Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

As the organisation accelerated its global growth strategy, it recognised the need to strengthen its regional Design & Construction leadership capability.

The objective was not simply to recruit senior executives, but to build a leadership structure capable of overseeing complex hotel developments, brand conversions and major refurbishment programmes across multiple international markets.

The successful leaders would be responsible for balancing the interests of hotel owners, developers, franchise partners and internal stakeholders while maintaining consistent brand standards and delivering projects at scale.

Given the specialist nature of hotel development leadership, the client sought a long-term executive search partner with deep hospitality expertise, an international network and the ability to support organisational growth over several years.

Our Advisory Role

Over an eight-year retained partnership, HPG Advisory Services worked alongside the regional leadership team to strengthen the Design & Construction function through a series of strategically important executive appointments.

Our role extended beyond executive search to advising on organisational design, succession planning and leadership capability as the development pipeline continued to expand.

Our support included:

• Advising on organisational structure and long-term succession planning.
• Defining leadership requirements across multiple international regions.
• Mapping senior talent from global hotel companies, developers, project management consultancies and hospitality real estate businesses.
• Delivering multiple executive search assignments simultaneously across EMEA and Asia Pacific.
• Assessing candidates for technical expertise, leadership capability and long-term cultural alignment.

The longevity of the partnership enabled us to develop an in-depth understanding of the organisation, resulting in consistently high-quality appointments and accelerated delivery across successive leadership assignments.

Executive Leadership Appointed

During the partnership, HPG Advisory Services successfully delivered a number of key regional leadership appointments, including:

• Vice President – EMEA
• Vice President – Europe
• Senior Director – Europe
• Senior Director – Middle East & Africa (multiple appointments)
• Senior Director – Asia Pacific

Collectively, these executives formed the leadership team responsible for supporting hotel development across some of the company's most strategically important international markets.

Commercial Outcome

The appointments significantly strengthened the organisation's regional Design & Construction capability and provided the leadership required to support one of the hospitality industry's largest development programmes.

The enhanced leadership structure enabled the client to:

• Strengthen governance across international development projects.
• Accelerate the delivery of new hotel openings, refurbishments and brand conversions.
• Improve collaboration with owners, developers and franchise partners.
• Create greater leadership continuity through succession planning.
• Build a scalable organisational structure capable of supporting continued international expansion.

The eight-year partnership provided continuity throughout a period of sustained growth while helping establish a high-performing regional leadership function.

Why This Engagement Matters

Delivering large-scale hotel development programmes requires far more than technical expertise. It depends on experienced leaders who can manage complex stakeholder environments, oversee international project portfolios and maintain consistent brand standards across multiple markets.

This engagement demonstrates HPG Advisory Services' ability to build leadership capability over the long term, advising global hotel companies on organisational design while delivering critical executive appointments that support sustained international growth.

Rather than acting as a transactional recruiter, HPG Advisory Services became a trusted strategic partner, helping the client strengthen one of its most important operational functions over an eight-year period.

Related Expertise

This engagement reflects HPG Advisory Services' expertise across:

• Hotel Development
• Design & Construction Leadership
• Hospitality Real Estate
• Project Management
• Asset Management
• Executive Leadership Search
• Organisational Design & Succession Planning
• Global Hotel Operators