Accor has made several appointments within its luxury & lifestyle division, effective Jan. 1. Gilda Perez-Alvarado and Omer Acar have been named CEOs of Orient Express and Fairmont, respectively.
Management of Orient Express will be based in Paris, and Perez-Alvarado will also remain chief strategy officer of the Accor Group. Acar will replace Mark Willis, who will become advisor to Sébastien Bazin, chairman/CEO, Accor. Acar will also remain CEO of Raffles, based in New York.
Maxime d’Angeac was also appointed artistic director of Orient Express, effective Jan. 1.
Perez-Alvarado started her career at PwC before joining JLL in 2004. Working in the company’s Hotel & Hospitality division, she 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. As global CEO of JLL Hotels & Hospitality, she 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, Perez-Alvarado led the Global Hotel Desk, the group’s cross-border investment sales team. She joined Accor in October 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.
Acar started his career at Four Seasons in various operational positions at several hotels in the U.S. and Egypt. He moved to Harrods in England as group director of food & beverage in 2005; was appointed GM of the Ritz in Paris in 2006; and then moved to the Royal Monceau – Raffles Paris in the same capacity in 2011. He joined Katara Hospitality in 2014 as managing director for Europe and the Americas, where he supervised 18 hotels including The Plaza in New York, Peninsula in Paris, Carlton in Cannes, Excelsior in Rome and Grosvenor House and The Savoy in London. In March, Acar joined Accor as CEO, Raffles & Orient Express and serves as a member of the group’s Luxury & Lifestyle Executive Committee. He also has the responsibility of representing Accor in the North American market.
D’Angeac is a member of the French Architect order. He went through professional education, during which he was a roadie and then a stage manager on French gigs. He then was joined by Hilton McConnico, with whom he imagined and collaborated on the scenography of numerous Hermès exhibitions in Paris, the new Lanvin concept and the « Le Tout Paris » restaurant on the roof of the Samaritaine. In 1992, he got his architecture degree and founded his own agency. Since 202a, he designed the new Orient Express train and the future Orient Express Silenseas boat.
