JLL Hotels and Hospitality‘s popular Global CEO Gilda Perez-Alvarado is departing the organisation to join Accor as the chain’s Group Chief Strategy Officer.
Perez-Alvarado will assuming the role on 01 October 2023 and will be a member of the group’s Management Board, based in Paris, overseeing global strategy, relations with hotel owners, and strategic partnerships.
She will report directly to Accor Chairman and CEO, Sébastien Bazin, who applauded her appointment.
“I am confident that with her considerable skills and global hospitality expertise, Gilda will help us unlock the power of Accor’s strategy providing guests, owners and investors with an unrivalled hospitality experience,” he said.
With a strong academic background developed across both Europe and North America, at Cornell University and IE Business School, Perez-Alvarado started her career at PwC before joining JLL in 2004.
Working in the company’s Hotel & Hospitality division, Perez-Alvarado 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 at JLL, Perez-Alvarado has been 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 leads the Global Hotel Desk, the group’s cross-border investment sales team which has 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, Perez-Alvarado holds board and membership positions at a number of high-profile organisations, from Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc, Cornell University Board of Trustees, World Travel and Tourism Council, IREFAC, among others.
She has also been the recipient of numerous awards, most recently the 2023 IREFAC Arne Sorensen Leadership Award.
“I am extremely pleased to be joining Accor which I have long admired as a global innovator in the hospitality industry,” Perez-Alvarado said.
“I look forward to applying my global hospitality, real estate and capital markets experience and insight to drive forward the group strategy and deliver against the management’s inspiring vision for the company.”
Perez-Alvarado is a popular executive in the hotel industry and was a keynote speaker at the 2023 Asia-Pacific Hotel Industry Conference and Exhibition (AHICE), held in Adelaide this past May.