Chief Financial Officer – Global Luxury Hotel Group
Client Challenge
A leading international luxury hospitality group, operating a portfolio of high-end hotels across multiple regions, required the appointment of a Chief Financial Officer to strengthen its executive leadership team and support the next phase of global growth.
The organisation needed a commercially driven and highly experienced finance leader capable of operating at both strategic and operational levels. The role carried significant breadth and complexity, with the Director of Finance – Hotel Operations and their team reporting into this role. The Director of Finance – Hotel Operations oversees the hotel Directors of Finance (DOFs), ensuring that controls and systems are in place; offering support as required.
In addition, IT and Purchasing teams would also report directly to the CFO, further increasing the scope of responsibility and the need for strong cross-functional leadership.
The business required a candidate who was highly process-driven to ensure consistent, high-quality outcomes across all properties and regions. Equally important was the ability to demonstrate excellent leadership skills, ensuring clear communication, alignment, and engagement across both corporate functions and individual hotel teams.
Our Approach
We partnered closely with the organisation to gain a deep understanding of its operating model, leadership structure, and strategic priorities. This allowed us to define a clear candidate profile focused on senior finance leaders with proven experience in international hospitality environments and complex, multi-entity structures.
Our search strategy targeted senior executives with strong track records in financial governance, operational efficiency, and large-scale team leadership. We placed particular emphasis on identifying individuals who could balance technical excellence with strong interpersonal and leadership capability.
Throughout the process, we conducted rigorous assessment of candidates’ experience managing diverse finance teams and leading cross-functional functions, ensuring alignment with the organisation’s requirement for a structured, process-driven approach to financial management.
We maintained close collaboration with stakeholders throughout, ensuring a smooth, transparent, and highly consultative recruitment process from initial briefing through to final appointment.
The Result
We successfully appointed an outstanding Chief Financial Officer who brought extensive international hospitality experience, a strong operational mindset, and a proven ability to implement robust financial controls and systems across complex organisations.
The appointed CFO demonstrated exceptional capability in leading large, multi-disciplinary teams and in driving alignment between finance, IT, purchasing, and hotel operations. Their leadership style and process-led approach ensured immediate credibility with both corporate stakeholders and hotel-based teams.
Impact
The appointment has significantly strengthened the group’s executive leadership structure and enhanced financial governance across its global hotel portfolio. The CFO is now driving improved operational consistency, stronger financial discipline, and greater cross-functional alignment across the business.
Following the success of this appointment, we were further mandated to support the organisation with additional recruitment assignments across the EMEA region, reflecting the strength of the partnership and confidence in our delivery capability.
