Director of Finance - Luxury Island Resort, Greece
Client Challenge
A globally recognised ultra-luxury hospitality brand was preparing to strengthen its executive leadership team for a newly launched island resort in the Mediterranean. The business required a commercially astute Director of Finance capable of overseeing the property's entire financial operation while partnering closely with the General Manager and ownership group.
The successful candidate needed to balance strategic financial planning with operational excellence, ensuring compliance with international finance policies, robust governance, effective cash flow management and long-term asset protection. The role also demanded extensive experience in luxury hospitality, executive committee leadership, CAPEX planning, third-party contract management and business planning, while supporting a resort operating across both mainland and island locations.
Finding a finance leader with the technical expertise, commercial mindset and leadership capabilities to thrive in a high-profile luxury opening presented a significant recruitment challenge.
Our Approach
We developed a targeted executive search strategy focused on senior finance professionals with proven experience in luxury hotels, resorts and international hospitality groups.
Our search concentrated on candidates who could demonstrate:
- Executive Committee leadership within luxury hospitality.
- Strong commercial and operational finance expertise.
- Experience preparing annual business plans and managing complex budgets.
- Cash flow management, financial reporting and variance analysis.
- Oversight of CAPEX projects and asset management.
- Contract negotiation and third-party financial governance.
- Knowledge of international accounting standards and finance compliance.
- The ability to coach, mentor and develop high-performing finance teams.
- Strong stakeholder management skills, working collaboratively with General Managers, ownership groups and regional finance teams.
Beyond technical capability, we assessed candidates for leadership style, communication skills, innovation and cultural alignment, ensuring they could support both operational excellence and an exceptional guest experience.
The Result
Our executive search delivered a shortlist of highly qualified finance leaders with extensive luxury hospitality backgrounds and proven success managing multi-million-pound operations.
Each candidate possessed the strategic capability to oversee all financial aspects of the business while partnering with operational leaders to drive commercial performance. The shortlist reflected the client's requirements for strong governance, financial planning, risk management and people leadership, ensuring confidence in appointing a finance executive capable of supporting both the resort's immediate operational objectives and its long-term growth strategy.
Impact
The successful appointment strengthened the property's executive leadership team with a finance professional capable of delivering strategic financial direction while maintaining operational excellence.
Key outcomes included:
- Enhanced financial governance and compliance.
- Stronger commercial decision-making through accurate financial reporting and analysis.
- Effective management of business planning, cash flow and capital investment.
- Improved collaboration between finance and operational departments.
- Leadership that fostered team development, accountability and continuous improvement.
- A finance function positioned to support sustainable growth within one of the world's most prestigious luxury hospitality environments.
