Turnover of hotel chief executives on the up

The biennial CEO Monitor tracks succession rate as well as well as the profiles and demographics of outgoing and incoming chief executives.

Despite the increase in turnover, it found that the choice of chief executives is actually becoming more conservative in the sector, with internal promotions more common, or appointments from within the hotel industry.

Chris Mumford, president of EMEA for HVS, said: “During the early days of the global economic meltdown, we certainly witnessed shareholders and boards electing to either stick by their management teams and support them out of recession, or to make a quick change and recruit a CEO suitable for the tough times ahead.

“Increased CEO turnover over the past two years could be also attributed to boards starting to lose patience with the executive leadership at those companies where the impact of the financial crisis is still being felt and recovery is taking longer than forecast.

“As we look ahead to the next two years, we anticipate that changes will largely be driven by economic conditions; a company with financial stability and an aggressive growth strategy requires a different leadership skill set to one in survival mode.”

Forced successions​

While the majority of chief executive changes were planned events in 2011, there were twice as many planned successions as there were forced changes in leadership (8 per cent versus 4 per cent). Disagreements in strategy between directors and management gave rise to an increase in forced succession, such as at NH Hoteles and Accor.

The study also reveals a change in the typical profile of a hotel company chief executive, due to the influx of Chinese companies into the top 50 largest hotel companies. Leaders of these companies tend to be younger that their Western counterparts and are typically first-time chief executives, groomed into the role by the chairman or previous chief executive.

The average age of an incumbent hotel company chief executive is 52, with the majority of those in Europe and North America in their early 50s.

The typical hotel chief executive...​

• •Is 52 years old 
• Is male - only 2 per cent are female
• Is unlikely to hold dual roles – only 30 per cent of hotel companies now have joint CEO and chairman
• Is in his first chief executive role – only a third have held the title previously
• Is from within the company if it’s a privately owned company (88 per cent are from inside) 
• Is more likely to be from outside if it’s a publicly owned company (33 per cent are from outside) 
• Is from within the hotel sector (43 per cent)
• Is well-qualified - 27 per cent of CEOs have an MBA or Masters degree
• Has no experience of foreign markets – only one third has this experience 
• Has been in the job for an average of six years.

In the past year a number of major UK hotel chains have appointed new chief executives:​

• De Vere recently announced that Robert Cook stepped in as chief executive of Village Hotels,​swapping with Gary Davis, who was named the Malmaison and Hotel du Vin chief executive​
• Grant Hearn was reinstated as Travelodge cheif executive,​as Guy Parsons departed
• InterContinental Hotels Group appointed Richard Solomons as its chief executive, as Andrew Cosslett stepped down​
• Richard Balfour-Lynn departed from his position as chief executive​ of MWB Group Holdings

The study included data from the 50 largest hotel companies as of September 2011.

To read the full report, click here​​