Expect Jumeirah’s Portfolio to Grow Faster With Giannouka as CEO
Katerina Giannouka: Development is one of her key strengths
By Raini Hamdi, 29 Sep 2022
Katerina Giannouka will replace Jose Silva as CEO of Jumeirah Group effective December 2022.
Giannouka is currently based in Singapore as president Asia-Pacific of Radisson Hotel Group, a role she assumed in 2017. Before that, she led the Asia-Pacific and China development team of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts.
Development is one of her key strengths. Under her, Radisson’s hotel portfolio in the region has nearly doubled. In Asia-Pacific, while Radisson has always been strong in China and India, she led the development team to expand wider in other key markets, notably Thailand, Vietnam and Australasia.
Radisson in June said it has earmarked a 400 percent growth across Asia-Pacific to 2,000 properties by 2025, from just 400 currently. This will be through a combination of organic growth, mergers and acquisitions, master license agreements, and leases in key locations. India, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, and New Zealand are the key areas.
Under Giannouka, new business units in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta and Sydney, have been set up to build development and operations teams that offer local language and support capabilities.
During a panel at the Hotel Investment Conference Asia-Pacific (HICAP) Update in March 2021, upon hearing from Giannouka that Radisson would sign 300 mid-service hotels a year in China, another speaker, SC Capital’s founder Suchad Chiaranussati, quipped, “She’s signing hotels faster than I eat my croissant at breakfast.
’Accelerated Growth’
Jumeirah Group is a member of Dubai Holding and currently operates 25 luxury properties with 6,500 keys across the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
Dubai Holding’s group CEO, Amit Kaushal, expects “accelerated growth” of Jumeirah with Giannouka at the helm. “Given Katerina’s impressive track record as a transformative business leader, as well as her luxury hospitality background and drive to create resilient teams and culture, I am confident that she will build on Jumeirah’s incredible success story and lead the business to new levels of sustainable and accelerated growth across the world.”
Giannouka, who will assume the role from December, said, “I am honored to be entrusted and appointed to this key role with Jumeirah Group. Jumeirah operates some of the world’s most iconic hotels and has redefined luxury hospitality with its exceptional and beyond-expectations service offering. The opportunities for Jumeirah are extremely exciting, and I eagerly look forward to commencing this new journey alongside the entire team to unlock the immense potential of the Jumeirah brand and sustainably secure its position on the world stage as the top luxury Emirati hospitality brand recognized and sought-after globally.”
Read also this author’s interview with Giannouka in 2018 when she joined Radisson