Meliá Hotels International has announced changes to its senior executive team, effective June 5, 2023. The Palma-based international hotel company expands its Executive Committee and undertakes some changes and renovations, with the unanimous support of its Board of Directors.
In the words of Gabriel Escarrer, Executive Vice President and CEO of Meliá, “we are proud of an executive management team that has helped us overcome two severe crises such as the financial crisis of 2008 and the recent Covid pandemic, and in these times of ongoing change and continuous evolution in the digital environment, we have seen the opportunity to update its structure and complement it by incorporating an external executive with a financial and technological profile and extensive experience, while maintaining our commitment to our internal talent, which has always been a competitive advantage for our Group".
In this way, Pilar Dols, who until now has been the Chief Financial Officer and has a long and flawless career in the Company, is embarking on a new professional stage to lead the Escarrer family's "Family Office". As Escarrer highlights, "it is a great satisfaction that Pilar has accepted the challenge of leading the Escarrer Family Office, (which integrates the Group's significant shareholders), and I am sure that her financial expertise, her rigour, and the full trust that she has earned over so many years in the Company, are a guarantee of success in her new responsibility".
In Pilar Dols' place, Meliá has appointed a new Chief Financial Officer, Sonia Jerez, with a degree in Physics and Electronic Engineering and a long academic and professional career, with over 20 years as CFO in companies in a variety of sectors, especially in the aeronautical industry. For Gabriel Escarrer "Sonia Jerez is a great professional with the right background and with the strength and enthusiasm to tackle the multiple challenges that the current environment poses to tourism companies, an industry that she already knows well; her arrival represents the addition of external talent that enriches the reorganisation of our senior executive team, fundamentally based on the promotion of our employees".
At the same time the Company announces that the Group's Chief Real Estate Officer (CREO), Mark Hoddinott, is leaving the Company at his own request after 25 years devoted to the Company, during which he has held several senior management positions. Hoddinott has driven major developments in areas as relevant as Administration, IT, Works or Procurement, and in recent years has led several projects to transform hotels and holiday destinations, being market pioneers, under his leadership, in the introduction of institutional capital in the Leisure hotel segment. On Hoddinott's decision to leave, Escarrer explains: “Mark has been essential to the development of Meliá Hotels International in recent years, and we will certainly miss his professionalism and his warmth, but we have decided to respect his desire to make a change in his career, in order to develop a private business project, and we wish him the best of luck in this endeavour".
Meanwhile, Meliá's Chief Legal & Compliance Officer, Juan Ignacio Pardo, has been appointed Chief Real Estate Officer, taking over the role from Mark Hoddinott, offering a renewed vision to drive the Company forward. As Gabriel Escarrer says: “Juan Ignacio Pardo is a strong and versatile senior executive who, in addition to his legal education and expertise, has extensive experience in team and project management. Furthermore, he is highly regarded in the industry, having chaired the Tourism Commission of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce on behalf of Meliá Hotels International". Juan Ignacio Pardo is also familiar with the Real Estate area, having started his career in the legal department of a construction company such as Dragados, a sector he has always remained related to.
The Chief Legal & Compliance (CL&C) role will be taken over by Mariano Perez de Cáceres, until now VP of the Group's Legal area. Escarrer emphasises his full confidence in the new senior executive and points out that Perez "naturally succeeds Juan Ignacio Pardo, after some extraordinarily complex years during which he has represented the Company in highly relevant projects as head of the Legal area, contributing with both his knowledge and outstanding leadership".
The final move announced by the Company concerns the new Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), a newly created position that will be filled by Carlos Gonzalez, previously Vice President of Strategy. Like most of his colleagues on the top management board, Carlos has grown professionally in the Group, where he has held various roles over the past 26 years. Carlos Gonzalez also leads the Company's transversal digitalisation project, "Be Digital 360" and the Innovation area. For Gabriel Escarrer "with this appointment, Carlos Gonzalez rounds out the Senior Executive Team, of which he has been a member in recent years as VP of Strategy, bringing a strategic vision and a spirit that have greatly contributed to the successful handling of the pandemic and the strong recovery dynamic".
Following the changes announced, the Meliá Hotels International Senior Executive Team members are as follows:
- Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer: Gabriel Escarrer Jaume
- Chief Operating Officer: André P. Gerondeau
- Chief Human Resources Officer: Gabriel Cánaves
- Chief Real Estate Officer: Juan Ignacio Pardo
- Chief Financial Officer: Sonia Jerez Burdeus
- Chief Legal & Compliance Officer: Mariano Perez de Cáceres
- Chief Strategy Officer: Carlos Gonzalez