Gilda Perez-Alvarado navigates her 180° career change

PARIS — Gilda Perez-Alvarado is just a few months away from leading the opening of the first Orient Express hotel in Rome with Venice to follow soon thereafter. The build-up to this moment, she said, has been nothing less than fascinating as she and her family adjust to life in France.

“A friend of mine told me, ‘You know, when you make a change, be a little bit like a mountain climber, and make sure at least you have either one hand or one of your feet on the rocks.’ I think on this one of all, both hands and both feet are off the rock,” Perez-Alvarado told Hotel Investment Today.

She has been drinking from the proverbial firehose as she flips her career from serving hotel clients to becoming a strategy and brand leader at one of the industry’s biggest corporate hotel companies.

“And I have to say I love it,” Perez-Alvarado said. “It’s great. Everything that I learned over the last several years either at brokerage or advisory – it’s coming to fruition. But I couldn’t have asked for more. I mean, I wanted to learn. I wanted to exercise the brain. I think I’ve gotten more than I asked for, and it’s been fascinating. It’s good to change. It’s refreshing.”

Watch Perez-Alvarado talk about her new challenges and opportunities, as well as her update on the Orient Express hotel brand launch and much more.

Full interview transcript

Jeffrey Weinstein: Hi, I'm Jeff Weinstein, editor in chief of Hotel Investment Today. And this is On the Money.

I’m here today with Gilda Perez-Alvarado, chief strategy officer for Accor and CEO of its Orient Express brand.

Gilda joined Accor in 2023, reporting directly to CEO Sebastien Bazin, firstly with overall responsibility for the group strategy, and then in January ‘24 she added the charge of running Orient Express, the luxury brand that includes hotels, trains, and sailing ships.

Gilda began her career in 2001 in hospitality advisory services at Ernst & Young, followed by two years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the last 19 years with JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group in New York.

In addition to her responsibilities at JLL, she continued her training in competitive strategy, leadership, and sustainable development. She also sat on boards of several major organizations, including the WTTC, IREFAC, Cornell University and Blackstone.

Gilda, thanks for joining me today. Good to see you.

Gilda Perez-Alvarado: Good to see you, too, Jeff.

Weinstein: Thank you. So here in the States it’s a big day. It’s Election Day, the day everybody’s been waiting for.

I’m not going to ask you who you voted for, assuming you still vote here in the States, but I’m curious what you think about how the outcome, one way or the other, is going to affect the business, especially the investment and the M&A side.

Perez-Alvarado: So definitely, Jeff, it’s a good day to be talking. We’re all on edge to see what happens in the U.S. I think this isn’t a U.S. event – this is a global event. I did vote to answer your question. So, even though I’m in France, I’m still a very active citizen, and in terms of what the outcome will be and how the market is going to react. I mean, the answer is, we don’t know. We’ve been on the road for the last 10 days. We’re in the Middle East. We were meeting with a Latin American investor yesterday, and it’s just been very interesting to see literally the market divided. I mean, the opinions are as wide and varied as it is right now in the United States.

Everything that I learned over the last several years either at brokerage or advisory – it’s coming to fruition. But I couldn’t have asked for more. I mean, I wanted to learn. I wanted to exercise the brain. I think I’ve gotten more than I asked for, and it’s been fascinating. It’s good to change. It’s refreshing.

Gilda Perez-Alvarado

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For me, our industry is extremely resilient. It will do well in my mind, regardless of which party wins. What I’m afraid of, though, is, if we get into a period of uncertainty where there’s no clear winner. I think that would do more damage than good.

Weinstein: Well, let's hope we get some clarity on this before the middle of January.

Perez-Alvarado: I agree.

Weinstein: Good luck to us all in that regard.

So, new life for you. It’s been over a year that you’ve been with Accor. How is it different than when you were a broker and advisor? And now you’re a developer and a strategy officer. How’s life different?

Perez-Alvarado: Oh, it’s very different, Jeff. I think I couldn’t have done more of a 180 than what I did a little bit over a year ago. I’m very, very happy with the change, personally and professionally. A friend of mine told me. ‘you know, when you make a change, be a little bit like a mountain climber, and make sure at least you have either one hand or one of your feet on the rocks. I think on this one of all, both hands and both feet are off the rock.

But you know, I changed countries, changed culture, changed language. Okay, I’m in the industry. But I’m at a very different perspective.

I saw one of our peer company CEOs and he asked me, ‘how do you like being on this side of the business?’ And I have to say I love it. It’s great. Everything that I learned over the last several years either at brokerage or advisory – it’s coming to fruition. But I couldn’t have asked for more. I mean, I wanted to learn. I wanted to exercise the brain. I think I’ve gotten more than I asked for, and it’s been fascinating. It’s good to change. It’s refreshing.

Weinstein: So, what’s challenged you the most? And maybe what surprised you the most?

Perez-Alvarado: I would say the biggest challenge, I guess, it’s managing it all from a personal perspective. I moved with my family. So doing a move with your family across the Atlantic in a new country with a new language, new culture. That’s a challenge in and of itself.

Thankfully, it’s gone exceptionally well, and everybody’s adapted extraordinarily well. And on the professional side it’s been full of surprises. As you said, I joined Accor to run strategy, work hand in hand with Sebastien, and then I got the gift as well of running Orient Express just a few months later, and that has been such a privilege. It's such an honor to be working hand-in-hand with an extraordinary group of people launching a new brand, exploring or developing in the ultra-luxury sector, which, you know, there's been a little bit of a race with us, some of our peers, developing two new lines of business for Accor on the trains and on the sailing yachts and really redefining the way we travel, and we experience our journeys.

Earlier this year, in the summer, we signed an agreement with LVM. So, I feel very privileged to be working alongside them, and also to learn from them, and also be able to contribute. So it’s been great.

Weinstein: So, let's talk about Orient Express, especially the hotels. I think everybody’s curious. I think you have three under development. What can you tell us about the hotel side for the ultra-luxury, brand?

Perez-Alvarado: On Orient Express. Yeah, absolutely. We are in the process right now. We have two that will open very soon in Italy. So, we’ll make our debut in Rome, followed by Venice. We have other assets in the pipeline, mostly in the Middle East and elsewhere in Europe. But Rome and Venice will mark the launch of Orient Express as a hotel product.

Both assets are absolutely spectacular. Our hotel in Rome dates to the 1600s. Our hotel in Venice dates to the 1400s. And really, that’s what we want to do. That’s how we want to develop the brand. It’s going to be a collection of extraordinary places, extraordinary experiences, each with their own story very much in line with the Agatha Christie days, the incredible rich history of 140 years that the brand has. And for us, we are basically custodians of the brand, Jeff. This is a brand that has a tremendous amount of visibility, a tremendous amount of brand equity. It has an engineering past, an entrepreneurial past, a literary past, and our job is to make sure that this new manifestation of the brand endures, and that the brand can go on for at least another 140 years.

We have two [Orient Express hotels] that will open very soon in Italy. So, we’ll make our debut in Rome, followed by Venice. We have other assets in the pipeline, mostly in the Middle East and elsewhere in Europe. But Rome and Venice will mark the launch of Orient Express as a hotel product.

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So, it’s a lot of responsibility. It’s very exciting and one of the things that we want to do, especially with our first hotel in Rome. I think that’s a great example, or even Venice. These are destinations that are very well known. Our guests have most likely been to those destinations many times before. But what we want to make sure happens is that by staying with us you get to experience not just a hotel, but you get to experience the cities in a very different way that only by staying at Orient Express you get to do. So, the experiential aspect of Orient Express is absolutely critical.

Weinstein: We have an opening date for the first one, yet?

Perez-Alvarado: Yes, the first one will be spring of 2025.

Weinstein: Great. Exciting. We can’t wait to see it.

So, you also wear the head of chief strategy officer hat. Tell me about the discovery that you’ve been doing in that role, and what you’ve learned, what you’ve figured out differently, perhaps?

Perez-Alvarado: Listen. It’s been almost like a kid in a candy store. There's so much to discover. Sebastien has done an extraordinary job at his decade-plus tenure at Accor in terms of really transforming Accor, building its luxury lifestyle platform, going into new verticals.

So, for me, I would say one of the most fun parts of it has been to understand it all, to put it all into perspective, to understand how to sell that into the marketplace, how to make sure that we’re adding value through a hospitality lens, not just through a hotel lens. And so, the discovery of, let’s say, hotels and its adjacencies, be it our food and beverage platform, our workspace platform, so on and so forth, that has been really, really great to see and learn from experts in their own fields.

So, it’s been a very collaborative approach and a very fun journey in terms of discovering, number one, understanding, getting to know the context behind all of those decisions. And then, adding value as well injecting the perspective that I'm bringing either from global perspective or U.S. perspective as well.

Weinstein: Any specific learns that you can share or value-adds that you might be able to share with an investment community?

Perez-Alvarado: Yeah, I would say, listen, one or two highlights. One is we’re in a very privileged position. I like to say that the treasure behind our portfolio of assets that we have at our core is really the brands. And if you look at the luxury, lifestyle side with the privilege of owning three centennial brands. We have Raffles, which is well over 100 years old. That’s an Asian brand. We have Orient Express. It’s a European brand. And then Fairmont, as well, is also over 100 years old, and that’s a North American brand. So, it’s a very beautiful collection of brands.

Obviously, we have many brands, as you know, all very complimentary, and I would say one of the big management efforts over the last 18-24 months has been to make sure that every brand stands on its own. We’ve relaunched the brands. Sofitel just celebrated its 60th year this year. Maud Bailly has done an amazing job at relaunching the brand, making sure that the brand is relevant in today’s term. We’re doing the same with the rest of the portfolio. So, seeing that from a European perspective, from a French perspective, has been extraordinary.

I would say the beauty about the strategy role is I got to see the organization from a, let’s say, stratospheric level. The beauty about combining that with Orient Express is I’m getting in the trenches, right? So, I’m seeing this firsthand. How do you develop a brand? How do you build a team? And it’s an ultra-luxury brand experiences that are extremely important. We have two new business lines. So, just even from a team formation, Jeff, that requires a very different skill set we have. Our team is formed of naval architects and engineers. We have a creative director who’s extraordinary. We have people who are coming from the high-end consumer goods world or ultra-luxury. So, it’s very interesting to get that different skill set and making sure that it works very well together.

Weinstein: So one last question – kind of open ended. What’s on your mind the most when you think about the business and where it’s headed bigger picture?

I don’t want to say what keeps you up at night, but what are you thinking about the most when you’re trying to strategize and figure out the way forward?

Perez-Alvarado: Let’s see, I don’t know. That’s a heavily loaded question, Jeff. What I think about is I know I am very lucky to be in my position and experiencing what I’m experiencing and learning what I’m learning.

And I didn’t realize that I was going to be exposed to so much in such a short period of time. So, I’m making sure that all my senses are on, and I get to absorb as much as possible.

On the flip side, I also want to make sure that I’m adding as much value as possible. So, keeping up to date, making sure I know the latest trends, studying, doing research, looking at past experiences, whether professional or academic, and put it into play.

But most importantly, for me personally, is keeping an open mind and being very adaptable and nimble. It’s a very different culture, not just from a corporate perspective, also from a country perspective. And so that has been very fun, that the human psychology aspect of it has been great. The brain is very happy, and I want to make sure that this is very successful for everybody.

Weinstein: Happiness. You’re happy. That’s great! And congratulations on your first year. Good luck with your first Orient Express hotel about to open. And Gilda, thanks for sharing your time with us today. We really appreciate it.

Perez-Alvarado: Thanks, so much, Jeff.