Executives
Christopher Cowdray
Chief Executive Officer
Cowdray has 27 years of extensive international experience in managing luxury hotels on four continents, in England, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Australia and Oman, where he was General Manager of the five-star Al Bustan Palace Hotel. Most recently, he spent 6 years as Managing Director of Claridge’s and 3½ years as General Manager of The Dorchester. He started his hotel career in his native Zimbabwe after receiving a Diploma with Honours in Hotel Management. He is a graduate of the Columbia Business School Executive Programme and is the recipient of numerous awards, both for personal achievement including most recently the prestigious Catey’s ‘Hotel Manager of the Year’ in 2004 and the Hotel & Catering Personnel & Training Association’s Special Achievement Award and for his hotels, including the Catey’s ‘Hotel of the Year’. Chris is a Fellow of the Hotel Catering Institute Management Association, a Master Innholder, past Chairman of the British Hospitality Association (London Division) and has been granted the Freedom of the City of London. He is a Governor of the English National Ballet and a Trustee of the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. He is a passionate believer in excellence and world class customer service.
François Delahaye
Chief Operating Officer
François Delahaye became Director of Operations in 2004. He has been responsible for major hotel and restaurant renovations and reorganisations, and the creation of quality assurance programmes, one of which increased guest satisfaction by over 50%. As General Manager of the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, a post he also continues to hold, he has transformed the hotel’s fortunes, collaborating with Alain Ducasse on the hotel’s Michelin-star restaurant and developing the new Bar. He was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite in 1998.
General Managers
Alberto del Hoyo
General Manager, The Beverly Hills Hotel
Formerly of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and the Ritz Carlton in Singapore, Alberto del Hoyo joined The Beverly Hills Hotel & Bungalows in 1997, two years after the hotel reopened following its two-year renovation. In 2000, he was named among the world’s top ten hotel general managers by LEADERS magazine, and ‘Independent Hotelier of the World’ by HOTELS magazine. The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences has named him ‘Best Hotelier Worldwide’, and in 2004 The Leading Hotels of the World honoured him as a ‘Leaders Club Winner’.
Franka Holtmann
General Manager, Le Meurice
Franka Holtmann has great depth of management experience in the Paris luxury hotel sector. She has worked at some of the finest addresses in town, from Le Meridien Etoile and The Ritz, where she was director of sales and marketing, to the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, where she was Hotel Manager and a key in its repositioning. Before joining Le Meurice in 2006, she was General Manager of the Crillon, responsible not only for its highly successful and sympathetic revamp but also for dramatically increasing sales and profits.
Ezio Attilio Indiani
General Manager, Hotel Principe di Savoia
Ezio Attilio Indiani is recognised worldwide as a leading figure in luxury hotel management and has worked at some of the most prestigious hotels in the world for over 25 years. In 1987, he joined the Forte Group, and worked at a number of its hotels including the Hotel Des Bergues in Geneva as Director. Before joining the Hotel Principe di Savoia as General Manager in 2005 he was Director of the Hotel Villa D’Este in Cernobbio, Italy. In 2002 he received the Hermes Prize as the ‘Best Hotel Director’ in the world, the highest award given in the deluxe hotel category.
