Establishing a Pan-European Investment Team

HPG Advisory Services partnered with a leading hospitality real estate investment platform over more than a decade to strengthen its European hotel investment capability through a series of strategic executive appointments. As the business expanded its acquisition activity across Europe, it required experienced investment professionals capable of sourcing, executing and creating value from increasingly complex hotel transactions.

Through multiple retained executive search assignments, we helped build a high-performing investment team that supported the platform's continued growth across acquisitions, asset management and portfolio expansion.

At a Glance

Client
Leading Hospitality Real Estate Investment Platform

Sector
Hotel Investment & Hospitality Real Estate

Geography
Europe

Platform
European Hotel Investment Portfolio

Assignments
Senior Vice President Investments
Vice President Acquisitions
Investment Director

Search Scope
Retained Executive Search

Strategic Challenge

Our client is an established hospitality real estate investor with an active strategy of acquiring, investing in and creating value across hotel assets throughout Europe.

As investment activity accelerated, the business required senior investment professionals capable of originating opportunities, executing increasingly sophisticated transactions and supporting long-term portfolio growth.

Unlike broader commercial real estate recruitment, these appointments demanded specialists with deep hospitality investment expertise, combining exceptional financial and analytical capability with extensive relationships across hotel owners, operators, developers, lenders, institutional investors and advisory firms.

The successful candidates needed to demonstrate experience across the full investment lifecycle, from sourcing off-market opportunities through underwriting, negotiation, execution and post-acquisition value creation.

Given the specialist nature of hotel investment, the client sought an executive search partner with a deep understanding of the European hospitality investment market, access to a highly targeted network of investment professionals and a proven track record of delivering senior appointments within hospitality real estate.

Our Advisory Role

Over a partnership spanning more than ten years, HPG Advisory Services worked closely with the investment leadership team to support the continued growth of the organisation's European investment platform.

Each assignment was undertaken on a retained basis, providing detailed market intelligence, organisational advice and comprehensive executive search support.

Our work included:

• Advising on investment team structure and succession planning.
• Mapping senior hotel investment professionals across private equity firms, institutional investors, hotel owners, developers, investment banks and advisory businesses.
• Delivering multiple executive appointments across the investment function.
• Assessing candidates against both technical investment capability and long-term leadership potential.

Successful candidates demonstrated expertise across:

• Hotel acquisitions and dispositions.
• Proprietary deal origination and relationship development.
• Financial modelling, underwriting and due diligence.
• Investment Committee presentation and transaction execution.
• Joint ventures, refinancing and capital structuring.
• Asset repositioning, capital investment and value creation strategies.

Every appointment was assessed not only on technical excellence but also on commercial judgement, strategic thinking and cultural alignment with the organisation's investment philosophy.

Executive Appointments

Across the partnership, HPG Advisory Services successfully completed multiple executive searches that strengthened the client's European hotel investment capability, including:

• Senior Vice President Investments
• Vice President Acquisitions
• Investment Director

Commercial Outcome

The strengthened investment team enhanced the organisation's ability to:

• Originate proprietary hotel investment opportunities across Europe.
• Execute acquisitions, disposals and complex hospitality transactions.
• Build and maintain relationships with owners, operators, developers and capital partners.
• Identify value creation opportunities through repositioning and capital investment.
• Support the continued growth of the European investment platform through disciplined investment execution.

The long-term partnership provided continuity of leadership while enabling the business to build an experienced investment function capable of supporting multiple investment cycles and sustained portfolio expansion.

Why This Engagement Matters

Hotel investment recruitment requires significantly more than traditional executive search expertise. Successful investment professionals combine financial and analytical excellence with deep hospitality market knowledge, extensive industry relationships and the commercial judgement to identify opportunities others overlook.

This engagement demonstrates HPG Advisory Services' ability to support hospitality investors through long-term leadership partnerships, delivering specialist investment professionals who contribute directly to acquisition strategy, transaction execution and long-term value creation.

Related Expertise

This engagement reflects HPG Advisory Services' expertise across:

• Hotel Investment Executive Search
• Hospitality Real Estate
• Hotel Acquisitions
• Investment & Transactions
• Private Equity & Institutional Investors
• Asset Management Leadership
• Hospitality Investment Platforms
• Board & Executive Appointments