Jumeirah Group, the Dubai-based luxury hotel company and a member of Dubai Holding, has made a number of internal changes to its management team in order to strengthen its regional capabilities and support the brand’s continued commitment to growth.
Doris Greif returns to Dubai to take up the new role of Senior Vice President Operations Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA), with Katie Benson replacing her as Regional Vice President for Europe, in addition to her role as General Manager of Jumeirah Carlton Tower in London. In August, Jumeirah announced that Graham Kiy had moved from his position as General Manager of Jumeirah Vittaveli in the Maldives to take up a new dual role of Regional Vice President of Greater China and General Manager of Jumeirah Nanjing, a new China hotel due to open 2017.
Stefan Leser, Jumeirah Group CEO, said: “Having a team of experts with regional oversight will provide valuable support to our existing properties and will enable us to accelerate our plans to expand. We are committed to ensuring our future properties are right for our stakeholders, right for our brand, in the right location and right for our long term strategy. Doris, Katie and Graham are highly capable professionals with a depth of expertise that adds significant value operationally, and to our development decisions.”
Doris Greif, who has worked in hospitality for more than three decades, has held a number of senior positions since joining Jumeirah in 1999. She returns to Dubai from Europe having relocated in 2014 to her native Germany to take up the role of Regional Vice President Europe as well as General Manager of Jumeirah Frankfurt. Doris has considerable experience gained from working in a number of senior positions across the Group including Executive Assistant Manager in charge of rooms at Jumeirah Beach Hotel, General Manager Jumeirah Beach Club Resort & Spa, General Manager Operations and General Manager Jumeirah Emirates Towers. Doris left the company in 2008 to take on the role of Chief Operating Officer – City Operations at DIFC Investments LLC before re-joining Jumeirah in 2010 to become General Manager of Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, where she successfully led operations at the Jumeirah Group’s award-winning property in Abu Dhabi.
Katie Benson has also enjoyed more than 30 years in the hospitality industry with experience in general management and operations, human resources, asset management and development. She joined Jumeirah in 2015 from Langham Group where she held roles including CEO and Executive Director of Langham Hospitality Investments, Regional Vice President for the Americas and Caribbean for Langham Hospitality Group, Regional Vice President for the Americas and Europe and Managing Director at Langham London. A joint British-Australian citizen, Katie has also held positions for Langham Hospitality Group in Melbourne and Hong Kong, as well as several senior executive positions for Starwood Hotels and Resorts throughout the Middle East, Australia and China. In her new dual role as Regional Vice President Europe and General Manager Jumeirah Carlton Tower, Katie remains in London, the city in which she grew up, and now reports to Group Chief Operating Officer Marc Dardenne.
Graham Kiy took up his new role as Regional Vice President of Greater China and General Manager of Jumeirah Nanjing in August 2016. Graham joined Jumeirah in 2010 as the Hotel Manager for Jumeirah Zabeel Saray. He has extensive experience of the Asia Pacific market having spent more than 30 years working in South East Asia and Greater China undertaking a number of General Manager positions in China, Singapore and Manila. He is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese as well as German, French, Indonesian and Thai.
Jumeirah currently manages 22 properties across 11 destinations in Europe, Middle East and Asia offering 5,508 luxury rooms, suites and residences under its JUMEIRAH™ and JUMEIRAH LIVING™ brands. Since 2011 Jumeirah Group has more than doubled the number of properties under management and is continually in discussions with third parties concerning potential management agreements around the world. It has a robust pipeline and is scheduled to open up to 10 new properties in the 3 next years including new luxury hotels in Jordan, Abu Dhabi, Oman, China and Bali. Al Naseem Jumeirah, a 430-room luxury hotel, and, the fourth and final phase of the acclaimed Jumeirah Madinat resort in Dubai, will open in December 2016 followed by the 250-room luxury Jumeirah Nanjing in China, in 2017.