About the Hotel Investment Conference

Ramón Aragonés Marín

Ramón Aragonés (Madrid, 1954) studied Hospitality and Tourism Management in Palma de Mallorca University and Louvain University.

He joined Hesperia Hotels in 2000 as Operations Manager. He was then promoted to Managing Director of Hesperia Hotels from 2000 to 2009, and after that to Managing Director Spain of NH Hotel Group. In 2011 he was appointed Chief Operations Officer in the Executive Officer and member of the Management Committee.

He has a vast experience in the hospitality industry. Before joining NH Hotel Group he worked as Hotel Manager for over 10 years in Spain, Belgium and Venezuela.

At the end of June 2016, Ramón Aragonés was appointed as Executive Managing Director of Business & Operations until 25^th of January 2017, when he was promoted to Chief Executive Officer of NH Hotel Group so far (being currently NH Hotel Group, part of Minor Hotels from 2018).

Sharan Pasricha

Sharan Pasricha is Founder & Co-CEO of Ennismore, a global collective of entrepreneurial and founder-built brands with creativity & purpose at their heart.
Pasricha founded Ennismore in 2011, and under his leadership it saw exponential growth, including the global expansion of The Hoxton, a global series of open-house hotels; the reinvention of the iconic Gleneagles, the glorious playground in Scotland’s The Ochil Hills and Gleneagles Townhouse hotel and members’ club in Edinburgh, and the creation of Working From_, a shared community workspace. During this time, Ennismore was included in Fast Company’s World Most Innovative Companies in 2020 and 2021, and the Financial Times’ Future 100.
In 2021, Pasricha and Accor entered a joint venture, creating the largest and fastest-growing lifestyle hospitality company, bringing together an unrivalled collective of 14 brands and over 150 culturally relevant and diverse restaurants and nightlife destinations. The Ennismore brands include: 21c Museum Hotel, 25hours Hotels, Hyde, Mama Shelter, Mondrian, Morgans Originals and SLS.
Pasricha has been included in Conde Nast Traveller’s ‘50 People Changing The Way We Travel’; The Caterer’s Top 100 Most Powerful People in Hospitality, and was awarded the Alumni GOLD (Graduate of the Last Decade) by his alma mater, London Business School, in 2018 - where he obtained his MBA.
In 2022, Pasricha was awarded an MBE in The Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Torgeir Silseth

Silseth’s first hotel related work experience was as a chef at Union Hotell in Geiranger, an effort that led to a prestigious trainee position at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Hamburg. In 1991, he became General Manager at Quality Hotel Hafjell and held this position until 1996, when he was made Operations Manager for Choice Hotels Scandinavia (later Nordic Choice Hotels). In 1999, Silseth was named deputy CEO, and in 2006 he replaced Petter Stordalen as CEO of the company while retaining a close work relationship with the owner and chairman of the board of Nordic Choice Hotels.

Silseth is educated at the Norwegian School of Hotel Management and has also served as a UN peacekeeper in Lebanon.

Timothy Abram

Tim Abram is a Senior Vice President in Acquisitions at Starwood Capital Group. In this role, Mr. Abram focuses on sourcing, structuring, underwriting and executing transactions across Europe. He is responsible for Starwood's hotel acquisitions business across Europe, as well as it's commercial real estate acquisitions business in Northern Europe.

Prior to joining Starwood Capital in 2015, Mr. Abram was an Associate Director in Real Estate, Lodging & Leisure Investment Banking at UBS in London, working across M&A, equity and debt capital markets product groups. Prior to UBS, Mr. Abram worked in the Distressed Debt Group at Citi in London.

Mr. Abram received a 1st Class BSc (Hons) Economics degree from University College London and an MSc Finance with Distinction from the London School of Economics.

Laia Lahoz

Laia Lahoz who boasts a Degree in Law School from the Pompeu Fabra University and a Master’s Degree in International Cooperation from the University of Barcelona, has a vast professional experience in Mergers & Acquisitions, Asset Management and Legal Affairs.

She started off her career in the renowned law firm Garrigues and introduced herself into the hospitality industry in 2004 when she joined Hesperia Hotels as Head of the Legal Affairs Department.  

A few years later she moved on to become Managing Director of the Hesperia Investor Group and in 2013, after the integration of the Hesperia hotel chain into NH Hotel Group, she was appointed Senior VP of Portfolio Management, becoming responsible of the Company’s global asset management strategy.

In June 2017, and after extraordinary results in her previous role, Laia was appointed NH Hotel Group’s new Chief Assets and Development Officer, becoming a part of the Company’s Executive Committee and reporting directly to the CEO. From this new position, she continues to lead the Group’s asset strategy and takes on the responsibility of its global expansion and development as well.

Ascan Kókai

Ascan Kókai joined ECE Real Estate Partners in October 2020 to oversee its hotel real estate investment activities. The ECE European Lodging Recovery Fund has a focus on a pan-European hotel strategy looking for assets requiring value-add initiatives, with a targeted investment volume around €600 million, once fully invested. Its seed asset is the €100m Bonvecchiati ensemble in San Marco, Venice (IT) which is currently being repositioned.

Most recently Ascan was for five years with NH Hotel Group (operator of nearly 400 hotels) as member of the management committee for the business unit Northern Europe and responsible for the expansion activities with a particular focus on the DACH region, UK, Ireland, Benelux and Central Europe, as well as the asset management and landlord relations of the 128 strong portfolio of mostly leased hotels in the business unit.

Ascan gained extensive institutional investor experience during ten years with Invesco Real Estate, the global independent fund manager, initially for three years based in London and since 2008 in Munich. Ascan was closely involved with the setup, fund raising, deal sourcing, asset and fund management of Invesco’s first hotel fund, which he later also managed for several years. The fund, a Luxemburg SICAV, had €350m equity invested and reached a gross asset value of €700m. The multi-branded portfolio consisted of 17 hotels across nine countries. The investors were a group of seven institutional investors including Generali (France) and Allianz, as well as a further insurance group, German pension funds and a fund of funds.

Before joining Invesco, Ascan spent over six years at JLL Hotels in London working on pan-European assignments across valuations, brokerage and eventually as Vice President in asset management, including an exchange to the Los Angeles office.

With more than 20 years of experience in the hotel real estate investment industry with leading market participants JLL and Invesco Real Estate, Ascan Kókai has extensive knowledge in asset, investment and fund management, including contract negotiations, hotel transactions and real estate financing.

Ascan started out in 1992 as Hotelkaufmann business trainee in the luxury sector (Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten, Hamburg). In 1999 he graduated top of class with a 1^st class BSc (Hons) from University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. Currently, he lives with his Norwegian wife and their two sons in Hamburg.

Marie-Noële Schwartzmann

Marie-Noele Schwartzmann, mother of two, is the Chief Development Officer at Deutsche Hospitality since May 2022. She has a very multicultural background and speaks 4 languages. After her studies in Finance & Management at Paris Dauphine University, she also graduated in 2020 from the executive programme in Strategy & Innovations for the service industry at Essec Business School.
Marie-Noele started her career as consultant at Interbrand and E&Y as expert in Brand Valuation & Strategy. Afterwards 10+ years followed within the hospitality industry at Louvre Hotels Group, where Marie-Noele was in charge of the international network.
She is passionate about the hotel business because it’s a human intensive/related industry, full of people and talent, where she can interact and share know how with international stakeholders daily.

Max C. Luscher

Max C. Luscher MRICS career is closely linked to the hotel industry. After graduating from high school, he trained as a hotel specialist with a management qualification and held management positions in the international hotel industry (including England, Ireland, USA, Cayman Islands). Afterwards, the Stuttgart native studied business administration/hospitality management at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich. This was followed by the development of hotel real estate and hotel operations consulting at KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft as well as a part-time Real Estate Investment Management course at the European Business School, Oestrich-Winkel. Since 2016, Luscher has worked as Director Development & Asset Management for B&B HOTELS, in 2017 he took over the management of B&B Hotels in Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria, and since 2020 he has been CEO Central & Northern Europe for B&B Hotels (including the Netherlands, Poland and Denmark). He is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). He is married and has three children.

Timonthy Walton

Tim Walton is a Regional Vice President of International Hotel Development for Marriott International.  He currently oversees a team of 12 executives responsible for the development of all Marriott’s brands across the northern, western and southern regions of Europe (primarily through means of management and franchising contracts).

Before rejoining Marriott in 2005, Tim spent four years as Vice President of Hotel Development, Europe, with Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts.  Prior to that, he worked with Marriott’s Development Planning and Feasibility group based in London and was responsible for assignments across the EMEA region. 

Tim has also held positions within the fields of consultancy (with industry experts BDO) and sales and marketing.  He is a graduate of the University of Surrey where he is a frequent guest lecturer.  He is also a member of the University of Surrey’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management advisory board.

Erik Jacobs

Erik has recently founded Vertiq Capital. Vertiq is a spin-off of a single family office that is active in the hospitality industry, Vertiq currently owns two hotels in Europe: the 25Hours hotel at Gare du Nord in Paris and the Autograph Bankside hotel in London. Vertiq is actively expanding the portfolio and will be working with various investment partners.

The shareholders of Vertiq also own Cycas Hospitality, a pan-European hotel management company with over 40 hotels in 12 countries across Europe. Cycas works with a large range of the global franchise brands and manages assets ranging from serviced apartments, apart hotels, full service and limited service hotels.

Martin Pauli

Martin Pauli is an Associate Director at Arup, a Global consulting and professional services firm. As a management consultant for the circular economy, he and his team implement strategies for circular design and business model innovation for public and

private sector clients. He is the Global Circular Services Leader at Arup, a member of the Innovation Advisory Board as well as a member of the Committee for Circular Construction of the German Sustainable Building Council.

Andreas Löcher

Andreas Löcher has been Head of Department of Investment Management Hospitality at Union Investment Real Estate GmbH, Hamburg, since July 2010. He is in charge of the hotel investment strategy and coordinates all Hotel Acquisitions and Sales activities within the Hamburg-based property investment company. The widespread hotel portfolio of Union Investment containing some 42 hotel operators/brands in ten country markets currently comprises 85 real estate properties with a current market value of about 6.4 billion EUR.
Prior to joining Union Investment, Andreas Löcher was a Head of Hotel Acquisitions & Sales at Deka Immobilien GmbH, Frankfurt and a Vice President at Aareal Bank AG, Wiesbaden, responsible for real estate finance (hotel).

Michelle Weiss

Michelle Weiss is Head of Hotel Properties at Aareal Bank AG, one of the leading debt financing providers within the hospitality industry. The bank currently holds a portfolio of over €11 billion of hotel financing and is active in more than 25 countries across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. Aareal Bank’s hotel team, which consists of eight hospitality professionals, focuses primarily on lending to first-class hotels in prime locations as well as portfolio transactions.
Prior to that, Michelle Weiss was a Senior Associate at HVS Hodges Ward Elliott, focusing on the sale and financing of hotels as well as operator selections. She joined the team from HVS Madrid in 2007, where she conducted feasibility and market studies and performed hotel valuations for major hotel clients. Ms. Weiss is a graduate from Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne and holds a Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management.

Alexander Goad

Alexander is CEO of City ID and a true entrepreneur by heart. He has been involved from the early days and is overall responsible for managing the existing hotel platform, and leading the company in its wider growth strategy across Europe. The award-winning and customer centric City ID group is aiming to create apartment hotels with an entrepreneurial and modern hospitality mindset with innovative sustainability solutions. Together with pension providers APG and Aware Super the goal is to invest more than €1 billion over the next five years to grow its international platform.

Michael Levie

Michael Levie; upon graduating from Essec MBA in hospitality management (IMHI Cornell / Essec), worked for various international hotel chains including Sonesta International Hotels Corporation and NH Hoteles all over the world. As Vice-President of Operations, he managed large hotel portfolios. Michael also worked for SynXis, where he started and headed up the European office. Michael Levie is a founding partner of citizenM hotels and was responsible for the hotel side of the company. Currently Michael’s focus is on assisting start and scale ups in the hospitality World, to accelerate and impact transformation.

Nick Adam

Nick leads the development efforts for The Standard, Peri and Bunkhouse brands across Europe and the Middle East. After a long career in financial capital markets, during which he served as President and CEO of  regulated organizations, he made the switch to the hospitality industry almost five years ago . He has secured a substantial pipeline of properties and would love to plant a Standard flag in the Nordic region.

Mia Amalie Holstein

Mia Amalie Holstein is VP at SMVdanmark responsible for public affairs, communication, analyses and recruitment. She is also a member of the Danish Council on Ethics and columnist at Berlingske. She holds a master's degree in economics (University of Copenhagen), a master's degree in philosophy (University of Copenhagen) and is currently also a student of law at the University of Southern Denmark.

Catrine Birkevold Liem

Catrine Birkevold Liem is a Senior Sustainability Advisor in DNB Corporate Banking, where she is in close dialogue with DNB’s largest customers to understand their ESG risk and efforts and discuss how DNB can play an active role in their contribution to the green shift.  Catrine has had several positions in DNB before she started her sustainability journey, the latest as Head of Group Strategy. She has also worked as an M&A advisor and been responsible for Investment Grade origination and syndication in DNB Markets. DNB is Norway’s largest bank and have closely followed and financed the Nordic hotel market for a long time. 

Before DNB, Catrine worked in Export Credit Norway, arranging financing to Asian and Latin American buyers of Norwegian goods and services. 

Ari Vuorentausta

Ari Vuorentausta has worked in experience economy his entire career. In Lapland Hotels he has been since 2005, as CEO more than 10 years. During that period Lapland Hotels has grown significantly enlarging its’ operations from Lapland to some of the major towns in Finland. Before that he was Development Director at Eräsetti Safaris offering Arctic outdoor activities and General Manager at various hotels. Ari Vuorentausta has received MSc in Business and Administration from Turku School of Economics, International Trade as main subject.

Yliniemi family owned Lapland Hotels & Safaris consists of 19 hotels from Helsinki up to the very North in Lapland, Lapland Safaris, leading Arctic outdoor activities providing supplier, and 5 smaller ski resorts. Lapland is still the strong home base for company group, but Southern part of Finland has come more and more important over the last years hotel establishments there.

Mattias Stengl

Mattias Stengl is the entrepreneur that turned hotel director. Only 22 years old, he became the youngest general manager in Nordic Choice. Then, with a vision to renew the center of Stockholm's business district, he took part in the Urban Escape project, where he oversaw the development and opening of the award-winning Hobo Hotel. He then left the position of General Manager at Hobo to take over the management of Strawberry Living. An umbrella of several companies with a joint portfolio of over 3000 apartments, it's Sweden's largest facilitator of serviced apartments. A key partner to many of the largest companies in the Nordic region, enabling them to recruit specialists and executives from all parts of the world. 

Katia Østergaard Neumann

Katia is a seasoned CEO within the hospitality industry and experienced non-executive director and strategic advisor across various sectors covering hospitality, travel & tourism, real estate, and the financial sector. 

Holding a master in law from CPH University, Katia started her career as a lawyer and later joined Hilton Scandic Hotels Nordic Region as HR director. She was then appointed to the board of directors at the Danish Chamber of Commerce followed by 11 years as CEO of HORESTA, the Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism Association in DK.  

Being born and raised as daughter of a hotelier the industry is in her DNA and with her long experience advising and representing the business at national and European level, she has developed an in-depth industry knowledge and holds an extensive global network.

Katia has now focused her career working as non-executive director and strategic advisor holding several board positions

Heleri Rande

Originally from Estonia, Heleri has lived in seven countries and holds a Bachelor’s Degree from New York University in Economics and Business, as well as an executive MBA in Hospitality Administration from École Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) in Switzerland.

After leading Puccini Group’s growth in EMEA for two years after graduation, she has partnered with Think Hospitality to deliver on F&B strategy projects helping brands and owners assess the market, find the right concept positioning for the properties through strategic advice and review. Her focus is mostly on hotel and mall development projects with a portfolio that includes the likes of Accor, Hilton, Kempinski, Puro Hotels and Peel Holdings.

She is the Consulting Editor of Supper Magazine and programme director at various major hospitality events around the world. She co-founded Ideas-Flavours-Experiences, the leading gastronomy event in the Baltics and the New Baltic Hospitality Forum, the first hotel focused event in the region. Heleri also sits on the board of the Global Restaurant Investment Forum and is the Stammvater of the UK Chapter of EHL Alumni Network.

Patrizia Zueck

Patrizia is Italian-Swiss and grew up in Zurich before she moved to Lausanne to pursue her degree in International Hospitality Management at the esteemed Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL).

After gaining her first professional experiences in Switzerland, among other things working at the luxurious Dolder Grand Hotel in Zurich and at a branding agency, she had the opportunity to move to New York in 2019 where she worked in different departments for Sydell Group, a boutique hotel chain that includes the famous NoMad and the trendy The Line hotels. She then returned to EHL to finish her degree and graduated top of her class in Summer 2020. The long-held dream of being part of a hotel opening team unfortunately had to be postponed due to COVID, so Patrizia decided to join the business development team at an early stage start up in food-tech. But then in early 2021 the dream finally became true and Patrizia moved to Vienna to become the 2nd employee at the new Zoku, a Dutch hybrid-hotel brand, where as the pre-opening sales manager she was responsible to establish Zoku’s brand in a new market. Now, since early this year she has been able to fulfill another dream and has taken a leap to join the development team at Ruby Hotels where she is now supporting the brand’s growth in Southern Europe.