Aimbridge Hospitality, the world’s biggest third-party hotel management company, has announced major changes to its leadership team. Stating that the changes were a “necessary, first step” to realize the company’s vision and build on those actions, the hotel management company said it had flattened the top level of the organization to optimize existing senior positions.
This was done to reduce complexity and drive speed, efficiency and effectiveness across the company, Aimbridge CEO Craig S. Smith said. He will now have direct oversight of operations.
The significant changes have resulted in Aimbridge parting ways with its Global President Mark Tamis and Allison Reid, the company’s chief global growth officer.
Aly El-Bassuni, president-owner relations, will expand his role to include operations resources. He will continue to be in charge for all aspects of owner relations and oversee the operations task force, brand relations, property retention, transitions and operational finance.
Eric B. Jacobs has been named as the new chief global growth officer, effective June 2. He will sit on Aimbridge’s executive leadership team and report directly to Smith.
Jacobs has been with Marriott International for almost 20 years, serving as the chief development officer for Marriott Select Brands for over a decade. He has led the expansion strategy and execution for 10 Marriott brands and added around 2,400 hotels totaling 264,000 rooms to Marriott’s system. The success resulted in the extension of his role to lead the global expansion of Marriott’s midscale portfolio, with highlights being the acquisition of City Express in Latin America, expansion of Four Points by Sheraton in Europe, Middle East and Africa as well as the creation of the StudioRes by Marriott brand.
Aimbridge has been trying to woo Jacobs for many years, Smith said during a media call, adding that he’s a “boots on the ground type of a leader” and very focused on partnering with owners.
“Roughly 2,400 hotels were brought under Marriott’s system under him. That’s a huge number of hotels and we are looking forward to him doing the same thing [at Aimbridge] and turbocharging our growth as we move forward,” Smith said.
Jacobs, El-Bassuni and the four presidents in charge of Full Service, Select Service, EMEA and LATAM will report directly to Smith. Allison Handy, SVP-Select Service Sales, will be taking on an enterprise role as SVP-Sales, North America and will oversee the full service, select service and National Sales teams. She will report to El-Bassuni.
The strategic changes to the senior leadership team were made to remove layers between the general manager level and the CEO and get closer to the general manager. Taking off these layers will help the organization be more nimble and effective, Smith explained.
Removing layers from a leadership team helps take out bureaucracy, Smith said during the call, adding that while bureaucracy may not be bad, it can slow down decision making.
“The less layers we have between the owners and the leaders of the company, the faster the statements are made, the more we can empower the teams,” Smith said.
These changes follow the Aimbridge’s announcement in February of streamlining its U.S. operations, which included adding an Owner Relations Team to its structure.