On Tuesday Accor’s board of directors appointed Sébastien Bazin as the company’s next chairman and CEO, ending a four-month search.
Yann Caillère, currently serving as interim CEO of Accor, is leaving the company after seven years.
Bazin’s appointment likely means Accor, Courcouronnes, France, will more aggressively move ahead with its asset light strategy of reconfiguring its portfolio to comprise 40% managed, 40% franchised and 20% owned and leased hotels.
To take on this new role, Sébastien Bazin has ended all his duties at Colony Capital, Santa Monica, California. Eurazeo and Colony Capital control 21% of Accor and according to anonymous sources pushed Accor’s former CEO Denis Hennequin out in April because Hennequin disagreed with the pace of implementing Accor’s asset light strategy. As an Accor board member Bazin reportedly clashed with Accor’s past CEOs, and will now serve as its fourth CEO in eight years.
“I take on this new role with great ambition for the group, to which I am deeply committed, and acute awareness of the challenges it currently faces. I want it to find the boldness, dynamism and desire which it has always been led by. And I wish us to work all together, employees, franchisees and partners, directors and shareholders, and that we will work confidently towards a common goal to develop the group to the very highest level with commitment and stringency,” Bazin said.
Bazin is a seasoned hotel investor. In 1992 he became CEO of Immobilière Hôtelière, specializing in high-end hotel developments. In 1997, he joined Colony Capital where he managed and participated in a number of investments in the hotel sector, including the buyout of the luxury hotel chains Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and Raffles Hotels & Resorts, the acquisition and management of hotel assets from La Générale des Eaux, Club Méditerranée and Accor, the acquisition of a stake in Lucien Barrière Group, and Colony’s investment in Accor.