“True collaboration isn’t about piecing together existing ideas – it’s about creating something new, something that didn’t exist until everyone entered the room.”
Shaping destinations where people, place, and possibility come alive
My career has spanned four continents, twelve countries, and a wide range of contexts — from leading global icons and large-scale operations of over 1,400 colleagues at Fairmont Banff Springs and Phoenicia Beirut to shaping Nordic destinations and privately owned hotel groups. Leading in such diverse environments - through growth, turnaround, and transformation - has given me a wide-angle perspective on how strategy, culture, and humanity interconnect.
Image: A lovely cabin in the wilderness of Värmlands län, Sweden
Beyond What We’ve Known
A long career in international hospitality has shaped my ability to move between vision, execution, and impact. I’ve worked at scale, across cultures, and inside complexity. Those lessons matter.
And yet, they are no longer the centre of gravity.
What draws me forward now sits beyond traditional categories – beyond hospitality as an industry. It lives in the space where human longing for meaning, connection, movement, and belonging meets our responsibility to shape what comes next.
I’m increasingly drawn to work that explores new ecosystems and unfamiliar terrain – both conceptually and physically. Work that unfolds in dialogue with nature and culture, and in collaboration with people who feel a similar pull.
At their best, destinations become more than places to visit. They become catalysts – shaping how we move, restore, connect, and see ourselves in relation to the world. They touch something human. And in doing so, they carry responsibility – for the memories they create and the futures they influence.
We may come from very different backgrounds. Many people who feel drawn to create destinations today don’t come from hospitality in the traditional sense. What they do bring is a vision, an ambition, and a genuine care for what they want to shape – along with their own skills, perspectives, and life experience.
I don’t arrive with ready-made answers. My experience can offer orientation at times, but the real work happens as we walk alongside what is trying to take form – listening for what matters, and allowing clarity to emerge. From there, we find our way from intention to direction, and from direction into action that can stand over time.
Some partnerships may be intense and hands-on during moments of transition or creation. Others may evolve into longer-term sparring relationships. The form can change. What matters is shared intent, trust, and a willingness to grow something meaningful together over time.
The experiences that stay with us are never simply designed. They are cultivated – through clarity, courage, and care.
Evoke transformation. Trust the process.
A select of hotels from career journey. Top left and right: Lundies House by Wildland Limited, Fairmont Banff Springs, InterContinental Phoenicia Beirut, InterContinental Bali Resort, Family-owned 110m Super Yacht (all photo credits to individual hotels)
Collaboration forms
Ways of Making Moments that Matter
The work doesn’t start with a format. It starts with intent.
Partnerships take different shapes, guided by context, timing, and what is trying to emerge. What matters is trust, openness, and a shared commitment to creating experiences that matter – and last.
The following are just three examples of how this work may take form. But best is we just connect for an inspiring talk!
Strategic Sparring & Sensemaking
There are moments when what’s most needed is not execution, but space.
Space to think clearly. To question assumptions. To sit with uncertainty before rushing to resolution.
This form of partnership is for founders, owners, and leadership teams carrying vision and responsibility – often at inflection points. Repositioning. Investment decisions. Growth that brings new complexity. Or simply the sense that something is ready to evolve, even if the shape isn’t clear yet.
Here, my role is not to advise from the outside, but to think alongside you. To bring perspective, pattern recognition, and the courage to ask what may not yet be comfortable – so clarity can emerge and decisions align with what truly matters.
Sometimes this shows up as occasional high-level sessions. Sometimes as an ongoing sparring relationship. The rhythm adapts – the intention remains the same.
Interim Leadership & Holding the Centre
There are phases where vision alone is not enough – where the organisation needs presence, coherence, and steady leadership while something new takes shape.
This form of partnership emerges when ambition is clear, but capacity is stretched, complexity is rising, or the next chapter requires someone to step in and hold the centre for a period of time.
In these moments, I take on an executive leadership role — not as a caretaker, but as a catalyst. Bringing clarity, momentum, and alignment across people, culture, and performance. Translating direction into action. Building trust quickly. Leaving behind stronger leadership capacity than when I arrived.
This is not about filling a role.
It’s about stewarding a transition with care and intent.
Destination & Experience
Some partnerships centre on the creation or evolution of a destination itself.
Entering hospitality. Reimagining an existing place. Or sensing that a destination holds more potential – culturally, humanly, and experientially — than it currently expresses.
In these collaborations, my focus is holistic: purpose, identity, experience, leadership, operations, and long-term viability – always seen as an interconnected system.
Rather than optimising parts in isolation, the work is about stewarding the whole – so the destination can grow into something meaningful, resilient, and alive over time.
Engagements may be focused or extended, exploratory or deeply embedded. What matters is a shared commitment to creating experiences that matter – and endure.
Let's connect for a genuine talk
Every collaboration is unique — shaped by the vision, pace, and context of the people behind it. Some projects call for deep immersion and hands-on leadership. Others begin as strategic sparring, targeted support, or focused guidance through a key phase. Sometimes it’s a blend, and often it evolves over time.
There’s no pre-fixed structure we must follow — we shape the engagement together, based on what’s needed. What matters is that it fits where you are, and supports where you’re going. Like any meaningful relationship, the partnership grows stronger over time — deepening in trust, rhythm, and impact as the work unfolds.
Let’s connect for an initial talk, and we see what doors open.
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