CHOICE HOTELS ANNOUNCES CEO TRANSITION AND NEW CTO
Choice Hotels’ board of directors appointed Dominic Dragisich, current chief growth & strategy officer, as interim CEO after Patrick Pacious stepped down from the role in May. Before becoming chief growth & strategy officer, Dragisich previously served as EVP, operations and chief global brand officer and as Choice’ s chief financial officer from 2017 to 2023. Pacious will serve as an advisor to the company until the end of August to support the transition. In addition, Tony Pallas will lead enterprise technology and engineering as chief technology officer, as well as SkyTouch Technology, Choice’ s hotel operations and property management technology platform. For more than a decade, Pallas has led Choice’ s platform modernization efforts, expanding cloudbased capabilities and delivering scalable solutions. Most recently, he also served as executive sponsor and chief architect for CHARLIE, one of several AI-powered solutions Choice unveiled during its annual convention in May.
VIRGIN HOTELS APPOINTS JOE MARGINSON AS CEO
Virgin Hotels Collection has appointed Joe Margison as its new CEO, following his tenure as Interim CEO since October 2025. Margison brings more than 25 years of experience across investment, finance, real estate and branded businesses to the role. He has been with Virgin Group since 2015 and previously served as Virgin’ s chief commercial officer. Before joining Virgin Group, Margison was with the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, where he focused on private equity, credit and real estate investments.
KERZNER INTERNATIONAL WELCOMES CCO
Kerzner International has appointed Celine Assimon as chief commercial officer. Assimon will work closely with all teams at the resorts and at head office across the globe, aiming to elevate Kerzner’ s portfolio, which includes the Atlantis, One & Only, SIRO, and Rare Finds brands. She brings over two decades of leadership at global luxury brands to her new role, including CEO of De Beers Jewellers, CEO of De Beers Forevermark, CEO of De Grisogono and senior roles at Louis Vuitton and Piaget.
CAPELLA NAMES CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
Capella Hotel Group has named Feisal Jaffer as chief development officer. Jaffer will lead the group’ s global development as it accelerates the next phase of expansion across its Capella Hotels and Patina Hotels & Resorts brands and will help shape hospitalityfocused real estate platforms. From 2014 to 2019, Jaffer served as SVP, acquisitions & development at Pontiac Land Group, where he worked closely alongside Capella on several projects, including the Fari Islands development in the Maldives and Capella Sydney, as well as being part of the founding team that conceived and launched Patina.
CORINTHIA HOTELS WELCOMES PRESIDENT OF HOTEL OPERATIONS
In this newly created role, Peter Roth will oversee the operational performance of Corinthia Hotels’ existing portfolio while leading operational readiness for the group’ s upcoming openings in Italy, Doha, Riyadh, Dubai, the Maldives and Chengdu. Based at the company’ s London headquarters, he will report directly to Simon Naudi, group CEO and managing director of the Corinthia Group. Roth joins Corinthia with more than three decades of international luxury hospitality leadership across Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. Most recently, he served as regional vice president for Jumeirah.
DAVIDSON HOSPITALITY TAPS SVP OF OPERATIONS FOR DAVIDSON HOTELS
Joe Masi will oversee the operating standards, practices and procedures for the Davidson Hotels operating vertical, which is dedicated to managing heritage brand assets. Masi brings more than 35 years of leadership experience spanning hotel operations, portfolio management, asset optimization and organizational development, and has extensive experience working with private equity firms, institutional investors and individual owners. Most recently, he served as EVP of operations for Remington Hospitality, where he oversaw a portfolio of 125 hotels.
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