HOTELIER OF THE WORLD
CORPORATE
SÉBASTIEN
BAZIN
CHAIRMAN , CEO , ACCOR , PARIS
Bazin joined Accor ’ s board of directors in 2005 and , via Colony Capital , became a Paris Saint-Germain shareholder in 2006 and the club ’ s chairman in 2009 . In August 2013 , he resigned from his duties at Colony Capital and was appointed chairman and CEO of Accor . Through a series of mergers and acquisitions , and strategy shifts , he has turned Accor into one of the true innovators in the hotel space ; from a hotel group to a holistic ecosystem of hospitality services .
Previously , after five years working in several financial positions in New York City , New York ; San Francisco , California ; and London , United Kingdom , Bazin was appointed CEO of Hottinguer Rivaud Finances , an investment bank , in 1990 , and then CEO of L ’ Immobilière Hôtelière , a hotel developer in France , in 1992 .
In 1997 , he moved to Colony Capital , a private real estate investment firm , to head its European branch and led several acquisitions , principally in the hospitality sector ( Générale des Eaux , Club
Méditerranée , Lucien Barrière , Fairmont and Raffles , Buffalo Grill , Château Lascombes and others ).
At Accor , he first split the company into separate ownership and operating companies . In the years following his appointment he made multiple noteworthy acquisitions of hotel companies and tech-related firms , including stakes in the Mama Shelter brand and in 2015 , the US $ 2.9 billion acquisition of FRHI Holdings , which included the Fairmont , Raffles and Swissôtel brands .
Bazin dabbled in the home rental business with luxury serviced-homes provider Onefinestay ( grouping TravelKeys , Squarebreak and Onefinestay in 2017 ). Bazin also established the Global Innovation Lab in 2016 to study all points in the hospitality industry and across all aspects of guests ’ booking journeys , as well as evolving travel habits . By the end of that year , Accor had also taken a 30 % stake in German lifestyle brand 25hours and a 5 % stake in Singapore-based resort brand , Banyan Tree .
Among other deals : a partnership with Bouygues Group to speed up the rollout of workspace initiative Nextdoor , now Wojo ; a 50 % stake in the Orient Express brand , which has since announced deals in major European markets ; it acquired Australia ’ s Mantra Group , one of the country ’ s largest operators with 127 properties and more than 20,000 rooms in the region ; and signed a strategic agreement with Mantis Group , the South Africa-based hospitality and travel conglomerate . Accor has also grown organically with the 2016 launch of Jo & Joe , a social open house experience .
More recently , Bazin led the rollout of large-scale initiatives to plan ahead for the economic recovery and consolidate its leadership position in the lifestyle segment . Accor created a streamlined lifestyle business unit through a merger with London ’ s Ennismore , which created a dedicated entity comprising 13 unique hotel brands , including a strategic partnership with the Faena brand .
Bazin has a Master of Business Administration from Université Panthéon Sorbonne in Paris , France .
16 hotelsmag . com March / April 2021