‘Better the devil you know' has been the mantra of company boards over the past year when considering who runs the business.

In a world of financial turmoil, the hotel industry has taken a severe battering and terms such as ‘battening down the hatches', ‘cost containment', ‘4-day week', ‘voluntary redundancy', have entered the common vernacular.

At a time when job security has acquired the sepia tone of a relic from the last century and many workers continue to face the very real prospect of losing their jobs, one floor of the organisation appears to have been immune – the C-Suite.

With profits plunging and companies adopting a remorseless focus on creating efficiency, one would have been forgiven for expecting senior leadership to come under the microscope; and for there to be some resultant upheaval.

An HVS Executive Search study of CEO turnover at the 50 largest hotel companies in the world reveals however that a change in the company's Chief Executive declined by over 50% in 2009 from 2008. Furthermore, succession rate in 2009 is the lowest it has been for the past five years.

HVS's study included data from the 50 largest hotel companies in the world for the years 2005 to 2009. We analysed the profiles and demographics (age, gender, education) of the incumbent Chief Executives in each year as well as those of the incoming and outgoing CEOs in order to identify specific trends which may affect the hotel industry going forward.

We also took a look at where CEOs have come from in terms of industry sector, geography, function and position, and also compared results by region of the world and public/private ownership.

Read the complete HVS Executive Search Report here: www.hvs.com/emails/execsearch/121009/hotelceosuccession.pdf

About the Author

Christopher Mumford is Managing Director of HVS Executive Search in London and specializes in executive search and compensation consulting for clients in the hospitality industry throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa. A regular speaker on industry related issues, Chris is a frequent author of articles on executive selection, compensation trends, and general Human Resources topics for a number of industry publications. A selection of hospitality clients include Emaar (Armani) Hotels & Resorts, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels Corporation, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Maybourne Hotel Group, Sama Dubai, The Stein Group, Rezidor Hotel Group, Aareal Bank, Invesco and Starwood Capital.

Thomas Mielke is an Associate at HVS Executive Search in London. A graduate in International Hospitality Management from Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, Switzerland, Thomas has previously worked with real estate and hotel consulting companies in Germany and Spain specialising in hospitality related projects. A Swiss and German national, Thomas is fluent in English, German, Spanish and French.

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