In the world of hospitality, there are numerous stakeholders in the decision-making process, including the investor, developer and operator. It’s a complex triangle for everyone to navigate. To make this work better, it’s critical to understand the driving forces behind investment decisions. 

We are bringing together a unique group of investors across all different profiles to understand what drives investment choices, and how these manifest in expectations for the teams and the projects that are being undertaken.

This conversation will be an excellent opportunity to discuss and exchange insights so that we can all understand what drives the many decisions we are all a part of.

Host: Will Aitken, Cumming Group

Market Overview: Tom Oakden, Hilltop Hospitality

Speakers:

-        Laura Brinkmann, KSL Capital Partners

-        Shona Pushpaharan, Coutts

-        Imshan Jamal, EQ Group

If you have an Access All Areas pass, admission to this event is free. Please email claudia@alwaysthinking.org to book your spot.

Alternatively, a pass for this event is £50 plus the booking fee, please book your place below:

Featuring:

Shona Pushpaharan

Shona joined Coutts & Co in 2022 to lead their Hotels, Healthcare and Landed Estates teams.  With nearly 25 years experience, she has specialised in operational real estate for the last 18, working both bank and client side.  Shona’s remit covers the UK and includes a wide variety of assets including funding for development, trade/fill up and investment.

Will Aitken

Will Aitken is Managing Director of UK & Europe at Cumming Group and Hospitality sector lead. Will is an accomplished project and procurement manager with a long and distinguished background in the hospitality sector. He has been responsible for many exciting individual hotel projects as well as portfolio rollouts. Will has worked with multiple brands, 3rd party operators, investors, and developers.

Laura Brinkmann

Laura joined KSL in 2022 and currently serves as a Senior Vice President in the Strategic Operations team in London, as part of that she oversees PIG Hotels, Beaumier, Zien Group and Sereno Hotels. Previously, Laura was a Vice President at Brookfield Asset Management responsible for the Portfolio Management of their European hospitality investments (and held various asset management functions with most notably Marriott International and IHG plc previously). Laura featured as one of the Most Influential Women in Hospitality by Hotel Magazine in 2022.

Imshan Jamal

Imshan is Managing Director and Co-Founder at EQ Group with over 28 years of experience in hospitality and real estate across UK and Europe. EQ has invested, managed or asset managed over €2.8bn of European hospitality real estate across 6,100 hotel rooms, with various institutional equity partners. The group has deployed over €200m in value-enhancing capital expenditure across the portfolio. Today the portfolio spans Luxury, Full Service, Lifestyle, MICE and Serviced Apartments, branded and independent hotels, across prime and regional markets across Europe.

Tom Oakden

Tom is a chartered surveyor with over 20 yrs hotel and hospitality experience. Starting his career with JLL in London in hotel investment sales, he then moved to Singapore where he was responsible for hotel investment sales throughout Southeast Asia. On returning to London in 2015, Tom joined Knight Frank as a partner in their hotel and capital markets team and in 2019 Tom set up Hilltop Hospitality Advisors. Through Hilltop, Tom was retained to advise a Thai based family office on UK and European hotel acquisitions. Subsequently, Tom has worked with Alvarez & Marsal as a senior advisor and with Cheval Collection as a development consultant. He has also become well known in the hotel world through his quarterly publication of the Hilltop Hotel Deal Tracker. From Q4 2023, Tom has been advising Meliá Hotels International on their UK growth plans.

This event is supported by Hansgrohe