Fancy Getting Into Bed with Virgin Hotels?

Meet the brightest minds and smiles behind the Virgin Hotels. As leaders in the hotel development industry, our team strives to shakeup the industry with every guest experience and each and every stay.

Raul leads Virgin Hotels and is responsible for the company’s overall expansion, customer experience and culture. In a career that spans 30 years, Raul has held top management positions for Interstate Hotels, Lane Hotels and the Continental companies and is one of the few hospitality industry executives that understand both the lifestyle and branded hotels segments. In between 1996 and 2010, Raul was President and Partner at Tecton Hospitality which owned and operated over 35 full branded hotels and was named a “Preferred Hotel Management Company” by most of the major brands. In 2002 he launched Desires Hotels, a management company focused on the growing lifestyle hotel segment. Desires Hotels had 20 award winning modern boutique hotels located in urban and resort locations domestically and internationally. Desires Hotels was named “Best Management Company of the Year” by Lodging Hospitality in 2008 and consistently achieved high levels of REVPAR and profitability as well as social media rankings and owner satisfaction.

Raul also serves on the Boards for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Cornell University.

Raul’s Blog Post – Read More

Harris is responsible for the brand’s financial impact as it relates to growth investments and new management contracts. Additionally, White helps to set the growth agenda and outline the financial vision for the Virgin Hotels brand. Before joining Virgin Hotels, White held a leadership role at Sage Hospitality, where he oversaw all aspects of finance, accounting and technology functions for Sage Hospitality’s 75 hotels and 12 restaurant concepts nationwide. White has worked with a number of established brands such as The Wellbridge Company, Morgan Keegan & Company, and more. He earned his dual Masters of Business Administration in Finance and Accounting from Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management.

Allie is responsible for setting and implementing Virgin Hotels’ global growth strategy. Allie’s primary responsibilities include identifying properties in key markets, and structuring transactions that work for Virgin Hotels and our Owner/Developer partners. Prior to joining Virgin, Allie worked on acquisitions, dispositions and asset management at Sunstone Hotel Investors where she was on a team that completed over $1 billion of hotel transactions. Allie was previously a partner at HMR Analytics, a hospitality asset management firm based in California, and a consultant with PKF Consulting, one of the top advisory services firms in the hospitality industry. Other experiences include hotel operations with Interstate Hotels and Resorts and spa development at Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Allie is a graduate of Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration where she received the Dean’s Baccalaureate Service Award, is a guest lecturer at Cornell Hotel School Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship, Columbia University and NYU, was named Southern California Real Estate “Woman of Influence” in 2007, and is the co-chair of the Dean’s Young Advisory Board for Cornell Hotel School.

Allie’s Blog Post – Read More

Thayer is responsible for legal matters and assisting with strategic and commercial transactions.

From 2008 to 2015, he was the Assistant General Counsel at Virgin Management USA, Inc., the corporate development and investment management division of the Virgin Group. Thayer has served as the acting general counsel of Virgin Hotels since its 2010 inception. Before Virgin Management, he was a senior associate in the Corporate Department of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, PC and an associate in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Thayer is a graduate of Duke University (BA, 1996), where he was a member of the Duke University Swim Team, and the University of Minnesota Law School (JD, magna cum laude, 1999).

Thayer’s Blog Post – Read More

Rick is a seasoned hospitality industry veteran with a diverse background in branded and lifestyle hotels. Rick assumes direct oversight responsibilities for Virgin Hotels’ existing and forthcoming properties, while working with the corporate leadership team on broader strategic initiatives. Prior to joining the Virgin Hotels family, Colangelo worked for Hyatt Hotels Corporation as Senior Vice President of Field Operations for the brand’s Two Roads Hospitality Lifestyle Portfolio.

In his role Doug leads the brand marketing, sales and revenue management for Virgin Hotels. Doug has more than 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry. His background includes senior executive level Sales, Marketing and Revenue Management positions with Morgan’s Hotels Group, Desires Hotels, and Carnival Hotels and Casino.

In his capacity at Morgan Hotels Group he was directly responsible for overseeing the sales, marketing and revenue management disciplines for Delano, Shore Club and Mondrian South Beach. Prior to joining Morgan’s Hotel Group, Doug was Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing and a partner at Desires Hotels. Throughout his tenure, he developed a robust sales and marketing platform and solutions for e-commerce and revenue management that led to significant REVPAR premiums across the portfolio. In 2002, he co-developed Desires Hotels, and helped grow the portfolio from 4 to 35 modern boutique hotels. In 2009 he received the prestigious “Adrian Award” from HSMAI for website design and was honored as one of the “Top Twenty Five Sales & Marketing Minds”.

Doug graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Hospitality Management from Florida International University.

Doug’s Blog Post – Read More

Clio Knowles is the VP of People for Virgin Hotels, which launched its first property to great acclaim in Chicago in 2015. Clio’s primary focus has been to develop a company culture that focuses on the Virgin Hotels brand values and celebrates their people. This incorporates not just employee engagement and communication, but also focuses on the Virgin Hotels purpose, that everyone leaves feeling better. Virgin Hotels believe that their teammates are the key to an amazing customer experience and believe in recognizing and rewarding that in all teammates. Previously, Clio held the role of VP, Global Human Resources at Kerzner International, which at the time owned and operated the Atlantis, Paradise Island in The Bahamas; Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai; Mazagan Resort in Morocco and seven luxury resorts globally, under the One&Only brand.

Clio is passionate about people and creating an environment where teammates work hard but also have fun. She is a Global Professional of Human Resources, SHRM and has a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts from Barry University, Miami, Florida.

Clio’s Blog Post – Read More

David Moth started his hospitality career in Australia sorting linen in the basement of a hotel – as part of his high school work experience program – and immediately fell in love with the hotel business. After graduating from Ryde College in Sydney, David left Australia to broaden his horizons. That ongoing adventure has had him working in the UK for Trusthouse Forte, Virgin, and Malmaison; the Caribbean where he was Assistant Manager at Richard Branson’s Necker Island, Resident Manager at Rosewood’s Little Dix Bay, Resident Manager at Jalousie Plantation Resort and Spa, and General Manager of Nisbet Plantation Beach Club.

In 2001, David moved to the United States to manage the famed Tides Hotel in Miami Beach before spending over six years with Desires Hotels/Trust Hospitality in several General Manager roles including the Sagamore, the Strand and the Betsy hotels in Miami Beach, then becoming Vice President of Operations overseeing all hotels in the Trust Hospitality portfolio until coming back to the Virgin family as VP of Operations at Virgin Hotels.

David’s Blog Post – Read More

Jay Wetzel, VP of Food & Beverage, oversees the overall direction of food & beverage for the company, working on the various restaurant and bar concepts within the hotels while strengthening culinary partnerships across the brand. Food and beverage experiences at Virgin Hotels is a key component of the overall offering starting with the signature concept, the Commons Club, which Jay will be instrumental in shaping at the various locations.

Jay brings more than 20 years of experience as a chef and culinary executive to the Virgin Hotels team. Most recently, he worked as the senior corporate director of food & beverage at Rosewood Hotel Group, overseeing both food & beverage operations and project-related developments for the brand. Wetzel has also served as an executive chef with Hyatt International.

Jay’s Blog Post – Read More

Korollan King, VP of Accounting, oversees the brand’s accounting and financial operations and is responsible for creating and implementing the accounting and finance tactics used to structure and support the brand’s growth. She also implements, directs, and evaluates the financial operations activities of all Virgin Hotels to ensure compliance with applicable laws, policies, standards and procedures.

Korollan served as the Corporate Director of Finance & FP&A at Nikki Beach International, where she oversaw financial statement preparation, budgeting, internal controls, process improvement, and cash management for the brand. She has also held several senior accounting positions at Ernst & Young, where she developed detailed audit plans and identified risks for the various business processes.

She is a graduate of the University of Phoenix with a Bachelor in Business Management with a concentration in Accounting.

Rory will work directly with senior leaders to drive profitability at Virgin Hotels and provide financial leadership for all forthcoming openings. Prior to joining Virgin Hotels, Rory worked for Two Roads Hospitality, where he previously served as Vice President of Finance overseeing Canada and the Eastern and Central United States. Prior to his years with Two Roads Hospitality, Lowe held several finance and food & beverage leadership roles with both Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants and Marriott International. Lowe holds an MBA from Cornell University.

As Vice President of Design Teddy oversees the vision and execution for how the Virgin Hotels brand comes to life in the hospitality design environment. Teddy spent seven years as the senior director of design and development at Morgans Hotel Group where he focused on the expansion of the Delano, Mondrian and Hudson Hotel brands. On the agency side he began his design career at Skidmore Owings & Merrill in New York where he focused on hospitality interiors projects for brands such as W Hotels and Resorts, Capella and The James to name a few. Most recently Teddy worked for Gensler in New York as the regional director of hospitality interiors. He was responsible for establishing a hospitality interiors studio and developing the regional practice. Teddy has a Masters of Architecture, a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design from the University of Idaho.

Alex oversees Virgin Hotels expansion in Europe and will work closely with capital partners and strategic investors to acquire new and existing properties in cities across Europe. Hoping to acquire two or three properties per year, the brand is keeping options open, targeting cities from London, Paris and Rome to less-predictable locations like Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin.

Alex’s most recently served as Vice President of Development for YOTEL, focusing on Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Prior to this, he was Director of Montpelier Hotels Ltd., a hospitality investment and corporate finance advisory firm and Director of Development for Bridgehouse Capital, a private equity company with total assets in excess of $1 billion. More recently, he spent five years with Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. where he managed more than $500 million of acquisition, financing and dispositions of non-core assets. He successfully executed third party hotel management agreements for OEH in London and North American (Cadogan Hotel, Durley House and The Inn at Perry Cabin).

Blake Smith, Vice President of Entertainment & Brand Partnerships, oversees brand-wide entertainment initiatives and partnerships, booking talent for the various venues at upcoming Virgin Hotels, and organizing major music activations and cultural experiences.

Blake brings over a decade of experience in music programming and recording to his role at Virgin Hotels. He previously was an artist at three different major labels: Polygram, Island Def Jam and EMI. As a writer for Universal, he contributed music to several well-known films and TV shows including Charlie’s Angels, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and CSI:NY. Most recently, Blake served as Global Marketing Director of Hard Rock International.

Blake’s Blog Post – Read More

As the Vice President of Information Technology, Denise primary focus is to oversee Virgin Hotels technology platforms for all its hotels ensuring brand-wide technology innovation is provided. A seasoned Senior Global IT Leader and Operations Executive, she brings 15 years of experience in corporate operations management from a global company. Walker has successfully developed and led an accomplished, talented team of IT leaders and professionals to support, evolve and transform, IT infrastructure and business solutions one of the most highly-recognized, brands in the hospitality industry, Brookfield Hospitality.

Leslie will be responsible for ensuring that all sales opportunities are being executed and that each strategy is being met. Before joining Virgin Hotels, Kaminski served as Vice President of Global Sales at Two Roads Hospitality where she oversaw a team of sales directors responsible for transient sales and new hotel business development in nine countries and across five lifestyle brands. Previously, Kaminski served as Senior Director of Global Luxury Sales at Two Roads Hospitality, as well as worked in sales for Destination Hotels, Gaylord Texan, and Hilton.