Chief executive officer — ultra-luxury hotels

Job description

Chief Executive Officer — a new ultra-luxury hospitality house Retained and confidential · Luxury Executive · London / Europe — international relocation supported

📍 Location & relocation: This role is anchored in London / Europe, with full international relocation support. We actively welcome ultra-luxury leaders currently based anywhere in the world — the GCC, wider Europe, Asia or North America — provided the European luxury pedigree described below is genuinely present. Where you are based today is secondary to the calibre and provenance of your experience.

About the search

Luxury Executive has been retained, confidentially, on one of the most compelling leadership mandates in luxury hospitality. A principal of significant ambition is building a new house at the very top of the market — and is seeking a founding Chief Executive to build it alongside them.

The client is confidential at this stage; full context is shared with qualified candidates on engagement.

The opportunity

This is a founding, institution-building seat — not the stewardship of an existing estate. As CEO you would set the brand, standards and guest experience, assemble the team, and shape the commercial and development model directly with the Principal and Board. You would be the senior custodian of the brand's standing at the very top of the market, and the Principal's closest partner in realising the vision.

The market we mean

The rarefied, low-density tier where the brand itself is the product and the guest pays for the rarity of the experience. The reference set is Aman and its direct peers — Six Senses, One&Only, Rosewood, Belmond, Mandarin Oriental, Cheval Blanc, Bulgari, Oetker, and Four Seasons at its very top. This is an Aman-level bar, not a luxury-hospitality bar.

What we're looking for

• A career built within true ultra-luxury houses of the highest tier — the Aman peer set above, or houses of directly comparable standing.
• Genuine European luxury pedigree and sensibility — fluency in the codes, taste and service of the top of the market.
• Ownership of brand and guest experience at the apex — across the full guest journey, residences and F&B, in a small-key, brand-as-product environment.
• Commercial and P&L credibility; comfortable shaping development, brand and investment decisions with a principal and board.
• A builder, energised by a blank page, with the runway and ambition to create something enduring — not to administer what already exists.

The litmus test: if a house is known principally for its real estate, its scale, or its loyalty programme rather than for the singularity of its guest experience, it is not the reference point.

Please note — this is a deliberately narrow brief. We warmly ask that you apply only if your career sits within the ultra-luxury house tier described above. This is not an upper-upscale, premium-chain, real-estate, development or giga-project role, and applications from outside the ultra-luxury house world — however senior — are unlikely to progress. If that is your world, we would be glad to hear from you; if you know the one person it should be, a referral is equally welcome.

To apply

Apply via LinkedIn, in confidence. The role is anchored in London / Europe with full relocation support, and we welcome qualified candidates wherever in the world they are currently based. All approaches are handled discreetly by Luxury Executive.

Luxury Executive · Retained executive search in luxury hospitality and lifestyle.