Industry
Mr. Ali V. Kasikci
General Managers Program
June 10 through June 20, 2013
Mr. Ali V. Kasikci
Regional Managing Director,
Orient-Express Hotels
Simply put, Ali Kasikci is an innovative leader with impeccable style. The Independent Hotelier of the World 2004 Award winner, Mr. Kasikci is considered to be one of the industry’s foremost pioneers. Hotels Magazine’s editor Jeff Weinstein states, "Ali Kasikci is a 21st-Century hotel leader." The Wall Street Journal referred to him as "The Gatekeeper" to the posh, and USA Today claimed "his hotel lights up the stars."
Ali Kasikci is the Regional Managing Director for North America, Mexico and The Caribbean, for Orient-Express Hotels. Orient-Express owns and manages a unique collection of 49 luxury hotels and travel experiences, including the famed Hotel Cipriani in Venice, the Hotel Splendido in Portofino, the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, and the Venice Simplon-Orient Express which links London, Paris and Venice in gracious railway elegance.
His responsibilities include the management of six properties within the Company’s existing portfolio: Keswick Hall, Virginia; The Inn at Perry Cabin, Maryland; La Samanna, St. Martin; Maroma Resort & Spa, Riviera Maya; and Casa de Sierra Nevada, San Miguel de Allende; and the iconic ‘21’ Club restaurant and bar in New York City.
In addition to overseeing the Company’s existing North America, Mexico and Caribbean portfolio, he will be spearheading the launch of the Orient-Express brand on the West Coast - with the renovation, reopening and relaunch of El Encanto in Santa Barbara in late 2012.
Over Mr. Kasikci’s lauded hospitality career, he served as Vice-President of Strategic Planning & Development for Montage Hotels & Resorts, a position that followed the successful launch of Montage Beverly Hills, which achieved five-star status in record-breaking time and became the only new hotel in California to receive the 2010 Forbes Five Star Award.
From 1991 until September 2007, he helmed The Peninsula Beverly Hills and under his management the hotel achieved some of the highest consistent ratings in the industry - from the highest RevPar in the competitive set, the most profitable property in The Peninsula Group, the highest return guest ratio in the market, in addition to numerous credible service and facility accolades including the prestigious Forbes (Mobil) Five Star and the AAA Five Diamond awards for fourteen consecutive years.
A graduate of the Hotel and Catering College in Tegernsee, Germany, Ali Kasikci holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Claremont Graduate University Peter F. Drucker Graduate Management School in Claremont, California. Following his apprenticeship at Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, Germany, he held several senior management positions with leading hotels in Germany and with casino resorts in South Africa. He was brought to America by Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts in 1987 where he managed the newly opened Four Seasons Newport Beach, prior to moving to Beverly Hills and joining The Peninsula Group.
