Gilda Perez
CEO, Orient Express
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ULI Europe Hotels, Destinations and Resorts Product Council Day – 17 June 2025
16th June - Product Council Dinner, 7pm.
Join the council for dinner at The Ivy Soho Brasserie's private dining room, for an evening of networking and great cuisine. Address: 26-28 Broadwick Street, London W1F 8JB
17th June - Product Council Meeting.
Kindly supported by:
“The most compelling hospitality experiences do not offer a product. The offer a transformation. The guest arrives as one version of themselves and leaves as another, subtly altered by the world you have created around them. The future of hospitality is the art of experience. Hospitality is not about what is provided, it is about what is remembered” - Tomu
“At their core, hotels provide consumers with experiences. These experiences vary tremendously based on the individual but can include things like immersion in a new culture, exploration of a new city, sampling of a new food, or just interacting with new and old friends. As such, the global lodging industry finds itself at the center of the growing Experience Economy which emphasizes the impact of experience-driven spending as opposed to product-centric consumption” – JLL GIO 2025
The theme of our next meeting will be The Experience Economy, which builds on our previous product council meeting themes of sustainability and luxury. A broad theme but encompasses topics such as branded residences (a hotel-like experience in your home) and alternative accommodation / hospitality experiences (such as member-clubs, trains and yachts).
The capital market topic will evolve around partnerships, and the key success factors within these.
We will take more time than usual for our introductions, also including a key discussion around current market volatility, and impact on day-to-day business. Costs, supply chains, deal making including risk, valuations etc.
Meeting point: The Standard Hotel, 10 Argyle St, London, WC1H 8EG
08:30 – 09:00 - Arrive and welcome coffee
09:00 – 10:30 - Welcome and Introductions
George Austin, Trinity Investments
10:30 – 11:00 - Coffee break and networking
11:00 – 12:30 - Successful partnerships
Keynote David Zisser - Omnam Group
- Followed by panel moderated by Jan-Hendrik Jessen
+ Namid Mangalji - EQ Group
+ David Zisser - Omnam Group
+ Rohit Wanchoo - Alpine Grove
12:30 – 14:15 - Lunch and networking, followed by a tour of The Standard. Please note you will be walking so wear comfortable shoes.
14:15 – 15:30 - Investment strategies for experiential travel
Interview providers / success stories by Larissa Esser
+ Gilda Perez - Orient Express
+ Lily Wecker – Mandarin Oriental
+ Grazi Paineli - Limestone
+ Marine Duchesne - Ennismore (Our Habitas)
15:30 – 16:15 - Keynote
- Keynote Neil Benjelloun at JL Equity
16:15 – 17:00 - Travel to the Emory. This will be via tube and you will need a bank card to tap on and tap off
17:00 - 18:30 - Site visit of the Emory and drinks
Registration is now available for Product Council Members. If you are a member and wish to book your place at your Product Council Meeting, please email [email protected].
If you are interested in attending as a guest to a Product Council meeting, please email your request along with a copy of your CV to [email protected]
London, England UNITED KINGDOM
Speakers
David Zisser
FOUNDER AND CEO FOUNDER, Omnam Investment Group
Ryan Donn
Managing Director, Trinity Investments
Rohit Wanchoo
Partner, Alpine Grove Partners
Rohit Wanchoo is a Partner of Alpine Grove Partners. Mr. Wanchoo is responsible for strategy formation and new business development in Europe and is a member of the Investment Committee. Mr. Wanchoo has over 20 years of industry experience.
Prior to joining Alpine Grove Partners in 2008, Mr. Wanchoo worked at Lehman Brothers in the firm’s Global Power Investment Banking Group, and at the United Nations as part of the UN Millennium Project. Mr. Wanchoo is also a Co-Founder and a board member of GiveDirectly, the first non-profit exclusively dedicated to making unconditional cash transfers.
Mr. Wanchoo received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, a Master’s in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard Kennedy School, and a Master’s in Business Administration from MIT Sloan School of Management.
Grazi Paineli
Managing Director, Limestone Capital AG
Grazi Painelli, Partner and Managing Director at Limestone Capital AG, oversees performance, profitability, and investment flow. With extensive finance experience, she previously led EU credit risk management for Bose Corporation and was a Partner at FGA, excelling in forecasting and performance tracking.
Neil Benjelloun
Managing Partner, JL Equity
Neil Benjelloun grew up in Morocco and moved to London for university, studying at UCL and later Imperial. He began his career at Cambridge Associates, advising Middle Eastern FOs and institutions on their private investments. He now leads private markets at a London-based MFO, investing across real assets, private equity, and credit. He also helps guide his own family’s investments and operating businesses, with a current focus on a flagship hospitality project in Marrakech and Rabat.
Lily Wecker
Development Director, Mandarin Oriental
Lily Wecker is a Development Director at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group based in London. In this role, Mrs. Wecker focuses on sourcing, underwriting and executing new hotel and branded residence projects across Europe and North America.
Prior to joining Mandarin Oriental in 2022, Mrs. Wecker was a Vice President in Acquisitions & Hotel Realisation at Zetland Capital in London, working across operational real estate asset classes with a focus on special situation capital solutions. Prior to Zetland, Mrs. Wecker was an Engagement Manager in Real Estate practice at McKinsey & Company in London. Mrs. Wecker holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Namid Mangalji
Senior Managing Director and Co-Founder, EQ Group
Namid Mangalji is a founding partner and the Senior Managing Director at EQ Group, a leading pan-European hospitality investor and operating partner. With over 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry, Namid has built hospitality investment and management platforms across Europe, North America and Asia. Since 2015, EQ has directly invested in, managed or asset managed over €3.5b of European hospitality assets, most recently working with Ares Management to acquire a portfolio of 18 UK hotels with an EV of £400m through a series of complex transactions. EQ’s diverse hotel portfolio encompasses luxury resorts, large MICE hotels, Alpine resorts, independent lifestyle properties, branded urban and regional limited-service hotels. EQ was awarded the Hotel Asset Manager Award at IHIF in 2023 for the capex and turnaround of the Hilton London and Birmingham Metropoles, and was a finalist once again in 2024 for executing the acquisition, comprehensive capex, repositioning and successful exit of the Hotel Dames des Arts in Paris.