UK Hospitality In The New World

Kevin leads Whitbread’s property team responsible for new Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn hotel acquisitions for the north of the UK, spanning new sites from the northern home counties through to the Midlands, north of England, Scotland and Wales. Kevin also heads up Premier Inn’s expansion into Ireland, where the business has secured six sites in the past 18 months and aims to be the number one budget hotel chain, as well as leading the team in Northern Ireland. He is playing a key role in delivering Premier Inn’s expansion and investment programme. Premier Inn currently has over 75,000 rooms across the UK and Ireland and sees potential for up to 110,000 Premier Inn rooms in the UK and Ireland.

Mariapia Intini is Development and Investment Director at citizenM hotels, where she is responsible for securing new acquisitions in target cities within Europe. Prior to joining citizenM, Mariapia was Associate Director at Cushman & Wakefield’s EMEA Valuation Hotels team, where she valued over €1.5bn worth of single assets and portfolios (including NPLs) across Europe and, before then, she was a Senior Consultant at Colliers International’s EMEA Hotel Advisory team. She started her real estate career at the global architectural firm Design International. Mariapia is a MRICS Chartered Surveyor and holds a Master’s Degree in Hotel Real Estate Finance from Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, NY, when she completed a rotational programme at Marriott International’s US Headquarters.

Philip Lassman leads the Development Team in Northern Europe for Accor. Today Accor has 17 brands in Northern Europe, from ibis budget to Fairmont, and a pipeline of four more brands by 2022 including Raffles, 25hours, Jo&Joe and Tribe. Across the region Accor has over 400 hotels across all core markets; budget, midscale, premium, luxury, lifestyle and extended stay. The growth of the brand portfolio in recent years demonstrates Accor agility and dynamic development team. Philip has worked in development with some of the biggest hotel groups in the world, focusing on UKI development for well over a decade. Philip joined Accor in 2017 and has seen the group’s brand portfolio expand to 39 brands, many of which he and his team are signing into the region. Philip holds a BA(HONS) degree in Economics and Public Policy and from Leeds Metropolitan University where he was also active in student politics. He is married and lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and two young children. In his spare time, he enjoys watching football, cricket and Formula 1. He also supports his wife’s charity work.

Nick Vasquez is a partner in Brown Rudnick's International Corporate Group, focusing on UK and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital & emerging companies, and commercial matters. Nick has a wealth of experience in real estate private equity transactions, particularly in the hospitality industry, where he leads acquisitions and disposals of hotel and other commercial real estate portfolios, in addition to handling negotiations on franchise and management agreements. Nick's wide ranging career also includes private equity fund formation, debt finance and insolvency & restructuring experience. Nick is also a freelance lecturer in Private Acquisitions at BPP Law School.