Dubai, UAE- Hilton (NYSE: HLT) Hilton has announced the appointment of three senior executives to its Middle East, Africa & Türkiye (MEA&T) leadership team.
Aligi Gardenghi has become Vice President, Operations, Arabian Peninsula, Marie-Louise Ek has been named Vice President, Human Resources, Middle East, Africa & Türkiye and Dean Murphy has become Senior Director, F&B Development, Operations & Openings, Middle East, Africa & Türkiye.
Aligi, who has been with Hilton for more than 20 years, will lead luxury and full-service operations across more than 45 hotels in the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. He has 15 years’ experience with Hilton in the Middle East working across business development, revenue management and marketing. Most recently, Aligi was instrumental in driving performance for more than 6,000 hotels in his position as Vice President, Americas Marketing. The Italian executive has a wealth of experience across marketing, commercial and revenue management and has held a range of senior positions at Hilton including Global Vice President, Marketing Performance and Insight; Vice President Marketing, EMEA and Commercial Director, MEA.
Marie-Louise will lead Hilton’s human resources function and drive the company’s people and culture strategy across the Middle East, Africa and Türkiye, where Hilton currently employs more than 30,000 Team Members across its 181 hotels in the region. Marie-Louise is a passionate human resources leader with multi-market experience in Fortune 500 corporations across a range of sectors. A certified executive coach, she joins Hilton from PepsiCo where she was Senior Director of Human Resources for Africa, Middle East and South Asia.
In his new role, Dean will oversee the regional operations, development and pipeline of openings of food and drink venues, whilst supporting the key strategic priorities of local sourcing and food waste management. Dean joins Hilton from Sunset Hospitality Group where he was Director of Operations, looking after brands and concepts across the GCC. He previously held leadership roles at Jumeirah Restaurant Group.
Jochem-Jan Sleiffer, President, Middle East, Africa & Türkiye, Hilton, said, “These three leaders bring a wealth of experience to the MEA&T team, as we usher in a new golden era of hospitality and prepare to almost double our portfolio in the years ahead. I look forward to working with Aligi, Marie-Louise and Dean as they take on these key leadership positions.”