Kempinski Hotels, Geneva, announced on Thursday that after 19 years as its president and CEO, iconic hotelier Reto Wittwer retired on Wednesday, handing over leadership to Alejandro Bernabé, who has been groomed for the leadership role over his last 10 years with the company.
At the same time, Kempinski announced Duncan O’Rourke has resigned as COO and has been replaced by Marcus van der Wal. Markus Semer is the new deputy CEO, and Colin Lubbe remains in position of CFO.
In a career spanning four decades, Wittwer was one of the hospitality industry’s longest-serving CEOs since being appointed president and CEO of Ciga S.p.A. (from 1992 to 1995) and prior to that president and CEO of the then Swissair Nestlé Swissôtel Ltd. (from 1989 to 1992).
A Swiss national, Wittwer grew the Kempinski brand from 21 hotels nearly 20 years ago to the 73 under operation today, with a further 35 under construction or final development.
“Wittwer steered the group through challenges, which other competitors have failed, and Kempinski has weathered the economic crisis thanks to our business model of pure management agreements for hotels,” said Michael Selby, chairman of the supervisory board of Kempinski AG. “We hope he will stay close in his new role as president emeritus despite going into a very well-deserved retirement.”
Bernabé started his career in food and beverage, working in Switzerland, South Africa, France and Sri Lanka before joining Kempinski in 1998 as pre-opening food and beverage manager at the Kempinski Hotel Plaza in Jakarta. He was made responsible for the group’s operations and development efforts in Southeast Asia in 2013, and his development efforts resulted in the group signing two hotels in Myanmar.