Belmond has appointed Kenneth Hatton as SVP of global development, effective January 23.
Hatton has more than 18 years of experience in mergers & acquisitions and global hotel-related transactions. He joins Belmond from Hyatt International where he held the position of SVP, corporate transactions group, covering Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific since 2011.
Prior to that, as a partner at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP (which subsequently combined to become Dentons), Hatton led the European operations of the firm’s hospitality practice, representing a wide range of both owners and operators in the global hotel industry.
Earlier in his career, Hatton was an associate at Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Brussels where he focused on private M&A across Europe, as well as an associate in New York at Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts, where he was involved with public M&A transactions. In his career to date, he has worked on transactions involving approximately 300 hotels.
“There is a great sense that Belmond is at a dynamic point of transformation,“ Hatton said in a statement. “It is hard to think of any luxury hotel company better positioned to satisfy the global and growing demand for experiences over product“ The company, Hatton added, has set out a “bold plan“ to double its footprint in the coming years.