Senior Vice President Development, APAC

About Four Seasons:

Four Seasons is powered by our people. We are a collective of individuals who crave to become better, to push ourselves to new heights and to treat each other as we wish to be treated in return. Our team members around the world create amazing experiences for our guests, residents, and partners through a commitment to luxury with genuine heart. We know that the best way to enable our people to deliver these exceptional guest experiences is through a world-class employee experience and company culture.         

At Four Seasons, we believe in recognizing a familiar face, welcoming a new one and treating everyone we meet the way we would want to be treated ourselves. Whether you work with us, stay with us, live with us or discover with us, we believe our purpose is to create impressions that will stay with you for a lifetime. It comes from our belief that life is richer when we truly connect to the people and the world around us.

About the location:

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts is a global, luxury hotel management company. We manage over 130 hotels and resorts and 50 private residences in 47 countries around the world and growing. Central to Four Seasons employee experience and social impact programming is the company’s commitment to supporting cancer research, and the advancement of diversity, inclusion, equality and belonging at Four Seasons corporate offices and properties worldwide. At Four Seasons, we are powered by people and our culture enables everything we do.

Senior Vice President Development, APAC

To further accelerate its strategic growth objectives and plans, Four Seasons is seeking to hire a Senior Vice President (“SVP”) of Development to lead the Asia Pacific Region. This position will report to the Group Head of Development.

The SVP Development will play a pivotal role in expanding Four Seasons' footprint and will act as a trusted senior executive representing Four Seasons in the region. Responsibilities will include identifying new opportunities, cultivating relationships with existing owners and new developers, and driving deals to completion.

This role is of paramount importance for Four Seasons as it strives to capture an even larger share of the luxury hospitality market. With the support of a team, this leader will scout opportunities in various locations, ranging from unconventional experiential resort prospects to more urban opportunities. Drawing upon their experience in hospitality real estate, the individual must possess the ability to establish and nurture trust-based relationships with key existing Four Seasons owners, institutional investors, developers, and other capital providers to further bolster Four Seasons’ position as the leading brand in the luxury segment.

The ideal candidate profile should be a self -starter who is accustomed to taking a hands-on approach to be able to oversee all aspects of Four Seasons' development growth plan. This new leader should bring an entrepreneurial mindset, collaborate effectively with various tenured and senior executives across the organizations in key functions such as operations, finance, residential, legal, design services, and demonstrate a strong collaborative spirit.  The candidate should possess well-established, credible relationships with property owners and key stakeholders within the region, enabling effective collaboration and trust-building to support strategic development objectives.

Key Responsibilities:

• Review and refine for Four Seasons’ development growth plan in Asia Pacific, with key focus on China, India, expanding Four Seasons reach in leisure destinations, and growing our residential business.
• Identify new opportunities for growth and lead and supervise team, as appropriate, to execute agreements for new hotel and residential projects in the region.
• Lead the process thorough understanding of all phases of the development timeline from project identification, analysis and feasibility through to contract negotiations.
• Supervise financial underwriting process with existing development and operations teams.
• Assist in capital raising or other required resources to successfully deliver projects.
• Assist with pipeline issues as needed during the delivery phase.
• Maintain competitive analysis of development efforts against relevant, competitive, and industry norms.
• Initiate and manage the collaboration of internal teams with development partners to align planning, resourcing and priorities to meet objectives.
• Lead and review progress and status reports of the on-going development pipeline and new hotel openings to identify and mitigate risks, re-allocate resources as needed and recognize accomplishments.
• Drive the development and management of policies, procedures, practices, and processes that enhance the overall pipeline, development approach, resource allocation, group performance and brand value and penetration.

Candidate Profile:

The successful candidate will bring a strong commercial mindset, bias for action and driving results, and be experienced in developing and managing strategies to bring development deals through the life cycle form sourcing to completion. They will be able to think strategically whilst also being attentive to detail. They will be able to effectively operate with the team to deliver results and know when to pull in leadership and resources for input.

Required Experience & Skills:

• Minimum of 15 years’ experience in hotel development, ideally in luxury, lifestyle, or the upscale segment
• Strong broad-based knowledge of market & hotel feasibility analysis, financial analysis skills, including experience with analyzing research data and macro and local economic trends impact on performance
• Proven track record of success in identifying locations suitable for Four Seasons for hotel development, underwriting, managing through the full deal cycle
• Excellent leadership skills and proven ability to develop relationships and establish trust with existing Four Seasons owners, associates at all levels, and key industry participants.
• Strategic thinking and creative problem-solving, and “hands-on” mindset. Rigorous, energetic, agile, flexible, with a “roll up your sleeves” mentality
• Ability to own external relationships with key executive stakeholders
• Exceptional organizational, communication and interpersonal skills
• Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality, Finance, Economics, or related field; MBA preferred 
• Language Skills: Proficiency in English required; additional language capabilities relevant to the region such as Hindi or Mandarin, Derirable

Performance and Competencies:

Refining Strategy

• The inclination to seek and analyze data from a variety of sources to support decisions and to align others with the organization's overall strategy.
• An entrepreneurial and creative approach to developing new, innovative ideas that will stretch the organization and push the boundaries within the industry.

Executing for Results

• The ability to set clear and challenging goals while committing the organization to improved performance; accountable in driving results.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty; the ability to adapt nimbly and lead others through complex situations.
• A risk-taker who seeks data and input from others to foresee possible threats or unintended circumstances from decisions; someone who takes smart risks.
• A leader who is viewed by others as having a high degree of integrity and forethought in their approach to making decisions; the ability to act in a transparent and consistent manner while always taking into account what is best for the organization.

Leading Teams

• The ability to motivate the team, delegate effectively, celebrate accomplishments within the team, and manage performance; widely viewed as a strong developer of others.
• The ability to persevere in the face of challenges, and exhibit a steadfast resolve and relentless commitment to higher standards, which commands respect from followers.
• A leader who is self-reflective and aware of their own limitations; leads by example and drives the organization's performance with an attitude of continuous improvement by being open to feedback and self -improvement.

Relationships and Influence

• Naturally connects and builds strong relationships with others, demonstrating strong emotional intelligence and an ability to communicate clearly and persuasively.
• An ability to inspire trust and followership in others through compelling influence, powerful charisma, passion in their beliefs, and active drive.
• Encourages others to share the spotlight and visibly celebrates and supports the success of the team.
• Creates a sense of purpose/meaning for the team that generates followership beyond their own personality and engages others to the greater purpose for the organization as a whole.

This role will be a Hybrid working model, which will require 3 days per week in the Four Seasons Corporate Office located at Tourism Court, 1 Orchard Spring Lane, Singapore.