Name: Gregory Maliassas
Graduation year: 1993
Nationality: Greek
Program: Diploma in Hotel Management
Current position: Senior Vice President Operations, Luxury & Premium Brands, Central and Eastern Europe, AccorHotels
For alumnus Gregory Maliassas, life has always been about the journey. Since graduating from Les Roches in 1993, he’s combined a love of travelling with a passion for hospitality and achieved incredible career success. Now, he’s responsible for delivering unforgettable experiences for guests and employees, as Senior Vice President of Operations for Luxury Brands at AccorHotels.
Like many highly successful professionals, Gregory’s success is built on a love for what he does. “My eagerness to travel and explore the world, whilst concentrating on building an international career has helped me achieve my professional ambitions.” His passion brings a multicultural and international outlook to his work. “For the last 20 years, I have worked and lived in many countries in three different continents.”
But being well-travelled only gets you so far, so to speak. Gregory also has a leadership mindset and business focus that is crucial to his success. “Being persistent, focused and seeking excellence in everything I do, has been the driving force behind my career”, he said.
Apart from ensuring the financial success of over 40 Hotels, my day-to-day responsibilities include meeting with hotel owners and ensuring our partners are happy with their investments.
Life as a leader
As Senior Vice President of Operations, Gregory must have sight across the entire business. “I ensure that thousands of our hotel talents (employees) are engaged to offer the best possible service to our valuable guests”, he said. “ The monitoring of potential opportunities for new hotel developments and the successful opening of those with the support of our project teams such as interior designers, architects, hotel operations teams, is as well a very large part of my responsibilities.”
At AccorHotels, technology is working with humans to deliver unique luxury experiences. “Technology can be our best friend, but technology can also be our biggest threat”, Gregory said. “Within our luxury brands what is important is that we have faith in our people, and by providing them with technological tools, they will be able to do wonderful things with them for our guests.”
How important is ‘the experience’?
According to Gregory, very. “The one trend that is very apparent, is that consumers want to live experiences when they travel”, he said. “They want to feel like locals when they stay in a destination and experience the city as locals. They want to be able to blend in and mingle with them.”
It is our duty to ensure that we provide them with this experience or at least give them access to it.
For Gregory, the key to creating unforgettable moments for guests, is helping employees be their very best. “In the past, luxury brands had a top priority to invest in product development”, he said. “Things will change. The future is to re-humanize luxury across all service categories. We need to start seeing technology as the commodity it is and instead shift to investing in people.”
Gregory has very clear advice for anyone looking to progress in hospitality. “Focus on achieving your ultimate goal, have a game plan ready and stick to it. Do not get distracted by various external factors that are very common in our industry”, he said. “Finally, yet importantly, always work hard whilst trying to have fun!”
Great advice for professional success.
We thank Gregory for taking the time to share his amazing career journey and fascinating insight into his role at AccorHotels.
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