Executive Director / Head of Commercial Strategy
Location: Abu Dhabi (preferred)
Sector: Luxury Hospitality & Leisure
Role Purpose
The role is responsible for defining and leading an integrated, portfolio-wide commercial strategy across Sales, Marketing, Distribution, Revenue, and Customer Experience. The mandate is to break down existing silos, strengthen marketing capability, elevate guest experience, and drive sustainable revenue growth and asset value across a diverse hospitality and leisure portfolio.
This is a senior leadership position with significant board and stakeholder exposure, operating in a complex ownership environment and a high-growth context.
Key Responsibilities
Enterprise Commercial Strategy & Integration
- Develop and lead a unified commercial strategy across sales, marketing, distribution, revenue management, and customer experience.
- Align commercial priorities with overall business strategy and asset management objectives.
- Act as a strategic advisor to the CEO and Board on commercial performance, market dynamics, and growth opportunities.
- Drive collaboration and integration across historically siloed commercial functions.
Marketing, Brand & Positioning
- Strengthen marketing as a core commercial capability across the portfolio.
- Lead brand positioning, digital strategy, and creative storytelling to elevate market presence.
- Oversee asset repositioning initiatives and portfolio-level brand consistency.
- Ensure guest experience is embedded into brand, product design, and go-to-market strategies.
Guest Experience & Commercialisation
- Lead the development of distinctive guest experiences across hotels, beach clubs, marinas, and leisure assets.
- Translate experience-led concepts into commercially successful products and revenue streams.
- Embed customer experience principles into commercial planning and execution.
Sales, Distribution & Revenue Leadership
- Set strategic direction for sales, distribution, partnerships, and key accounts across markets.
- Drive revenue optimisation through segmentation, pricing, channel mix, and demand strategy.
- Approve and lead major commercial negotiations and strategic partnerships.
Portfolio Synergy & Asset Performance
- Create synergy across a mixed portfolio including hotels, resorts, golf courses, beach clubs, and marinas.
- Provide strategic commercial oversight and performance challenge to asset-level leadership.
- Support acquisition, development, and expansion initiatives with commercial insight and market intelligence.
Leadership & Governance
- Lead a large, multi-disciplinary commercial team (sales, marketing, customer experience).
- Influence General Managers through dotted-line relationships.
- Navigate a complex stakeholder and ownership structure with agility and diplomacy.
- Foster a collaborative, high-performance, team-oriented culture.
Reporting & Team Structure
- Reports to: Chief Executive Officer
- Direct reports include senior sales leadership, marketing leadership, and customer experience.
- Overall team size: approximately 3040 employees across regional assets.
- Dotted-line influence over General Managers.
Candidate Profile
Experience
- 15+ years of senior commercial leadership experience within hospitality, leisure, or luxury asset-heavy environments.
- Proven background in luxury or ultra-luxury brands, with a strong emphasis on guest experience.
- Demonstrated success in leading large commercial teams across marketing, sales, and revenue.
- Experience commercialising experiential concepts and destination-led assets.
- UAE experience required, ideally Abu Dhabi.
Skills & Capabilities
- Strong marketing-led mindset with deep expertise in positioning, digital, and creative strategy.
- Commercially astute with strong financial, analytical, and revenue optimisation skills.
- Comfortable operating at CEO, Board, and investor level.
- Exceptional stakeholder management skills in complex ownership environments.
- Nimble, collaborative, and highly team-oriented leadership style.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Hospitality, Economics, or related field.
- MBA or equivalent preferred.
