Das a&o Board

John Scott

Chairman

John Scott is an experienced leader in the hospitality and leisure industry with more than 25 years of consumer facing business expertise across complex global, multi-unit, multi-brand enterprises. He serves as Chairman for a&o hostels and is a TPG senior advisor. From 2012 to 2015 he served as President and CEO of Belmond Ltd. (NYSE: BEL), previously Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., a NYSE publicly listed company engaged in the ownership and management of a global portfolio of 46 luxury hotel, restaurant, tourist train and cruise businesses in 22 countries. Prior to joining Belmond Ltd., he served from 2003 to 2011 as President and CEO of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, an international luxury hotel and resort management company. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

 

Matthew Coleman

Member of the Board

Mr. Coleman is a Partner of TPG, Inc. (NASDAQ: TPG), the Chief Operating Officer of TPG Real Estate, and the President of TPG Real Estate Finance Trust, Inc. (NYSE: TRTX). Mr. Coleman currently serves on the Boards of Directors of A&O Hotels and Hostels, Bluegrass Senior Living, Tempore Properties, and Campus Living. Before joining TPG in 2012, Mr. Coleman was a Senior Vice President in the real estate private equity group at D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P. From 2000 through 2005, Mr. Coleman was an attorney in the New York office of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, where he practiced in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, leveraged finance, and securities. Mr. Coleman graduated summa cum laude from Wake Forest University with a B.A. degree in Economics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a J.D. degree from Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal and as the editor-in-chief of the Yale Journal on Regulation.

 

Donald J. McNamara

Member of the Board

Donald J. McNamara is the Founder of Hampstead Holdings, a real estate investment company he founded in 1988. Over the last 30 years, Hampstead, in partnerships with a small group of individual and institutional investors, has invested over $1 billion of equity in real estate. His previous experience includes Bass Brothers Enterprises, Marriott Corporation and JMB Realty. Donald J. McNamara currently serves as a Senior Advisor to TPG Real Estate Partners. He is also Managing Partner of Cityplace, a 130 acre mixed-use urban revitalization project in Dallas’ uptown. In 2005, he founded Long Cove, a 1400 acre second home community in East Texas and is the Managing Partner for Waikoloa, a 1350 acre development on the Big Island of Hawaii. McNamara is currently on the boards of Crow Family Holdings, a&o Hostels and Franklin Covey Company. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

 

 

 

Michael Mücke

Member of the Board

Michael Mücke serves on the board of a&o hostels. Mücke has been active in managing positions in the hotel industry for many years. His expertise lies above all in the areas of budget planning and management, expansion and brand positioning. For 25 years, Mücke was responsible for the development and success of Accor Hotels’ economy brands, most recently as Germany and Central Europe boss.

 

Das a&o Management

Oliver Winter

CEO

Oliver Winter is one of the "fathers of the German hostel idea" and is the founder of a&o hostels. His vision of affordable accommodation in a city center with a sociable hostel feeling component has come true. He has established his budget-chain concept with huge success across Germany. With the entry of TPG Real Estate, a&o paves the way for a Europe-wide market leadership in the individual and youth travel segment. At the same time, Oliver continues to look after the representation and strength of his brand and the well-being of the employees who lead a&o to success.

 

Andre Bleeker

Chief Financial Officer

Andre Bleeker has more than 15 years of experience in the retail sector of fast-growing companies and is a down-to-earth, highly qualified financial professional. Before becoming CFO at a&o Hotels, he worked, among others, for more than four years at Metro Cash and Carry Ukraine as Head of Controlling and also for more than four years at Lenta, the largest retail chain in Russia, as Deputy CFO for Corporate Controlling. He received his Master of Science from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

 

Torsten Loos

Director Operations

Torsten Loos has been part of the hostel chain since its inception and has accompanied a&o through every opening. He came to Berlin as an architecture student and started working as a student assistant in one of the Berlin hostels. After finishing his studies he decided to stay at a&o and went through different positions. He develops quality standards and thus ensures error-free and uniform processes in operations. To deepen his knowledge, he completed a second degree in economics. As Director Operations, he implemented, among other things, a regional manager structure and developed a roster software with automatic assignment, which is used in the houses and thus creates more digitalization. New tools such as inventory systems, e-learning and cost control were developed under him and the internal communication platform EWIDA was further optimized.

 

James Simmonds

Chief Investment Officer

James Simmonds has worked in hotel development for over 20 years and is now the Chief Investment Officer of a&o Hostels. He started his career in London, with EY and Deloitte and then worked in the Middle East - in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. He led the development in the Asia-Pacific region for the luxury hotel group Rosewood in Hong Kong and was afterwards head of global development for the luxury hotel group Belmond in London. He sees good growth prospects for a&o, as the flexibility to choose between buying and renting a property creates significant competitive advantages. Together with his real estate team, the CIO wants to concentrate on the acquisition of existing hotels and hostels that can be turned into an a&o as quickly as possible.

 

Phillip Winter

Chief Marketing Officer

A classic a&o success story is reflected in Phillip Winter's career: From the student assistant at the reception via the Financial Controller to the Chief Marketing Officer, he has learned the a&o product range from scratch. He understands the needs of the guests perfectly and combines them with the demands of the hotel. His passion for strategic concepts with analytical flair, which are transformed into commercial and sales hits, the enthusiastic marathon runner and family man lives up to the a&o group completely. He is convinced by creative out-of-the-box ideas with a measurable added value for the guest. In 2017, Phillip Winter successfully restructured the service centre and has since greatly increased performance. Through projects such as the a&o app with mobile key, the digital registration form, web check-in or kiosk check-in and the communication bot, Phillip Winter is driving the digitalisation of a&o. One of his most important projects was the complete rebranding of the a&o group in 2017/2018. Since 2019, the CMO has been responsible for the Europe-wide PR network.