Speaker

Bani Haddad

Founder, Managing Director
Aleph Hospitality

In 2015 Bani Haddad founded Aleph Hospitality to provide hotel owners in the Middle East and Africa with a customised, results-driven alternative to traditional hotel management models. Bani has 28 years’ experience in the hospitality industry whereof 17 years have been focused on the Middle East and Africa Consistently ranked in the top 10 of most powerful hoteliers in the Middle East, Bani is a widely respected hotelier and an acclaimed speaker at industry events in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He is a partner at Inn-Sight Advisory, member of the Advisory Board for the Future Hospitality Summit (FHS, previously the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference/AHIC) as well as the African Investment Forum (AHIF). In 2022, Bani won “Business Leader of the Year” in the MEED SME Awards. Prior to founding Aleph, Bani successfully developed, launched and managed several major international hotel brands. As Regional Vice President Middle East & Africa for Wyndham Hotel Group, Bani grew the portfolio from six hotels to 49 operational hotels and 20+ under development, developed five new brands and expanded the company’s portfolio to the African continent. From fundraising and developing 40 Holiday Inn Express hotels in the GCC at Hospitality Management Services and setting up HMS as an independent hotel management company to pre- and post-opening operations at Starwood and Disneyland Resort Paris, Bani has first-hand experience in virtually every aspect of hotel management. Under Bani’s visionary leadership, Aleph Hospitality has grown to become the leading independent hotel management company in the region, and in 2020 the company was valued at USD 20 million by a large European institutional investor who subsequently became a shareholder. Bani holds an MBA from IMHI, a joint programme established by Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and ESSEC. Originally from Lebanon, Bani has lived in the United Arab Emirates since 2005. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/banihaddad/