2023-06-22 19:51:34
“You do not know the peace of mind that having the future guaranteed generates me.” Words of Gabriel Escarrer Julia when the founder of Meliá Hotels International presented in Palma his book of memoriesin October 2021. That It has not been the only time that the pioneer of tourism who at the age of 21, in 1956, founded his company, -beginning with a 60-room establishment in Mallorca, capable of carrying out the feat that led him to consolidate his hotel “as the first in Spain and the second in Europe “–, reinforces trust in your childGabriel Escarrer Jaume who this Thursday has become in chairman of the board of the company maintaining his position as CEO to run the hotel company, as reported in a press release.
last time in public When he referred to the confidence that his youngest son leads the company, it was when King Felipe V presented him, also in Palma, with the Kingdom of Spain Award for Business Trajectory. Then, in September 2022, he once again praised the figure of Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, at the helm of the hotel. With the renowned executive and leader of the tourist lobby He is exalted He said that “the best future for the company” was on track. And it was clearer With his generational change in life, he did not “leave a problem for the family”. He had already resolved it, removing his eldest son, Sebastián Escarrer Jaumewhom he had first trusted to run the company.
“You don’t know the tranquility that having the future guaranteed generates me”, words of the founder before the trust placed in his son
This Thursday, the founder of Meliá, at 88 years old, has taken another step forward when the Board of Directors of the company accepted his resignation from the presidency and was appointed honorary president. It is the second draft movement in the hotel to endorse the leadership of Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, who becomes chairman of the board while maintaining his position as CEO to run the company. In December 2016 Gabriel Escarrer Juliá submitted his voluntary resignation from the executive presidencyceding these functions to his son Gabriel, who at that time was already serving as vice president and CEO of the group.
guarantee continuity
As the company explains, today the succession plan drawn up at the behest of the founder and approved unanimously on December 13, 2016, “to guarantee the continuity of the business and the necessary security and confidence to all stakeholders” ends. Escarrer Juliá maintains his position as external proprietary director and member of the Board of Directors.
In this way, the will of the founder has been sealed “who throughout these last years had reiterated on numerous occasions his desire to leave the transition orderly and prepared”, says the press release.
Gabriel Escarrer Jaume is Vice President and CEO of Meliá since 2009. He graduated in 1993 from the prestigious Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, in the United States, where he specialized in Finance and Business Management. After job three years in the international department of Corporate Finance of the Salomon Smith Barney Investment Bank, New York and from there, in 1996, he participated in the IPO of Meliá, which he then joined. At the same time, he studied a personalized postgraduate course in Business Administration at ESADE.
Sebastian Escarrer Jaume had joined the hotel company in 1993, before Gabriel
In an unusual move in family corporations, the younger brother displaced the older one at Meliá. Sebastian Escarrer Jaume had joined the hotel company in 1993, before Gabriel. He graduated from ICADE and also received a Master’s from the Wharton School with three ‘majors’, Business Strategy, Finance and Multinational Management. He worked in various multinationals in the United States and London such as Coca-Cola, IBM or Hyatt. In 1994 he was appointed CEO of Meliá, a position he held for sixteen years and in 1997, Vice President of Sol Meliá. Later the founder made the decision to switch roles, and appointed Gabriel his successor.
Progressively, the eldest son of the founder of Meliá was moving away from the company, until in May 2020 Sebastián Escarrer Jaume separated from the hotel group by resigning as external proprietary director. The company thanked the Escarrer eldest son for his services for “piloting the transformation of Grupo Sol into Sol Meliá and its subsequent IPO, and effectively leading to position the company as one of the leading hotel companies in the world.”
Abruptly, Sebastián Escarrer remained a director when he was replaced by his brother Gabriel and also progressively, has withdrawn from family social eventsto the point that he has not been present at the last great recognitions of his father.
Meanwhile, on May 30, Meliá announced important changes in its management team, a sample of how the today named executive president He was already outlining the company that he is now going to pilot with all the power concentrated in his person. Pilar Dols, the financial director has been replaced by sonia jerez, an executive who has come to the hotel from the aeronautical sector. Dols now leads the Family Office of the Escarrer family, which integrates the significant shareholders of the company.
The general manager of Real Estate, Mark Hoddinotthas left the hotel company, after twenty-five years, at his own request, and has been replaced by the until now director of Legal Affairs, Juan Ignacio Pardo. Mariano Perez de Caceres He has gone from the vice presidency of the Legal area to occupy the position that Pardo is leaving vacant. And a new position has been created, that of Director of Strategy. who has assumed it Carlos Gonzalezdirector of the house.
The third generation, out
Gabriel Escarrer Jaume explained to this newspaper, last March, the strict protocol that governs the company before the possible incorporation of the third generation. “There are twenty grandchildren and we have a family protocol that establishes that there cannot be any family member working in the company”. It made it clear which is the north that the company has chosen to follow. There will be no failed steps with succession. “Surely they have been formed to be in the future good shareholders and have knowledge of the company and I’m sure they will be representing the family on a board of directors”, continued the now executive president of Meliá.
“At the moment the intention is that they do not work” –he added–. “We intend to professionalize government bodies. It is no coincidence that since 2019, of the eleven members of the Board of Directors, six are independent. It is a rare thing that a family with a comfortable majority in the company’s shareholders submit to that discipline”.
“I am not willing to ask people for a sacrifice if I am not the first to lead it”
President and CEO of Meliá
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Words from the successor of Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, a manager who, in addition to being one of the most recognized worldwide, not only in the tourism sector, In the middle of the pandemic, he made the decision to lower his salaryhalf of their fixed salary.
“I am not willing to ask people for a sacrifice if I am not the first to lead it”. “These two years I lowered my fixed salary and did not receive the variable,” she confessed. “The situation in the sector was not to give any kind of joy. When we more than recover pre-pandemic levels, we will talk about increases. My last increase was in 2018.” “The leaders -he claimed- We are the first to lead by example”. The affirmation of his father, Gabriel Escarrer Juliá, is endorsed: “You do not know the tranquility that having the future guaranteed generates me”, with his youngest son at the helm of the first Spanish hotel company and one of the largest worldwide in the segment vacation. He Meliá founder closes another chapter “on the great journey of my life”as he referred to his tourist career in the preamble to his memoirs.
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