New appointments by Glion Institute of Higher Education

Glion Institute of Higher Education, a specialist hospitality and luxury management school with campuses in London and Switzerland, has announced significant Faculty appointments as the 2022-23 academic year gets underway.

Debra Adams, who has been a Consultant Lecturer at Glion since 2017, is the new Program Director of the Master’s in Real Estate, Finance and Development based at Glion’s London campus. She has previously held positions at a number of hotel schools in the UK and Switzerland and is a specialist in hospitality finance training for finance professionals and operational heads of department in hotels, restaurants and leisure facilities. Debra is also a Trustee and Member of the National Supervisory Board at the Institute of Hospitality.

Nicholas Northam has also joined Glion London where he will teach Global Real Estates Markets on the Master’s in Real Estate, Finance and Development. During his wide and varied career spanning over 40 years within the hospitality business, Nicholas has been General Manager of a number of Marriott Hotels and was Operations Director for Marriott in the UK. He additionally spent over a decade in asset management, most recently as Executive Vice President for Interstate Hotels and Resorts, Europe’s largest third-party management company and the international arm of Aimbridge Hospitality.

Georgette Davey, who returned to Glion London as Campus Director in August after five years as Managing Director of Glion Institute of Higher Education, said the appointments were a further boost to the popular Master’s in Real Estate, Finance and Development: “We have experienced a 160% growth in student numbers since the program launched and now have around 40 students beginning their studies this year. Glion London remains the only UK campus offered by a Swiss hospitality school, and with rapidly increasing demand for expertise in understanding of real estate, capital markets and global hotel development this Master’s is fast becoming our flagship graduate program in London.”

Meanwhile, in Switzerland, Mariam Megally is the new Program Director for the Master’s in Hospitality, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Dr Eleonora Cattaneo has also joined the Glion team as Director for the Master’s in Luxury Management and Guest Experience.

Mariam brings a breadth of international business experience focused on entrepreneurship skills. She began her career as a consultant with McKinsey & Co before entering the corporate food and beverage sector at Starbucks and Nestlé, a career path which culminated in her taking the role of Starbucks Global Strategic Innovation Director for Nestlé. Since 2012, Mariam has served as Strategy Professor for the Executive MBA at Solvay Brussels School Vietnam. She is also a judge and mentor for the global start-up accelerator Mass Challenge where she provides mentoring for start-ups in food and sustainability. Mariam has previously been a professor for the Building Brand Equity class within the Master.

Dr Cattaneo has obtained a PhD in Marketing from the University of Pavia in Italy, an MBA from SDA Bocconi, and a BA from the University of Bristol and has extensive industry experience in the field of marketing as a consultant and senior advisor for global brands and leading luxury hospitality groups. Her research focuses on rebranding, heritage branding and sustainable buying behaviour in the field of luxury. Prior to her position at Glion, she was Director of Executive Education at Swiss Education Group. She was also head of programme for the MA Luxury Brand Management at Regent’s University London and before that was a faculty member at SDA Bocconi in Milan where she designed and led executive education and MBA programmes.