Accor has hired Hilton veteran Kara Randall to lead luxury hotel development in North America, a region the Paris-based company counts on for both marquee addresses and high-spending guests.
Randall started this week as chief development officer for Accor's luxury brands in North America. She reports to Agnès Roquefort, Accor’s chief development officer for luxury and lifestyle, and heads the team responsible for growing Raffles, Fairmont, Sofitel Legend, Sofitel, Emblems Collection, and MGallery Collection across the region. She also joins the company’s Global Development Committee and will work with Edouard Schwob, SVP of global development for Raffles and Fairmont.
“Kara will be a tremendous asset to Accor in North America, a strategic market for Accor’s luxury brands,” Roquefort said. “Beyond being home to some of our most iconic luxury properties and flagship destinations, North America is also one of the world's most important feeder markets for luxury travel. Strengthening our development capabilities in the region is essential to accelerating the growth, visibility, and long-term success of our luxury portfolio.”
The hire comes during a busy stretch for Accor’s top-tier flags in the Americas. Rimrock Banff officially opens this week in Alberta as the first Emblems Collection hotel in North America, following a roughly $82 million (CA$115 million) overhaul of the 320-room resort on Sulphur Mountain. Fairmont New Orleans, a 250-room conversion of the former Bank of New Orleans building, is scheduled to open next month, returning the brand to the city after two decades and giving it a 19th U.S. hotel. Leaders at Raffles, which opened its first North American hotel-and-residences project in Boston in 2023, have named North America as a key region for further growth.
Randall spent the most recent chapter of a 20-plus-year career at Hilton, where she was a vice president in the luxury, residential, and corporate development group for North America and worked on Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, and LXR deals. Earlier Hilton roles were in real estate asset management and owner relations. A graduate of Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, she sits on the board of its Center for Real Estate and Finance and was an inaugural member of Castell, a program that advances women in hospitality.
“Accor has built a solid reputation among the competitive North American hospitality market and its development capabilities have established the Group as a major player,” Randall said. “I am honored to join a team that is so forward-thinking and strongly positioned for the future.”
Accor has roughly 150 hotels in North America and a regional pipeline of 45 hotels totaling more than 9,000 rooms.
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