Mark SergotParent company Associated Luxury Hotels, which substantially increased its global presence, hospitality services and collection of member hotels and resorts with the recent acquisition of Frankfurt, Germany-based Worldhotels, announced that it has expanded its executive leadership team with the addition of highly respected hospitality industry sales executive Mark Sergot as Chief Sales Officer. Associated Luxury Hotels also owns and operates Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI), the leading independent Global Sales Organization (GSO) serving the North American Meetings & Incentive (M&I) marketplace. The announcement of Sergot’s appointment was made by Associated Luxury Hotels’ Chairman David Gabri. In this newly created executive-level position, Sergot is responsible for leading the ALHI GSO sales team and business development for Members, along with the strategies, direction, membership and training programs for ALHI. His primary focus will be centered on the ALHI sales operations, team development and deployment, and Account services in order to address the significant growth of demand from Accounts seeking ALHI’s GSO and local services to its impressive worldwide hotel and resort membership. For over 30 years ALHI’s Global Sales team has been providing professional sales support to meeting professionals, incentive and convention specialists, and business executives throughout North America. ALHI’s GSO services and professional sales support is exclusively for its distinguished portfolio of more than 250 luxury-level Meeting, Convention & Incentive-focused hotels and resorts worldwide, plus distinctive “Alliance” members to assist planners. The ALHI GSO includes 21 offices with over 70 sales professionals, including the opening of ALHI’s first European GSO sales operation which will open in London, U.K. in late March. The highly regarded Sergot comes to Associated Luxury Hotels from Fairmont Raffles Hotels International (FRHI), where he served as Senior Vice President of the Global Sales Organization, responsible for the structure, strategy, direction, sales training and standards of the worldwide FRHI hotels’ sales force in 26 countries across the Fairmont, Raffles & Swissotel brands. In that position he very successfully led the global sales workforce and developed effective market share growth and business development strategies across an international hotel portfolio. Prior to that position, his 16-year tenure with FRHI also includes serving for six years as Vice President of Global Sales, where he was responsible for overseeing 75 global sales professionals around the world, and for opening new global sales offices in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, India and China. With more than 25 years of extensive hospitality industry sales and marketing experience, Sergot is a very accomplished global hospitality sales executive who is recognized for his tremendous skills and success in leading and managing sales teams, and for transforming international multi-segment, multi-brand hotel sales organizations. Named one of the “Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales & Marketing” by Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI), Sergot led the FRHI sales team which was ranked the #1 sales team in the 2016 annual “Business Travel News Hotel Survey,” topping all major luxury hotel brands in the global survey of travel managers. He is an active member of PCMA and HSMAI, and is a member of the latter’s Chief Sales Officer Roundtable. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Communications & Public Relations from Illinois State University, and completed postgraduate Executive Scholar Marketing & Sales studies at Northwestern University. He is based in ALHI’s Global Sales Office in Chicago, and may be reached at [email protected] .