Lionel Benjamin

Lionel is an experienced and entrepreneurial hotel business leader. In a career spanning over 25 years, Lionel has held management roles across many of the world’s most prestigious hotel brands and has been involved in the sale and acquisition of hotel assets in excess of £2.5bn. At Hilton, Lionel worked alongside the Group’s European Development team to export the Doubletree, Garden Inn and Hampton brands to new markets. Lionel prepared the Hilton London Metropole for sale in 2006 (at the time Hilton’s largest ever asset sale) and as a member of Hilton’s Real Estate Team, was jointly appointed to sell ten Hilton assets across six countries. In 2010 Lionel joined The Ability Group as Head of Hotel and Leisure Division focused on growing the portfolio and consolidating performance. In 2013, Lionel joined Topland at board level to develop a £1bn hotel portfolio and in 2015 led on strategy and financing to bring together the 28 hotel portfolio under the brand of Hallmark and Hallmark Inns. Lionel is an Honorary Professor of The University of West London.