As part of an organisational reset at Accor, Duncan O’Rourke has been promoted to CEO for the extended Northern Europe division – a merger of the previous Northern, Central, East and New East Europe teams.

In his new role, O’Rourke will be responsible for 29 countries including Scandinavia, UK, Benelux, Ireland, Poland and Russia in addition to his current responsibility for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. On top of that, he will become part of the group’s Global Executive Committee.

“I love challenges and look forward to working with the teams all over the newly created Northern Europe division. My predecessors have done outstanding work, which I will gladly continue. It is now the ultimate time to finish a chapter and to initiate a new way, says O’Rourke. “These changes are designed to reflect our business priorities: increase focus on territories and segments with the highest growth potential as well as the simplification of decision processes.”

O’Rourke has been with Accor since 2016; before being promoted to COO for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, he oversaw the group’s luxury and premium hotels in Europe.

Prior to joining Accor, O’Rourke worked at Kempinski Hotels for several years; first as General Manager for two pre-openings in London, later as Regional Director based in Jordan. In 2008, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer and Member of the Management Board for the group.

Following a journey profoundly transforming the business model of Accor into asset light, this new organisation within Europe is the next step to fully achieve the transformation to an asset light company by further deploying the strategic roadmap and empowering the team to exploit the potential to the fullest.