Saudi Arabia Hospitality Investment Conference

14-16 April 2020 | Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, U.A.E

Speaker profile

Caro van Eekelen
Accor Group Worldwide

With her appointment in July 2009, Caro van Eekelen became Accor’s first female country director. In the beginning of 2014, Accor’s new strategy was announced. From then on, Van Eekelen was appointed as COO Accor Hotel Services Benelux.

Based on her years of national and international professional experience within big international companies, Van Eekelen has a clear vision on cultural differences on the work floor. She has personally been involved with increasing the diversity, both within and beyond her role at Accor Hotels. At Accor she urges to involve and commit young professionals to the company.

Caro is active on Twitter, where she shares both commercial and personal experiences. Follow her via: @Carovaneekelen.

Caro van Eekelen was born in 1963. In 1987, she received her bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management at the Hotel Management School in Den Haag, the Netherlands.

Van Eekelen’s carreer started in 1986 at Golden Tulip International. During a total of six years, Van Eekelen held various positions and opened hotels in multiple countries including The Caribbean, Ghana and France.

Just before its official opening in 1992, Caro started working for Disneyland Resort Paris. During 14 years, she held various management functions regarding operations and HR.

In 2006, Van Eekelen founded her own independent consultancy firm in Paris: ‘CVE’. The firm specialized in Hospitality Management. Van Eekelen consulted companies in the hospitality field on managerial and organizational issues, especially focusing on optimizing human resource policies.

Between 2007 and 2009, she worked at Adagio City Aparthotel in Paris. Under her supervision, an expansion up to a total of 30 Aparthotels was realized across major European cities.

In July 2009, Van Eekelen became Accor’s first female country director, from where she became the Senior Vice President Novotel & Suite Novotel in Northern Europe from 2012 till the end of 2013.