Netherlands: Zoku has made three key appointments as it prepares to roll out its apartment/hotel room hybrid model.
Following the opening of its first location in Amsterdam, Zoku, which was among the winners at the inaugural Serviced Apartment Awards, now plans to open 50 global properties within 10 years. Co-founders Hans Meyer and Marc Jongerius are putting together the global rollout team and have appointed of Lisa Neubueser to the role of senior real estate developer, Johannes Menge to the role of real estate developer and Evelien Anne Christiaanse to the role of growth hacker.
Neubueser brings a decade of hospitality experience, specialised hotel real estate investment knowledge and a strong network of industry contacts to Zoku’s expansion team. Most recently, she worked as director of hotel fund management at Invesco Real Estate in London, where she oversaw a hotel real estate portfolio of more than €1 billion across Europe as part of a seven-person team of sector specialists. Invesco has helped facilitate institutional investments in the growing European hotel real estate space since 2006.
Prior to joining Invesco, Lisa held roles within CBRE’s hotel advisory team in London, Marriott’s European development HQ in Zurich and the HVS headquarters in New York.
Neubueser said: “Zoku’s innovative hotel concept offers global nomads a refreshing alternative to a standard hotel room or serviced apartment, while fostering a community space so far unrivalled in the sector. I’m very excited to join the Zoku rollout team and help real estate investors take part in Zoku’s growth story as we expand our portfolio with leases and management contracts.”
Johannes Menge has formerly worked for Kempinski Hotels and CBRE’s hotel consultancy and valuations team in Dublin.
Zoku’s rollout is driven by crowdsourcing. Members of the community are able to suggest leads to new sites, contracts, developer meetings and more in exchange for perks and financial rewards. Hans and Marc are bringing Evelien Anne Christiaanse on board as Zoku’s first growth hacker to accelerate the process of finding sites around the world for new properties. Her background is in using data to boost startup growth.
“We’re excited to welcome Lisa, Johannes and Evelien to the Zoku rollout team. Their international hospitality real estate experience will be key to Zoku’s mission to expand into European and American hubs of creativity,” said Jongerius and Meyer..
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