Marie-Laure Akdag, Founder and Managing Director

Marie-Laure Akdag spent 25+ years leading luxury hospitality, tourism and fashion retail businesses in strategic and client-focused roles, requiring commercial and operational excellence with P&L accountability.

Born in the Champagne Valley in France and educated both in France and in the US, Marie-Laure has lived and worked in San Francisco, Amsterdam, Paris, Dubai and London. She also traveled extensively to Asia and South America as an Ambassador for the brands she represented.

She started her career leading inbound travel for a Tour Operator in California. 

She then moved into luxury hotels, leading sales and marketing and positioning iconic hotels such as the Amstel Intercontinental and the Grand Sofitel Demeure in Amsterdam, the Hotel de Crillon in Paris, Burj Al Arab in Dubai and the European Fairmont hotels from her base at The Savoy in London. 

She also wanted to sharpen her operational and leadership skills so she took the helm of a luxury hotel. She pre-opened, launched and managed 45 Park Lane in London, the luxury boutique hotel of the Dorchester Collection, partnering with Wolfgang Puck, the world-renowned celebrity Chef for the opening of his first international restaurant, Cut.. 

Her last career move took her to luxury fashion retail as she joined Burberry as Vice-President of Client Engagement to design the client engagement strategy and lead its global implementation in 450 stores while building a new global team of 300 elite sales associates to service the top clients.

A people person who is digitally savvy, Marie-Laure is curious, passionate and strives for excellence. Throughout her career, she has challenged the status quo and driven growth by thinking out of the box. She thrives on working with, leading, growing and inspiring teams to delight customers and drive retention and sales. 

She has built a global network of talented individuals she interacts with regularly and can call upon. Her diverse background and skills set support her passion for helping brands join the dots around the customer to create and deliver authentic and meaningful experiences and achieve commercial success.