Profile

Taras Ettl

Vice President Development Middle East & Africa
IHG

Taras Ettlj oined InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) as Vice-President Development in 2011.  His responsibilities span across a wide geographic area from the Middle East to Africa.  In his supervisory function as Head of Development he spearheads IHG’s growth ambitions on those two key emerging market regions.

Prior to joining IHG, Mr. Ettl worked for eight years as Vice-President Acquisitions & Development at Kingdom Hotel Investments (KHI), a dedicated hotel investment vehicle headed by Saudi investor HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal where he was overseeing the assessment of deal flows ranging from acquisitions to developments of Four Seasons, Fairmont and Movenpick branded properties in both the Middle East and Africa.  Prior to joining KHI in Dubai and Riyadh, Mr. Ettl worked for three years at Movenpick Hotels & Resorts in the capacity of Corporate Development Director with base in Zurich.

Prior to Movenpick, Mr. Ettl was a Senior Consultant at Arthur Andersen's Real Estate Group in both Frankfurt as well as Bahrain where he undertook feasibility work and valuation assignments for various clients across the Middle East.

Prior to Movenpick, Mr. Ettl was a Senior Consultant at Arthur Andersen's Real Estate Group in Frankfurt, Germany where he advised an international clientele on project feasibility for hotel developments within Germany.  His background in feasibility and valuation was further broadened by a two-year tenure at the firm's office in Manama, Bahrain where he undertook feasibility work and valuation assignments for various clients across the Middle East.

Mr. Ettl has an intricate knowledge of all hotel markets across the Middle East and Africa as well as extensive experience of transaction closings across a variety of different jurisdictions and markets.  His particular strength is his wide range of networking capabilities across Africa and within emerging countries known for their high barriers of entry such as Angola, Nigeria, Iran, Syria and Yemen to name a few.  From Kenya to Mauritius to Tanzania or from Ghana all the way to Seychelles, Mr. Ettl’s transactions are always outside of the ordinary but never dull and highly profitable.