Preferred Hotels & Resorts, the world’s largest global provider of sales, marketing, and distribution services to independent luxury hotels, has promoted Jonathan Newbury to Executive Vice President of Asia Pacific.
Jonathan brings 30 years of international independent hotel experience to his new position, which carries the responsibility to drive the strategic direction and evolution of the Preferred brand in Asia Pacific, ensuring the success and retention of more than 150 member properties across the region and overseeing the company’s associates who are based in offices across 10 cities. As part of this transition, Newbury recently relocated from Chicago to Singapore with his family.
“Throughout his 12-year tenure, Jonathan has been a key driver behind our global development efforts, strengthening how we position the Preferred brand and innovating our approach to appeal to new types of hotel partners,” says Lindsey Ueberroth, CEO of Preferred Hotels & Resorts.
“We are thrilled for Jonathan to continue his evolution within the company as he takes leadership of our efforts in Asia and believe that his international expertise and perspective, innovative business practices, and thoughtful approach to fostering new alliances will be instrumental to our success in capitalising on the opportunities for growth we foresee in the region.”
Since Jonathan joined Preferred in July 2008 – first serving as Vice President of Brand Development and most recently as Senior Vice President of Strategic Development – he has transformed the company’s approach to development, targeting hotel owners, operators, asset managers, and management companies globally and fostering impressive growth for the company globally.
He has spearheaded a variety of global development initiatives that have helped fuel a 20% growth in the brand’s hotel portfolio over the past decade, including the launch of the brand’s newest campaign, FREEDOM, that debuted in May 2020.
Over the past seven years, Jonathan conceptualised and executed a focused education movement to highlight Preferred’s performance on behalf of its member hotels compared to that of its franchise brand competitors. This effort helped successfully attract nearly 100 properties to “de-flag” and go independent with Preferred Hotels & Resorts as their brand partner. In addition to his development work, Newbury served as Preferred’s Vice President of E-Commerce & Technology from July 2010 to March 2012.
Prior to joining Preferred, Jonathan spent three years as Vice President of Global Development for Small Luxury Hotels of the World, where he leveraged his international background to support growth of the brand with a focus on Asia. He has also served as Operations Director for VIP SKI, which operates luxury chalets, hotels, and resorts across the French and Austrian Alps, and held on-property sales and marketing positions with both The Langham Hotels and Resorts and Thistle Hotel brands.
Concurrent with Newbury’s promotion, Preferred welcomed Christopher Ahlgrim as Vice President of Development in 2020. In this role, Ahlgrim will continue the momentum created by Newbury and Preferred’s Americas team and oversee growth of the brand’s portfolio in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean.
Prior to joining Preferred, Ahlgrim spent more than seven years with Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), most recently holding the position of Regional Head of Development for The Americas. While at GHA, he successfully structured multiple strategic partnerships that drove the growth of the GHA portfolio in the Americas; recruited new hotels and brands to GHA’s DISCOVERY loyalty platform; led the management and retention of GHA member brands in the United States; and established GHA’s Global Corporate Travel Sales programme.
