Village Hotel Club reshuffles senior leadership team amid growth plans

Village Hotel Club, a hotel and leisure club brand, has made key changes and additions to its leadership team as part of its growth plans.

Paul Roberts, previously chief financial officer (CFO), has been appointed chief operating officer (COO), a newly created role within the group. 

In addition, Village has appointed Matthew Ward as its new CFO and Jon Davis as chief technology officer (CTO). 

It comes as Village is looking to explore a number of M&A opportunities to grow the business. This strategy sits alongside an £82m refurbishment programme focussed on upgrading existing assets in the first phase of investment. 

Village said these new appointments will “add senior responsibility for key strategic priorities” with M&A, operations, and technology as part of its growth and development. 

In his new position of COO, Roberts will lead on “building the vision, strategic framework, systems and capabilities that enable the business to expand efficiently and sustainably across new and existing markets”. 

Meanwhile, Ward will be responsible for the group’s finance function as CFO, while working closely with its broader senior leadership team to deliver a strategic growth plan. He most recently served as finance director and group M&A director at Greene King, and prior to that, was CFO at Hawthorn Leisure.

CTO Davis will “help shape the next phase of Village’s technology proposition” and help implement new internal and consumer-facing systems across the group to enhance its operations and guest experience. 

He was most recently CTO across Richard Caring’s restaurant brands, including The Ivy Collection, Caprice Restaurants, The Birley Clubs, and Bill’s Restaurants. 

Gary Davis, CEO of Village Hotel Club, said: “Strong leadership remains key to delivering exceptional guest and member experiences and driving Village’s long-term success. I look forward to Paul enhancing our operational excellence in his new role, whilst Matthew and Jon bring a wealth of experience, making them invaluable additions to our executive team. 

“Today, I believe we have one of the best teams in the leisure industry, highly capable of leading the next phase of Village’s exciting growth trajectory. This will see us acquire and transform new sites, continue to evolve our customer proposition, and deliver operational best practices to cement Village as one of the UK’s most exciting hotel and leisure brands.”