Escarrer Jaume Gabriel

Gabriel Escarrer Jaume then worked for 3 years in the International Corporate Finance Department at the Salomon Smith Barney Investment Bank in New York. From there, in 1996, he took part in the successful IPO of Meliá Hotels International, founded by his father, Gabriel Escarrer Juliá, before going on to join the company immediately afterwards, simultaneously working on a tailor-made postgraduate Business Administration degree at ESADE, one of the top ten business schools in Europe.

Gabriel Escarrer Jaume led a strong surge in company growth and a major technological transformation, providing Meliá with greater corporate strength in an increasingly complex environment in the international travel industry. As Chief Executive Officer, a position to which he was appointed in 1999, Gabriel Escarrer addressed another major challenge, launching an ambitious plan to renew and reposition the company’s hotel assets. Ever since then he has worked tirelessly to ensure that Meliá retains its leadership in the Spanish hotel industry and extends and enhances its international positioning

Escarrer combines a strong vision and financial rigour, supported by solid training and a career in the field that has led him to be named Chairman of the Advisory Council of BBVA in the Levante Region, with the vocation and concerns of a true hotelier, such as customer focus, innovation in services and experiences, or diversification and monitoring of the latest trends

As Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Meliá Hotels International since 2009, Gabriel Escarrer has consolidated his leadership through the company's effective response to the international financial crisis and the management of an unprecedented cultural and organizational change, with a net positive balance at the corporate and team levels seen through increasing financial consolidation and the constant growth of its brands in both traditional and new and emerging markets.

In 2016, after 60 years at the helm of the company, its founder became Non-Executive Chairman, transferring his executive powers to Gabriel Escarrer Jaume with the unanimous support of the Board of Directors. Escarrer retains the positions of Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, making him the senior executive within the company.

As a leader of a responsible, family company, Gabriel Escarrer has always encouraged corporate responsibility and sustainability in all of the company’s social, economic and environmental dimensions, and the ethics and corporate values that support the performance of a company with greater public visibility and responsibility due to its leadership of the industry.

Thanks to all this, Meliá is the leader in Corporate Reputation in the travel industry according to the prestigious MERCO ranking (a position it has held for 5 consecutive years) and has launched emblematic reconversion and repositioning projects for mature travel destinations such as Magaluf in Mallorca and Torremolinos in Malaga, or the repositioning of the Palma’s Sea Façade, after being commissioned to manage the new and gorgeous Congress Palace in Palma de Mallorca, amongst others.

The first of these projects, named Calviá Beach, has received the Tourism Merit Award from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, while his support for the repositioning of Torremolinos led to him being named Tourism Personality of the Year in 2016. Both projects exemplify the company’s renewed commitment to resort hotels, a segment which Meliá has led ever since the 1950s, as well as its commitment to the renewal and transformation of the industry in the twenty-first century

One of the most influential CEO’s in Spain, among his future priorities are an unprecedented international growth plan to match the major multinational hotel chains, expanding the horizons of the company and thus the value of Meliá for all its stakeholders, without forgetting the solid family values that have allowed the company to remain a market leader for over six decades,