Latest news with #NeilJacobs
Skift
a day ago
- Business
- Skift
Six Senses CEO Neil Jacobs Steps Down After 13 Years
Neil Jacobs is stepping down as CEO of Six Senses. After 13 years in the role, he is setting out on a new adventure. Plus, APAC hotel development news. Malaysia welcomed 6.4 million international tourists in 1Q25, up 10% year-over-year. Tourism receipts rose to 27.5 billion Malaysian Ringgit, up 24% year-on-year, with the average spending per tourist climbing to 4,300 MYR. Chinese tourists accounted for 1.12 million visitors in the first quarter, making China the second largest source market after Singapore. Tourism Malaysia is targeting 31.3 million international tourists this year, generating 125.5 billion MYR in tourism revenue. For 2026, their target is 35.6 million visitors. IHG Hotels & Resorts announced the official opening of its first Brisbane property, InterContinental Brisbane. The hotel is positioned in the heart of Brisbane's CBD within the luxury shopping precinct of Queen Street Mall. The 319-room hotel will undergo a significant two-year transformation starting next year, with developer ISPT using this as part of the way to reimagine the Elizabeth Street precinct into a vibrant hub. InterContinental Brisbane spans 25 floors with a collection of rooms and suites with city views, event spaces with 19 meeting rooms and one of the city's largest event ballrooms, elevated amenities with an outdoor lap pool, gym and the new Latitude 27 Bar & Kitchen, serving as the hotel's all-day restaurant and lobby bar. A signature Club InterContinental lounge is on level 25, offering river city views. With the addition of Intercontinental Brisbane, the brand now has three properties across Queensland. IHG operates 69 hotels in total in Australasia under nine brands. Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced the opening of Hyatt House South Melbourne, the first Hyatt House–branded property in Australia, expanding the brand's footprint globally. The hotel is a joint venture led by Holder East Pty Ltd. and operated by Hyatt. The new hotel offers 97 residential-style rooms, including studios, one-bedroom suites, and accessible room options. The Market is open 24 hours, while The Bar offers specialty coffees and premium beers, as well as wine and cocktails. Other amenities include free breakfast, a 24/7 fitness center, and a necessities program. Marriott International's Marriott Hotels brand announced the opening of the Pattaya Marriott Resort and Spa, located on the shores of Thailand's Eastern Seaboard. The resort is just steps from the golden sands of Jomtien Beach, just minutes from the resort town of Pattaya. The resort features 289 rooms and suites, ranging in size from 33-square-meter deluxe rooms to 57-square-meter family rooms with bunk beds and spacious premium suites with up to 88 square meters of modern, light-filled space. There are six restaurants and bars, four flexible meeting rooms for social and business events, Quan Spa, a 24-hour fitness center, a Kids' Club, and three pools. Seibu Prince Hotels Worldwide said it plans to open a hotel in Bangkok in fiscal 2029. Seibu Prince will be contracted to operate the hotel by a joint venture between Thai Obayashi, a subsidiary of Japanese construction company Obayashi, and major Thai consumer goods company Saha Group. The luxury hotel will be developed on a prime site in the Ratchadamri area and will feature 200 high-end guest rooms along with an array of facilities, including banquet halls, meeting rooms, fine-dining restaurants, and an international-standard spa. The hotel will form part of a larger mixed-use development, which will also offer office space and full-service retail areas. The hotel will span floors 26 to 36 of the tower, envisioned as the 'Garden in the Sky.' The main lobby will be on the 27th floor. There will be an infinity pool as well as a Japanese restaurant with private dining rooms, a lounge and bar, spa, fitness center, club lounge, and flexible banquet and meeting spaces. Property developer Ayala Land, Inc. said it acquired the 580-room New World Hotel Makati to expand its hotel portfolio. Ayala said the acquisition is part of its broader strategy to invest in high-growth urban centers in the Philippines, where it already operates several businesses and lifestyle hotels. Ayala said it plans to invest $500 million to help double their hotel capacity to 8,000 keys by 2030. Its Ayala Land Hospitality unit operates the homegrown Seda hotels and the El Nido Resorts luxury chain in Palawan. Ayala Land Hospitality is also looking to build a five-star hotel in Cebu and another in Batangas, which will have 400 to 600 rooms. Ayala Land now has more than 4,000 hotel rooms in 15 locations. BWH Hotels said it expanded its network in Indonesia with the opening of Best Western Setiabudhi Bandung, a new hotel in the city of Bandung, West Java. The hotel is strategically located on Jalan Dr. Setiabudhi, 2km from Bandung city center. The hotel features 63 rooms and suites and includes whirlpool baths in the Junior Suites. The hotel includes a restaurant, 24-hour room service, five meeting rooms, and a fitness center. This is BWH Hotels' second property in Bandung. Personnel Moves Neil Jacobs is stepping down as CEO of Six Senses. Skift, parent company of this publication, noted Jacobs' LinkedIn post where he said after 13 years in the role, he is stepping away from leadership of the company and setting out on a new adventure. Neither Jacobs nor IHG had responded to Skift's requests for comment at our press time. Jacobs first joined Six Senses as CEO in 2012 when Pegasus Capital Advisors bought the Thai-based brand. In 2019, IHG acquired the company for $300 million. Read more on Skift here. Accor announced the appointment of Cyrus Madan as Director of Development for India and South Asia. Madan previously held senior roles with renowned hospitality brands over his 30 years of experience, including Lemon Tree Hotels and Atmosphere Hospitality, starting his career with the Taj Group in New Delhi. Madan is expected to play a pivotal role in accelerating Accor's footprint across the region.
Skift
2 days ago
- Business
- Skift
Hyatt's $2B Flip, Six Senses Shake-Up and Europe's Heatwave Havoc
For today's pod we look at Hyatt's Playa Hotels real estate play, leadership moves at Six Senses, and Europe's brutal summer heat. Skift Daily Briefing Podcast Listen to the day's top travel stories in under four minutes every weekday. Listen to the day's top travel stories in under four minutes every weekday. Skift Travel Podcasts Good morning from Skift. It's Tuesday, July 1. Here's what you need to know about the business of travel today. Hyatt announced a deal to sell the real estate portfolio of Playa Hotels & Resorts for $2 billion, just two weeks after having purchased it, writes Hospitality Reporter Luke Martin. The deal lets Hyatt continue its push into all-inclusive resorts while maintaining its asset-light strategy. Hyatt said it plans to sell 15 resorts to Tortuga Resorts, a joint venture between private equity KSL Capital Partners and investment group Rodina. Hyatt's net cost to become the manager of Playa's resorts would be about $555 million. While Hyatt would retain the management side of Playa Hotels, Martin notes the move supports Hyatt's ongoing strategy to reduce ownership of hotel real estate. The company now derives over 80% of its earnings from asset-light operations, up from 40% when it went public in 2009. Listen to This Podcast Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Youtube | RSS Next, Neil Jacobs said he's stepping down as CEO of Six Senses after having led the ultra-luxury resort brand for 13 years, write Hospitality Reporter Luke Martin and Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O'Neill. Jacobs led Six Senses through a major expansion and its acquisition by IHG in 2019. Under his leadership, the Thailand-based Six Senses grew from eight Asian beachfront resorts into a globally recognized brand with 26 open properties in locations such as Fiji and the Seychelles. Since IHG's acquisition, Jacobs has expanded Six Senses into Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa. Finally, authorities in several European countries have issued heat-related travel advisories for popular tourist destinations on the continent, writes Climate Reporter Darin Graham. As a heat wave has swept across the Mediterranean, officials in Sweden and Germany have issued warnings for destinations in several European destinations, including Spain. Sweden's foreign ministry warned that temperatures in some parts of Spain would top 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Graham notes the extreme heat is the latest example of how Europe, the fastest-warming continent, is increasingly feeling the impact of the climate crisis. Wildfires have prompted evacuations in France while Spanish media recently reported a tourist died from heatstroke in Majorca.
Skift
2 days ago
- Business
- Skift
Six Senses CEO Steps Down After 13-Year Tenure
Neil Jacobs fundamentally redefined ultra-luxury resorts by positioning Six Senses with themes of wellness and environmental stewardship. This created a new market category that many rival brands have been emulating. Neil Jacobs, CEO of ultra-luxury resort brand Six Senses, said he's stepping down after 13 years of leading the brand through a major expansion and its pre-pandemic acquisition by IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group). 'I am stepping away from leadership of the company and setting out on a new adventure," Jacobs wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday. Under Jacobs' leadership, Six Senses evolved from 8 Asian beachfront resorts into a globally recognized brand with 26 open properties in places like Bhutan, Fiji, and the Seychelles, and more than 30 in the works. The brand, whose rooms typically cost over $1,000 a night, has become known for its emphasis on sustainability and wellness, including sleep specialists and longevity treatments.
USA Today
06-02-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Trump nominates Neil Jacobs to lead NOAA again
Neil Jacobs, the former acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has been nominated by President Donald Trump to take the agency's helm once again. During his previous administration, the president nominated Jacobs to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction and he was confirmed in February 2018. He became the acting NOAA administrator in 2018 and was nominated as administrator in 2019. Although Jacobs served in the role from 2018 until the end of the president's first term, he was never confirmed by the full Senate, after being embroiled in a controversy dubbed "Sharpiegate" as Hurricane Dorian was bearing down on the United States. His nomination will again be subject to Senate confirmation. What does NOAA do? NOAA has a vast mission that includes monitoring and predicting weather and climate and warning the public, storing the nation's massive bank of weather data and making it available for research. The agency also oversees oceans and coasts, observing change, protecting resources, including endangered species such as whales and turtles, and managing the nation's fisheries. With an annual budget of roughly $7 billion and nearly 12,000 employees, the agency's responsibilities are split into six different branches, including the National Weather Service, National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service. Who is Neil Jacobs? Jacobs, 51, is an atmospheric scientist with a bachelors degree in math and physics from the University of South Carolina and masters and doctoral degrees in atmospheric science from North Carolina State University. The Colorado native is a father of two and an avid surfer. Before being appointed to NOAA the first time, Jacobs had been the chief atmospheric scientist at Panasonic Avionics Corporation, directing research and development of its aviation weather observing platform and weather forecast model programs. Federal government records show his NOAA salary in 2020 was roughly $170,000. He has served on a forecast improvement group at the American Meteorological Society and on an aircraft-based observing systems team at the World Meteorological Organization, according to his biography from his previous stint at NOAA. Support for Jacobs Jacobs' nomination was quickly supported by at least two fishing organizations. He's "a great choice to lead NOAA,' said Noah Oppenheim, coordinator of the Maine-based Fishing Communities Coalition, an association of small-boat commercial fishing groups. 'Commercial fishing communities need a steady hand at the helm as we face unprecedented infrastructure, market, and regulatory challenges," Oppenheim said. "We need fundamental reforms at NOAA to improve fishery surveys, while keeping the agency's core weather forecasting functions strong so we can safely and efficiently catch fish to feed Americans." What was 'Sharpiegate?' Despite his advanced degrees and experience, Jacobs may be best known his connection to "Sharpiegate." As Hurricane Dorian approached the U.S. in September 2019, President Trump tweeted that Alabama was one of several states that would see impacts from the storm. However, National Weather Service forecasts at the time projected impacts in neighboring states, but not Alabama. He subsequently appeared in the Oval Office on Sept. 4 with an enlarged copy of the National Hurricane Center's official cone forecast graphic that was six days old. It also appeared to have been altered with a black marker to show a hand-drawn extension of the cone into Alabama. The cone graphic illustrates locations with a .66% chance that the center of the hurricane could pass over within 3 to 5 days of the map's preparation. In response to anxious calls, the National Weather Service office in Birmingham posted on then Twitter that Alabama would not see impacts from the hurricane. That prompted an unsigned statement from NOAA administration and a warning to NOAA staff not to contradict the president. The incident set off a furor in the forecast community, including among specialists at the National Hurricane Center who are responsible for sorting through myriad models to craft forecasts and weather service meteorologists who prepare localized warnings. Ultimately Dorian skirted the U.S. East Coast. A subsequent independent investigation requested by NOAA'S Scientific Integrity Officer found Jacobs allowing the statement's release violated the agency's scientific integrity policies. James Franklin, a retired former branch chief for the center's hurricane specialists, was among those concerned about the Dorian incident. On Thursday Franklin said Jacobs' appointment is "probably as good as NOAA could have hoped for," given the circumstances. "The main question in my mind is how much interference there's going to be from above." Dinah Voyles Pulver covers climate change, disasters and the environment for USA TODAY. Reach her at dpulver@ or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X.
