citizenM Hotels Appoints Jaap Tonckens as Advisor to the Board
Real Estate and Finance Industry Veteran Jaap Tonckens Joins citizenM's Advisory Board to Help Pursue Vigorous Global Growth Strategy
Netherlands, Amsterdam, Holland. June 10, 2021
citizenM, the Dutch lifestyle and hotel company, today announced the appointment of Jaap Tonckens, former Group CFO of Unibail-Rrodamco-Westfield S.E. ("URW"), as an Advisor to the Board.
A seasoned global executive, Tonckens (born 1962, dual Dutch and US nationalities) has extensive experience in commercial real estate financial leadership, capital markets, transactions, financing and corporate finance. Tonckens worked at URW in Paris and the US for more than 11 years serving a number of roles including General Counsel, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Before that, he worked at Morgan Stanley & Co. in London and New York for over 14 years, with his final role there being Managing Director in Leverage Finance.
Klaas van Lookeren Campagne, CEO of citizenM, said: "Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we are continuing to enjoy remarkable success with the citizenM model and are still pursuing a strategy of vigorous growth across Europe, USA, and Asia. With his background and experience in real estate and finance, as well as his extensive network within these global communities, we know that Jaap will prove an enormous asset to our team as we pursue our ambitious growth and development plan for the company. With both Jaap Tonckens and Frits van Paaschen based in the US, our significant growth plan in this area is even further supported, and we are delighted to be able to receive their strategic advice and guidance. As a disruptive brand ourselves, we are excited to bring Jaap's innovative approach to strengthen our Board."
About citizenM
citizenM was launched in 2008 with a purpose - to disrupt the traditional, stale hotel industry. Rattan Chadha - the founder of the global fashion brand Mexx - was inspired by his employees to create a hotel for today's frequent travellers, giving them everything they need and nothing they don't. This means central locations in the world's most exciting cities, but at an affordable price. Not just a place to sleep, but somewhere to work, relax and play - just like home. Somewhere with superfast free Wi-Fi, tech that makes life easy, and world-class art that isn't ‘hotel art'. A room with an ultra-comfortable XL bed to crash in, and a powerful rain shower to wake-up in. Rattan Chadha called this ‘affordable luxury for the people'. The first citizenM opened at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport in 2008. In 2021, citizenM's portfolio has 21 hotels in 14 exciting cities: London, Glasgow, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Paris, Copenhagen, Zurich, Geneva, New York, Boston, Seattle, Washington DC, Taipei and Kuala Lumpur. citizenM intends to keep growing as a fully integrated owner-operator in selected gateway cities around the world. Its unique value proposition, delivering a high profitability per square foot, allows the brand to develop hotels on prime locations in cities with the highest barriers to entry. citizenM can acquire development sites and turnkey delivered hotels and is open to joint ventures on individual projects. citizenM considers new-build developments, office conversions, components of mixed-use schemes or conversions of existing hotels. The company will also selectively consider asset-light transactions.
About C.C. Sullivan
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