As part of its global expansion strategy, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group has chosen two new senior directors to lead its Europe, Middle East and Africa regional business development team. Mauro Vinci will join Carlson Rezidor as senior director of business development for Italy while Adela Cristea has been tapped as senior director and head of development for the UK and Ireland. They will report to Elie Younes, EVP and CDO of the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group EMEA.

Based in Milan, Vinci will lead Carlson Rezidor’s development and transaction activities in Italy. He started off his career in managerial roles at Accenture's financial and performance management department. After receiving his Master's degree in real estate from Italy's SDA Bocconi Milano, Vinci joined NH Hotel Group. Within six years, he climbed the ranks four times before assuming his role as development and asset director of NH Hotel's Italian unit. Over the last five years, Vinci led NH Hotel's expansion across the country with the addition of 10 new hotels to the company's inventory in Rome, Milan, Venice and Taormina.

Meanwhile, Adela Cristea, who will be based in London for her new role, was Hilton Hotels' director of development before joining Carlson Rezidor. She spearheaded the company's expasion throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Cristea held the managing consultant position at Humberts Leisure for six years before joining TRI Hospitality in London as a consultant. There, she was also a contributor for the hotel benchmarking database Hotstats. Cristea assisted in producing various UK hotel industry publications. Later, she received her MBA from Hult International Business School, London, after studying corporate finance at London Business School.

Carlson Rezidor employs more than 95,000 employees at its company with 1,440 hotels in 115 countries and territories.