Cushman & Wakefield, the world’s largest privately-held commercial real estate services firm, today announces the appointment of Marina Smirnova as Partner and Head of its Hospitality & Tourism Department in Russia. She will be joined by Marina Meshcheryakova, Senior Consultant and Irina Akutova, Consultant.
The new Hospitality & Tourism Department will work alongside Richard Tibbott, Chairman of Advisory, who has an international reputation in development of Tourism and Leisure destinations. Additionally, the team will work closely on hotel and resort investment projects with Irina Ushakova, Partner in Cushman & Wakefield’s Capital Markets business.
Marina Smirnova MRICS has more than 20 years’ experience in Russia’s Hospitality sector and is well-known as a key expert in the Hotel and Tourism industry in Russia. Until recently she was Deputy CEO at JSC “Krasnaya Polyana” of the Sberbank Sochi Olympic development. Previously she worked for 4 years as Senior Vice President of Advisory and Valuation Services with Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.
Marina Meshcheryakova joins Cushman & Wakefield after 7 years in Ernst & Young’s Hotel team where she had a wide portfolio of work in the sector. Irina Akutova is a former colleague of Marina Smirnova at JSC “Krasnaya Polyana”, where she worked as a Financial Analyst. Prior to that, Irina worked at Sberbank Russia – the largest bank in Russia.
Sergey Riabokobylko, FRICS, Managing Partner, Cushman & Wakefield, Russia said: “We are delighted to welcome Marina and her new team to Cushman & Wakefield. Like Richard Tibbott, Marina Smirnova brings to our clients broad international expertise in large-scale hospitality and tourism investments. The appointment of our new Hospitality & Tourism team underscores our commitment to our clients to being their preferred advisor in this key real estate sector in Russia. Hospitality services provided by Cushman & Wakefield will be focused on large infrastructure projects as well as investment, development and valuation opportunities”.