THE FINANCE CHIEF INTERVIEW

COULD A LUXURY HOSPITALITY BRAND KNOW ABOUT AI? Evolving with the business means adapting to new, sometimes fascinating, technology. Seamlessly combining a career from working in auditing and corporate finance at some of the big four consulting firms – mainly at Arthur Andersen and Deloitte – to working in major hospitality companies in telecom and hospitality, Rafael Sueiro has built the perfect resume for his current role as Group CFO at the Radisson Hotel Group. A notable achievement, underpinned by 25 years of understanding back-office, investments and accounting. The rule of three simply does not do him justice, as Rafael’ s years of knowledge condense into all the major financial operations: planning and controlling, mergers and acquisitions, risk management and, of course, business intelligence( BI). A key rung in his ladder was the three years he spent at CWT, now owned by American Express Global Business Travel, as Global CFO of CWT Meetings & Events. His move to the Radisson in 2021 as SVP of Financial Planning and Business Intelligence allowed him to view realtime business information from the chain that operates in over 100 countries.

Understanding finance informs his mantra: to“ help colleagues in the company make faster and better decisions,” which he says has guided his career. The culmination of that knowledge results in having the truly expert insight to spot what’ s a trend and what’ s here to stay; in this case, he explains that“ finance has been transforming, and I think we have just started. It’ s a duality, because many companies have been doing many things in recent years, but what’ s coming right now is a game-changer. It is going to reshape and completely change what we have been doing in the past.” Radisson Hotels are absolutely the pinnacle of luxury. A multinational hotel chain with 1,640 hotels, it operates as one of the two largest hotel groups in the world, after the finalised acquisition by Jin Jiang International in 2018.

The fourth element Finance is adapting at a rapid pace. Previously, workflows were simple, almost meditative, repetitive tasks. Why spend valuable human time on that when a machine could do it for you? And thus automation was introduced. Rafael acknowledges this with the caveat that AI will change things.

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