Accor has appointed Enrica Tomei as Senior P&C Operations Business Partner Mediterranean, with the role based in Madrid. The move marks a new regional chapter for Tomei within the hospitality group and reinforces Accor’s focus on internal mobility, leadership development and people operations across its Mediterranean business.
Tomei announced the move in a LinkedIn post, describing the appointment as a continuation of her journey within Accor through internal and international mobility. She said the experiences had allowed her to grow professionally and personally across different cultures and environments, while thanking the leaders and colleagues who had supported her career progression within the group.
In her new role, Tomei is expected to support Accor’s talents and Heartists across the Mediterranean region, a remit that places her within one of the group’s important operating geographies. The Mediterranean region brings together a complex mix of established hotel markets, destination-led leisure demand, seasonal workforce requirements and multilingual teams, making people and culture operations a central part of hotel performance.
The appointment is notable because it reflects the kind of internal career progression large hospitality groups increasingly need to prioritise. As hotel companies continue to expand across brands, operating models and markets, regional people leaders are being asked to do more than manage HR processes. They are expected to support leadership capability, strengthen employee experience, enable mobility, guide performance culture and help hotels respond to workforce pressures that vary sharply by country and segment.
For Accor, that agenda sits within a broader people strategy built around the Heartist identity and the group’s emphasis on career development. The company has positioned internal mobility as a core part of its employee value proposition, noting that team members can move between jobs, brands and countries across its global network. Tomei’s move from within Accor into a broader Mediterranean role fits directly into that narrative.
Accor’s scale adds weight to the appointment. The group operates more than 5,800 hotels across over 110 countries and has a portfolio of more than 45 brands spanning luxury, premium, midscale, economy and lifestyle hospitality. This creates significant career pathways, but also demands strong regional people operations capable of translating group-level culture into local market realities.
The Mediterranean region is especially demanding from a people and culture perspective. Hotels across Southern Europe and neighbouring markets often operate in environments shaped by strong seasonality, high guest expectations, labour shortages, local employment frameworks and intense competition for hospitality talent. In that context, the role of a Senior P&C Operations Business Partner is not limited to supporting policy execution. It involves helping business leaders build resilient teams, improve retention, support operational consistency and align local hotel realities with wider organisational priorities.
Tomei’s appointment also highlights the continued evolution of hospitality HR into a more strategic function. The language of people and culture has become more common across the sector, but the operational challenge remains practical: attracting talent, developing managers, retaining high performers, supporting employee wellbeing and ensuring teams are prepared to deliver consistent service standards across diverse properties.
Her public announcement also underlined the importance of cross-cultural experience in hospitality leadership. Tomei referenced her growth across different cultures and environments, a point that is particularly relevant for a regional Mediterranean position based in Madrid. Hospitality people leaders working across borders must navigate different labour markets, leadership styles and employee expectations while maintaining a coherent culture across the organisation.
The move comes at a time when international hotel groups are placing increasing emphasis on internal mobility as both a retention tool and a leadership development mechanism. In a tight labour market, the ability to show employees a credible career path within the organisation is no longer a soft benefit. It is part of workforce strategy. For large groups such as Accor, mobility across brands, countries and functions can help preserve institutional knowledge while giving high-potential talent broader exposure.
Accor’s own career development framework stresses clear pathways, learning, mentoring and social mobility. The group says its approach is designed to support employees from recruitment and onboarding through career progression and performance evaluation. It also highlights the role of Accor Academy, leadership programmes and internal networks in building long-term careers within the business.
For Tomei, the Madrid-based role represents both an international move and an expanded regional mandate. It places her at the intersection of hotel operations, talent development and culture delivery across a Mediterranean footprint where workforce capability is closely linked to service performance.
The appointment is therefore more than an individual career milestone. It is also a reflection of how hospitality groups are using internal mobility to strengthen regional leadership benches, deepen cultural consistency and retain people who already understand the organisation from within.
As Accor continues to develop its talent platform and reinforce its Heartist culture, Tomei’s progression into the Senior P&C Operations Business Partner Mediterranean role signals the continued importance of experienced people leaders who can connect corporate ambition with the realities of hotel teams on the ground.
