The city made easy

Graduate of HEC Paris and of INSEAD, Xavier Desaulles began his career at the Rémy Cointreau Group, where for 14 years he held the positions of Remy Martin and Louis XIII Marketing Director, Sales director for Remy Cointreau USA, and finally Director General for South-East Asia, India and the Middle East.

As a real expert in the hotel and tourism sector, Xavier has continued to develop in this area over the past six years, as CEO for Club Med in Asia-Pacific (excluding China), based in Singapore, then CEO for the China and Asia-Pacific markets based in Shanghai.

In 2022, Xavier Desaulles took over management of Adagio, in order to speed up the expansion of the network, and modernise the brands, while addressing Adagio’s CSR challenges RSE.

Stéphane is a graduate of the Ecole Centrale de Lyon and holds an MBA from the Institut d’Administration des Entreprises Paris 1, Panthéon Sorbonne. He has extensive experience in the air travel sector. He worked for the Air France-KLM Group for 25 years, where he held more than a dozen positions. He initially held various positions in Revenue Management and Pricing before becoming Deputy Director of the department for the Air France Group. He was also in charge of the Digital and E-Commerce department when the Group launched this new acquisition and distribution channel. He was Managing Director of Air France-KLM in the United States for five years before becoming Vice President Distribution in charge of Indirect channels.
Stéphane joined Adagio in September 2023 as Sales and Revenue Director. As a member of the Executive Committee, his role will be to support the NEXT ADAGIO acceleration plan.

Graduating with an Executive MBA HEC and Master’s in International Business from London Metropolitan University, Denis Mancheron was previously CFO and member of the Board of management for Hertz France SAS. He supported the expansion of the car rental branches network in a transformative context, and more recently through its restructuring during the Covid pandemic period. Denis also filled various positions throughout his career with Hertz: Director for Management control, Logistics Director, Investment planning Director, Pricing Management and Revenue Management.

In 2021, he joined the Accor group as DAF Europe before coming to Adagio in 2023.

Jean-Marc Schnell began his hotel career as director of independent hotels in Alsace and the Calvados region. In 2000, he was appointed director of Sofitel Montpellier (now Pullman), under franchise.

Jean-Marc Schnell then joined the Accor group in 2003. From 2008, he developed operations in Africa, with a network of 40 hotels (2 to 5*) in 15 countries.

In 2016, he joined the Accor Centre Europe team, based in Munich, as VP Operations, Economic and Midscale segments, for Germany and Austria (205 hotels). In 2019, the group promoted him to Senior Vice President Franchise Centre Europe. Most notably, he ensured relationships with owners during the Covid crisis. He joined Adagio in 2022 to support the Next Adagio growth plan, in the operational and development areas.

Virginie Barboux began her career in distribution at Auchan and Castorama then in industry, with Renault and Siemens, contributing in particular to the launch of the Skandia life insurance platform in France.
Virginie then acted as Marketing and Communication Director, and then Animation and Partner Relations Director for the long-term savings subsidiary Suravenir, in the Crédit Mutuel Arkéa group.
From 2016, she filled the role of Deputy Director General at Best Western Hotels & Resorts, responsible for Communications, Digital, Customer Experience and CSR, and in this position was a member of the Executive Committee for France and the Maghreb and member of the international Marketing Functional Team.

Virginie joined Adagio in 2023 to support the brand's growth plan, with particular focus on brand & communication, customer experience, design and CSR.

A civil engineer with a Master’s degree in Business Administration, Arthur is joining Cycas Hospitality, a Dutch hotel operating company with a portfolio of some fifty hotels ranging from three to five stars, some of which also operate in the extended stay segment.
For five years, he was Director of Development and Construction. Notably, Arthur contributed to the creation of the group’s French subsidiary and to Cycas’ growth in Southern Europe. He acquired in-depth knowledge of the European property market, the different types of contract (lease, management, and franchise), and the operating methods of international brands, particularly American brands, in the extended stay segment. He also played a key role in the construction and renovation of the network, enabling Cycas to upgrade its offering in this region.
Previously, Arthur was the Director of Development for VINCI Immobilier’s hotel division, during which time he was involved in the signing of a number of hotels in France. He’s also held the position of Program Manager, capitalising on his knowledge of hotel construction he’d previously acquired at Bouygues Construction.

He joins Adagio in 2024 with the ambition of supporting the Next ADAGIO growth plan, focussing, in particular, on network development and renovation projects, all while actively contributing to the company’s CSR ambitions.

As a qualified accountant and holder of a Master’s in Company Law, Géraldine began her career at a number of recruitment agencies, then filled the position of Human Resources Director at, among others, Primavista, where she reorganised the business by incorporating 13 buyout companies and merging all their HR tools, and at Kookaï where she reorganised all their divisions, and negotiated a Job Saving Plan, while also supporting the teams’ change management process following the brand repositioning.

Geraldine joined Adagio in 2023, to initiate Human Resources operations to enable the success of the bold NEXT ADAGIO transformation plan.