Generation change at the SV Group: The CEO and the Managing Director of the Hotel division are to pass the baton this year

Patrick Camele has led the company with great success during his twelve years as CEO of the SV Group. In this time, he has driven the expansion of the concept and contract catering service and the Hotel division, and initiated the digital transformation and the development of flexible concepts. He guided the company carefully through the coronavirus pandemic and will hand over a healthy and strategically solid company to his successor Markus Binkert, currently CFO of Swiss International Air Lines, on 1 November 2024. There has also been a change at the top of the Hotel business division: Beat Kuhn, Managing Director of SV Hotel and the driving force behind the growing hotel portfolio, will hand over management to Marco Meier on 1 May 2024.

Dübendorf, 19 February, 2024
Vier Geschäftsmänner in zwei Reihen, Bürohintergrund
Wechsel in der Geschäftsleitung: Patrick Camele und Beat Kuhn übergeben im Verlauf des Jahres an ihre Nachfolger

Dübendorf, 19 February 2024 – Patrick Camele is stepping down from operational management of the SV Group at the end of October 2024 after 14 years – including the last 12 as CEO. In recent times, he led the company carefully through the coronavirus pandemic and secured the entrepreneurial future of the 110-year-old company.

He will be succeeded by Markus Binkert, who is currently CFO of Swiss International Air Lines, on 1 November 2024. ‘Markus Binkert is the perfect choice to take over management of the company considering his proven expertise in the areas of operations, sales, marketing, product development and finance. He also has a large network and is well established in management. The fact that Markus Binkert originally came from the hotel industry is a stroke of luck for us,’ says Jörg Zulauf, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the SV Group. ‘On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank Patrick Camele for his passionate, long-standing commitment to SV. As a member of the Board of Directors, his knowledge and experience will remain within the company.’
’I am very much looking forward to my new role at the SV Group and to further developing the company in close collaboration with the team and customers. As a former hotelier, hospitality is important to me and I have a great passion for creating positive customer experiences. That’s why I’m delighted to be returning to the catering and hotel industry,’ says Markus Binkert.
 

The ideal time to pass the baton

In 2023, the SV Group was able to close a financial year under ‘new normal’ market conditions for the first time after three years of the pandemic. ‘We have been providing restaurant services to our customers for over a hundred years, enabling them to make a name for themselves as employers. Our concepts and culinary range are impressive, and our staff restaurants and cafeterias are important meeting places for informal interactions. This aspect is becoming increasingly important,’ says Patrick Camele. ‘With the upcoming hotel openings of our own brand Stay KooooK in Geneva, Leipzig, Munich and Hamburg, as well as projects at other locations secured in Germany and Switzerland, we are also well on track with our growth strategy in the hotel sector,’ says Camele. ‘This is the right time for a generation change. I am delighted to be handing over management to Markus Binkert,’ he says.
 

Beat Kuhn hands over management of SV Hotel to Marco Meier with effect from 1 May 2024.

The SV Group’s Hotel division currently comprises 20 hotels, including properties under its own brand Stay KooooK and the Marriott brands Courtyard, Residence Inn, Renaissance and Moxy, and soon Hyatt Centric in Switzerland and Germany. Beat Kuhn, Managing Director of SV Hotel, has built up this portfolio over the last 20 years. ‘On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank Beat Kuhn for his many years of commitment. He has developed the Hotel business unit into a solid pillar of the SV Group,’ says Chairman of the Board of Directors Jörg Zulauf.

With Stay KooooK, SV has ambitious growth plans. ‘Other locations have been secured, and I am confident that I am handing over a solid foundation for expansion to my successor,’ says Beat Kuhn. His successor Marco Meier has held various positions at SV since 2011, most recently as Director Area Operations Franchise Hotels Switzerland. The qualified hotelier is approaching the task with respect: ‘I’ve got big shoes to fill and I’m delighted that Beat Kuhn will remain at SV until the end of 2024 so I can count on his expertise and experience.’ Jörg Zulauf, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the SV Group, says: ‘I am pleased that we can fill this position internally and benefit from Marco’s broad industry knowledge.’

Porträt eines lächelnden Geschäftsmannes mit Brille und Krawatte in einem Büro.

Markus Binkert

Markus Binkert, born in 1972, has many years of international management experience in the areas of product development, marketing, sales, pricing and revenue management, as well as in finance and strategy. After starting his career in F&B management positions in various hotel chains in Hong Kong, London and New York, he spent five years as a management consultant at Bain & Company in Zurich. His CV includes managing a project at Swiss International Air Lines and switching to SWISS in 2005 after its integration into the Lufthansa Group. Following positions in sales, product development and marketing, he was appointed Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) to the SWISS Executive Board in 2013. In 2016, he also assumed responsibility for pricing, revenue management and distribution for the Lufthansa Group. In early 2019, he joined the Lufthansa airline as CCO of the Munich hub. In this role, he was also responsible for marketing for the entire Lufthansa Group. At the outbreak of the pandemic, he returned to SWISS in 2020 where, as Chief Financial Officer, he took the lead in negotiating the bridging loan with the federal government, which was essential for the company’s survival. In this role, he is responsible not only for finance, but also for human resources, legal affairs, the freight division Swiss WorldCargo and information technology. Markus Binkert holds a hotel trade qualification from the Lausanne Hotel Management School and has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Illinois, USA.

Mann in einem Anzug und mit einer Uhr in einem Bürokorridor lächelnd.

Marco Meier

Marco Meier, born in 1982, has extensive experience in the hotel industry. He gained his first professional experience before he completed his apprenticeship as a hotelier at Gastrag, where he worked as a bartender and assistant restaurant and hotel manager. He joined SV Schweiz AG in 2011 as a Business Development Manager. He then moved to Group level and, from 2020, took on responsibility for the planning and construction of restaurants and hotels in the German-speaking region as Director of Design & Construction. During this time, he was involved in the development of the studio concept for Stay KooooK. He moved to SV Hotel at the end of 2022 where, as Director Area Operations Franchise Hotels Switzerland, he is responsible for the operational business of four hotels under the Marriott brands Renaissance, Courtyard and Moxy. Under his leadership, Switzerland’s first Residence Inn by Marriott will open in Geneva in early May. Marco Meier holds a hotel trade qualification from the Lucerne Hotel Management School and has an Executive MBA from the University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration in Zurich.  

Salome Ramseier
Head Corporate Communications & Public Affairs
SV Group

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