He spends his summers as an avid yachtsman in Brittany. But for the rest of the year Joël Guiraud's hand is firmly on the tiller of the group's hotels in France, overseeing their financial results and ensuring that the image of the three brands is maintained by the agents and franchise holders. His background is solidly service sector-mainly fast food and hotels-he advanced with Flunch, Accor and Ascott, and also developed a chain of fast food restaurants as well as newspapers in hospitality establishments for Générale de Santé. Upon joining Louvre Hotels in 2001, Joël Guiraud assumed the duties of director of operations for the western region and director of franchise operations before being appointed to his present position, Vice-President of Operations, France, in 2008.
His mission has been to revive and revitalise the hotel chain, and to this end he works closely with the department responsible for its development.
Today, Joël Guiraud is one of the longest-serving members of the Executive Committee, and serves as a kind of advisor, because he possesses the necessary background and references. "I am very focused on the network. My vision of operations does not extend much further than the next week or month, whereas marketing is looking at the next one to two years. We complement each other exceedingly well", says the man who is constantly monitoring effects of decisions taken by the Executive Committee on the network and local teams. In this crucial partnership relationship with the hoteliers in France, Joël Guiraud's final task is to cultivate favoured links with the Louvre Hotels association of economy franchise investors (AIFE). A mission that allows him to deploy his very individual style of diplomacy.