Gilda Perez-Alvarado ’02 grew up in Costa Rica “with hotels in [her] blood”—her grandmother owned and operated one hotel; her mother managed another. Although she enrolled at Cornell intent on becoming a biochemist, she was immediately drawn to the Nolan Hotel School. There, she sought “the most numbers-oriented career I could have within the hotel industry, and that was the area of real estate finance,” she told Leaders magazine in 2020. “You could say my career path found me, or I found it by accident, but it wasn’t the plan.”

Whether by plan or by providence, Perez-Alvarado is today the most senior woman worldwide in hospitality commercial real estate brokerage. As global CEO of hotels and hospitality for JLL, a real estate investment advisory firm, she oversees investment sales, debt and equity placement, strategic advisory, and asset management across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Her career, she said, has been “a very organic, highly curated journey,” one she approaches as an adventure. “When I started, no one said, ‘This is the path.’ I always said yes, and then I asked, ‘What did I just commit to?’ I’m a glass-half-full kind of gal.”

That attitude has taken her to the apex of her field. In 2016 and 2021, she was named the Jack A. Shaffer Financial Advisor of the Year—one of the industry’s most prestigious recognitions. To date, she is the only woman to be so honored. In 2021, she won the second annual Castell Award, which recognizes female leaders in hospitality investment.

She has coordinated the sale of such high-profile assets as the St. Regis New York; Montage Beverly Hills; Mandarin Oriental in Washington, D.C.; the Plaza in New York City; Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston; the St. Regis San Francisco; and Essex House in New York City, among others.

Having lived in London and Madrid and traveled worldwide, Perez-Alvarado considers herself a global citizen. Her first calling, she said, is real estate; her second is international relations. “If I wasn’t doing what I’m doing now, I would love to have worked in diplomacy or in a global government capacity.”

The Path that Found Her

A month before graduating—with honors and as the degree marshal for her Hotelie class—Perez-Alvarado received an offer from the hospitality and leisure advisory practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Miami. “In the aftermath of 9/11, it was a fairly difficult job market,” she recalled. For the next two years, she consulted on development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, developing an expertise in valuations and in market and feasibility studies.

In 2004, seeking a pivot to the transactional side of the business, she reached out to Daniel Quan, the Robert C. Baker Professor in Real Estate, “one of the biggest influencers in showing me the world of real estate,” who connected her with JLL. She joined the company shortly after as an analyst in its Miami office, where she “got a taste” of hotel asset management. A year later, she moved to JLL’s New York office and began working with international investors—particularly Middle Eastern investors who were buying hotel real estate in the United States. From 2005 to 2007, she worked “extremely hard. The market was just so active,” she said. “It was trial by fire, but it was an amazing experience.”

In 2007, Perez-Alvarado transferred to JLL’s London office and began to work on luxury hotel transactions throughout Europe. “I learned new markets, new ways of doing business, a much greater appreciation for cultural nuance,” she said. Her primary project was the sale of the world-famous Turnberry Resort in Scotland on behalf of Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

A year later, she moved to Madrid to open JLL’s debt desk. But on the day she arrived, Lehman Brothers crashed. “So instead, we came up with the idea of providing advisory services for banks that were literally getting back the keys to hotels. We said, ‘We can help you with asset management and operations management until the market comes back and you can sell the property.’ That first year, I did 54 proposals, and we got hired for two.” While in Madrid, she earned an executive MBA at the Instituto de Empresa (IE Business School) to become more of a generalist and enhance her competitiveness.

Upon returning to JLL’s New York office in 2010, she began to specialize further in cross-border investments. In 2013, JLL created its global hotels desk, a group specializing in cross-border investments that she now heads. “The firm saw that I had a keen interest in our business and was connected globally—I had a great relationship with my colleagues in Asia and Europe and the Americas—so they started me on a leadership track and invested in me,” she said. In addition to availing herself of in-house opportunities, she attended executive education courses at the European business school INSEAD and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 2018, JLL named her CEO for the Americas. In 2021, in the midst of the pandemic (and becoming a first-time mom), she was named global CEO, leading some 360 team members in over 20 countries.

At JLL, Perez-Alvarado is involved in committees focused on finance, sustainability, education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. She is equally engaged in the industry, serving on the boards of directors of Sonder, the Industry Real Estate Financing Advisory Council, and the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Excited for the Future

Perez-Alvarado foresees more opportunities for “stellar careers” in hotels and hospitality. She advises those interested in the field to “pay close attention to technology because that’s the accelerator of change that is having massive implications across all industries and segments, but particularly ours.”

In her work as an advisor, she expects technology and the connectivity it allows to result in fewer but more meaningful client trips. “And with hybrid work arrangements, we’ll be able to attract all sorts of talents,” she said. “If I’m looking to build a team of the very best minds, the world is my oyster.”

Among other opportunities, she points to those presented by emerging forms of hospitality such as co-living spaces, experiential retail, and highly amenitized buildings “that act like hotels.” She also is intrigued by the industry’s discovery of its local markets and the importance of catering to the local community as well as travelers from other cities and countries. “I’m very excited about what’s to come,” she said. “I’m excited to see innovations in the sector.”

She is equally enthusiastic when contemplating the future of the Nolan Hotel School.

She has strong ties to the school, serving on the Dean’s Advisory Board, speaking in the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series, contributing to case studies, and guest-lecturing in Quan’s Principles of Hospitality Real Estate class. In July, she joined the Cornell University Board of Trustees.

“When I did the DDLS, I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience,” she said. “I was sitting onstage and looking at the students, and I could see myself reflected in them. They had that twinkle in their eye. They knew they were ready to meet the world and continue to grow this amazing industry.”

She applauds the Nolan Hotel School for maintaining its focus and not trying to be “everything to everybody. As long as we absolutely own hotels and hospitality and are the best at it, we can partner with others who are best-in-class at technology, innovation, engineering, whatever else is needed,” she said.

“I am forever grateful to have been a part of the Hotelie community. I think the school’s next 100 years will be brilliant.”