Hector Medina, Associate

Bio

Hector Medina is a Senior Director Manager at Ankura, based in Houston who specializes in hospitality and leisure related projects. With 18+ years of combined hospitality and real estate experience across the US, Latin America, and Caribbean, he brings significant advisory experience in the areas of hotel market and feasibility studies, hotel operation diagnostics, market and operations due diligence, as well as interim asset management. He has served numerous clients such as, government entities, multinational financial institutions, law firms, domestic and international developers, lodging operators, and private investors.

Prior to joining Ankura, he was a senior manager of new market development at Apple Leisure Group (acquired by Hyatt Hotels Corporation in 2021), North America’s largest vertically integrated, all-inclusive brand management company and tour operator provider, with a resort portfolio throughout Mexico, Central America, Caribbean, and Spain at the time. His previous role as a hospitality advisor, allowed him to be hired and join the resort development team, through which he supported the expansion of the resort portfolio into new destinations via data driven strategies that provided actionable recommendations from an investment and operation standpoint to the senior executive team.

Hector's corporate and professional career began at Alvarez & Marsal with the firm’s hospitality and leisure group, where he spent approximately 10 years and advised on hospitality and real estate matter. A selection of the more recent and notable professional achievements includes:

• Support the Ankura Real Estate Advisory (AREA) team by providing independent reviews of lodging focused appraisals for some of our major institutional clients.
• Supported Advent International’s Acquisition of Grupo Hotelero Londoño (GHL) Hotels, largest third-party hotel operator in the Andean Region and Central America. Advised on pre-acquisition & acquisition due diligence to drive growth and strengthen finances of GHL.
• Assisted Aimbridge Hospitality’s growth into Mexican lodging market, facilitating future expansion into Central & South America. Supported successful acquisition of Grupo Hotelero Prisma, hotel management platform comprised of 40+ mid-scale, branded hotels in 13 markets, despite industry uncertainty during the pandemic.
• Collaborated with PE firm to develop a forward-looking strategy to grow their investment a major all-inclusive resort company and travel wholesaler with at the time 30+ resort throughout Mexico and the Caribbean.
• Part of four-person team that assumed operational control of resort operation and devised / implemented wind-down plan supporting disposition and the successful coordination of the holding company’s bankruptcy filing in Mexico (Concurso Mercantil). As part of the process, identified synergies to aid Citi Bank with asset management and restructuring of $200M+, for an 800-acre master-planned resort in Baja California, Mexico, including a 155-room hotel, golf course, multi-phase second-home building operation.

Hector has authored articles on lodging market trends, all-inclusive segment, travel & tourism recovery, and has served as panel moderator and speaker at the Hospitality Law Conference, in addition to participating as a guest lecturer for the Conrad N. Hilton College’s undergraduate and graduate programs.