Hospitality consultancy PKF hotelexperts opens US headquarters

Vienna, Austria-based hospitality consultancy PKF hotelexperts group has announced the establishment of a US headquarters in New York. Baron Ah Moo and Channing Henry will serve as the office’s managing directors.

PKF is the first global advisory firm to fully focus on the hospitality, tourism and leisure, and the serviced living sectors. The group currently operates out of 100 offices worldwide and employs more than 100 consultants. It offers advisory services including feasibility studies, valuations and appraisals, asset management, financing and investment, and strategic advice. Tourism experts within the group also work with clients to create strategies focused on tourism infrastructure, while living experts focus on serviced living concepts such as membership clubs and service residences.

"We are eager to re-engage the market with an office in New York, fortified with exceptional new US leadership working in collaboration with our extraordinary talent around the world," Michael Widmann, PKF global CEO, said. "Baron Ah Moo and Channing Henry are a seasoned and dynamic leadership team with profound experience in hotel development, investment, and consulting. They bring intense creativity to their work, challenging status quo advice with innovative ideas and practical solutions."

Ah Moo is the former CEO of Indochina Hotels and Resorts, and former COO of Lewis Fund Holdings’s hotel division. Most recently, he served as managing director of leisure real estate advisory and consulting firm BLI Capital Group – which he also founded.  He earned his bachelor’s degree in international management from the University of San Francisco, and a master’s degree from Cornell University. 

"Our growing team will carry on the traditions of PKF's advisory and deep-rooted market research with further insights for our clients into the development and investment process as a whole," Ah Moo said.

Henry is a Fulbright Scholar who holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and an MBA from Yale. Before joining PKF, she partnered with the Kor Group to codevelop the Downtown LA Proper Hotel, as well as worked in a partnership with BV Resorts to create a master plan for a 1,500-acre resort in Baja California, Mexico.

"PKF created the standard for benchmarking, accounting, and consulting in the hospitality realm,” Henry said. “Today, we carry our tradition forward, and with headquarters in New York and longtime presence of our team members in Southern California and Florida, the new PKF US operations re-enters the North American market with a meaningful ramp-up strategy and an inventive approach."