About

Violeta Longino is vice president, deputy general counsel and regional compliance officer for North America and Central America at French multinational group AccorHotels, the world’s leading hotel operator with a market capitalisation of €11bn ($12.2bn). As a dual citizen (US and Mexico) and dual-qualified lawyer (Florida and Mexico), Longino is well placed to advise AccorHotels in connection with its operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. She advises on a wide range of matters, from negotiating management and franchise agreements across the region to advising senior management of each hotel on sales, marketing, e-commerce, procurement, IT and human resources strategies. She also acts as the group’s regional risk correspondent, identifying, quantifying and mitigating legal risk in the region. In 2016 Longino was closely involved in Accor’s $2.9bn acquisition of FRHI Holdings, a deal which added luxury properties such as Raffles Singapore, The Savoy in London, Shanghai’s Fairmont Peace Hotel and The Plaza Hotel in New York to Accor’s portfolio while giving co-investors Qatar Investment Authority and Kingdom Holding Company respective stakes of 10.4% and 5.8% in the French company’s share capital. Following her active role in the deal, Longino is now working on the post-closing integration phase by overseeing the addition of 42 hotels to Accor’s North American portfolio. Longino has 20 years of experience advising businesses in the US and Central America and has worked on transactions in the US, Central and Latin America and Europe. Her learning has come from her time in private practice – at Holland & Knight and Greenberg Traurig – and as GC at a number of multinational public and private companies across the US and Latin America. She has been with AccorHotels since October 2014 and was previously Miami-based regional general counsel for Desca – Grupo Amper, a Spanish multinational public company with operations in the US, Samoa, and across a number of Latin American countries. Prior to this she was general counsel at multinational privately-owned company Phoenix Packaging Group, where she oversaw a legal team covering the US, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela. Longino has been widely recognised as one of the leading corporate counsel working in the US and has received or been shortlisted for a number of awards, including the Latin American Corporate Counsel Association’s social responsibility award 2016, its litigation management award 2014, and its top in-house women award 2015. She is a mentor on the International Graduate Program at the University of Miami School of Law where she frequently lectures on international topics and serves on various professional committees. Her current engagements include: Chair of the In-House Committee of The Florida Bar International Law Section; regional leader (North & Central America and the Caribbean) of women at AccorHotels Generation; and member of the advisory committee of the International In-House Counsel Group (formerly known as South Florida Group of Regional Counsel).