Hyatt has appointed Amar Lalvani as its first Chief Creative Officer, expanding his influence from the company’s Lifestyle Group to its entire global portfolio as Hyatt looks to make its brands more distinctive through design, experience and culture.
Hyatt is putting creative leadership at the enterprise level for the first time, appointing hospitality veteran Amar Lalvani as its inaugural Chief Creative Officer.
The newly created position expands Lalvani’s responsibilities beyond Hyatt’s Lifestyle Group and gives him a creative mandate spanning the company’s wider global brand portfolio.
He will retain his existing position as President & Creative Director of Hyatt’s Lifestyle Group, continue serving on the senior leadership team and report to Chairman, President and CEO Mark Hoplamazian. The appointment is effective immediately.
The significance of the appointment lies not simply in adding another executive title, but in what Hyatt wants the role to accomplish.
Making Brands More Distinctive
In his expanded position, Lalvani will work across Hyatt’s portfolio to sharpen what individual brands stand for and how those identities translate into design, guest experience and culture.
He will work with company leaders, developers, creative teams and hotel owners to connect brand strategy more closely with what guests actually experience at Hyatt properties.
For Hoplamazian, the objective is greater clarity.
He said Lalvani has an ability to identify what makes brands distinctive and turn those insights into experiences that resonate with customers. As Hyatt becomes more brand-focused, the company sees that capability as relevant well beyond its lifestyle hotels.
It is an increasingly important leadership challenge in hospitality.
Large hotel groups operate portfolios spanning numerous price points, audiences and travel occasions. Growth creates scale, but it also raises the risk that individual brands become difficult for guests to distinguish from one another.
Hyatt’s creation of a company-wide creative role suggests it wants to address that challenge at senior leadership level.
From The Standard to Hyatt
Lalvani brings more than 25 years of hospitality experience to the expanded position.
Earlier in his career, he led global development for W Hotels before becoming closely involved with The Standard. He formed Standard International in 2013 and helped develop The Standard from a small hotel collection into a global brand, while also expanding through Bunkhouse Hotels and developing concepts including The StandardX and The Manner.
He joined Hyatt following its 2024 acquisition of Standard International and became President & Creative Director of the newly established Lifestyle Group. The team behind The Standard and Bunkhouse Hotels subsequently became the foundation of that division.
Now, the creative approach he brought to Hyatt through those lifestyle brands is being given a much wider remit.
Creativity Moves Into the C-Suite
Hyatt had more than 1,500 hotels and all-inclusive properties across 83 countries as of June 30, 2026, spanning luxury, lifestyle, inclusive, classics and essentials portfolios.
Lalvani will therefore be working across a significantly broader range of brands and customer segments than those traditionally associated with lifestyle hospitality.
His appointment also signals something wider about leadership in hospitality: creativity is increasingly being treated as a strategic business function rather than solely a design responsibility.
For Hyatt, distinctive brands can influence guest choice, owner investment and ultimately growth. Lalvani’s task is to ensure that distinction survives as the company expands.
After building brands from the ground up and then leading Hyatt’s Lifestyle Group, he now gets a considerably bigger canvas: Hyatt itself.
Sources: Hyatt Hotels Corporation; Hyatt Newsroom; Standard International
