Darren is a graduate in hotel, catering & institutional management from Brighton University and a certificate in real estate, development & hotel investment from Cornell University School of Hotel Administration in Ithaca, New York. As a lifelong hotelier with over 35 years of experience, Darren was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality (FIH) in 2014. Darren moved to East Europe in 1992. Since then, he has been engaged in international branded and independent hotel operations, set up and managed hotel consulting businesses and was actively involved in several new hospitality project developments.

He joined PKF hotelexperts in 2019 and is now based in Istanbul. As head of the offices in Istanbul and Moscow, his activities include strategic advice, project evaluation, operator search, valuation, and general advisory assignments throughout eastern Europe, focusing on Turkey, Russia, and Central Asia.

Before PKF hotelexperts, Darren worked for the Radisson Hotel Group for 12 years as senior director of business development for Russia & the CIS, the Baltics and the Balkans. Darren’s scope at RHG was to source, negotiate, engage and support the development of hotel properties and projects under branded management, franchise and lease agreements. During his tenure, RHG hotel guestrooms under operation in his region increased from 2,500 to 15,700.