Speakers

Almost 40 years ago, David started his ground-up career holding various positions for hospitality giants, Hilton and Marriott in his native U.K. before taking his first General Manager position in 2001 for Thistle Hotels. Three years later, David was recruited by then Ian Schrager Hotels as General Manager of St Martins Lane in London. Quickly thereafter in 2004, David was promoted to Regional Vice President for Europe overseeing both Sanderson and St Martins Lane where he successfully worked on repositioning Sanderson as a market leader. In just two years the hotel was voted “2006 hippest hotel in Europe” by TripAdvisor readers and travel experts, while Travel Weekly pronounced it one of the coolest brands in the UK.

David’s successful work in London led to his promotion to Senior Vice President of Operations at the corporate offices in New York. In this position, he oversaw the day-to-day operations for eleven Morgans Hotel Group properties comprised of over 3000 rooms. In 2009, David assumed the role of Managing Director at The Ian Schrager Company. Back working directly with Ian, David developed the operational structure for two new brand concepts and oversaw the sale and handover of the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York.

David then assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer for Andre Balazs Properties, a position he held from 2011-2014. Aside from directly supporting the company’s founder Andre Balazs, he oversaw the management of nine uniquely positioned hotels including the Standard brand and the iconic Mercer in New York, Chateau Marmont in Hollywood and David opened the highly acclaimed Firehouse in London.

In 2014 David launched Salt Hotels with his partner Kevin O’Shea and is currently The Chief Executive overseeing hotels located in Provincetown - Cape Cod, Nantucket, Miami Beach and Litchfield, Connecticut. Salt Hotels has a further 4 hotels under development opening in 2025 and 2026 including Minneapolis, MN. New Jersey and Florida. Salt’s properties have received worldwide critical acclaim from leading travel experts and publications including; Condé Nast Traveler’s Hot List, The World’s Greatest Hotels, Boston Magazine “Best of Boston” Travel and Leisure IT List, USA Today best new Hotel in America (The Asbury) in addition to many design awards. In 2020 Salt Hotels was awarded the Platinum award for attracting talent into the industry through its visionary educational program Salt School™ from industry organization HSMAI along with David being named Iconic Hotelier of the year by the Boutique Lifestyle Leaders Association (BLLA).

David is an active fighter for equality sitting on the board of Garden State Equality in New Jersey along with joining the Boutique Lifestyle Leaders Association Board in 2024. An avid supporter of the arts David has sat on the Film Festival boards in both Provincetown and New Jersey.

Originally from the English village of Salt, which partly inspired the brand’s name, David and Kevin split their time between New York City and Provincetown.