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Founder of Luxury Branding
Piers Schmidt is a renowned luxury brand consultant and hospitality expert whom Management Today has described as “one of the consultancy world´s thinkers”.
A graduate of Cambridge University, Piers began his career with Interbrand, the world’s leading branding firm, where he led the rebranding of British Airways.
In 1998, Piers co-founded a strategic marketing boutique he and his partners sold to NASDAQ-quoted US Interactive four years later.
In 2002, Piers founded Luxury Branding, the highly regarded luxury consultancy that developed the Kerzner International corporate brand and masterminded the conceptualisation and $16m roll-out of One&Only Resorts. Soon after, Giorgio Armani tasked Piers with translating his eponymous brand into hospitality. Next, the Brunei Investment agency engaged Piers to create a soft brand for its growing portfolio of trophy hotel assets presented under the Dorchester Collection.
Since then, Piers has led concept and brand creation and development programmes for Annassurra, Belmond, C Resorts (Constance Hotels & Resorts), Celebrity Cruises, Cottonmill, Dorchester Collection, Globacom, Lionstone Development, LUX* Resorts & Hotels, Paramount Hotels & Resorts and Taj.
December 2022 saw the launch of a brand-led transformation of Sun Resorts (Mauritius), which Piers masterminded. He is currently directing a similar long-term change programme for Villa Hotels & Resorts (Maldives).
Piers is a regular commentator in the media and has appeared as a speaker and panellist on platforms in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the US. He is also an adjunct professor (MBA) at Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), the prestigious Swiss hospitality management school.
In 2021, Piers Schmidt joined the Advisory Board of Red Sea Global (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), the visionary developer setting new standards in regenerative development and pioneering a new relationship between luxury tourism and the natural environment.
At the Longevity Med Summit 2025, Piers will introduce his lecture “The Emperor’s New Wellness: Unmasking theLongevity Gold Rush”
In this provocative session, luxury hospitality expert Piers Schmidt cuts through the hype of the wellness-longevity industry, bringing a critical outsider's perspective with a dose of humour. Drawing from extensive experience at the intersection of hospitality and next-generation health concepts, Piers unpacks how wellness has evolved from accessible practices into a multi-billion-dollar industry, spanning from basic health routines to ultra-exclusive longevity programmes. With sharp industry insights and incisive analysis, he reveals how this evolution has created a “Wellness Fog”—a dense haze where marketing speak often overshadows science, leaving consumers struggling to navigate between genuine benefits and high-priced theatrics. Examining players from genuine innovators to opportunists, Piers poses challenging questions about the industry’s drift toward increasing complexity and exclusivity. This thought-provoking session concludes with a call to action for greater clarity, accountability, and accessibility, ultimately asking: Is the key to longevity simpler than this, and who, ultimately, is it for?
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