After studying hotel management at César Ritz Colleges Switzerland and obtaining a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Reims Management School, Duncan O’Rourke held several executive positions within hospitality in Europe, the US and the Middle East. From 2004, he served as General Manager at the Kempinski Hotel Thessaloniki Nikopolis, before taking charge of the pre-opening of two hotels in London. O’Rourke was then promoted to the position of Regional Director & General Manager of the Kempinski Ishtar Dead Sea in Jordan. In this position, he was responsible for ten pre-openings of Kempinski properties in the region. In 2008, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Kempinski Hotels and joined the Management Board at the same time.

Duncan O’Rourke joined Accor at the end of 2016, and as the COO Europe for the luxury segment, he has been responsible for the operational management of all of the 140 luxury hotels in the Europe region until end of 2019. Since September 2018, he additionally took over the position of COO Central Europe. In his capacity, he has been leading the teams in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Duncan O’Rourke was involved in the transformation process of the newly created Region Europe and led the integration of Switzerland in the already existing hub structure, previously consisting of Germany and Austria. Under his leadership, Accor also announced in September 2018 that an agreement has been reached to acquire Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts.

Duncan became a member of the Group’s Executive Committee upon his appointment to CEO Northern Europe in October 2020. In his capacity, he oversees the business for Accor in more than 30 countries from Dublin to Vladivostok.