“In Real Estate know how is important, but know who is what really makes it happen”
We are a hospitality, real estate advisory and development company
that works for:
- private equity funds
- real estate owners
- investors
- resort developers
- lenders
- hotel brands
- and other stakeholders who count on us to deliver independent and objective, high-quality services in order to help them achieve their business goals.
We provide comprehensive advisory and promotion services specialized in the hospitality sector being one of the most experienced boutique tourism-oriented firms, participating in multiple projects of all sizes throughout Mexico and Latin America.
The Company has almost 10 years since its foundation, but through its founding partners, it has more than 60 years of accumulated experience with successful results in the hospitality/real estate, tourism and other industries, both in the private and public sectors.
Leisure Founding Partners
Leisure Partners brings together a team of professionals to help reach the maximum value of each project.
Each team member brings new things to the table, with a different and creative perspective, contributing with unique capabilities to enrich and enhance each project to its full potential.
Leisure Partners brings together a team of professionals to help reach the maximum value of each project.
Each team member brings new things to the table, with a different and creative perspective, contributing with unique capabilities to enrich and enhance each project to its full potential.
John McCarthy
Founding partner & principal at Leisure Partners
John was head of FONATUR (National Trust Fund for Tourism Development and Promotion) from 2000 to 2006, and member of the Extended Cabinet during the presidency of Vicente Fox throughout his administration. Before holding the position at FONATUR, John was President Officer of Raintree Resorts International / Club Regina, and prior to this he was CEO of the Tourism Division at Bancomer (Mexico’s largest bank), including management of the Westin Regina Resorts in Mexico. John has also chaired multiple trade associations, including Mexico’s CNET (Consejo Nacional Empresarial Turístico), among others.
John has a Business Administration degree from Universidad La Salle in Mexico City and more than 30 years of experience in the Mexican tourism and real estate development industries.
Gustavo Ripol
Founding partner & principal at Leisure Partners.
Gustavo has participated in companies and projects like Pacífica Ixtapa, in the Tourism Division of Bancomer as Planning Director, at RCI as Director of Marketing and Communications for Latin America, at Raintree Resorts International/ Club Regina as Chief Operating Officer, as Chief Executive Officer of Grupo Quinta Real and Club Quinta Real.
Gustavo has an Industrial Engineering degree from the Universidad Anáhuac del Sur, with postgraduate studies in Finance from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), and has more than 30 years of experience in the tourism industry.
Asociado Estratégico
GERARDO CORONA
Proyectos Internacionales y Estructuración Financiera
He has a 26-year career as an official within the Government Development Bank of Mexico, where he worked in strategic business units, financial products, imports of capital goods, risk analysis and portfolio recovery and participated in the structuring of financing for productive foreign trade projects. He has a degree in International Relations from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
As Director of Financing for the Tourism Sector at the National Bank for Foreign Trade (Bancomext), he developed and launched a strategy to coordinate financial support to the tourism sector, positioning Bancomext as the main financial entity to develop the construction and modernization of infrastructure of hotel and tourism projects in the country.
In 2016 he was appointed Undersecretary of Tourism Innovation and Development in the Tourism Secretariat, where he contributed to the structuring of projects for the resources assigned to the sector, leading a reengineering of the Secretariat’s operating rules. He also implemented financial products to enhance financing for the sector’s value chain, under the strategy “Connect to Tourism”; and in alliance with VISA, he developed actions in order to promote the banking and formality of MSME’s in the Magical Towns.
As Deputy General Director of International and Institutional Relations at Bancomext, he articulated the Institution’s positioning within the national and international financial system, established relationships with different government agencies and public and private organizations, and coordinated the preparation of studies and reports for institutional strategy.
During the last three years, he has dedicated himself to the expansion of his firm, GC Intelligi, specialized in the integration of services for the main hotel, travel and tourism groups in the country such as Xcaret, Palace, Lomas Travel (Hotels Dorado and Nickelodeon in the Riviera Maya) and Le Blanc, among others, where he has designed solutions to promote their projects and their sustainable development, as well as provided support and advice to obtain financing from the National Development Bank, SOFOMES (non-bank lending and finance institutions) and the Multilateral International Development Bank (IFC).
Collaborates with Leisure Partners in international projects and complex financial structurings.
He is associated with Asesores de Consejo y Alta Dirección S.C. (ACAD) to provide advice on corporate governance and family businesses, and is part of the Board of Directors and Administration of various leading hotel groups in the sector, as well as various banking and non-banking financial entities, with which he has managed to cover the entire value chain in obtaining financing.
He has participated in various forums and conferences of the financial and tourism sector as a panelist and guest attendee, among which the following stand out: International Hotel and Investment Forum, ITB Convention, FITUR, The Americas Lodging Investment Summit, World Economic Forum, Hotel Opportunities Latin America, National Forum of Tourism and the Mexico Business Summit.
