Moda Living has hired Richard Smith as managing director of Moda Life Management, the operational arm of its £2.5 bn portfolio supported by funder Apache Capital Partners.
This is a newly created role that will further strengthen the hospitality credentials of Moda’s Build-to-Rent business. Smith, who has held senior positions at Marriott and De Vere hospitality chains, will be tasked with building Moda Life into the UK’s preeminent serviced living & lifestyle platform.
As Brand & Operations Director at De Vere Smith was responsible for the creation and delivery of the Vision/Values/Operational standards and full implementation of significant capital investments and the following revenue/profit growth. He had full P&L responsibility delivering a new-look brand, guest experiences and analysis, plus a vast array of community engagement programmes for the portfolio of 22 De Vere hotels & conference centres in the UK.
Smith is tasked with bringing hospitality to BTR for the first time at scale and in doing so nurturing a long-term culture for the Moda Brand with a big focus on Customer Experience and Resident Interaction. His mission is for Moda to be recognised as an industry-leading employee brand with consistent world-class operational standards.
’By communicating that a Moda neighbourhood is so much more than 4 walls, we can transform the residential sector and deliver experiences to residents previously associated with an exclusive hospitality environment,’ Smith said. ‘There is still much work to be done on educating what BTR really represents in the UK. We will build a community culture that is customised to whichever city we are operating in, whilst ensuring that siloed teams across the UK maintain a core set of brand standards to align our Next Generation Neighbourhoods irrespective of location or target resident.’
