OUR TEAM


Christopher King

Managing Director


Chris has over 30 years’ experience in real estate private equity; joint ventures; debt and equity origination and execution in public and private markets; corporate finance; and business development in the value-add and opportunistic space.

As a strong leader, effective negotiator and articulate communicator, Chris has an extensive track record of success across diverse situations including developments; corporate development; acquisitions; divestitures; restructurings; financing (including bond issues and IPO); project and asset management. Having started his career at Robert Fleming (subsequently acquired by Chase Manhattan/JP Morgan), he was Managing Director, Real Estate, for nine years. He then moved to London and Regional Properties (L&R) as Group Managing Director. During his eight years with L&R, he was involved in multiple acquisition and asset management initiatives in the hotel and leisure space (including the acquisition of the Hilton Hotel, Park Lane and Chewton Glen). He oversaw the management of two portfolios of Accors, the Strand Palace Hotel, Chewton Glen plus the Next Generation and David Lloyd Leisure businesses. His remit also focused heavily on healthcare real estate (acquiring the largest private hospital group in the UK) and development across all asset classes. Whilst at L&R, Chris managed the expansion of the firm to become one of Europe's largest private real estate businesses. In 2009, Chris set up his own company, Align Partners (previously CS Hotels) with recent successful projects including the Doubletree by Hilton Docklands Riverside Hotel, Croydon Park Hotel and Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa.


David Webster

Operations Director


With over 28 years’ experience, David is a hospitality leader specialising in building teams and transforming cultures and performance in a variety of properties from internationally branded city centre properties for Marriott and Hilton to leading European golf resorts such as Powerscourt Hotel, Carton House, Formby Hall and the Belfry. David’s most recent role was as Senior Operations Director managing 12 Hilton branded Hotels across the UK & Ireland.

His strong decision-making abilities, analytical and creative thinking along with building highly successful teams which deliver continuously improving results have led to his established reputation as a trusted leader in the Hospitality Industry. This combined with great people skills aligned with providing a strategic vision has produced outstanding sustainable results in a confident team-spirited environment. David is instrumental throughout each phase of our Investment Cycle. In particular, from an Operational Management perspective, David is an ever presence in the hotels, working closely with high performing General Managers/Resort Directors and their on-site senior teams/Heads of Department to ensure Business Plans are executed and best practice is shared and implemented within the functions. He hosts weekly meetings with the Senior Teams to ensure the right level of support and direction is in place, as well as full month-end reviews to assess performance and delivery against the Business Plan



Lisa King

HR and Development Design Director


Lisa has over 30 years’ experience working in HR, having started her career with an Insurance Company, then BSI, before moving to Investment Banking (Barclays Capital and CSFB) where she operated at global level, both as Generalist and in Project Management. Lisa also established her own HR Consultancy business, working with over 40 clients, ranging from large corporations (such as Yahoo and Tubelines), to hotels, spas, real estate, retailers, private family offices, family-owned businesses, and individuals.

As a highly qualified and experienced Human Resources Director, Lisa provides proactive, hands-on HR guidance and direction to the Hotels’ onsite HR teams. The longevity of her experience in HR means that she has comprehensively covered the entire scope of HR responsibilities, including change management in terms of organisational restructuring and redundancy programmes; recruitment and retention (including internship programmes); performance management; training and development (including employee onboarding and induction programmes); talent management (including promotion/career progression and succession planning); remuneration and benefits (including incentive arrangements); payroll efficiencies; scoping and implementing new HRIS; employee relations; documentation, policy and procedural reviews and development; and compliance with prevailing employment legislation and best practice.
Separately, Lisa studied at the KLC School of Design and is responsible for coordinating the design brief associated with the repositioning of projects, from concept stage through to implementation; CapEx planning and monitoring; appointing and managing Interior Designers; procuring FFE; negotiating and securing the best deals. Lisa was the key interface with the design team on the successful refurbishment project at the Doubletree by Hilton Docklands Riverside Hotel and the extensive refurbishment programme and master planning exercise (which successfully secured planning consent) at Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa.


Angus Taylor

Investment and Structuring


Angus previously worked for Eastdil Secured, a real estate investment bank where he was responsible for underwriting a total of £3 billion of real estate acquisitions and financings. This included offices, hotels, retail, and logistics assets in the UK and across Europe.

Angus then left Eastdil to join London-based private equity firm, Brockton Everlast, where his role was focused on the acquisition of prime central London office assets as well as managing the existing Brockton Everlast and Brockton Capital portfolios, including the co-working platform Fora and the super-prime, Mayfair-based residential development, 60 Curzon Street.



Kris Legg

Property Director


Kris has over 20 years’ experience in property across multi-site retail, leisure, hospitality and healthcare spaces. Most recently, he was at Amaris Hospitality and, prior to that, Kew Green hotels where he reported directly into Board level and had responsibility for setting the strategic direction of the business and associated decision making, the key goal always being to increase the value of each asset .

As Property Director of these Companies, each with 30+ hotels in their portfolio, Kris was responsible for establishing and implementing the property strategy; project managing extensive and ambitious (and often fast-track) expansion projects; new developments; construction management; refurbishments, repositionings and rebrandings; acquisitions and disposals; property/estate management; lease negotiations; planning applications and building regulations; energy management and, in particular, focus on reducing the carbon footprint. He worked closely with the Brands including Hilton, Marriott, Accor.


Jonathan Baker

Finance Director and IT


Jon has worked in the hospitality sector for over 26 years, predominantly in high-profile financial roles and company board positions in both the UK and USA, in multi-site units and Head Office positions.

Over the past six years, Jon has managed acquisitions and new developments with independent hotels and brands including IHG, Accor, Hilton, Best Western and Wyndham. Having constructed major investment appraisals and delivered large-scale hotel refurbishment programs to strict time scales and on budget, he has overseen the ultimate achievements of significant increases in asset value.
Jon also has extensive experience in developing and rolling out new digital concepts to support acquisitions, disposals, bank funding, compliance, IT, revenue management and HR. Specialising in building dynamic teams and processes, motivating staff to drive growth, increase efficiency, cost effectiveness and bottom-line profit, Jon’s expansive knowledge in this field has resulted in being a highly regarded member of the HOSPA, Institute of Directors and Institute of Hospitality. He is also a Xero certified partner supporting companies in the hospitality sector to streamline processes across all departments; helping businesses understand financial data and improve returns to shareholders.
Jon works closely with the on-site Finance team and is further supported by:

  • a Financial Accountant

  • IT Consultants

  • outsourced partners (where required/in situ) to deal with transactional processing and reporting