Alexander Mirza

Alexander Mirza
Born	India
🏳️ Nationality	Canadian, American
🎓 Alma mater	Queen's University at Kingston, Harvard Business School
💼 Occupation	Entrepreneur, Investor and Thought leader
Known for	Founder and CEO of Mogul Hotels
🌐 Website	www.alexandermirza.com

Alexander Ahmar Mirza is a Canadian American social innovator, entrepreneur, investor, and author. He has worked in the hospitality industry for over two decades, having held senior positions at the largest hotel chains and consulting firms, including Accenture, Hilton, Caesars, and Starwood. Mirza is the founder and CEO of the venture-backed Mogul Hotels & Residences, and was the co-founder of Cachet Hotels & Resorts. He is among the first foreigners to develop and scale a hotel brand in China.

Early life and education

Mirza was born in New Delhi, India. He holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, where he was awarded the McArthur Fellowship for Canadians. He also has an M.A. in International Relations and a BAH from Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, where he was an Aga Khan Foundation Scholar and graduated with First Class Honors.

Career

Management consultant and entrepreneur

With a career spanning 25 years as a management consultant and C-suite executive, Mirza has advised CEOs, heads of state, and international organizations. He has collaborated with scientists in Shell’s Gamechanger Program that generated $3 billion of new businesses addressing climate change. His consulting background includes years of project management at Deloitte/Braxton Associates in the areas of value-based management and growth strategy.

Mirza was a senior principal at Strategos, an innovation consultancy formed by one of the world’s leading corporate strategists, Gary Hamel. At Strategos, Mirza led client teams creating new businesses, products, and services in the consumer, financial services, and oil and gas industries.

Transitioning from consultancy, Mirza joined Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide as Head of Strategic Planning, responsible for brand positioning, development planning, and business innovation; he reported to the CFO and CEO. Subsequently, Mirza worked as Senior Vice President of Hilton Hotels Corporation, reporting to the CEO. At Hilton, Mirza revamped a $2 billion food and beverage business, integrated Hilton International, helped establish the Waldorf Astoria luxury brand, and developed the company’s first fitness and spas division. Before joining Hilton, Mirza was a managing partner in the consumer practice at Accenture, the world’s largest technology consulting company.

In 2010, he served as Vice President and Executive Associate to Gary Loveman, then chairman and CEO of Caesars Entertainment. Caesars subsequently appointed Mirza the head of Caesars Hospitality Ventures and Caesars Global Life. Mirza led service improvements and new hotel, restaurant, and nightlife developments, including Gordon Ramsay, BR Guest, Nobu Hotel, Drais nightlife, and branded non-gaming resorts.

In 2012, Mirza founded Cachet Hospitality in Shanghai. Under his leadership as CEO, Cachet acquired and grew China’s first carbon-neutral hotel and developed luxury lifestyle hotel and restaurant brands in China, Southeast Asia, and North America. Cachet’s global hotel brands are differentiated by sustainability and east meets west design, art, and food. Cachet hotels received global recognition for its branding, hotel management, and interior design, raising four rounds of capital with international investors in China, the U.S., and UAE.

In 2018, Mirza founded Mogul Hospitality, a venture-backed technology and branding company. Mogul hospitality has been recognized as a top start-up by Harvard Alumni Ventures, Phocuswright, and named one of the 28 most innovative travel tech startups around the world in 2022. Mogul’s technologies include MogulRecruiter, the industry’s first AI-powered talent marketplace; StayMogul, a host-driven reservations system and CRM platform; and Mogul Hotels and Residences, an AI luxury brand that features work-live designs, sustainability and well-being. All of these products and services use artificial intelligence and data science to curate luxury experiences and facilitate service innovation.

Speaker

Mirza was a speaker at the 2021 Phocuswright Conference, HEDNA-Global Distribution Conference, YJP New York 2017, Boutique Lodging Association Events, and the Independent Lodging Congress. He has also spoken at other major events, including NYU Hotel Investment Conference, China HVS Hotel Investment Conference, Cornell HR in Hospitality, eCornell, and Harvard Real Estate Conference, where he was also a moderator.

Board Member & Strategic Advisor

Mirza is a Strategic Advisor and Advisory Board member of Kiwitech, a U.S.-India software development and AI engineering firm, and serves on the Management Advisory Board of the Cornell Center for Innovative Hospitality and Employment Relations (CIHLER) and the Collins College of Hospitality Management at California Polytechnic University. He is a former board member of Cachet hotels, Wahlburgers Asia-Pacific, Ticketmaster China, Ticketmaster Australia and Sbe Asia.

Author

Mirza is the author of three books, Talent Disruption: People are the brands, Reimagining Global Hospitality: Envisaging the AI Hotel of the future,and Peacekeeping, Peacemaking, & World Order: A Study of the International System. He is also a contributing author on several platforms, including Entrepreneur]], Medium, Harvard Real Estate Review, Queen’s Journal, Hotel Executive, and Thrive Global.

Recognition

Mirza was recognized as one of the top 100 most powerful hospitality executives by the Global Hospitality Institute in 2022. Harvard Business School wrote a case study on Mirza’s career in organizational development in March 2020. He was also profiled for his career accomplishments in the HBS alumni magazine in 2024. Mirza was listed on Canada’s Top 40 under 40 and awarded Toronto’s Mayor Volunteer Creed. He was named one of the top 10 international Canadian executives by Canadian Business Magazine in 2006.

Personal Life

Mirza is married to Barbara Mirza, a managing partner and board member at Cooley LLP, a leading technology law firm, known for its technology and life sciences practices as well as its experience with marquee initial public offerings (IPOs) and deep-rooted venture capital connections & financings. They have a daughter together. His brother, Faisal Mirza, is a Federal Judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario, a law professor at the University of Toronto and previously a National Security Advisor to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

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