What The Luxe

Barbara Muckermann has led at nearly every altitude of the travel industry, from PR and trade through Silversea Cruises, MSC, and Loro Piana, to her current role as CEO of Kempinski Hotels, one of the oldest independent hotel groups in Europe.
In this episode, Anant sits down with Barbara to unpack the operational complexity behind luxury hospitality, comparing the economics of running a cruise ship against running a hotel, the wildly different booking cycles for each, and how metrics like ADR and TREVPAR actually shape the business.
They also discuss the shift toward brand-led leadership in hospitality, why so few luxury hotel CEOs still come up through pure hotel operations, and the origin story of Kempinski itself, a brand built on the idea that life is simply better lived well.
A conversation about scale, judgment, and what it takes to run luxury at every size.

Mattheos Georgiou has spent three decades in luxury hospitality, working across Tokyo, Moscow, Dubai and beyond, shaped by crises as much as by calm. As Head of Global Operations for One&Only, SIRO and Rare Finds, he now oversees brands with very different ambitions, but a shared conviction that hospitality should help you perform at your best.

In this episode, Anant and Mattheos get into what it means to build a wellness brand with genuine substance, why the guests turning up to SIRO aren't who anyone expected, and what the hospitality industry still hasn't fixed since 1985. They also talk leadership through crisis, lobbying for ideas in Tokyo, and the Ottoman mansion in rural Greece that started a second obsession.

Bob Donofrio has spent more than three decades at the summit of luxury, leading some of the world's most storied maisons, including Bulgari, Roberto Cavalli, and Asprey. But it was a question he'd never thought to ask that changed everything. Where does gold actually come from?

In this episode, Anant sits down with Bob to trace that question to its source. From small-scale miners using mercury in Papua New Guinea, to the UN's Minamata Convention, to Futura, the jewellery house Bob founded to prove that ethical sourcing and exceptional design aren't mutually exclusive.

They discuss why the luxury industry has been slow to act, what recycled gold gets wrong, the leadership rotation problem inside heritage houses, and why provenance is becoming the defining measure of value in fine jewellery.

A conversation about responsibility, craft, and what it really means to build something that lasts.

Pär Heyden has spent his career at the intersection of precision design and brand building, from the tactile engineering of Hasselblad cameras to the industrial heritage of Volvo, and now as Head of Brand and Executive Creative Director at Polestar. In this conversation, Anant sits down with Pär to explore what it really means to build a considered brand from the ground up.

They discuss why restraint is a competitive strategy in a sector defined by feature escalation, how Polestar approached the redesign of the in-car interface with the same craft typically reserved for physical materials, and why the automotive industry has consistently underestimated the intelligence of its customers. Pär also reflects on the role of retail space in shaping perception, the thinking behind some of Polestar's most distinctive brand moments, and where enduring value sits as mobility becomes increasingly software-defined.

Berry Bros. & Rudd has been trading from the same address on St James's Street since 1698. It was founded by a woman, holds two Royal Warrants, and today offers more than 5,000 wines selected by five Masters of Wine. Claudia Stebbings, Director of Marketing & Experiences, joined in 2019 bringing a background in media and television to one of Britain's most storied businesses.

In this conversation, host Fred Moore and Claudia explore what it means to be a merchant, the link between producer and drinker, and why trust is at the centre of everything Berry Bros does. They talk about wine as a passion asset, the collector's mindset, and how a bottle can outlast the person who bought it. They also get into how new generations are discovering wine, why the category is less intimidating than it once was, and what a 328-year-old business still has to learn.