Our Executive Management
Luca Franco - President
Luca Franco is the founder and the President of Luxury Leisure Properties International LLC. Luca oversees the complete portfolio of services offered by LLPI to leisure real estate developers, property investors and hotel companies.
Luca was previously JV Partner with Strategic Hotels & Resorts; Luca earlier held the position as President of the European/Middle East Division of DCP International, which specializes in the design, marketing and sale of private residence club memberships at luxury resort and urban locations worldwide, and was responsible for expanding US operations into an international business based in London.
Prior to this Luca was charged with establishing the European platform for Exclusive Resorts. He had also started and implemented several private residence clubs in Europe, which include, among others, the Four Seasons Private Residence Club Palazzo Tornabuoni (Florence, Italy). Luca has previously worked on resort ownership developments with Marriott Vacation Club International, Four Seasons Hotels, Ferragamo Group, Bulgari Hotels, Interval International, The Stein Hotels, Buena Vista Hospitality Group and several developers including Fingen Group, Chartwell Grupo.
Luca holds a Bachelors degree in Building Engineer from Pavia University, Italy.
Preben Vestdam - President, Valhalla Associates Limited
Preben Vestdam is the founder of Valhalla Associates, LLPI's exclusive partner company in the EMEA region. LLPI and Valhalla work closely together across regions and share know-how, research and resources globally. Prior to Valhalla, Preben was President & CEO of NorthCourse, the leisure real estate consulting and asset management arm of Wyndham Worldwide Corporation. In this capacity he established the NorthCourse business globally developing the brand, the product line and the service delivery including leisure real estate development strategy, market research, project feasibility, sales & marketing solutions and resort operator searches. During his time with NorthCourse he also held the positoin as Managing Director of Qatar Real Estate Partners - a joint venture between NorthCourse and Qatari Diar Real Estate Development Company - focusing on the sales and marketing of Qatari Diar’s multibillion dollar luxury real estate development portfolio.
Within Wyndham Worldwide, one of Preben's earlier roles was President & CEO of Group RCI in Europe & Middle East, where he over his tenure launched multiple new leisure real estate products in the region in partnership with well known hospitality brands and developers.
Prior to joining Wyndham Worldwide, Preben served as Head of Marketing for JPMorgan Asset Management, where he developed and executed marketing strategies for the firms Investment Management and Private Banking business across Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Preben’s background also includes travel industry experience with American Express, where he served 3 years as Vice President responsible for product development and management of loyalty programmes for American Express cards in Europe.
Previously Preben spent 3 years with Club Med based in Paris as Marketing Director for Club Med's global resort portfolio and 6 years with IBM responsible for Sales & Marketing of information technology to financial services institutions in Denmark.
A native of Denmark, he holds a Master of Science in Economics from the Copenhagen School of Economics, Denmark, and an MBA from IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland.
