Hi, I’m Rishi Nigam, Chief Executive Officer at Urbain Hospitality Group in New York. I was previously Senior VP Global Strategic and Corporate Development at Wyndham Worldwide.

I’m a diversely skilled executive with career hallmarks of versatility, innovation, team building and impact.

I’m a proven leader with experience from strategy to product development, general management to finance, strategic planning to M&A, integration to complex commercial negotiations.

My background spans from startups to Fortune 500 companies, and I’m comfortable starting with a whiteboard or optimizing established products, operations and teams.

I focus on finding creative, clear, actionable solutions in complex situations and I welcome the opportunity to deliver solutions to your hardest challenges.

The Highlights

  • Founded and led development of urban short-term rental brand Urbain, from whiteboard to team recruitment, product and site design to engineering oversight, branding and social media to expansion to 500 properties across 16 US and European cities;

  • Lead strategy, development and execution for Wyndham Destination Network, the $1.6 billion revenue division of Wyndham Worldwide, then the largest global professional short-term rental manager and vacation exchange representing more than 120,000 rental properties and 3.5 million member families, respectively;

  • Managed $1.3 billion sale of Wyndham’s European rental operations in a private equity auction process, resulting in a $600 million gain on sale;

  • Executed more than 60 corporate transactions in 20 countries on 5 continents, a blend of acquisitions, asset purchases, venture investments, joint ventures, divestitures and asset dispositions.

Selected Experience

My current focus is leading Urbain Hospitality Group which seeks to elevate the quality and reliability of urban short-term rentals through marketing, distribution and logistics services for homeowners and property managers. Despite the rapid growth of this segment, the many millions of homes available create a multitude of owner and traveler issues that can be resolved via Urbain’s product suite.

Urbain Hospitality Group
2019 – Current

Wyndham Worldwide
2003-2018

As Senior VP of Global Corporate & Strategic Development, I built and led the US & UK-based team that coordinated execution of Wyndham’s alternative lodging strategy. The role included a wide variety of responsibilities, from strategic planning and data-driven market analysis to operational planning and improvement to establishing revenue generating partnerships and M&A sourcing, execution and integration. This culminated in a $600M gain on sale of the business.

(now Travel & Leisure Co)

Let’s Build Something Together

Let’s gather and evaluate market and competitive data, and couple that with the voice of your customers and your CRM. Using those insights we can chart a direction for your corporate strategy and product suite with clearly defined implementation plans.

Strategy and Product Development

Let’s align your M&A activities to your broader corporate strategy and investment objectives. Based on that plan, we’ll manage deal teams, value targets, conduct due diligence, negotiate and structure transactions and develop integration roadmaps.

M&A Transaction and Integration Advisory

Your strategy needs to be alive and it takes a detailed eye to guide your organization. Let’s think about what you’re doing, how it can be improved, and how we can avoid impediments to scale. We’ll model scenarios and define OKRs and contingencies that align your financial plan with your day-to-day activities.

Financial and Operational Planning

Let’s think it through together. I have advised the management, boards and investors of numerous companies in matters from general growth strategy, market assessment and financing to operational planning, commercial execution and team building.

Board Advisory and Directorships

Let’s inform and entertain. Whether you’re looking for a conference speaker, panelist, podcast guest or written contributor, we can collaborate on a wide variety of topics from strategy to leadership, corporate growth to talent management, M&A to hospitality.

Public Speaking Roles and Content Creation

Selected Speaking Roles

Short Term Rentalz

As the global travel markets reawakened from their pandemic-induced slumber I discussed what the data was telling Ubain about the recovery of the urban travel market.

Mountain Travel Symposium

Amidst the growth in and consolidation of distribution channels, I participated in a debate-style panel discussing the best uses of these channels and how mountain town suppliers can leverage them to optimize revenue.