US: San Francisco-based next-generation lodging company Sonder has announced new appointments to its board of directors in preparation for its prospective public listing.
Frits van Paasschen, current member of the board and former Starwood Hotels president and CEO, has been named lead independent director, having served on Sonder’s board since February 2020.
Janice L. Sears, former managing director and Western region head at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, will join the board and serve as audit committee chair.
Francis Davidson, co-founder and CEO of Sonder, and chair of the board, said: “We are privileged to benefit from Frits’ significant experience in building and operating a premier hospitality brand as a public company CEO and he has been a great strategic partner to this business as a member of the Sonder board. I am thrilled to have him take on the expanded role of lead independent director.
“We’re also very excited to welcome Janice to Sonder’s board. Her deep experience in real estate as well as corporate governance will be strong additions to Sonder’s board as we accelerate our growth and prepare to enter the public markets,” he added.
Van Paasschen and Sears join Manon Brouillette, Nabeel Hyatt and Vivek Pattipati on Sonder’s board.
Brouillette, who was appointed as a director in June 2020, currently serves as COO and deputy CEO for Verizon Consumer Group. She was formerly president and CEO of Vidéotron, a Canadian telecommunications company, and she serves on the board of directors of the National Bank of Canada, as well as Altice USA.
Hyatt, who has served as a director since February 2016, is general partner at venture capital firm Spark Capital. He was formerly co-founder and CEO of Conduit Labs, which was later acquired by social game developer Zynga Inc, where he later served as general manager.
Pattipati has served as a director since September 2018, as a partner at Valor Management LLC, and was formerly a director at Madison Dearborn Partners.
The recent appointments to Sonder’s board follow the company’s announcement that it was planning to go public via a special purpose acquisition company [SPAC] merger with Gores Metropoulos II. The proposed deal would give the combined firm a pro forma enterprise value of $2.2 billion and over $700 million of net cash at closing.
Since then, Sonder has launched on the Global Distribution System [GDS] to expand into business travel, announced its strongest quarterly revenue since its founding, and expanded its presence in the Middle East by adding to its growing portfolio in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Sonder currently operates in more than 35 markets spanning nine countries and three continents.
