Our Team
Florian Kittler
Managing Partner &
Global Sector Head,
Hospitality, Travel & Leisure
Florian Kittler is the Founder of YK Hospitality Consulting GmbH in Frankfurt and YK Consulting Limited in Hong Kong. He is the Managing Partner of Cornerstone-Frankfurt am Main, the latest addition to Cornerstone International Group’s (CIG) European Portfolio.
At Cornerstone he oversees the Global Practice Lead for Hospitality, Travel & Leisure where he supports & advises an array of global clients. With over three decades of expertise in the hospitality industry and executive recruitment throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific, Florian brings a wealth of international experience and a robust network to his clients.
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He holds respected professional executive coaching certifications, including ICF (ACC) & EMCC (EIA), as well as AI Manager & Consultant, underscoring his commitment to both people development and innovative leadership solutions.
Florian leverages this diverse background and expertise to deliver senior executive appointments and enhanced advisory services that drive organizational growth.
Assignments range from C-suite & VP roles, board appointments, to above property-level functional leadership, and emerging AI- and digital-driven positions.
Before joining Cornerstone International Group, Florian developed operational leadership acumen with prestigious global hotel brands such as Shangri-La, Mandarin Oriental, and Hyatt. In the executive search arena, he led the Hospitality & Leisure practice for PSD Group in Greater China, for Comrise Consulting across Asia, and for the past 9 years, the Executive Search practice for HVS in Asia Pacific & Europe (since 2019).
A Berlin native, Florian has spent the last 30 years immersed in Germany, Switzerland, Dubai, Hong Kong, Doha, Manila, Beijing, and Shanghai, always maintaining a strong connection to his passion for hospitality. He holds a Swiss Higher Diploma in Hospitality & Restaurant Management from the University Centre ‘Cesar Ritz’ in Switzerland.
His unique blend of professional accreditation, cross-cultural insights, and AI-driven consulting enables him to offer expanded solutions beyond traditional executive search, supporting clients in adapting to an evolving business landscape.
Antonello De Medici brings to Cornerstone more than 30 years of international leadership experience across luxury hotels, iconic brands, and large-scale organizational transformation. A trusted name in Italian and European hospitality, he has held senior executive roles at Starwood, Marriott International, Hilton, and Rocco Forte Hotels, including General Management of landmark properties such as Hotel Danieli, Gritti Palace, and Hilton Molino Stucky in Venice, and COO responsibility for all Italian and European operations at Rocco Forte Hotels.
His career combines rare operational depth with a rigorous foundation in people, process, and quality, rooted in three years as Six Sigma Master Black Belt for Southern Europe, deploying lean management and process reengineering across 28 hotels. This discipline has shaped an executive career consistently focused on margin growth, asset repositioning, and building organizations that perform.
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Now applying that experience to executive search and organizational advisory, Antonello brings a practitioner’s eye to the full talent lifecycle, from identifying leaders capable of navigating complex ownership transitions and brand repositionings, to advising on organizational structures that unlock performance. He specializes in the Italian market and Southern European hospitality landscape, where his network, institutional relationships, and cultural fluency run deep.
His human capital expertise is not incidental to his career, it is foundational. Beginning as HR Director for Starwood Italy & Malta and carrying through every operational role, he has led union negotiations, national contract evolution, executive performance architecture, and employer branding. This dual fluency in operations and people systems makes him a distinctive advisor on both talent strategy and organizational effectiveness.
Antonello holds an Executive Master from INSEAD (Starwood), an Executive Master in Leadership from NCU-USA (Marriott), and a Master Black Belt certification from Starwood Hotels New York. He holds a Law Degree, Magna Cum Laude, from La Sapienza, Rome. He has served on the boards of Federturismo, Confindustria Veneto Tourism, Scuola Italiana Ospitalità, and EHMA, and remains an active voice on sustainability governance and social impact in the sector.
For Antonello, placing the right leader in the right organization is an act of craft: it requires understanding not just what a role demands on paper, but what it demands of a person — and what an organization must become to retain exceptional talent.
Isabelle Teixeira
Associate Director
Cornerstone Rio de Janeiro
More than 10 years as a Senior Marketing Executive at Starwood Hotels & Resorts, a luxury global hotel chain, acting as Marketing lead for Sheraton in Brazil and three selected service brands in Latin America (Four Points by Sheraton, Aloft, and Element). With deep experience in planning and implementing Latin America market strategies focused on revenue growth, branding, digital performance, strategic partnership marketing initiatives, advertising, communication, projects, and team leadership, Isabelle was awarded 2014 Americas Best in Class Leadership and 2015 Latin America Field Marketing Leader at Starwood, promoting a collaborative environment among cross-functional teams based in different countries. With almost 10 years now in Executive Recruitment at Cornerstone, Isabelle oversees different sectors and is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Hera Zamgocyan
Senior Executive Search Consultant
North America
Hera Zamgocyan is a Senior Executive Search Consultant with Cornerstone in North America, partnering with hospitality and service-driven organizations on executive search and talent advisory engagements. Drawing on experience in both hospitality operations and executive search, she helps clients identify leaders who strengthen capability, drive performance, and support long-term growth.
Hera began her career in hospitality with The Standard, Downtown LA where she was part of the hotel’s opening team and supported senior leadership during a period of growth and transformation. Working closely with the Vice President of Human Resources, she gained firsthand insight into how leadership decisions shape employee experience, organizational dynamics, and business success.
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She later transitioned into executive search, advising organizations across a range of industries on executive talent acquisition, leadership assessment, and succession planning. This broader experience gave her a unique perspective on leadership across different business environments, industries, and stages of growth.
Today, Hera combines her hospitality roots with a cross-industry search perspective to advise hotel groups, management companies, and hospitality brands on talent strategy. Her approach combines market intelligence with a clear understanding of organizational context, enabling her to identify leaders who are not only qualified for the role, but aligned with long-term organizational goals.
She is recognized for a consultative, relationship-driven approach grounded in discretion, industry insight, and a nuanced understanding of both people and organizations. Hera believes exceptional organizations are built by exceptional people and approaches every client partnership with a focus on leadership fit, strong relationships, and outcomes that endure well beyond the placement itself.
Silvia Carrillo
Senior Director
Cornerstone Colombia & the Caribbean
Silvia Carrillo serves as Senior Director for Cornerstone Colombia and the Caribbean, bringing over a decade of experience in consulting firms, leading talent strategies for organizations across Latin America and the Caribbean. She specializes in Executive Search, RPO solutions, and strategic talent consulting, with a strong record of connecting senior leaders to sustainable organizational growth across the region.
Throughout her career, Silvia has led the structuring and launch of new business units, including the Hays International Desk for Latin America and the Caribbean and Hays Project Solutions in the Andean Region. In these roles she was responsible for defining commercial strategies, positioning, value propositions, and building regional teams from the ground up.
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Silvia’s expertise combines commercial acumen with deep market insight and a strong results-driven mindset. Her experience in market expansion and building operations from scratch gives clients across Colombia, the Caribbean and the broader Andean region access to a partner who understands the local operating reality alongside the demands of international hospitality leadership.
She holds a degree in Psychology and brings international academic exposure along with a strategic perspective focused on aligning talent and business to drive regional impact. Bilingual with full professional fluency in English and Spanish, Silvia is based in Bogotá and works with hospitality and service-sector clients across Latin America and the Caribbean.