Behind the Brand: Women Executives Shaping Boutique Hospitality

A Special Editorial Feature from BLLA

Behind every boutique hotel that feels truly alive — in its brand, its story, its sense of wellness and place — there are women whose vision and craft brought it to life.

At BLLA, we are committed to keeping this conversation going. This second installment in our ongoing celebration of women leaders turns the spotlight to some of the executives, strategists, and creative minds whose work amplifies and elevates the boutique hospitality space. They lead PR and communications firms, wellness ventures, and creative agencies, and the boutique hotel world is shaped, in no small part, by what they do.

These are the women shaping the narrative, building the brand, and reimagining what wellness and creativity mean inside independent hospitality. What follows are their stories.

Trish Nugent
Senior Vice President Public Relations & Public Affairs | Mower

For Trish Nugent, leadership has always been rooted in the discipline of listening. Where earlier in her career brands held tighter control over their own narratives, she has watched that dynamic shift fundamentally, with influence now shared across guests, creators, media, and beyond. Rather than resist that shift, she has leaned into it. “Leadership today is less about broadcasting and more about listening and then having the discipline to respond in a way that reflects what you’re hearing.” In boutique hospitality, where authenticity is everything, that approach is not just strategic. It is essential.

The foundation Trish built her career on was, by her own account, unusually rich in female leadership. Her mother spent nearly five decades leading a textile business featured in some of the world’s premier hotels. She was educated in a women-led school and has spent her career working alongside women who led with both conviction and grace. Most formative were the two founders of her boutique hospitality practice, different in style but deeply complementary in approach. “They knew when to lead and when to step back, with no ego attached, just a focus on arriving at the best answer.” Their dynamic, she says, shaped everything about how she thinks about leadership and partnership.

That same spirit of collaboration defines how she builds her own teams. In an agency environment where longevity is never guaranteed, Trish has worked alongside many of the same people for decades, a continuity she considers one of her greatest professional achievements. “When teams stay intact, internally and on the client side, everything gets stronger: how you work together, how you think, how you serve.” She shows up as a collaborator first, decision-maker when needed, and always with the expectation that people take genuine ownership of their work.

On what women bring to this industry, her answer is precise: an instinct for nuance. Understanding what a person needs before it is stated is, she believes, a quiet but powerful force in communications, one that shapes how stories are nurtured, how relationships are built, and how trust is earned with the people who tell a brand’s story to the world.

Her advice to the next generation is both a permission and a provocation: your natural style is a strength, not a limitation. Resist the pressure to lead louder or more traditionally. And learn to get comfortable with silence, because “that’s often where the most honest and valuable input comes from.”

Susie Harborth
CEO & Founder | Sencie

Susie Harborth has spent her career working at the intersection of industries, from biotechnology and venture capital to real estate and now hospitality, drawn always to the place where disciplines converge and something more thoughtful can take shape. At Sencie, the restorative sleep wellbeing platform she founded for luxury hospitality, that instinct has found its fullest expression. For Susie, the through line across every chapter of her career has never been the industry itself. It has been community. “The work, for me, is about creating spaces where people can gather, connect, and feel part of something larger.”

Her path to hospitality was shaped by something deeply personal. After navigating health challenges within her family and experiencing burnout herself, she arrived at a conviction that would redefine her work entirely: rest and restoration are not indulgences. They are essential infrastructure for how we live and lead. “That realization led me to create Sencie.” Challenging traditional definitions of luxury, she built a platform centered on sleep, restoration, and presence as fundamental human needs, ones that women, she notes, experience differently across the stages of their lives.

Culture, for Susie, begins with intention and is sustained through alignment between words and actions. She builds teams around a shared sense of purpose, asking not just what the work is, but who it serves beyond the organization itself. “Culture is credibility over time.” When a team feels genuinely connected to that purpose, commitment deepens naturally, and trust follows.

On what women bring to boutique hospitality, her perspective is both precise and expansive. Women notice how a space actually feels, she says, not just how it photographs. They think about flow, about how someone enters a room, where they pause, how they will rest and gather. “Boutique hospitality is not transactional. It is relational.” And women, she believes, are deeply attuned to the nuances that make someone feel truly seen.

Her advice to the next generation cuts straight to the heart of what holds many women back: the belief that every box must be checked before stepping forward. “Get clear on what drives you. Know your north star.” Success, she is clear, is not defined by title alone. It is defined by alignment. And as the rooms get smaller and the stakes get higher, she adds one final note: build your tribe. Find the women who challenge you, steady you, and understand the weight of what you carry.

Michelle Rodriguez
CEO & Founder | 360view

For Michelle Rodriguez, leadership in boutique hospitality comes down to one thing: owning a point of view and having the discipline to execute it consistently across every touchpoint. The market, she notes, is saturated with beautiful hotels. Very few are truly differentiated. Where early in her career leadership felt tied to output and visibility, she now sees it as something more strategic and enduring. “The most successful boutique hotels aren’t just well-designed, they’re strategically positioned.” Staying ahead, she believes, requires understanding not just hospitality but how attention works across media, social, and emerging platforms.

That conviction is precisely what led her to build 360view. Recognizing early that many hotels were investing in PR without a clear strategy behind how visibility translated into business, she made a deliberate choice to step away from the traditional agency model and build something more intentional. “As a woman in this space, that meant trusting my perspective even when it challenged more established ways of doing things.” That decision shaped not just the firm she built, but the caliber of clients and work it attracts.

Culture, for Michelle, is not a buzzword. It is built through standards. Her team operates with a clear expectation of excellence and a strong sense of ownership at every level. She is equally selective about who they work with, internally and externally, because discipline around fit creates a stronger foundation over time. “Longevity is a byproduct of alignment. When the team is aligned on quality, pace, and vision, the work speaks for itself.”

On what women bring to this industry, she pushes past the creative. Yes, women bring precision and awareness around experience, how something feels, how it is remembered, how it is shared. But what deserves greater recognition, she says, is women’s ability to lead strategy and drive commercial outcomes. “That perspective is critical in a landscape where perception can define success.”

Her advice to the next generation is sharp and strategic: be clear on your positioning, don’t confuse visibility with impact, and trust your instincts but back them with strategy. “The combination of intuition and precision is where the real advantage is.”

Jennifer Barry
Managing Director | CIIC PR

For Jennifer Barry, leadership has always been about relationships. With clients, with properties, with the stories that make independent hotels worth telling. But what that means in practice has shifted considerably over fifteen years of building and running her own agency before stepping into her current role at CIIC PR. Early on, she admits, leadership felt like having the right answer and proving your value. Experience taught her something different. “The real work of leadership is creating the conditions for other people to do their best work. You stop trying to be the answer and start trying to ask better questions.”

The decision that changed everything was the one to bet on herself. Starting her own agency was not a grand strategic plan — it was a choice between playing it safe and building something she believed in. Running that agency through every economic cycle the industry threw at her taught her things about resilience and client trust she could not have learned any other way. When the business was acquired, the milestone brought its own kind of clarity. “It gave me the confidence of someone who already knows what she’s capable of.” That shift, she says, from proving to knowing, is one of the most important things a woman in this industry can work toward.

She builds her teams the same way she built her business: by investing in potential. She hires for talent and passion, takes the hard conversations seriously, and measures success not just by output but by trajectory. “The agencies and teams that last are the ones where people feel seen. Not just evaluated, but actually seen.” In a business as relationship-driven as hospitality PR, she believes that internal culture shapes everything that flows outward to clients.

On what women bring to this space, her perspective is incisive. Women think in systems, she says, tracking relationship, context, long-term consequence, and immediate need all at once. “That kind of thinking is enormously valuable. It just doesn’t always get named as strategy.” Women are also, she adds, exceptionally good at the thing that matters most in boutique hospitality: making people feel they belong somewhere. That is not a soft skill. It is the entire value proposition of an independent property.

Her advice to the next generation is grounded and generous: find a way to own something early, build your network before you need it, and be generous with your introductions and your time. And above all: “Don’t wait for someone to hand you the room — believe that it’s already yours.”

The four women featured here are a reflection of the vision, depth, and humanity that define boutique hospitality at its best. Their perspectives are distinct, their paths varied, but the throughline is unmistakable: intentional leadership, authentic culture, and an unwavering belief in the power of genuine human connection. At BLLA, we are proud to celebrate them.