Cheval Blanc Taps Hôtel de Crillon's Vincent Billiard to Run Every Maison

Cheval Blanc, the LVMH hotel brand behind Cheval Blanc Paris and Cheval Blanc Courchevel, has a new Chief Operating Officer as of today. Vincent Billiard, managing director of Hôtel de Crillon, A Rosewood Hotel in Paris, takes up the post on October 5, 2026, and every Cheval Blanc general manager now reports to him.

LVMH Hotel Management made the appointment. Billiard joins its executive committee and reports to Olivier Lefebvre, President and CEO of Cheval Blanc and Deputy Managing Director of LVMH Hospitality Excellence. Beyond the general managers of the Maisons, as the brand calls its hotels, he also leads the Operations and Quality, Revenue and Distribution, and Sales teams, and directs operating strategy for both existing and future properties.

Who is Vincent Billiard?

Billiard is a graduate of EHL Hospitality Business School with more than 20 years in international luxury hotels. He joined The Ritz-Carlton in 2003, working across the United States and Asia, and took his first general manager role with the brand in 2013. He became General Manager of Bulgari Hotel Shanghai in 2016 and of The St. Regis Singapore in 2019 before taking charge of the Crillon in 2020.

On Place de la Concorde, Rosewood credits him with leading the hotel through its reopening, launching several food and beverage venues, and renewing both its Palace distinction and its Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating. Since January 2024 he has combined that job with a regional vice president role over Rosewood's European hotels, supporting projects at Schloss Fuschl, Amsterdam and Courchevel.

Which hotels will he oversee?

The collection is small by design. Cheval Blanc opened its first Maison in Courchevel in 2006, then added Cheval Blanc Randheli in the Maldives in 2013, Cheval Blanc St-Barth in 2014, Cheval Blanc St-Tropez in 2019 and Cheval Blanc Paris in 2021. The sixth, Cheval Blanc Seychelles, is a 52-villa resort on Anse Intendance beach on Mahé designed by architect Jean-Michel Gathy. LVMH Hotel Management also operates White 1921 in Courchevel and Saint-Tropez, and the group names Sardinia among its forthcoming projects.

What changes for guests?

Nothing on the booking page changes today. What shifts is accountability. With general managers, quality standards, pricing and sales under one executive, the person who sets the service bar also answers for commercial results across properties as different as an Alpine ski house, a Caribbean beach hotel and an Indian Ocean atoll.

His résumé is also a map of the rivals Cheval Blanc guests already weigh it against. Billiard has run hotels for Ritz-Carlton, Bulgari, St. Regis and Rosewood, and he arrives from a Paris Palace that competes for the same travelers as the brand's own Paris Maison a short ride away on the Seine.

What to watch next

The Seychelles resort is the brand's newest test of whether its one-Maison-per-destination model travels, and Sardinia is the next name on the list. Travelers who split their year between two or more Cheval Blanc addresses will be the first to see whether a single operating chief brings tighter consistency. The announcement does not say who will succeed Billiard at the Crillon.