Hospitality's Three Generations: Wosgien, Biscioni, Zwart

A letter from Larissa Zwart

Rome, 20 February 2026

Dear friends of the House,

I have been thinking, in these first weeks of 2026, about the three generations of leadership that have shaped Executive Search International across forty-eight years. Bernd Wosgien, who founded the firm in 1977. Stefano P. Biscioni, who led it from 1997 to 2023. And the present chapter, which began in 2025. Three generations, three temperaments, three contexts. And, beneath the differences, a continuity that is the real subject of this letter.

Bernd Wosgien, the founder

I never worked directly with Bernd Wosgien. By the time I began my career at ESI Italy in Rome, in 2001, Bernd had handed over much of the operational leadership to Stefano. But his presence, in the principles he had established, was unmistakable.

Bernd founded ESI in 1977 in Florida, at a moment when the global hotel industry was beginning a long expansion. He saw, before most, that the executive search profession would need to develop specialised expertise for the hospitality sector. The skills required to evaluate a hotel General Manager were different from those required to evaluate a generalist executive. The networks required to find the best hospitality talent were different from those that mattered in other industries. The discretion required for senior hospitality appointments was a particular kind of discretion, taught by the industry itself.

From these convictions, Bernd built the firm. The reputation he established, in two decades of patient work, became the foundation everything else rested on. Owners trusted ESI because Bernd had earned that trust over many years and many appointments. Candidates trusted ESI for the same reason. Reading his correspondence from the 1980s and early 1990s, what strikes me is the consistency of the standards. The same patient questions, the same insistence on character, the same long view. The firm Stefano inherited, and that we inherit today, is in important ways the firm Bernd built.

Stefano Biscioni, the second generation

Stefano took over the leadership of ESI in 1997, when Bernd invited him to open the Italian office. The decision to invite Stefano was characteristic of Bernd: it was a decision made for the long term. Bernd was looking not for an Italian agent but for a successor.

Stefano added something important to what Bernd had built. He brought the Italian and European perspective into the firm at a moment when the centre of luxury hospitality was, in many respects, shifting back to Europe. He developed deep relationships with the great Italian hotel families and with the Italian hospitality investment community. He extended the firm's reach into the Middle East and across Europe more systematically than had been possible from a single American base.

But what Stefano really did, in his twenty-six years of leadership, was to deepen the practice. He spent more time on each search. He insisted, internally, on standards that were higher than the market sometimes demanded. He developed what would later be formalised as the CADT assessment, drawn from his own conversational practice with candidates. He maintained relationships with placed General Managers across decades, becoming a confidant to many of the most senior figures in luxury hospitality.

His sudden passing in May 2023 was a loss the industry has not stopped feeling.

The present chapter

I am the third generation of leadership at the House of ESI, and the responsibility is one I take very seriously. The work I am doing now, with my partner and our small team at Piazza del Popolo, is in important ways an act of inheritance. The firm I lead today is the firm Bernd built and Stefano deepened. The standards we hold are their standards. The relationships we steward were largely begun by them.

What is being added in this third chapter is not a new philosophy. The philosophy is the same. What is being added, where appropriate, is a careful adaptation of the practice to the present moment. New tools where they serve the work. New attention to questions like artificial intelligence, sustainability, and the changing geography of luxury hospitality. New visibility through the kind of writing you are reading now, which Bernd would not have written and Stefano would have written rarely.

But the underlying work is the same work. Listen carefully. Understand the property and the leader in depth. Make appointments that will look right ten years from now. Hold standards that the industry can rely on. Be discreet, always.

What is inherited, and what is built

This is the central question of any third generation, in any kind of House. What is inherited, and what is built? The answer at ESI is, I hope, the right one for our craft. What is inherited is everything: the standards, the relationships, the philosophy, the discipline. What is built is the daily practice, refined for present circumstances, but always in service of what was passed down.

This is not, in 2026, a fashionable answer. The contemporary instinct, in business and elsewhere, is to favour transformation over continuation. To rebrand, to disrupt, to start fresh. The House of ESI has chosen the harder path: to continue, carefully, what was built before us, and to add only what is needed.

The Biscioni family has trusted us with this responsibility, and that trust shapes every decision we make. Paolo Biscioni's endorsement, written shortly after we agreed to take over the firm, is a document I keep close. It contains, in his own words, the standard against which we will be judged.

Forty-eight years on, the work continues. Echte gastvrijheid, van oudsher.

With hospitable regards from Piazza del Popolo,
Larissa Zwart
President, ESI Executive Search International