In Brief: Jonathan Worsley, Chairman of The Bench and founder of the Future Hospitality Summit, has joined the African Collaborations Group Advisory Board to support the advancement of sport and entertainment district developments across Africa, signaling increased collaboration between hospitality expertise and large-scale mixed-use projects.
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Jonathan Worsley – Image Credit ACG
African Collaborations Group (ACG) , the leading strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on the industrialisation of sport in Africa through the origination of bankable sport and entertainment district ecosystems, today announced the appointment of Jonathan Worsley to its Advisory Board.
Mr Worsley is Chairman of The Bench, the global hospitality investment platform whose events include the Future Hospitality Summit (FHS) — the leading global hospitality investment forum, staged in Riyadh, Dubai and other major global hospitality hubs. Under his leadership, The Bench has become the pre-eminent convening platform for hotel investors, developers, financiers and hospitality operators worldwide.
Mr Worsley began his career at Forte and Holiday Inns and moved into senior hotel advisory roles at PKF and CBRE. In 1997, he co-founded IHIF Berlin, a benchmarking company for the hotel industry, and in 2008 merged with STR to create STR Global. Over more than two decades, he has convened the deals, partnerships and investment relationships that have shaped the modern hospitality investment landscape across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
In addition to his executive leadership, Mr Worsley serves on the advisory boards of a number of hospitality organisations and startups, and is a driving force behind industry innovation initiatives including the FHS Startup Den and Lead the Change.
His appointment to the ACG Advisory Board is strategically foundational to ACG’s doctrine. Sport and entertainment districts, at the scale ACG is originating, are not stadiums standing alone — they are integrated urban precincts in which hotels, hospitality, food and beverage, retail and public realm together create the financial and experiential ecosystem that determines the district’s success. Hotels, in particular, are inseparable from district-scale sport and entertainment developments: they are what convert match-day and event-day visitors into overnight spend, what sustain the district’s economics on non-event days, and what integrate the district into the tourism, business travel and hospitality economies of the host country. Mr Worsley’s appointment ensures that hospitality is treated by ACG as core district infrastructure from the earliest stages of every project.
His appointment brings to the ACG Advisory Board unparalleled access to the global hospitality investment community, deep relationships across hotel operators, developers, financiers and tourism authorities, and hands-on experience of convening the deals and partnerships that shape modern hospitality-anchored urban development — capabilities directly relevant to originating and structuring large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across the African continent.
“Jonathan Worsley’s appointment reflects one of ACG’s foundational convictions: sport and entertainment districts are not stadiums standing alone — they are integrated urban precincts, and hotels are core district infrastructure. Through The Bench and FHS, Jonathan has built the pre-eminent global convening platform for hospitality investment, and through FHS Africa specifically, he has assembled the very community of investors, operators and developers ACG needs as we originate bankable sport and entertainment district ecosystems across the African continent. His presence on our Advisory Board is a genuine strategic asset,” said Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard, Founder and Executive Chairman of ACG.
The ACG Advisory Board provides strategic guidance as ACG originates and structures large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across the continent, aligning governments, development finance institutions (DFIs), investors, sport bodies and infrastructure partners to support the development of financially sustainable, mixed-use district ecosystems.
Africa’s sport economy is projected to reach $20 billion by 2035, yet the continent continues to lack the integrated district ecosystems required to support large-scale development. ACG addresses this gap by originating bankable sport and entertainment district projects, moving beyond single-venue development models towards mixed-use, revenue-generating and financially sustainable district ecosystems.
Through its collaborative model, ACG convenes governments, PPP authorities and regulators, development finance institutions, private investors, developers, designers and engineers, legal and transaction advisors, operators, sport federations and leagues, event promoters, media and broadcast partners, academic institutions and host communities, creating structured pathways from concept to feasibility, bankability and delivery.