Marina began her hospitality career at the Glion Institute of Higher and the Hotel Savoy, Rocco Forte group, in Florence. After several years outside of the hospitality industry, in 2012 she established her own company with the goal of bringing global trends to the regional industry.

In 2013, Adria Hotel Forum was launched with an idea of showcasing world trends, sparking the creation of new ideas and partnerships and overall development of the hotel industry. Within a couple of years, AHF was the only internationally recognised hotel investment conference within South-East Europe whose partners are global companies.

In 2017, the company started a unique event with a goal of bringing trends into everyday hotel operations – HOW /Hotel Operations Weekend/ Festival that gathers every year more than 600 participants.

In 2018, the company rebranded as HESA Group and served as the connoisseur of the regional market and opportunities.

In 2019, Bench acquired the Adria Hotel Forum and Marina joined Bench as the Managing Director for Central and Eastern Europe. Marina is responsible for developing and launching IDEEA - a series of events that will explore the hotel investment and development potential in CEE/SEE/CIS regions.

In addition, Marina serves as an Industry Advisory Board Member at Glion Institute of Higher Education and holds both Croatian and Italian citizenship.

M: +385 91 761 0885
E: marina.franolic@thebench.com