THE TEAM
Jay Coldren
As President and Founder of ONSET Hospitality, Jay Coldren brings more than 30 years of hospitality development, design, and operations experience to develop award-winning dining, nightlife and food halls projects around the globe. His recent projects include stints as the Co-CEO for Time Out Market food halls, the Managing Director of Markets for the iconic gourmet retailer Dean & Deluca, and as the head of Global Hospitality for Streetsense, a creative design and consulting agency in Washington, DC.
As a part of a ten-year engagement with Marriott International, Mr. Coldren helped launch the company’s Insight Strategy and Innovation discipline, served as the Vice President of Lifestyle Brands, and held the role of Global Brand Leader for EDITION hotels, overseeing the development and expansion of this boutique hotel brand with hotel impresario Ian Schrager.
His background also includes leadership roles at extraordinary properties such as the Public Hotel, NYC, Claremont Resort & Spa, the Inn of the Anasazi, The Inn at Loretto, and the Michelin Three-Star Inn at Little Washington.
Roger Smith
Mohamed Abd-El-Kader
Roger has over 30 years of financial services experience with his most recent focus on creating and improving financial and accounting systems within the hospitality industry. His services enhance the CFO position through the implementation of complex financial reporting structures into synthesizable data allowing managers to make informed decisions as well as articulate the narrative of business conditions. The scope of services spans from financial planning and analysis to cash management to capital needs projections and capital raising goals. Prior to that, he worked in the hedge fund industry analyzing companies within the financial services sector of the public equities markets. He started his career at KPMG before moving to the sell-side as an equity analyst to develop his analytical skills. His coverage universe focused on both capital-intensive industries (insurance/capital markets) as well as growth-based recurring revenue industries (fintech/payment processing).
Mohamed Abd El Kader is a MENA-based hospitality executive with 14 years of experience across hotel operations, F&B development, and asset management. As Partner and Regional VP at ONSET Hospitality, he leads the firm’s expansion across the Middle East, focusing on food hall development, operations, and strategic partnerships. Previously, Mohamed was the asset manager for Saudi’s first food hall at Kingdom Centre, and held a senior leadership role at TLT Concepts, where he led hospitality strategy, brand development, and operational performance across a multi-brand portfolio. He also co-founded a hospitality company that secured and operated the master franchise rights for Em Sherif and Zaatar w Zeit in Egypt. Mohamed’s earlier career includes roles with Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, and La Maison Bleue.
Mark LaValle
Driven by his unique blend of passion, personality and precision, Mark LaValle embodies everything that a well-executed restaurant should be. His charismatic journey to hospitality virtuoso weaves through some of the most transformative moments in brand development and management over the last 30 years.
From his meteoric rise to Director of Operations for Giorgio Armani, to his tenure as Vice President of Design & Development for world-renowned nightlife impresario Rande Gerber’s The Gerber Group, Mark has realized concepts into vivid, multi-sensory experiences for countless iconic brands across the globe. Having overseen the opening of over 80 high-profile brick and mortar operations that run the conceptual gamut—from the creation of Massimo Boturra’s Gucci Osteria in Beverly Hills to his reimagining of the cannabis retail experience for Southern California’s leading dispensary chain, Sweet Flower—Mark imbues establishments with a magnetic warmth and gripping culture that turns heads and converts customers into company.