Deniz Dorbek Spent 25 Years Inside the Biggest Hotel Brands. Then She Walked Away to Build Her Own.

Deniz Dorbek did not arrive in hospitality by accident. She studied it on purpose, choosing the industry as a young woman in Turkey because she was deeply curious about the world and convinced that hotels would give her a passport to it.

Twenty-five years later, that bet has taken her across three continents and seven countries, through commercial leadership roles at Hilton, Accor, Kempinski, Hyatt and Wyndham, and most recently into operations as RVP Operations at Hyatt and CEO of a hospitality tech startup. Along the way, she met her husband while working in Jordan, moved with him from Istanbul to London to New York, and after the pandemic became a mother to her daughter Adele, now four.

At the beginning of 2026, she walked away from every corporate structure she had ever known and launched Regulus Collective, a New York–based hospitality platform built around four interconnected verticals spanning advisory, brand creation, technology and longevity. In this Herstory, Deniz reflects on the moves that shaped her, becoming a mother after the pandemic, what she wishes more women in the industry would do, and why, six months in, founding her own company has been the hardest and best thing she has ever done.