James Bermingham is out as CEO of Virgin Hotels Collection and the company is undergoing a search for a new leader.
In a statement sent to CoStar News, Virgin said the company's chief commercial officer and board member Joe Margison will assume the role in an interim capacity “for the next 12 months.”
Bermingham joined Virgin as CEO in 2021. Prior to that, he was commissioner and chair of the board for Visit California, the state’s official tourism body.
The group has eight hotels around the world, and an additional nine properties in its Limited Edition collection, including Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, owned by Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson.
The statement said Bermingham “played a pivotal role in developing Virgin Hotels Collection."
Under Bermingham’s stewardship, Virgin opened several hotels: the 238-room Virgin Hotels New Orleans in 2021; the 222-room Virgin Hotels Edinburgh in 2022; the 460-room Virgin Hotels New York City in 2023; and the 120-room Virgin Hotels London-Shoreditch, a conversion of the Mondrian Shoreditch London, in August 2024, according to CoStar.
That is 50% of the group’s hotel portfolio and 46% of its hotels’ room count.
When its London hotel opened, Bermingham spoke to CoStar News about the company's growth strategy, noting that “growth for us is important, but careful growth. We choose locations and programming very carefully, as well as the partners that share the same vision,” he said.
Hotels in Miami and Denver are in the development pipeline, according to the company.