“We are such stuff as dreams are made on.” As Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest, dreams can feel abstract until, one day, you find yourself living one. For Katrin, that moment is not a distant memory or a single career milestone. It is the life she leads today as General Manager of The Abu Dhabi EDITION, surrounded by a team she admires in a hotel that continually inspires her.
“For me to be a General Manager is honestly the dream come true,” she says. “To be surrounded by so many passionate employees every day and a beautiful hotel as a setting. I don’t want to do anything else.”
Katrin’s journey began 27 years ago. After attending hotel school for four years, Katrin joined Marriott as a concierge intern at Hotel Arts Barcelona. “I started with the traditional way, I guess,” she says. “I did a hotel school for four years and then, as part of my internship, landed with Marriott just from the beginning as a concierge intern at the Hotel Arts Barcelona.”
That single internship became the starting point for a career that would take her all the way to the General Manager’s office. Her story is a striking, though not uncommon at Marriott, example of what can happen when an early opportunity is met with ambition, curiosity, and the space to keep growing.
Now, Katrin is creating that space for others. At The Abu Dhabi EDITION, she leads with a belief that luxury hospitality does not require people to leave their individuality at the door. In fact, she sees personality as an essential part of bringing the brand to life. “At EDITION, we can really say, ‘Just be yourself,’” she explains. “We are very much into expressing your personalities, being yourself.”
Her team brings together associates from luxury and non-luxury backgrounds. What matters is not that everyone arrives with the same experience, but that they have the freedom to contribute something of their own. “We just tell them, ‘This is kind of what we want to do and now be yourself.’ And then to see it actually work is amazing.”
Mentoring women is a particularly meaningful and rewarding part of her role. She wants more women to picture themselves building fulfilling lives alongside successful careers as General Managers. “I try to mentor a lot of ladies. I’m very, very passionate about it.”
Katrin is also raising her own family in Abu Dhabi, a city she values for its schools, beaches, museums and international community. Her children have friends from around the world, and the time they share there is something she does not take for granted. “The quality time I have here with the family is unmatched.”
Twenty-seven years after arriving in Barcelona as a concierge intern, Katrin is leading one of Marriott’s distinctive luxury hotels and helping others reach their own goals. Dreams may be the stuff stories are made of. But Katrin’s journey shows that they can also begin with something wonderfully real: a first opportunity.
