Unleashing Best-In-Class Hosting: Dive into the Mind of Airbnb's Visionary Leader Redefining the Hosting Experience and Beyond with Catherine Powell, Head of Global Hosting at Airbnb

Woman Inc.

Catherine Powell is the Global Head of Hosting at Airbnb. In her role, Catherine leads Airbnb’s global hosting organization, helping 4 million+ Hosts of Homes and Experiences deliver best-in-class, quality hosting. Catherine's responsibilities include overseeing the Host insights and research team and the Experiential Creative Product team, as well as developing standards, education, products and features for Airbnb's Host community. Catherine also serves as executive sponsor of Airbnb.org, the company’s independent nonprofit, leading the team’s collaboration with the company to ensure Airbnb.org has the resources it needs to scale its impact in support of people in need of emergency stays.

Prior to joining Airbnb, Catherine held a number of leadership positions at The Walt Disney Company, most recently serving as President of Disney Parks Western Region with a team of 120,000 cast members reporting into her, which included Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida; Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California; and Disneyland Paris in Coupvray, Marne La Vallee, France. Before that, she served as Présidente for the Euro Disney group, operator of Europe's leading tourist destination, Disneyland Paris. She also held the positions of Senior Vice President in charge of media distribution for EMEA, and General Manager for The Walt Disney Company in Australia and New Zealand.

Catherine is Airbnb’s first Global Head of Hosting. As a leader, she is passionate about employee development and creating an equitable and inclusive culture that empowers people of all backgrounds to be great at what they do. She has pioneered a number of integrated and innovative strategies to drive revenue, reach and results across businesses and territories worldwide. A strong collaborator, Catherine is an experienced communicator and has worked to bring together and coordinate a wide variety of businesses and teams.

Catherine is a mentor and board member at Ceresa, a non-profit leadership development and mentoring platform. She also sits on the board of Pophouse Entertainment, which operates in the fields of music, live entertainment, podcast, gaming and hospitality.