Other Women's Jobs // A Day In The Life And Career Of Tatiana Veller

NAME: Tatiana Veller

AGE: 45

JOB TITLE: Managing Director, Stirling Hospitality Advisors

MOVED TO THE UAE IN: 2022

Tatiana Veller is a hospitality strategist, business builder, and long-time champion of doing things smarter, not just bigger. Since mid-2022, she has led Stirling Hospitality Advisors, a boutique advisory firm under Ras Al Khaimah Hospitality Holding. They seek to help hotel investors and developers grow the value of their assets, whether that’s by shaping a new project from scratch, fixing underperforming properties, or negotiating the right brand deal.

With 25+ years in the industry, Tatiana has lived and worked across four continents, run companies, launched brands, and advised everyone from global hotel groups to sovereign investors. Tatiana holds an MBA and an engineering degree (yes, she can crunch numbers and fix the coffee machine). She also speaks fluent hospitality, Russian, English, a few other European languages, and occasionally “CEO” and “developer under pressure” lingos. Beyond the spreadsheets and boardrooms, Tatiana is a mother of three, a travel addict, and a firm believer that great strategy is part logic, part creativity, and always personal.

Let’s discover a day in the life and career of Tatiana:

6:30AM:

Wake up, light stretch, and straight into mum mode: wake the kids, prep school lunches, herd everyone out the door by 7:05. Then it’s feeding the cats (who believe they run the house), followed by either a morning run or weights in my home gym, depending on what my body says. By 8:00, I’m in the shower and out the door by 8:20.

8:30AM:

Team check-in call, usually while I’m en route to Dubai or just settling into my desk in RAK. We run through the day’s priorities and any spillover from yesterday. Then I triage emails and knock out anything urgent. This is when I set the day’s tone; it’s a mix of discipline, momentum, and occasionally telling someone nicely that 'ASAP' means today, not tomorrow.

10:00AM:

From here, the meetings begin - client updates, investor calls, internal catchups, or mentoring sessions with my team. I’ve always carved out space for coaching, particularly women in the industry, because I know firsthand how impactful that support can be. These meetings are where personal strategies are sometimes shaped and problems begin to untangle.

12NOON:

Lunch? Rarely. It’s usually a working session, either with someone or solo. If I do manage 30 quiet minutes, I’m reading something that requires brainpower: a contract, proposal, performance report, or market data. Definitely not a lifestyle blog (though I love a glossy moment or an Insta feed when off duty). This is my thinking time, and I guard it when I can.

2:00PM:

I hit my strategic stride in the afternoons. If I’m not on a site visit or walking through a development, I’m deep in planning mode, working on brand positioning for a new resort, reviewing a feasibility model, or solving someone’s “we need help yesterday” challenge. I love building things from scratch, but I also enjoy a good turnaround, especially when it involves proving people wrong.

5:00PM:

I usually wrap up any final calls or finish client work, then hit the road for my 10-minute commute. Perks of living in a small town: by 6:00 I’m already back home, changed, and can be on the padel court, starting dinner, or dropping off a teenager to yet another sports session. The switch from strategy to stir-fry can be surprisingly therapeutic.

7:00PM:

Evenings are about reconnecting with the chaos and comedy of family life. I’ve got teenagers now, so dinners are part-meal, part-negotiation, part-therapy session. It keeps me grounded and sometimes humbles me more than any boardroom ever could.

9:00PM:

This is my exhale moment. Cats curled up next to me, glass of wine in hand, book in the other, usually something unrelated to work (unless I’m on a nonfiction binge). But occasionally, you’ll find me researching new ideas, tech trends, future models of hospitality, things that haven’t been done yet. It’s how I dream forward.

10:00PM:

I jot down ideas, voice-note myself reminders, and try to shut the laptop (keyword: try), or a book. Then it's lights out, unless I’m catching a 6 AM flight the next day, in which case… see you at 4:30.