Sandy Despres Stevens
Co-Founder & Managing DirectorNuel+EwingColeSandy Despres Stevens is a senior interior designer and hospitality business leader with over 25 years of experience across finance, design, and development.
She co-founded the U.S. office of Studio Jean-Philippe Nuel & Partners, an award-winning international hospitality design firm known for creating brand-defining properties across luxury and lifestyle segments worldwide. In this role, she has worked directly with owners, developers, and global operators — bridging the creative and commercial dimensions of hospitality projects.
Before moving into design, Sandy built a first career in institutional asset management, where she pioneered some of Europe's earliest ESG investment frameworks — a foundation that continues to shape how she thinks about design, value, and long-term impact.
She serves on the advisory board of the Meta Foundation, contributing to research on the future of hospitality at the intersection of technology, culture, and sustainability.
Sandy holds a Master's in Finance from Burgundy School of Business, with advanced studies in Interior Design and Architecture at Parsons School of Design, and in Hotel Real Estate Asset Management at Cornell's Nolan School. Dual French-American, she is based in New York.
Beyond Aesthetics: Identity, Soul & Revenue — The New Hospitality Equation
Soul isn't a mood board. It's a neuroscience outcome.Light, flow, material, spatial sequence — these aren't aesthetic calls, they're behavioral ones.T…Soul isn't a mood board. It's a neuroscience outcome.Light, flow, material, spatial sequence — these aren't aesthetic calls, they're behavioral ones.This panel dives deep into how design decisions directly shape what guests feel,and how that translat…Soul isn't a mood board. It's a neuroscience outcome.Light, flow, material, spatial sequence — these aren't aesthetic calls, they're behavioral ones.This panel dives deep into how design decisions directly shape what guests feel,and how that translates into spend, loyalty, and scalable identity. We'll connect neurodesign, identity, and operational thinking into one framework: design as strategy, not decoration.Soul isn't a mood board. It's a neuroscience outcome.Light, flow, material, spatial sequence — these aren't aesthetic calls, they're behavioral ones.This panel dives deep into how design decisions directly shape what guests feel,and how that translates into spend, loyalty, and scalable identity. We'll connect neurodesign, identity, and operational thinking into one framework: design as strategy, not decoration.Show MoreClick the title to see all details
