The Newsletter of The Boutique Search Firm, a
worldwide recruiting firm specializing in hospitality management.
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Global Update: Who's where and doing
what:
February 2006
THE
AMERICAS
Dieter
Huckenstein has been named Chief
Executive Officer of lumber mogul Tim Blixseth's Yellowstone Club, where $4 million buys its members access to dream
homes in all the right places. Huckenstein was most recently the Chairman and
Chief Executive officer of Conrad International Hotels for long-time employer Hilton Hotels.
Don Robinson has been appointed President of Baha Mar Resorts
following thirty-four years with
Disney. He ran operations for the
entire Walt Disney World Resort and,
most recently, served as Executive Vice President and Group Managing Director of
Hong Kong Disneyland.
San Francisco's Personality
Hotels has hired Stephen
Algood as Chief Operating Officer. He
is a former Vice President of Operations for Luxe Worldwide
Hotels, a Regional General Manager of SeaSpan Management
Company and a former General Manager
for Radisson.
Marriott
International has promoted Robert
McCarthy to President, North American
Lodging Operations. He was Executive Vice President, North American Lodging
Operations prior to his appointment. McCarthy also served as Executive Vice
President of Operations, Planning and Support, Regional Senior Vice President of
the Northeast and Vice President of Operations for Courtyard and Fairfield Inns.
Bob Boughner
has returned to Las Vegas to lead the
development as President and Chief Executive Officer of Boyd
Gaming's Echelon
Place, the complex due to be built on
the location of the current Stardust. Boughner had previously served in a similar capacity
for the Borgata Hotel and Casino in
Atlantic City. Filling in for Boughner in Atlantic City will be Larry
Mullin who has been promoted to
President and Chief Operating Officer of the Borgata.
Chuck Floyd has been promoted to Executive Vice President/Chief
Operating Officer for Hyatt Hotels Corporation. He will be replacing longtime company executive Ed
Rabin who retired in December. Floyd
has served as the Executive Vice President of Operations since September
2003.
Stephen
Miller has been named Senior Vice
President, Acquisitions and Development for Laurence Geller's Strategic Hotels & Resorts. He was most recently the President and CEO of
Arlington Hospitality.
Ventana Hotels &
Resorts has appointed Steven
Chelew as Chief Operating Officer.
Chelew was most recently the General Manager of the Hotel La Jolla at the
Shores.
Robert La
Forgia has been promoted to Executive
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Hilton Hotels. He was previously the Senior Vice President and Chief
Financial Officer since 2004, and prior to that as Senior Vice President and
Controller since 1996.
James Harvey has been
promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Hilton
Hotels. He previously served as Senior
Vice President and Chief Information Officer.
David Thompson has
been promoted to Senior Vice President and Controller at Hilton
Hotels. He has been with Hilton for
eleven years.
Steven
Standefer has been named Senior Vice
President – Tax for Hilton Hotels.
He was working for Promus in 1999
when it was purchased by Hilton.
Cornell
graduate Charly Assaly
has been named President of Buddha-Bar Hotels, Resorts and Spas,
Worldwide.
Assaly was most recently
at Sol Melia Hotels and Resorts in Miami as the Corporate Director of New
Development.
Carlos
Cabrera has been promoted to Senior
Vice President, Field Operations for Hyatt Hotels Corporation. Cabrera was most recently the Vice President and
Managing Director of the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort &
Spa.
Tom Gurtner has relocated to the Four Seasons Westlake
Village as
Mark Neubert has joined the Moana Hotel and Restaurant
Group in Mill Valley as Vice President
Operations. Neubert was most recently the General Manager at the Hotel
Andalucia in Santa Barbara. Moana, a
sister company to Auberge Resorts,
includes seventeen Piatti
restaurants as well as Redd and
Sonoma Kitchen.
Brian
Flaherty has returned to the hotel
industry joining MTM Management as
Vice President and Opening General Manager of the Hotel 1000 in Seattle, scheduled to open June 2006. Flaherty was
most recently the Chief Operating Officer of ERA Care following a twenty-year career with Four
Seasons.
Jerry Gibson transferred to the Grand Hyatt New
York as General Manager. He was most
recently the General Manager of the Hyatt Lake Las Vegas after holding the same position at the Hyatt Regency
Kauai.
Lori Main was appointed General Manager at the new Pan Pacific
Seattle scheduled for opening October
2006. Main was most recently the General Manager at the
Roosevelt, also in Seattle.
Manfred Timmel has been
named General Manager of the Hotel Andalucia in Santa Barbara, taking
over for Mark Neubert. Timmel had previously been the opening General
Manager of the Ritz-Carlton New York Battery Park, the Regent Wall
Street, and the Peninsula New York. He also ran the Southampton
Princess in Bermuda.
Stephen
Parker has transferred as General
Manager to the InterContinental Harbor Court in Baltimore, formerly known as the Harbor Court
Hotel. Parker was previously the
General Manager at InterContinental Hotels in Austin, Shanghai and Sri
Lanka.
Guy
Lucas has been appointed General
Manager at the Ramada Toronto International Airport. Lucas was most recently the General Manager at the
Holiday Inn Marina in Monterey,
following a stint as Director of Operations at the Sofitel Los
Angeles.
Bob Sassani is the new General Manager of the Water
Club in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was
most recently the General Manager of the Hotel Astor in Miami Beach.
Ralph Renz has been appointed General Manager of New York's
Lowell replacing Heiko Kuenstle who left several months ago to
become the General Manager of the Pierre for Taj International.
Laurent Carrasset has
been named General Manager for Orient-Express Peru. Carrasset was most
recently the General Manager of Orient-Express' Bora Bora Lagoon Resort.
Second time around in Peru for Carrasset who once was the General Manager of the
Hotel Monasterio in Cusco.
Andres Araya has been
promoted from Resort Manager to Managing Director of Las Ventanas al
Paraiso. Prior to joining Las Ventanas
in 2003, Araya was the Executive Assistant Manager/Director of Food &
Beverage at the Ajman Kempinski Hotel & Resort. Previously, he served as Director of Food &
Beverage at the Conrad Cairo Hotel & Casino, the St.
Regis Aspen, the Sheraton Maria Isabel and the Palace of the Lost City. At Las Ventanas, Araya takes over for Luis
Fernandes, who is now at the helm of
owner Ty Warner's hotel group.
Didier
Picquot has joined the Lyford Cay
Club as Managing Director. He was most recently the General Manager
at the Regent of Bangkok (now the
Four Seasons Bangkok). Picquot also ran
the Pierre for Four
Seasons, following a stint as Vice President with Peninsula
in Hong Kong.
Leland Lewis has transferred as General Manager from the
InterContinental Cleveland to the
InterContinental The Barclay in New
York. Lewis has spent the vast majority of his career with InterContinental
Hotels & Resorts in New Orleans,
Toronto and Montreal. He previously worked for Four Seasons in Chicago, New York and San Francisco.
Campbell
Black replaces Leland
Lewis at the InterContinental
Cleveland as General Manager and
Regional Vice President. Black transfers from the Mark Hopkins
InterContinental.
Chuck Pomerantz has been appointed Senior Vice President and General
Manager at the Atlantis on Paradise Island. Pomerantz joins from the Gaylord
Palms in Dallas where he was the Vice
President and Hotel Manager since 2003.
Also at the Atlantis, Ellen
Poth has transferred as Vice President
- Quality Assurance from the Atlantis Palm Island Dubai where she was the (pre-opening) Executive Director -
Hotel Operations for the past year. Prior to that, she was with Caesar's
Palace in Las Vegas.
Gene Allbury
has been appointed Senior Vice President - Special Project Liaison for
Atlantis Paradise Island. He was
previously the Senior Vice President at Harbourside Timeshare
Resort. Replacing Allbury as the new
Senior Vice President - Harbourside Timeshare Resort, is Russell
Miller who was formerly the General
Manager of the One & Only Ocean Club Resort, and has most recently been overseeing
Kerzner's new "condotelÓ joint
venture with Turnberry.
John Conway
is appointed Senior Vice President and General Manager for Paradise
Island's as yet un-named new All-Suite
Tower, and for the new "condotel" joint venture with
Turnberry. For the past eight years,
he had been the Senior Vice President & General Manager of the Royal
Towers at Atlantis.
InterContinental
Hotels has appointed Tom
Conophy to the newly created position
of Chief Information Officer. Conophy joins from Starwood where he held the position of Executive Vice President
& Chief Technology Officer. Previous to Starwood, he was the Senior Vice
President for Strategic Architecture for Sabre.
Steve Labrie will be joining SBE Entertainment as Vice President Technology. He joins from House of
Blues Entertainment where he was the
Director of Network Operations.
Jan
Rozenveld joins the Kor
Group's Tides Hotel on Miami's South Beach. He was most recently the
General Manager of the Royalton in
New York.
Jort Buning has moved to Brazil and is the new General Manager of
the Iberostar Grand Amazon in
Manaus. He previously ran the company's Iberostar Cozumel property, as well as the Iberostar
Barlovento in
Cuba.
Warren
Francis has been named
General Manager of the Palms in Turks and Caicos. Francis, a Cornell
graduate, was most recently the Manager of the Petit St. Vincent
Resort and was previously
the General Manager at the Manasota Beach Club.
Eric Rimmele has been named General Manager of the hip, new Hotel
Tower 23 in Pacific Beach. Rimmele
was most recently the Director of Food and Beverage at the Westgate
in San Diego.
Don Dennis has been appointed General Manager of the University
Tower Hotel in Seattle, replacing
Karl Kruger who has been named
Managing Director-Seattle for Noble House Hotels &
Resorts. Since joining Noble House in
2002, Dennis has served as the Director of Rooms at Hotel
Viking in Newport and as the interim
General Manager of the Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club in Redondo Beach.
Carter Donovan
has joined Campton
Place in San Francisco as General
Manager. Donovan had previously been the General Manager/Consultant at the
Francisco Grande Hotel and Golf Resort in Arizona following a twenty-year career with
Ritz-Carlton. At Campton Place, she
replaces Paul Zuest, who
successfully ran the property for nine years.
The Sheraton Old San Juan Hotel has appointed Donald Dougherty as General Manager. Dougherty was most recently the
General Manager at the Crowne Plaza Harrisburg. He had also served as Director of Operations at the
former Wyndham Old San Juan Hotel and Casino.
Mark Murphy has been appointed General Manager of the Hotel
Telluride Condominium in Colorado
replacing Tammy Burden. Murphy was
most recently the Rooms Director at the Peaks Resort and Golden Door
Spa.
At the
Greenbrier, General Manager Jack
Damioli has left after twenty two
years; so has long-time Vice President of Food and Beverage Rod
Stoner, who is being replaced by
Gunnard Cunningham.
Ellis
O'Connor has been appointed Resident
Manager at the Peninsula New York
replacing Zack Zahran who has left
the company. O'Connor transfers from the same position at the Peninsula
Beverly Hills where he spent over nine
years.
Christophe
Thomas has been named
Hotel Manager of the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York
scheduled to reopen this spring. Thomas, who served thirteen years with
Hilton International in Europe,
South America and the Caribbean, was most recently the Director of Rooms at the
Drake in Chicago and
the Windsor Court in New
Orleans.
Christoph
Ganster has been promoted
to Executive Assistant Manager Food and Beverage at Raffles Resort Canouan
Island. He was promoted
from Director of Food & Beverage. He previously worked as the Food &
Beverage Manager at Lemuria Resort of Praslin, Seychelles; One&Only
Kanuhura, Maldives and
Labourdonnais Waterfront Hotel, Mauritius.
Win Person has been appointed Vice President Restaurant
Development at Las Vegas' Pure Management Group. He was until recently the Vice President Food and
Beverage at Bellagio, following seven years with Four Seasons
in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and
Mexico City. He is a Lausanne graduate.
Rene Van Camp has been
named Beverage Director for InterContinental Hotels, the Americas,
reporting to Vice President Food and Beverage Jean-Pierre
Etcheberrigaray. Van Camp moves up from the position of Assistant Food and
Beverage Director at the InterContinental Buckhead.
Marie Maher has joined Wynn Las Vegas as Executive Director of Food and Beverage. She had
recently left Bellagio where she
held the same title.
Patrick De
Staercke has been named
Director of Food and Beverage at Meeru Island Resort in the Maldives. He was most recently the
Director of Restaurants at the Brown Palace following a stint in the same role at
Elk Mountain Resort
near Telluride.
Joseph
Prezioso has been hired by State of
the Art Enterprises as Vice President
of Business Development. A former Director of Banquet Operations of the
Pierre, Prezioso previously spent
many years in the same capacity at the St. Regis.
Toby Reivant has moved to Miami to join Royal Caribbean Cruise
Lines as Director of Alternative
Dining. Reivant was most recently the Director of Operations at Bistro
Moderne in the Hotel Derek
in Houston. He is also a former Restaurant Director at Napa
Valley's Auberge du Soleil.
Ramon Arrau has been
named Director of Food and Beverage at the Lodge Kura Hulanda & Beach
Club in Curacao. He was previously the Resident Manager at the Hotel
Hacienda Los Lingues in Chile.
Eric Vievard has
transferred as Director of Food and Beverage to the Four Seasons Resort Santa
Barbara, from the same position at the Four Seasons Terre Blanche in
Provence, a property he opened.
Pradeep
Raman has transferred back to the
Peninsula Chicago as the Assistant
Director of Food and Beverage. Raman was most recently in the same position at
the Peninsula Hong Kong after
serving as Restaurant Manager at the Peninsula Chicago.
Christopher
Garcia has been named
Director of Rooms at the Windsor Court in New Orleans. Garcia was most recently
in Hawaii as Manager of Front Office Operations at Halekulani.
Raffles Resort
Canouan Island has
promoted Benjamin Simpao to Rooms Division Manager. Simpao was
previously the Assistant Rooms Division
Linda Hodgson has been
named Director of Sales and Marketing for the InterContinental The Barclay
New York. She most recently held the same title at the Langham
Boston, a property she had recently
joined from Hilton International.
John
Visconti is the new
Director of Sales and Marketing at the Hyatt Regency Miami. He was most recently serving as a
consultant for Thompson Hotels in Los Angeles and was previously the
Regional Director Sales and Marketing for JC Resorts. In addition, he spent thirteen years
with InterContinental Hotels and Resorts.
Francis
Purvey has been appointed Director of
Sales and Marketing for both the Radisson Aruba Resort &
Casino and the soon-to-open Radisson
St. Martin Resort & Spa. He
was most recently the Director of Sales and Marketing at the Bahia Mar Beach
Resort in Fort Lauderdale.
Bruce James has been named Director of Sales and Marketing for
Casa del Mar Resort in Cabo San
Lucas. He was most recently the Director of Sales at the Pantages
Hotel in Toronto following stints with
Fiesta Americana and
Hyatt.
Melinda Anderson-De
Regil has been appointed Director of
Sales in charge of the Western Region with Taj Hotels in Los Angeles. She was previously with Le Méridien
Hotels and Resorts for five years as
Director of Global Sales.
Amanda Shipp has been
promoted to Executive Vice President Public Relations at the Experiential
Agency after joining the company in 2004. Shipp, a Cornell graduate, was
previously with Spago in Chicago as a Managing
Partner.
The Marcus
Corporation has promoted Karen
Spindler to Corporate Director of Human
Resources taking over the responsibilities of Fred Delmenhorst
who has retired. Prior to her
promotion, Spindler served as Vice President of Human Resources for Marcus
Hotels and Resorts. She joined Marcus
in 2001 following fifteen years with Hyatt.
Miranda DeSantis has
joined Noble House Hotels & Resorts as Vice President of "Great
People" leading Noble House's human resources organization. Prior to joining
Noble House, DeSantis held human resources positions at Starwood and
Verizon.
Kimpton Hotels and
Restaurants has named Greg
Smith Senior Vice President Human
Resources. Smith comes from Interstate Hotels.
Matt
Martin has been promoted
to Corporate Director of Human Resources with Marcus Hotels and
Resorts. Martin was
previously the Director of Human Resources at the Hotel
Phillips in Kansas
City.
Daniel
Leonard has transferred
to the Park Hyatt Washington DC as Assistant Director of Human Resources.
Leonard was most recently at the Park Hyatt Carmel Highlands
Inn and was previously at
the Park Hyatt Toronto Hotel.
Paul
Wade, for many years the
talented Executive Chef at Montagna at the Little Nell, has left the Four Seasons
Houston after a short
stint (He had replaced Tim Keating). Wade will be the Executive Chef at
Santa Fe's landmark Hotel Eldorado and its restaurant The Old
House.
Martin Davis
has been named Executive Chef at the
Palms in Turks and Caicos taking over
for Jasper Schneider who opened the
hotel. Davis was most recently the Head Chef at Penthouse in London and was previously Executive Chef at the
Royalton, Tuscan Steak
in New York and Asia de
Cuba in London.
Quinn and Karen
Hatfield plated their last dish at San
Francisco's Cortez on New Year's
Eve. The chef and pastry chef are headed to West Hollywood, where they plan to
open their own restaurant in the spring. The 50-seat place will be called
Hatfield. Los Angeles is where home
was when the Hatfields worked as a team at the helm of
Oceanfront at Casa Del
mar.
Bruno Egea has joined the Fairmont Newport
Beach as Executive Chef. Egea comes from Las Vegas where he had
been at the Paris Hotel and Casino
since 1999, most recently as the Executive Sous Chef. He also toiled at the
Four Seasons Nevis, the Four
Seasons at Beverly Hills,
L'Orangerie and the Ritz-Carlton
Huntington.
The Café at the Ritz-Carlton Boston has a new chef, Rex Gonsalves. Gonsalves came to Boston from the fine dining
restaurant, Georgia's, at the
Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Reynolds Plantation. Prior to that, he was at the Ritz-Carlton
Dubai for three years and worked at the
Taj Group of hotels in Bombay.
Swissôtel The Drake, New
York has appointed Donald
Drnek as Executive Chef. Drnek was most
recently in the same position at the Omni Berkshire Place.
Ron Boyd has been appointed Executive Chef at Un Grand
Café in San Francisco. Boyd was most
recently the Chef at Domaine Chandon and had run Julia's Kitchen at COPIA.
JER-NE at the Ritz-Carlton Boston Common has a new chef, Scott Gambone, who comes from the Ritz-Carlton
Buckhead where he was Executive Sous
Chef. He also worked for Boca Resorts as Executive Sous Chef at the Registry
in Naples, and at the Club
Room at the Boca
Raton Resort and
Club as Chef de
Cuisine.
Michel
Darmon has joined Tom
Keller's
Bouchon in Yountville
as General Manager of Private Dining. Darmon was most recently an Assistant
General Manager at Keller's Per Se in New York.
Nick
Fielding has joined
Table 8 at the
Regent South Beach as
General Manager. Fielding was most recently the Director of Service at Spago
Beverly Hills following
seven years at Turnberry Isle Resort and Club.
Don Hart has been promoted to General Manager at Michael
Mina's Seablue at the MGM Grand Las
Vegas. He was most recently the
Assistant General Manager at Fiamma at the MGM Grand and was previously at
Bouchon at the
Venetian.
Joshua Summers
has been appointed Director of Beverage
at Mandalay Bay and THE
hotel. Summers makes the move from
Diego at the MGM
Grand where he was the General Manager.
He had also served as Restaurant Manager at Breeze at the Westin (now Hyatt Regency) Century Plaza.
Oded Talmor has been
promoted to General Manager of Wolfgang Puck's Spago
restaurant in Las Vegas. Talmor was previously the Assistant General Manager at
another Puck eatery, the Venetian's Postrio.
Ron Didner is the Owner/Managing Partner at the new Pair of
Eights restaurant in New York City.
Didner, a Cornell graduate, was most recently the General Manager at Café des
Artistes.
Christophe Lilienfeld
has joined Albert Uster Imports in
California as Sales Representative. Lilienfeld was most recently the Pastry
Chef at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa
where he spent four years. Lilienfeld had also been the Executive Pastry Chef at
Chinois on Main and
L'Orangerie.
Robert
Watson is the new Chef Concierge at the
Willard Intercontinental in
Washington DC. Watson has been a Concierge for the last thirty years and worked
with Intercontinental Hotels for
fifteen years in London, South Africa and Luxembourg. He was most recently at
the Landmark London.
Richard
Gonzales has joined the Four Seasons
Washington DC as Assistant Director of
Revenue Management. Gonzales was previously the Reservations Director at
the former Four Seasons Newport Beach.
EUROPE
Yann
Caillère has been named Chief Operating
Officer of Accor, overseeing hotels
in Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa and is in charge of operations for
Sofitel. Caillère was most recently
the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Louvre Hotels
Group, the group recently sold by the
Taittinger family to Barry
Sternlicht's Starwood
Capital. Caillère also spent many years
at Disneyland Resort Paris.
Even Frydenberg has been appointed Senior Vice President, Operations,
Europe, Africa and Middle East for Starwood. He was previously Vice President, Six Sigma, for the
same region, a position he has held since February 2001.
Also at
Starwood, Bill Showalter has been appointed Senior Vice President, Finance,
Europe Africa and Middle East; Martin Franck has been appointed Senior Vice President, Human
Resources, for the same region, where Robert Scott has been appointed Senior Vice President, General
Counsel. Additionally, Wilke
See-Tho has been appointed Senior Vice
President, Acquisitions & Development and Erhard Noreisch, Senior Vice President, Regional Director, East &
Central Europe.
Still at
Starwood Europe, Africa and the
Middle East, Philippe
Cassis has been named Senior Vice
President, Regional Director, Spain and Portugal. He was previously Senior Vice
President, Regional Director of Operations, Africa and Middle East, a position
he has held since October 2001.
At Starwood's Le Méridien, Robert
Koren has been named Vice President,
Regional Director, Italy and Malta.
The Domina Hotel
Group has promoted Jean Patrick
Thiry to Managing Director. Thiry
joined Domina in March 2005 as Vice President Area Manager Africa and Indian
Ocean Division. Prior to that he was Area Managing Director of Starwood
French Polynesia.
Domina has also appointed Guy Simmons Regional Manager Baltic Area. Before joining Domina, he
spent twenty years Holiday Inn,
Radisson and
Intercontinental.
Markus
Engel is the new Vice
President Sales and Marketing – Europe, Africa and Middle East, for Oberoi
Hotels & Resorts
based in London. Engel was most recently the General Manager at the Oberoi
in Mauritius. He also
served as Resident Manager at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London, and as opening Director of
Food and Beverage at the Peninsula Chicago.
Nicolas
Desanti is a Regional Director for
France Patrimoine. Prior experience
includes Senior Executive of International Business Development with the luxury
catering company Dalloyau and
Executive Director of European Operations with Dolce
International.
Alejandro
Helbling transfers within
Ritz-Carlton from General Manager at
the Ritz-Carlton Montreal to General
Manager of the Hotel Villa Padierna
in Marbella. Helbling originally joined Ritz-Carlton (from Hyatt
International) in 2002 as Executive
Assistant Manager in charge of Food and Beverage at the Ritz-Carlton
Dubai.
Jean-Claude
Boutin has been appointed General
Manager at the Château de Gilly. He
previously held similar positions at the Hotel Océania, the Hôtel Mercure Continental in Brest and the Hôtel du Golf in Lyon.
Alain
Brunier has been appointed General
Manager of the Ecole Hôtelière de Genève. An alumni
of Lausanne, Brunier has held various positions in the hospitality industry
including General Manager at the Domaine de Divonne and Les Airelles in Courchevel. He was most recently at the University
of Cap Gemini in Chantilly. In Geneva,
he takes over from Oskar Sykora who
has retired.
Bart Van de
Winkel transfers as General Manager of
the Athens Hilton replacing
Gianni Riatsch. Van de Winkel
recently ran the Brussels Hilton.
Philippe Rubod is the
new General Manager at the Burgenstock Park Hotel near Lucerne. Recently a consultant, he is a former
General Manager of the Hotel d'Angleterre and the Hotel Richemond both in Geneva.
Thierry Zilliox is
the new General Manager at the Sofitel Thalassa Les Célestins and Spa
in Vichy. He was previously at the
Sofitel Thalassa Porticcio in
Corsica where he toiled for thirteen years.
The Hard Rock Hotel Reina
Victoria in Madrid (operated by Sol-Meliá) has appointed Alexander
Hugot as General Manager. Hugot has spent a large part of his career with
Sol Meliá, first at the Meliá Playa Conchal in Costa Rica, then at the
Meliá Cariari and Tryp Corobici also in Costa Rica. Most recently,
he was the Director of Operations and interim General Manager of the Hard
Rock Hotel in Chicago, a property no longer operated by
Sol-Meliá.
Andrew Pike is the new General Manager of London's Milestone
Hotel taking over from Christine
Hodder who has left the company. Pike
was most recently Manager at the Montague on The Gardens also in London.
Piergiorgio
Mosconi is the new General Manager at
the Grand Hotel Angiolieri due to
open this spring. Mosconi has previously been with the Hotel
Cristallo and the Hotel Bernini
Bristol.
Peter Laigaard
Jensen has joined the
Scheelsminde Hotel in Aalborg as General
Manager. Most recently Jensen was the General Manager of the Britannia
Hotel in Esbjerg following a tour
with Marco Polo Hotels in Beijing.
Georg
Plesser is the General Manager at
Sir Rocco Forte's Villa
Kennedy in Frankfurt slated for opening
in March. Plesser was most recently in the same position at the Hotel
Ermitage am See in Zurich. He also held
various management positions at Geisel Hotels in Munich and Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey, Florida and
Barcelona.
Heiko
Siebert has been promoted at
Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts to
Vice President Distribution. Siebert joined the company in 2001 as Director
of Reservations and Revenue
Management.
Jean-Pierre
Trévisan has been appointed Director of
Food and Beverage at the Hotel Ritz
in Paris. Trévisan was most recently the Director of Operations at the Cercle
de l'Union Interalliée in Paris. He
also served as Director of Food and Beverage at the Four Seasons George
Cinq and the Hotel InterContinental
Paris.
Francis
Bertrand has been promoted at
Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts to
Vice President Sales Europe. Bertrand joined the company in 1999 as Regional
Sales Director.
Roman Straub has joined Vienna International
Hotels in Prague as Corporate Director
of Sales and Marketing. Straub was most recently the General Manager at the
Hotel Diplomat, also in Prague. He
previously served as Executive Assistant Manager at Le Méridien Beverly
Hills.
Sandrine
Camia has joined the Hotel Metropole
Monte Carlo as Director of Sales and
Marketing. Camia was previously the Director of Sales at the Royal
Riviera and a Sales Manager at the
Hotel Martinez.
Marcel Horande
has been appointed Assistant Director
of Sales for Barcelona's Majestic
Hotel Group. He was previously in
charge of international markets at the Hotel InterContinental
Paris and InterContinental Le Grand
Hotel Paris. Most recently, he was the
Sales and Marketing Director for Diagonal Hotels.
Pierre-Marie
Vasseur has been appointed Director of
Sales Leisure for the Domina Hotel Group and Director of Business Development for the Domina
Coral Bay Hotel, Resort & Casino in
Egypt. Vasseur previously spent many years in French Polynesia with Outrigger
Hotels and Sheraton French
Polynesia.
At the Hotel Plaza-Athenée
Paris, Stephane
Tricyonka has joined as Sales Manager,
taking over from Dagmar Koehler-Lombard who has left the company.
Astrid
Murner-Thomas has been
promoted from Front of House Manager to Director of Rooms at the Mandarin
Oriental Hyde Park in
London. She has also worked for the Peninsula Chicago as well as for Four
Seasons in various
locations.
Simoes
Alexandre has been appointed Restaurant
Manager at the Boscolo Hotel Plaza in Nice. He was most recently Banqueting Supervisor at
Le Palais de La Méditerranée also in
Nice following stints at the Radisson SAS Nice and the Conrad
Brussels.
ASIA AND THE
PACIFIC
Michael
Sagild has been appointed Chief
Operating Officer at William Heineke's Minor Group based in Bangkok. Sagild was previously with Le
Méridien Hotels and Resorts for the
past six years, most recently as Managing Director Asia
Pacific.
Christoph
Zbinden is the new Group Director of
Food and Beverage at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group taking over the position left vacant when Bryan
O'Shields left. He comes from
Ritz-Carlton's corporate
headquarters in Atlanta. In addition to two stints at Ritz-Carlton, Zbinden was
in charge of Food and Beverage Operations at Sol Kerzner's Atlantis
in the Bahamas and at the Peninsula Hong Kong.
Filip Boyen has been promoted to the position of Vice President for
Orient-Express Hotels, Trains and Cruises for Australia, Africa and Latin America. Boyen, who had
started with Orient-Express as the General Manager of the Bora Bora Lagoon
Resort, had until recently been in
charge of the company's hotels and trains in Peru. His successor there is
Laurent Carrasset.
Dusit Hotels &
Resorts has appointed Duncan
Jamieson as Vice President-Development.
Jamieson has been working in Thailand since 1982, at the Peninsula
Bangkok as Marketing Director, at Le
Meridien Hotels Thailand as Marketing
Director, at Le Meridien Baan Boran as General Manager. He was most recently the Managing
Director at Mom Tri's Co., Ltd.
Patrick
Sibourg has been named Director Sales & Marketing for
Accor Asia Pacific – Indonesia.
He was most recently the Chief
Operating Officer for Hilton International Indonesia and has ten years previous experience with
Accor in Europe (France) and Asia
Pacific (Indonesia).
Douglas
Louden has been appointed General
Manager Hospitality for Hong Kong Resorts. Louden was most recently Corporate Director of
Operations at Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts and previously the General Manager at the Pan
Pacific Bangkok.
The Sheraton Noosa Resort
& Spa has appointed Mark
Sexton as its new General Manager
replacing Boyd Williams who is
retiring. Sexton had previously spent several years in various senior
operational roles within the property. He had left in 2002 to take on the
position of General Manager, Four Points by Sheraton, Geelong,
Victoria.
Eric Pere has returned to Orient-Expresss as the General Manager of the Bora Bora Lagoon
Resort, taking over from Laurent
Carrasset. Pere was, until a few months
ago, the General Manager of the Port Palace in Monaco. He had also been the Hotel Manager at the
Berkeley for then Savoy Hotel
Group. Pere's first experience with
Orient-Express took place at La Samanna where he first toiled as Financial Controller, later as
Resident Manager.
Philippe
Charraudeau has joined The
JingAn in Shanghai as General Manager.
Charraudeau was most recently the General Manager at the Islamabad Serena
Hotel in
Pakistan.
Mark Neukomm has been promoted to General Manager at the
Ritz-Carlton Osaka. Neukomm originally
joined the hotel as Executive Assistant Manager Food and Beverage and was most
recently the Hotel Manager before his promotion. He also served as Director of
Food and Beverage at the Portman Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, following fourteen years with Hilton
International.
Yannick
Poupon has transferred to the Taj
Mahal in New Delhi as General Manager.
Poupon was most recently the General Manager of the Taj in Dubai. He has also been the General Manager at the
Heritage Hotel in Manila and the
Hotel Clio Court in Fukuoka. Poupon
also logged sixteen years with InterContinental.
The Sheraton Grande Laguna
Phuket has appointed Jan Stefan
Kirstein as General Manager. Kirstein
was transferred by Starwood from
Amman where he was the General Manager of the Sheraton Amman Al Nabil Hotel
& Towers.
Biswajit
Chakraborty has been
appointed General Manager of the
Sean
Halliday has been appointed General
Manager of the Furama Resort, Danang
replacing Paul Stoll who originally
opened the resort in 1997.
Stephan Schupbach
is the new Resident Manager of the
One and Only Reethi Rah in the
Maldives. Schupbach was most recently at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch
as Executive Assistant Manager Food and
Beverage, having originally joined the property as its Executive Chef. His wife,
Gillian McLornan Schupbach, will be
the Director of Sales at Reethi Rah, having previously been the Director of
Transient and Travel Industry Sales in Bachelor Gulch.
Vincent
Pimont has been promoted to Executive
Assistant Manager – Rooms at the InterContinental Thalassa and Spa Bora
Bora scheduled to open in May 2006. He
was most recently the Guest Service and Reservations Manager at the Grand
Hotel InterContinental Paris. Prior to
that, he was at the InterContinental The Barclay New York as Director of Reservations.
Daniel Chen has been named Director of Food & Beverage at the
Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel in Bangkok due to open June 2006.
Matthias
Terrettaz has been promoted to
Assistant Director of Food and Beverage at the Ritz-Carlton Hong
Kong. A Lausanne graduate, he was
promoted from Restaurant Manager at the hotel. He also worked at the
Ritz-Carlton San Francisco and the
Ritz-Carlton New York Central Park South.
The InterContinental Grand
Stanford has appointed Glendon
Oon as Assistant Food and Beverage
Manager. Oon was most recently the Restaurants Manager at the W Seoul
Walkerhill in South Korea.
The InterContinental Grand
Stanford Hong Kong has appointed
Cherry Wong as Senior Sales Manager.
Wong was most recently at the Royal Pacific Hotel as a Senior Sales Manager.
Simon Hague is the new Executive Chef at Le Meridien Nirwana
Golf & Spa
Resort in Bali. He comes from the
Sheraton Imperial in
Kuala Lumpur, where he held the same
position.
Alexander Haebe
joined the Mandarin Oriental Kuala
Lumpur as Executive Pastry Chef. He was
most recently the Pastry Chef at the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at the first
Residence and previously at the Four
Seasons Hotel Riyadh.
Sarah Noble has joined the Peninsula Hotel Group as Director Spas.
Noble was most recently at Raison d'Etre as Project Director Asia and previously a Spa Director
at Chiva Som and Six Senses
Spa both in
Thailand.
Geoffroy
Boehme is the new Front Office Manager
at the Vomo Island Resort managed by
Sofitel. He was most recently part
of the opening team at Huvafen Fushi
in the Maldives. He also worked at the Swissotel Chicago and Le Grand Hotel Intercontinental
Paris.
MIDDLE EAST AND
AFRICA
Hassan Ahdab
has been appointed Vice President, Regional Director, Africa and Indian Ocean
with Starwood. Most recently, he
held the position of Regional Managing Director, Africa and Indian
Ocean.
At Starwood's Le Méridien, Guido De
Wilde is the new Vice President,
Regional Director, Middle East. Most recently, he was Area Manager, Portugal and
General Manager, Sheraton Algarve, a
position he has held since March 2002.
Jean Baptiste
Pigeon has transferred to the
Regency InterContinental in Bahrain
as General Manager. Pigeon has been with InterContinental since 1983 at many
locations among them at the Hammamet InterContinental Resort, Europa InterContinental Brussels, Athenaeum InterContinental Athens. He was most recently the General Manager at the
Crowne Plaza Beirut.
Andreas
Bourdon is the new
General Manager at the Jolie Ville Moevenpick in Luxor. He was previously the General
Manager at the Queen's Gate Concorde in Central London.
Marc de Beer has been appointed Manager for Qasr al
Sharq due to open in March and managed
by Hilton International. He was most
recently the Director of Operations at sister property the Jeddah
Hilton.
Xavier Jolivet has been
appointed Resident Manager of the Royal Palm in Mauritius. Jolivet had
been the Executive Assistant Manager at the Hotel Métropole Monte
Carlo, following a tour as Director of Food and Beverage at the Hotel
Martinez in Cannes.
Michael
Braun has been promoted at the Hyatt
Regency Dubai to Director of Food and
Beverage. Braun was previously the Assistant Director of Food and Beverage at
the hotel.
Sandeep
Walia has joined the Ritz-Carlton
Sharm el Sheikh as the Director of Food
and Beverage. Walia had been with Oberoi Hotels and Resorts for the last nine years most recently at the Oberoi
Sahl Hasheesh.
Bavaria Hotels International
has appointed Caroline
Tapken as Corporate Communications
Director for the group based in the regional offices in Dubai. Tapken spent
several years in Thailand as Director of Public Relations and Communications for
Amari Hotels & Resorts.
Shaad Heerah
has joined the Kempinski Mall of the
Emirates in Dubai as Technical Director
for the opening. He was most recently the Assistant Director of Engineering at
the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel & Spa. Heerah was previously with One & Only
Resorts in
Mauritius.
Do you have news for us? Please do
not hesitate to send us an e-mail at benoit@boutiquesearchfirm.com
Edited
by Benoit Gateau-Cumin & Lisa Leroy
The Boutique Search
Firm
http://www.boutiquesearchfirm.com
benoit@boutiquesearchfirm.com
lisa@boutiquesearchfirm.com
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