HEADS above the Rest
by Benoit
Gateau-Cumin
The Newsletter of The Boutique Search Firm, a
worldwide retained recruiting firm specializing in hospitality management.
For any information, please
contact us at 1-310-552-2221 or visit our website at http://www.boutiquesearchfirm.com
Global Update: Who's where and doing
what:
March 2007
THE AMERICAS
Rick
Riess has been named President and
Chief Executive Officer for Gavin Newsom’s (and Gordon
Getty’s) PlumpJack
Group. He most recently served
seven years as Chief Operating Officer of Auberge
Resorts, prior to which he spent four
years as Regional Vice President for Grand Bay Hotels and
Resorts based at the
Boulders. Interestingly, at Plumpjack,
Riess takes the position left vacant when Robert
Goldberg became the President of the
Moana Hotel and Restaurant Group, a sister company to Auberge
Resorts, with which it shares top officers/directors Robert
and Mark
Harmon.
Peter
Finamore has been promoted by Boyd
Gaming from Vice President
Hospitality at Atlantic City’s Borgata to Senior Vice President
Operations at Las Vegas’ upcoming Echelon Place, due to open in 2010. Prior
to joining Boyd five years ago, Finamore spent fourteen years with the
Peninsula Group. He was the opening General
Manager of the Peninsula Chicago, a property frequently ranked
one of the top hotels in the world.
Speaking of the
Borgata, Cornell graduate Victor
Tiffany has left his position of Vice
President of Food and Beverage there to become the Senior Vice President Concept
Development for fast-growing Tarsadia Hotels. Before his five-year stint
at the Borgata, Tiffany was the Director of Food and Beverage at the Boca
Raton Resort and Club. He had started his career
with Drew Nieporent's Myriad Restaurant
Group.
Brian Young
has
been named Vice
President, Resort Operations at Sea Island, rejoining some of his former
Rosewood associates, including former
President Jim Brown and Vice President Human Resources Meg
Galletti. Young joined Rosewood in
1999 and was most recently their Vice President Operations Resorts, based in
Dallas.
ILX
Resorts has appointed Philip
Baxter Executive Vice President of
Development. Baxter, a Cornell graduate, has spent the last fourteen years with
Tishman Hotel Corporation where he was most recently a
First Vice President.
Liberty
Harbor has named Ralph
Vick President of its newly formed
resort management company, Liberty Harbor Hospitality. Vick previously served as
Vice President and Managing Director for the Sea Island Company
following twelve years with
Ritz-Carlton, culminating with a stint as
General Manager of the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island.
Shane Krige
has been appointed General
Manager at the legendary Plaza in New York to be re-opened
in a much-abridged version by Fairmont in the fall. He was most
recently the Managing Director of the Mansion on Turtle
Creek. Krige also served as
Executive Assistant Manager for both the Ritz-Carlton Washington
D.C. and the Ritz-Carlton
Georgetown. In addition, he was
appointed Hotel Manager at London’s Grosvenor House in
2003.
Mario Mazzini
has been named General Manager
at the Hotel Sax, the former House of Blues
Hotel in Chicago. He had been
with Méridien since 1983, most recently as
the General Manager at the former Le Méridien Chicago now the Conrad
Chicago.
David
Jacobs has been appointed General
Manager of the Hyatt Regency O'Hare following eight years as
General Manager of the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis.
Danna
Holck has joined the Enchantment
Resort in Sedona as General Manager.
She comes from the Miramonte Resort in Palm Spring where her
successor as General Manager is Richard Behr. Behr was most recently the
General Manager at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort &
Villas.
David
Curell has relocated back to
Vancouver as General Manager of the soon-to-open Loden, for the Kor Hotel
Group. He had been lured away from
Vancouver (where had been the General manager of the hip Hotel
Opus) by Joie de Vivre
Hospitality in 2004 to serve as Managing
Director at the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco.
David
Lammond has joined the Standard
Downtown Los Angeles as General Manager, taking
over from Karim Elraheb, who has left the company.
Lammond was most recently the General Manager at the
Chamberlain in West Hollywood, after
serving as the Assistant General Manager at the
Viceroy in Santa Monica. This is a
return to André Balazs’ Hotels
AB where Lammond previously held
the position of General Manager at the Standard Miami and Assistant General Manager
at the Standard Hollywood.
Wibo
Wilmink has been appointed General
Manager of the Hilton Curaçao replacing Peter
Webster, who is now the General
Manager of the British Colonial Hilton Nassau. Wilmink most recently served
as the General Manager of the Hilton Colombo in Sri
Lanka.
The Fairmont
Winnipeg has appointed Indu
Brar General Manager. For the past
four years Brar served as the Director of Operations at the Fairmont Chateau
Lake Louise after joining the resort as
Director of Rooms.
The InterContinental Kansas
City at the
Plaza has appointed Dean
Chininis General Manager. He previously
worked at the Lodge of the Four Seasons, the Chase Park Plaza
Hotel, the Arizona
Biltmore and the
Ritz-Carlton
Atlanta.
John
Maibach has been appointed General
Manager at the Copley Square Hotel in Boston. He was most
recently the General Manager of the Black Point Inn. He previously served as
Director of Operations at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston and Director of
Rooms at the Plaza in New
York.
Christophe
Thomas has
been named General Manager at the Shoreham in New York. He was most
recently part of the pre-opening team as Hotel Manager at the Gramercy Park
Hotel.
Previously, he served as the Director of Rooms at the Windsor
Court in New
Orleans and the Rooms Division Manager at the Drake in
Chicago.
Richard Sorensen
has joined
the Peninsula New York as Resident Manager, taking
over the position left vacant when Ellis O’Connor left to become the General
Manager at the Gramercy Park Hotel. Also at the Peninsula New
York, General Manager and Regional Vice President Niklaus Leuenberger
has announced
he will be leaving the company in April, after 27 years. Sorensen was most
recently the Director of Residential Services at the Four Seasons Costa Rica
and had been
with Four Seasons for the past thirteen years in Newport Beach and
Vancouver.
Michael
Newcombe has
transferred as General Manager to the Four Seasons Dallas. He was most recently the
General Manager at the Four Seasons Hampshire and previously the Hotel
Manager at the Four Seasons Dublin. Newcombe, a Lausanne
graduate, has also worked at the Four Seasons London and the Four Seasons
Toronto.
Sharon Telesca has been appointed General Manager of AKA New York, a new brand of luxury furnished apartments launch by Korman Communities, refurbishing the Wyndham on 58th Street. She was most recently the opening Director of Sales and Marketing at the Gramercy Park Hotel. Previously, Telesca served as Director of Marketing at Furnished Quarters in New York, as the Director of Sales and Marketing at the St. Regis New York and the Plaza-Athénée New York.
Jean Jadas
has been
appointed General Manager of the Sivory Hotel in the Dominican
Republic. He previously worked as General Manager of Puerto Plata
Village.
Peter
Nielsen has
been named General Manager of the Oswego Hotel in Victoria, BC, slated for
opening next month. Most recently, Nielsen was the General Manager at the
Cedarwood Inn and Suites in Sidney. He has previously
worked at the Poet’s Cove Resort and Spa and the Fairmont Chateau
Whistler.
The Zermatt Resort &
Spa in Utah
has appointed Jan McCormick General Manager. McCormick
was most recently a Regional Director of Operations for Gemstone Resorts
International
and previously served as General Manager for the Resort at Squaw Creek,
the Hotel Allegro Chicago and the Hotel Triton in San
Francisco.
Jeff Fuller has been appointed General
Manager of the Mansion on Forsyth Park in Savannah. Previously he was
at the Park in
Charlotte.
Christian
Tavelli has
been promoted to Resort Manager at Las Ventanas al Paraíso after joining the resort in
October 2004 as its Rooms Division Manager. He had previously served as the
Director of Rooms at the Hotel & Casino Torrequebrada in Malaga,
Spain. Replacing Tavelli as Director of Rooms is Hector
Serrano,
promoted from his former position at the resort as Director of
Training.
Rajiv
Malhotra has
transferred to the Four Seasons Great Exuma as Resort Manager. Malhotra, a
Cornell graduate, was previously the Hotel Manager at the Four Seasons Las
Vegas.
Jim Hogg has been appointed Hotel
Manager of the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort, where he first started his
hospitality career as the Reservations Manager in 1990. He returns to the resort
from his current position as General Manager of the Sheraton Vistana Village
Resort,
also in
Orlando. He also served at the Westin Innisbrook Resort as the Director of Rooms,
followed by the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa as the Director of Six
Sigma.
Edward
Rosenthal has
joined Quintessentially in New York as Chief
Operating Officer. He was most recently with the Starr Restaurant
Organization as Director of Restaurants. He
also served as Director of Food and Beverage for China Grill Management and
Director of Bar Operations for Ian Schrager Hotels.
Brian
Butterworth
is now the Resident Manager at Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica. He was most
recently the Executive Assistant Manager at Mauna Lani in Hawaii. Previously, he had
been with Four Seasons for nine years, serving as
Director of Rooms at the Beverly Wilshire and the (former) Four
Seasons Olympic.
Alain
Richard has
been appointed Resident Manager at the Bahia Principe Rio San
Juan in the
Dominican Republic. He was previously the General Manager at the former
Barcelo Punta Goleta.
The
Westin La Cantera Resort has appointed Richard
Roy Resort
Manager. He comes from the Westin Buckhead where he served as Director
of Operations since 2004. He previously spent fifteen years with Opryland's
Gaylord Entertainment.
Scott Aoki is now a Vice President for
Sodexho.
He comes from the Waldorf=Astoria where he was the Assistant
Food and Beverage Director/Controller.
Mike Saeidi has been named Director of
Finance at the Grand Del
Mar. He moves
down from the Standard Downtown Los Angeles where he was the Regional
Director of Finance. He previously spent seven years as Director of Finance at
the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay and the Ritz-Carlton
Rancho Mirage.
George
Taulé has
transferred to the Standard Downtown Los Angeles as Financial Controller,
replacing Mike Saieidi. He previously served as the
Controller of the Standard Miami, the Royal Palm Crowne
Plaza Resort
and the InterContinental Miami West.
The
Al J. Schneider Company in Louisville has appointed
Ron Strecker to the newly created position
of Chief Financial Officer. Strecker comes from the Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation.
Karisma Hotels and
Resorts in
Mexico has named José Carrasco Director of Operations.
Previously, Carrasco was Managing Director of Operations for Sol Melia Hotels
& Resorts
and AM Resorts.
Mitchell Mehr
has joined
Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants in San Francisco as Senior
Director of Operations West Coast. For the past two years, he had been the Vice
President Food and Beverage Operations for the Kor Group after serving six years with
China Grill Management in Las Vegas as the West
Coast Regional Director Of Operations.
Alexandre
Gaudelet has
been promoted to Director of Food and Beverage at the MGM Grand Las
Vegas. He
most recently served as General Manager at Tom Collichio’s
Craftsteak
in the hotel. He was previously at Paris’ Hôtel Meurice as its Restaurant Director.
The restaurant of the Meurice was awarded its third Michelin star this year.
Nicholas Spurgeon has
been named Director of Food and Beverage at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle.
He was most recently in a similar position at the Mark in New York. Spurgeon also
worked at the New York Palace and served as Director of Food
and Beverage at the Westin New York at Times Square and the Sofitel
New York.
Nicolas
Kurban has
been appointed Director of Fine Dining at Wynn Las Vegas, where he is responsible for
the property's nine high-end restaurants. The position had been vacant since
John Cunin
had departed in the fall. Kurban, who had been the Director of Restaurant
Operations for Thomas Keller, had recently been a
consultant for the Villagio Inn and the Vintage
Inn in Napa
Valley.
The
Renaissance Chicago Hotel has named Anthony
Camillo Food
and Beverage Director. He has more than eighteen years of experience with
Marriott International, including serving as
Executive Chef at the Marriott Seaview Resort and Spa and the Marriott Fairview
Park.
Graham
Ablett has
been named Food and Beverage Director for Sunswept Resorts at Jalousie
Plantation in
St Lucia, until recently, known as the Jalousie Hilton. He comes the Airways
Hotel Papua New Guinea.
John
Trudeau has
joined the Hotel Viking as Director of Food and
Beverage. Since 2001, he had been the Director of Food and Beverage at the
Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa in
Connecticut.
Sean
Loeffel has
joined City Explorer TV in Santa Monica as Vice
President of Hotel Relations and Business Development. He had left Four
Seasons after
seventeen years to become a consultant, after serving as Director of Food and
Beverage at the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, the (former) Four Seasons
Olympic and
the Four Seasons Wailea.
Shangri-La Hotels and
Resorts has
appointed Brian Windle to the newly created position
of Vice President Sales and Marketing, North America to be based in New York. He
was most recently the Asset Manager of the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa
for the Crown
family of Chicago and Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing for
Destination Hotels & Resorts. Previously, he has served as
Vice President Sales and Marketing of W Hotels and Director of Sales and
Marketing, Resorts for Westin Hotels & Resorts.
Jeff Doane has been promoted to Vice
President of Hotels Sales, North America by Fairmont Hotels &
Resorts based
in Toronto. He rejoined the company in 2001 as the Director of Sales and
Marketing at the Fairmont San Francisco after serving as the
pre-opening Director of Sales and Marketing for the Four Seasons San
Francisco.
Eli White,
Jr. has been
named Vice President of Marketing for Innisfree in Florida. He was most
recently the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing and Managing Director
for the Seaway Group, parent company of the
Biltmore Hotel. He has previously held
various positions at Hyatt Hotels and Lincoln
Hotels.
Ray Bustamante has joined Atlanta-based
Noble Investment Group as the Director of Sales and
Marketing at the Westin Long Beach, replacing Jan
Hollis. Prior
to joining Noble, Bustamante was the Regional Director of Sales and Marketing in
Los Angeles for Tishman Hotels, overseeing properties in Los
Angeles and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Cruise West has appointed Al
Petrone Chief
Marketing Officer. Before joining Cruise West, he served as Chief Marketing
Officer for Noble House Hotels and Resorts. In addition, he previously
held senior marketing and operating positions with W Hotels, Sheraton and Ian Schrager
Hotels.
Sid
Vaikunta has
been appointed Senior Vice President of Operations and Marketing for Echelon
Resorts.
Vaikunta, a Cornell graduate, previously held the position of Vice President of
Marketing at Borgata.
Scott
Flexman has
been named Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Fontainebleau Miami
Beach. He
comes from his position as Director of Sales and Marketing at the Landsdowne
Resort in Northern Virginia and was previously the Vice President of Sales
and Marketing at the Boca Raton Resort & Club.
Fairmont
Hotels & Resorts has promoted Ellen
Ryan to
Regional Director of Sales and Marketing, Northeast U.S. based in Boston. She
has been with the Fairmont Copley Plaza since 1995 starting as Group
Sales Manager to her current position of Director of Sales and Marketing.
Christopher
Hamaway has
transferred to the Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage as Director of Sales and
Marketing. He was most recently the Director of Sales and Marketing at the
Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne.
Matt Butler has been promoted to Director
of Sales at the Villas of Grand Cypress in Orlando. Butler joined the
resort in 1989 and served as its National Sales Manager for the past ten
years.
Charles Bello has transferred as Director
of Group Sales to the InterContinental San Francisco currently under construction.
He was most recently the Director of Group Sales at the InterContinental Mark
Hopkins.
InterContinental has appointed James
Manley Vice
President, Talent Acquisition, Americas Region, to be based in Atlanta. Manley,
a Cornell graduate, joined InterContinental in 1981 and was most recently the
Vice President, Human Resources, for InterContinental’s owned and managed hotels
in the Americas.
Shakira
Velez joins
the Custom
and Pali House as Director of Human
Resources. Since 2001 she had been with the Hollywood Roosevelt
as Director
of Human Resources and had previously worked for Wyndham in Los Angeles and Palm
Springs.
Darren
Graichen has
been named Rooms Executive at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale. Graichen previously
served at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, the Hyatt Regency Los
Angeles and,
most recently, the Hyatt Regency Long Beach. Replacing Graichen is
Christine Aubele, who joins from the Hyatt
Regency Newport Beach.
Tara Tan has joined the
InterContinental Milwaukee as Hotel Vibe Manager. Since
1990, she has been with Starwood Hotels and Resorts, most recently at the W Los
Angeles as
Director of Rooms after serving as the Director of Rooms at the Westin
Philadelphia.
Previously, she has worked at the W New York Times Square and has served as the
Director of Housekeeping at the W Seattle and the Orchid at Mauna
Lani.
Tony Aiazzi has been named Executive Chef
at Charlie Palmer’s Aureole in New York, replacing
Dante Bocuzzi, who has left to open a
restaurant in Cleveland. Aiazzi has been with Charlie Palmer for the past eight
years starting at Aureole in New York and also working at Aureole Las
Vegas and as
Palmer’s liaison for Seabourn Cruise Lines. For the past three years, he
has been Palmer’s Corporate Chef.
Stéphane
Becht has
joined Norwegian Cruise Lines as Corporate Chef based in
Miami. For the past three years, he had been the Executive Chef at Miami’s
Delano. He
had previously served as Executive Chef at the Edge Restaurant
in
Pennsylvania, Cucina & Company in New York City and the
Ocean Club in the
Bahamas.
Mohamed
Islam is now
the Chef/Owner at Aigre Doux in Chicago along with his
wife, Malika Ameen, who will serve as Pastry
Chef. For the past four years, Islam served as the Executive Chef at Chateau
Marmont.
Previously, he held the position of Executive Sous Chef at
Jean-Georges
Vongerichten’s Mercer
Kitchen.
Replacing Islam as Executive
Chef at Château Marmont, is
Carolynn
Spence,
who hails from the Spotted Pig in New York.
Evan
Percoco has
transferred as Executive Chef to the Loews Lake Las Vegas
Resort, the
former Hyatt Regency. He comes from Orlando where
he most recently served as the Executive Chef at the Loews Hard Rock
Hotel.
Ross
Fraser has
been named Executive Chef at the Emerson Resort & Spa. He previously served as
Executive Chef at the original Emerson Inn from 2002-2004 but left for a
two-year stint at 59 Lake in Delaware. He has
previously held senior positions at Gleneagles Resort & Golf Course
and
Kinnaird Country House.
Peter Moore has transferred to the
Ritz-Carlton New Orleans as Executive Chef. He was
most recently the Executive Chef at the Baltimore Country
Club. He had
previously worked for Ritz-Carlton in Washington D.C., Tyson’s
Corner, Jamaica, Pentagon City and Kansas City.
The
Ritz-Carlton New Orleans has promoted Matt
Murphy to Executive Sous Chef. He
originally joined the hotel four years ago as Chef de Cuisine. He previously
served as Sous Chef at Commander's Palace. Eric Aldis has been
promoted at the hotel from his current position of Sous Chef to replace Murphy
as Chef de Cuisine. Aldis has previously served in the kitchens at the Four
Seasons Houston and Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Stéphane
Coutouly has
joined Norwegian Cruise Line in Miami as Assistant
Director of Food and Beverage. He was most recently at the Hotel Sofitel
Miami as
Director of Food and Beverage. He had previously served at the Ritz-Carlton
Huntington and Spa as Restaurant Manager and was
with Le Méridien for five years in Beverly
Hills, Boston and Nice.
Michael
Seznec has
joined Rosa Mexicano as Regional General Manager.
Seznec, a Cornell graduate, was most recently the General Manager of the
Summit
restaurant at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.
Jason
Bartucci has
been promoted to General Manager at Craftsteak at the MGM Grand Las
Vegas. Most
recently he served as the Assistant General Manager at the restaurant, under
Alexandre Gaudelet.
Benjamin
Ramirez has
been named Executive Housekeeper at the Custom in Los Angeles. He comes
from the Beverly Wilshire where he was the Assistant
Executive Housekeeper.
Fairmont Raffles Hotels
International
has promoted Anne McCall Wilson as Vice President, Spas from
her current position of General Manager, Spas. She joined the company in 1992 as
Regional Director, Sales & Marketing at the Fairmont Royal
York and was
previously the General Manager at the SkyDome Hotel, Toronto.
EUROPE
Lord Forte, the first hospitality tycoon
in England, died at his home in London at the age of 98. He began his career as
the owner of a London milk bar and went on to become the head of a worldwide
empire of hotels and restaurants that included Travelodge and roadside restaurants
Little Chef and Happy
Eater.
Recently Rocco Forte Hotels announced that its Munich
property, which is due to open this summer, which will be called the Charles
Hotel, in
honor of Sir Rocco Forte’s father.
Christopher Norton
has
transferred to the Four Seasons George Cinq in Paris as General Manager
and Regional Vice President, taking over from Didier Le
Calvez, who
has joined Shangri-La. Norton, a Lausanne graduate,
has been with Four Seasons since 1989. Since May 2003,
he was a Regional Vice President and General Manager at the Four Seasons
Singapore.
Colin Clark transfers from the Four
Seasons Palm Beach where he was Resort Manager
to replace Michael Newcombe at the Four Seasons
Hampshire as
General Manager. Clark has previously served as Hotel Manager at the Regent
of Bangkok
and has held various positions at the Four Seasons Bali and the Regent of
Singapore.
Didier
Obeuf has
joined the Evian Royal Resort in France as Managing
Director. Since 1997, he had been the Vice President for Accor
Canada after
serving for ten years as the General Manager at the Sofitel
Houston.
Nicola
Terlizzi has
joined the Holiday Inn Verona as General Manager. Terlizzi
was most recently the General Manager at the Tryp Verona Hotel and Convention
Center.
Léon
Raaijmaakers
has been appointed General Manager at the Holiday Inn Gent Expo
in Belgium.
He was most recently the interim General Manager at the Crowne Plaza
Amsterdam-Schiphol after serving at the
Holiday Inn Brussels Airport as Executive Assistant
Manager. Jos Wakkermans replaces him as General
Manager at the Crowne Plaza Amsterdam-Schiphol.
Vito Romero has joined the Hôtel
Métropole in
Monte Carlo as Assistant General Manager. He comes from Brussels where he was
the Executive Assistant Manager at the Conrad Brussels. Previously, he had served as
Food and Beverage Director at the Hotel Principe di Savoia and as Director of Operations
and Development for the Alain Ducasse Group in New
York.
Leah
Marshall has
followed Didier Le Calvez to prepare for the opening of
the Shangri-La Palais d’Iena as Executive Assistant
Manager. She was most recently at the Four Seasons George
Cinq as
Director of Rooms after joining the hotel in 2000 as its Director of Food and
Beverage.
Bruno Grand has been promoted to Hotel
Auditor Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa
at the
InterContinental head office in Windsor. He
most recently served as the Assistant Financial Controller and Acting Financial
Controller at the Crowne Plaza Estepona in Spain, having worked for
the group for the past six years.
Roman
Kofler will
be joining the Hyatt Regency Almaty in Kazakhstan as Executive
Assistant Manager in charge of Food and Beverage. He comes from his position as
General Manager at the Siva Grand Beach Resort in
Egypt.
Olive
Roberts has
been named Director of Sales and Marketing at the Capella Castlemartyr
in County
Cork, Ireland, slated to open in June 2007.
Holger
Flory has
been named Director of Sales and Marketing for the Charles
Hotel, due to
open in Munich this summer. He was previously the Director of Sales and
Marketing at the InterContinental Berchtesgaden Resort and spent many years working
for Dorint Hotels.
The
Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park has appointed Steven
Savini to the
newly created position of Director of Travel Industry Sales, the Americas. For
the past seventeen years, he had been at the Four Seasons Palm
Beach
Resort as
Senior Sales Manager, Travel Industry after joining the hotel as Reservations
Manager.
Eugenio
Pirri has
been named Regional Director of Human Resources for Fairmont, based at the
Savoy in
London. He was most recently the Director of Human Resources at the Fairmont
Seattle.
Peter Fuchs is joining Harrods of
London as
Executive Chef. He spent the past two years with Rosewood
Hotels as
Executive Chef for the Al Faisaliah and Al
Khozama in
Riyadh. Previously, he served as Food and Beverage Director for the Celtic
Manor Resort
in Wales after joining them as Executive Chef.
Franck Broc, an alumnus of the nearby
Château de La Messardière, is the new Executive Chef at
La Bastide de St. Tropez. He takes over from
Olivier Streiff.
ASIA AND THE
PACIFIC
Ignacio
Gomez has
been appointed Regional Vice President and General Manager of the Four
Seasons Singapore. Having joined the company as
General Manager at the Four Seasons Mexico City in 1992, he has held General
Manager and Regional Vice President positions with the company in various
locations, most recently at the Four Seasons Miami.
Michel
Goget will be
transferring as General Manager to the Ritz-Carlton Sanya on China’s Hainan Island. The
450-room resort property is due to open in 2008. Goget joined Ritz-Carlton 1999
and has been the General Manager of the Ritz-Carlton Tyson’s
Corner since
March 2002.
Gerhard
Kropp has
been appointed Regional Vice President of Dusit Hotels &
Resorts. He
most recently held the position of Senior Vice President of Meritus Hotels
& Resorts.
David
Travers has
been appointed Regional General Manager for InterContinental’s portfolio of nine hotels in
Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. He also takes on the role of
General Manager of the Crowne Plaza Melbourne. For the past five years,
Travers has been with the company in China, most recently as the General Manager
of its eight hotels in Shanghai as well as General Manager of the
InterContinental Shanghai Pudong.
Harry
Littlewood
has been appointed Director of Development for Langham Hotels
International. He started his career in the
hospitality industry at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong and subsequently joined the
Luhu Golf and Country Club. He was most recently the
Operations Manager of the Hong Yue An Group in
Guangzhou.
Langham Hotels
International
has named Stefan Heintze Director of
Development/Special Projects. A Lausanne graduate, Heintze was most recently the
General Manager of the Palmerston Suites Tianjin Hotel. Previously, he served as the
Resident Manager of the Pathumwan Princess Hotel in Bangkok and the Dusit
Resort Pattaya.
Allan Federer has
transferred to the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore as General Manager,
taking over from Octavio Gamarra, who has left the company. Federer comes
from Istanbul where he had been the General Manager at the Ritz-Carlton
Istanbul for the past three years. Previously, he served as the General
Manager at the Ritz-Carlton Montreal and the Wyndham
Montréal.
William
Comstock has
been named General Manager at the Pacific Beach Hotel in Honolulu. He joins from
his most recent position as the General Manager the Outrigger Canoe
Club.
Rodney Ito has been promoted to General
Manager of the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa taking over from Nihad
Kattan, who
has been appointed Area Vice President of Marriott
International, Middle East and Africa. Ito
joined the hotel in 2004 and was most recently its Director of
Operations.
Fred Orr has been named General
Manager of the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani. Orr most recently served as
Managing Director of the Sheraton Moana Surfrider.
Danny
Maccafferty
has joined the Dusit Thani in Bangkok as General
Manager. He comes from Bali where he served as the General Manager at the
Nusa Dua Beach Hotel and Spa since 1999. His successor
there is Reto Torriani.
The
new General Manager of the Oakridge Resort Grand Mercure Lake
Wanaka is
Anil Sood.
Since 2003 he has been in New Zealand as General Manager of the Hotel Off The
Square, in
Christchurch.
Daniel
Simon has
transferred to the Four Seasons Sydney as Hotel Manager. He is a
fourteen-year Four Seasons veteran with his career spanning Houston, Toronto,
Carlsbad and Dallas before moving as Director of Food and Beverage to the
Four Seasons Bali at Jimbaran Bay. After a stint at the Four
Seasons Singapore in the same role, Simon moved
to the position of Hotel Manager at Tokyo’s Four Seasons Tokyo Chinzan-so
in
April 2005.
Robert
Maurer-Loeffler has been named Resident
Manager of the Central World Hotel and Bangkok Convention
Centre. He
was previously the Director of Operations at the Dome at State
Tower in
Bangkok.
The
Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong has named Anthony
Costa
Resident Manager. He most recently served as Hotel Manager at the Four
Seasons Dublin. Prior to that, he held
senior managerial roles with Radisson SAS in Leeds and
Helsinki.
Theodore
Leung has
been appointed Director of Finance at the Langham Place Hotel
in Hong Kong.
He joined the hotel in early 2006 as Assistant Financial Controller after
serving in the banking industry where he held senior positions with the Bank
of China and
HSBC.
Ruth Boston has been appointed Director
of Communications at the Langham Place Hotel in Hong Kong. She has
previously held various senior positions with Starwood Hotels & Resorts,
Asia Pacific.
Moky Lam has transferred to the
Peninsula Bangkok as Executive Assistant
Manager - Food and Beverage, taking over from Joseph
Sampermans,
who is going to the soon-to-open Peninsula Tokyo as Executive Assistant
Manager in charge of Food and Beverage. Lam was most recently the Director of
Food and Beverage at the Peninsula Hong Kong.
Klaus
Woizik has
been appointed Executive Assistant Manager – Rooms at the Grand Hyatt
Jakarta. He
comes from the Park Hyatt Melbourne where for the past two years
he has served as the Director of Rooms.
Brad Rice has transferred to the
Intercontinental Shanghai as Director of Rooms. He
comes from Hong Kong where he was the Rooms Division Manager at the
Intercontinental Hong Kong. Previously, he served as the
Resident Manager at the St. Regis Los Angeles and the Rooms Director at
Le Méridien at Beverly Hills.
Peter
Gassner has
been promoted to Executive Assistant Manager Director of Operations at the
Langham Place Hotel in Hong Kong. He was promoted
from his previous position at the hotel as Executive Assistant Manager Director
of Food and Beverage. He previously spent six years with
Hyatt in
the Middle East, including Dubai and Amman, Jordan.
Nabin
Gurung will
be joining the Four Seasons Chiang Mai as Director of Food and
Beverage. He comes from the position of Assistant Food and Beverage Manager at
the Peninsula Bangkok.
The George in Christchurch, New Zealand,
has appointed Jan Stuart as Director of Sales and
Marketing. For the past ten years, she has been in various positions at the
Chateau on the Park, also in Christchurch.
Mitch
Sipiala moves
to Hawaii to join the Four Seasons Hualalai where he will serve as
Director of Human Resources and include corporate support on projects and
openings, among them the Four Seasons Bora Bora. He has been with Four
Seasons since
1982 most recently serving as the Director of Human Resources for the company’s
corporate office in Toronto. He previously served as Director of Human Resources
at the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney, the Four Seasons Dallas
and the
Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills.
Adam Mathis has been promoted to
Executive Chef at the Peninsula Manila. He was most recently the
Executive Sous Chef at the Peninsula Bangkok and was previously with the
Peninsula Beijing.
Uwe Faust joins Raffles
in Singapore
as Executive Chef, taking over from Kristoffer Lukzak, who, ironically, had also
been his predecessor at the Peninsula Bangkok. Faust was the Executive Chef
at the Peninsula Bangkok for the past three years and
previously served as Executive Chef at the Peninsula Palace in Beijing, the
Oberoi in
Bombay and Shangri-La Hotels in Surabaya and
Beijing.
Philip Sedgwick
replaces Faust at the Peninsula
Bangkok as
Executive Chef. He was most recently the Executive Sous Chef and Chef de Cuisine
at the Peninsula Hong Kong.
Executive Chef Kristoffer
Luczak has
left Raffles in Singapore to become the
Director of Kitchens at the spanking new Crown Macau. Prior to joining Raffles as
Executive Chef in 2004, Luczak had been the Executive Chef at the Peninsula
Bangkok for
two and a half years, following two years in the same position at the Oberoi
Bali.
Gérald
Bergue has
been named Executive Chef at Velavaru in the Maldives. He was most
recently the Executive Sous Chef at the BayanTree Seychelles and was previously the
Executive Chef at the Anjajavy Hotel in Madagascar.
Shaun
Corrigan has
joined the Ana Mandara Resort & Spa in Vietnam as Food and
Beverage Manager. He has previously worked at Carcosa Seri
Negara in
Kuala Lumpur as Food and Beverage Operations Manager and the Burj Al
Arab in Dubai
as Wine Manager.
The George in New Zealand has named
Daniel Millaire Food and Beverage Manager. He
has most recently worked in Fiji and Norfolk Island as a Food and Beverage
Manager.
Régis
Monges has
joined the Hyatt on the Bund in Shanghai as Executive
Pastry Chef. He was most recently the Pastry Chef at Le
Cirque in New
York after spending four years at the Le Cirque in Mexico City as Executive
Pastry Chef.
MIDDLE EAST AND
AFRICA
John Bamsey is now the
Chief Operating Officer for the Middle East and Africa for
InterContinental. He has been with InterContinental since 2001 and has
previously worked with Hilton and Le Méridien.
Josef Kufer has been promoted to Senior
Vice President Africa for Mövenpick, replacing Bernard
Granier, who
will continue to act as a consultant. Kufer, who will be based in Cairo, was
most recently the General Manager of the Mövenpick Hotel & Resort
Beirut.
Previously, he served as General Manager for Hyatt in Oman, Indonesia, India and
Taiwan.
Jean-Pierre
Leclerc is
the new General Manager of Le Coco
Wolfgang
Pachler has
been named General Manager at the Al Faisaliah Hotel and Al Faisaliah
Residence in
Riyadh. He has previously worked at the Oriental in Singapore, the Hotel
Imperial in
Vienna, the Amra Forum InterContinental in Amman and the Dubai
International Hotel. Most recently, he served as
partner and consultant of GCI Management & Consulting.
Philippe
Cauviere has
been named General Manager at the Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club
in Nairobi.
He was previously with InterContinental for nine years as General
Manager at the Holiday Inn Samara, the Resident Manager at the
Crowne Plaza Brussels Airport and Executive Assistant
Manager at the InterContinental Tashkent.
Le
Gulf Méridien Hotel Al Khobar has appointed Adel Mohd
Erfan as
Deputy General Manager. He was most recently at Le Méridien
Makkha as
Director of Operations. He has been with Le Méridien for more than twenty years,
previously serving as General Manager at Le Méridien Luxor and Regional Director of
Sales for the Middle East and West Asia, based in Riyadh.
Marie-Laure
Akdag
has been appointed Director of Business Development and Marketing at the Burj
Al Arab
in Dubai. Previously, she held the Director of Sales and Marketing position at
the InterContinental Amstel
Mohamed
Elbanna has
transferred as Director of Food and Beverage to the Four Seasons San
Stefano in
Alexandria. He comes from the Four Seasons Resort Sharm El
Sheikh where
he was the Assistant Food and Beverage Director. He also held the position of
Acting Food and Beverage Director at the Four Seasons
Hampshire for
the last four months.
Xavier
Pougnard has
transferred to the Four Seasons San Stefano in Egypt as Assistant
Director of Food and Beverage. He moves from the Four Seasons Nile
Plaza in
Cairo where he has served as the Assistant Director of Food and Beverage since
last September. Previously, he spent two years with the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon
City after
serving eight years with Four Seasons in various food and beverage positions in
Philadelphia, Atlanta, Vancouver and Chicago.
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 & Susana Parks
The Boutique Search
Firm
http://www.boutiquesearchfirm.com
benoit@boutiquesearchfirm.com
lisa@boutiquesearchfirm.com