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:
May
2007
THE
AMERICAS
Starwood has combined St. Regis, W and the
Luxury Collection into the Luxury
Brands Group for marketing purposes.
Ross Klein, who had served as
President of the W brand, will be the President of the new entity.
At soon-to-be-private-again
Four Seasons, Senior Vice President
Food and Beverage Alfons Konrad will
be leaving after thirty one years with the company. He is widely credited for
making food and service consistent at all Four Seasons properties, regardless of
where they may be located.
Shortly after leaving
Peninsula with whom he had a
twenty-five-year career (that included twelve years as General Manager of the
Peninsula New York) Niklaus
Leuenberger takes the helm of the
New York Palace. After the death of
John Segreti in February 2006, the
position had been briefly assumed by former owner’s representative Faith
Derbyshire, and then kept vacant for
some months.
At Four
Seasons, Christoph
Schmidinger and Bahram
Sepahi have been promoted to Regional
Vice President positions. Schmidinger is currently the General Manager at the
Four Seasons New York. Sepahi is
currently the General Manager at the Four Seasons Golf Club
Dubai.
Peter
Koehler moves to the soon-to-open
InterContinental San Francisco as
General Manager. For the past three years, he served as General Manager of
Kimpton’s Hotel
Palomar. Koehler had previously been
the General Manager of Villa del Sol, in Mexico and had been the pre-opening General Manager
of the not-to-be Mandarin Oriental Mexico City.
Vikram Singh has been named General Manager of Campton Place-A
Taj Hotel in San Francisco. He comes
from the Taj Exotica Resort and Spa
in the Maldives where he had been the General Manager and Director since May
2006. Singh originally joined Taj in 2004, following a one-year stint at
Udaivilas for
Oberoi and five years with Four
Seasons. At Campton Place, he takes
over from Carter Donovan, who
managed the property for previous owners the Kor Group.
Robert van
Eerde will be the opening General
Manager at Gansevoort South in Miami
Beach. He was until recently the General Manager and Regional Director of
Operations for the Raleigh and the
Standard Miami. He also served as
General Manager of the Clarence in
Dublin for over five years.
Mark
Stevenson has been appointed Managing
Director at the Rio Mar Beach Resort & Spa in Puerto Rico. He was previously the General Manager
at the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas
after serving as General Manager of the Ritz-Carlton San Juan. Vincent Mercurio, the former General Manager of the Ritz-Carlton
Beijing Financial District, now runs
the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas.
Kimpton
Hotels has promoted Rick
Colangelo to Senior Director of
Operations. He joined Kimpton in 2002 as opening General Manager of the Hotel
Marlowe in Cambridge and, in 2003, was
promoted to Area Director of Operations for Boston/Cambridge. Prior to Kimpton,
Colangelo had spent five years with Interstate and six with Ritz-Carlton.
Jan Tibaldi will be the General Manager of the upcoming Viceroy
Anguilla for the Kor
Group. He will be joining from
One&Only Resorts where he has
served as General Manager of the One&Only Le Saint Géran in Mauritius and the One&Only
Kanuhura in the Maldives. He had joined
the company in 2004 as Resident Manager at the One&Only Le
Touessrok. Tibaldi was previously the
Resident Manager at Sandy Lane in
Barbados.
Mark
Huntley has been appointed General
Manager and Regional Vice President at the Fairmont Dallas. He rejoins Fairmont from his most recent position as
Executive Vice President, Operations of the MGM Grand Las
Vegas. Huntley spent most of the
nineties with Fairmont, serving as General Manager of the Fairmont San
Francisco, and London’s
Savoy.
Stephen
Bello moves to Duck Key as General
Manager of Hawks Cay Resort. He was
most recently Rockresorts’ Corporate
Director of Operations. Previously he served as President of Classic
Hospitality and General Manager at
the Madison in Washington D.C. and
the Hotel Hershey. In addition, he
spent nine years with Ritz-Carlton.
Lee Bowden, who was the Managing Director of the Sagamare
on Lake George for six years, has been
named President and General Manager of Gateway Canyons Resort
Properties in Colorado. Prior to the
Sagamore, Bowden was the General Manager of the Equinox for ten years. Ho holds an MPS in Hotel Administration
from Cornell.
George Fong has rejoined Rosewood as Senior Vice President of
Architecture and Design. Fong had left the company to work with former Rosewood
President Atef Mankarios, first at
Foresthills Hotels, then at St.
Regis, most recently as Vice President
of Technical Services and Project Management.
Katherine Blaisdell
has been named Vice President of
Development Construction by Rosewood. She had left the company in March 2005, after serving
as its Director of Design and Construction.
Paul
Cherrett has been named Senior Vice
President, Hospitality for the Aspen Skiing Company, following twenty five years with Four
Seasons. He was most recently the
General Manager at the Four Seasons Jackson Hole. He also served as General Manager at the Four
Seasons Austin and Resort Manager at
the Four Seasons Dallas.
Pascal
Forotti becomes the General Manager of
the InterContinental Toronto,
succeeding Yannis Anagnostakis, who
will be leaving the company. Forotti had, a year ago, been promoted from Hotel
Manager at the InterContinental Buckhead to the same position at the InterContinental
Chicago.
James Riker is the new General Manager of the Hilton
Hartford. Since 1998, he has served as
Regional Hotel Director for the Waterford Hotel Group.
Karl Bruno
has been appointed General Manager of Napa Valley’s Kenwood Inn & Caudalie
Spa. He comes from the
W Seattle where he served as Director of Food and
Beverage.
At New York’s
Dylan, George
Buchelli has been promoted to General
Manager from Director of Operations. Prior to joining the Dylan, he was the
Revenue Manager at the San Carlos,
also in
Manhattan.
André Zotoff has been promoted from Hotel Manager to General Manager
at the Fairmont Chicago. He
originally joined the hotel in 2001 as Director of Food and Beverage, following
sixteen years with InterContinental.
G. Michael
Thomas has been named President and
Chief Operating Officer of the Horseshoe Bay Resort in Texas. He was most recently the President and Chief
Operating Officer at Barton Creek in
Austin and previously served as President of the Daufuskie Island Club &
Resort.
Gabriel
Ratner has been promoted to Vice
President of Operations West Coast for the Oceana Hotel Group. Since 2005, he was the General Manager at the
Oceana Santa Monica. He was
previously the Operations Manager at the Sagamore in Miami, following six years with Four
Seasons.
Jon McGavin has been appointed General Manager of the
Ritz-Carlton Buckhead. The position
had become available when Otto Svensson left the company last December. Most recently, McGavin
was the Hotel Manager at the Ritz-Carlton Grande Lakes in Orlando. He also served as Director of Food and
Beverage at the Ritz-Carlton Marina Del Rey.
Robert
Villalta has been named General Manager
of the Glen Cove Mansion. Most
recently he was the Corporate Director of Operations of the Amsterdam
Hospitality Group and previously served
as the General Manager of the Dream Hotel in New York.
Michael
Gordon has been appointed General
Manager at the Greenbrier, following
seven years with Ritz-Carlton in New
Orleans, Greensboro and, most recently, as Hotel Manager at the Ritz-Carlton
Kapalua. At the Greenbrier, he reports
to President Paul Ratchford, another
former Ritz-Carlton man.
Julian
Smaldoni joined the Kor
Group as General Manager of the
Tides Riviera Maya. He comes from a
similar position at the Quinta Real
Huatulco.
Peter Humig has been promoted to Resort Manager at the Four
Seasons Aviara, having joined the
resort sixteen months ago as Director of Rooms. He joined the company at the
Four Seasons Berlin in 1999 and
moved on to the Four Seasons Washington D.C. in 2003.
Edward
Linsley has been appointed Hotel
Manager at the Four Seasons Houston.
He joined the company in 1990 and was most recently the Director of Food and
Beverage at the Four Seasons Philadelphia. Linsley previously served in various food and beverage
management roles at the Four Seasons Chicago, the Four Seasons Dublin and the Four Seasons Nevis.
Ozgen
Cevik has been appointed Hotel Manager
at the Westin Providence. Most
recently he served as the Director of Food and Beverage at the Conrad
International Chicago.
Edward
Stanton has been named Hotel Manager at
the Westin Copley Place
Boston, replacing Safak
Guvenc. Stanton comes from the former
Sheraton Lexington.
MGM Mirage has promoted Anton Nikodemus to Senior
Vice President Hotel Operations at the Bellagio. He held a similar position at the MGM Grand Las
Vegas for the past two years.
Previously, he had been the Resort Manager at the Boca Raton Resort and
Club, after serving as Director of
Operations at the Arizona Biltmore.
Joshua Fluhr
has been appointed Vice President Operations for SBE Hotels. A Cornell graduate, he was most recently the Director
of Operations for Aloft, Starwood’s
new brand. He also previously served as Director of Operations at the W New
York.
Kelly Martin
Cuff has been named Director of
Operations at the French Lick Resort
in Indiana. Cuff was previously the Resort Manager at the Zermatt Resort
& Spa in Utah.
Dan Moore has been promoted to Regional Controller with the
Morgans Hotel Group. Since 2005, he
has been the Financial Controller at Miami’s Delano.
Bharath
Bangalore has been appointed Director
of Finance at the Irvine Company’s
upcoming Resort at Pelican Hill. He
spent the past nine years with Ritz-Carlton, most
recently as Director of Finance in Boston after a turn at the Ritz-Carlton
Naples.
Kelli Bryant has joined Chatham Bars Inn as Financial Controller. She comes from the Ocean
Edge Resort & Club where she held
the same title. Previously, she has served as the Financial Controller at the
Sonesta Hotel & Suites in Coconut
Grove, Florida and the Sonesta Beach Resort in Anguilla.
John Connor has been appointed Financial Controller for
Benchmark Hospitality. He was
previously the Controller at the Zermatt Resort & Spa in Utah. In the past, he has served as Controller at the
Houston Marriott Greenpoint, the
Radisson DFW South in Dallas and the
Radisson Penn Harris Hotel.
Saul
Esquivel has been promoted to Director
of Finance at the Four Seasons Punta Mita. He started his Four Seasons career almost ten years
ago at the Four Seasons Mexico City
as Credit Manager. In 2001, he became Chief Accountant and then was promoted to
Assistant Director of Finance in December 2003.
Pinnacle Entertainment
has appointed Dan
Boudreaux to the newly created position
of Chief Accounting Officer. Prior to joining Pinnacle, Boudreaux served in
various accounting and finance positions at Harrah's
Entertainment in operational, regional
and at the corporate level.
Cornell graduate Nicolas
Béliard has joined the Mandarin
Oriental Miami as Executive Assistant
Manager-Rooms. He had been with Four Seasons since 1997, save for a two-year stint as General
Manager of the Château de Bagnols.
Béliard’s last position with Four Seasons was that of Director of Rooms at the
Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in
Geneva, a title he also previously held at the Four Seasons
Nevis. He had been part of the opening
executive team at the Four Seasons George Cinq.
Chrissy
Burton has been appointed to the newly
created position of Director, Hotel Integration, Rooms, Corporate Office, for
Fairmont. She was previously the
Director of Rooms at the Fairmont Chicago.
Miramonte Resort
in Indian Wells has appointed Leopold Krenn Food and Beverage Director. He comes from the Indian
Wells Country Club, where he was the
Operations Manager. He also served as Operations Manager at the Desert Falls Country Club and as Food and Beverage Manager at the Lake
Arrowhead Country Club.
Ludovic
Poirier has joined the
Alden in Houston as Food and
Beverage Director. He was most recently the Director of Operations at Bistro
Moderne at the Hotel
Derek. In addition, he previously
served in various food and beverage managerial positions at the St. Regis
Houston and the Four Seasons
Houston.
Kyrsta
Scully has been promoted to Director of
Food and Beverage at the Four Seasons Philadelphia, taking over for Edward Linsey. She moves up from Assistant Director of Food and
Beverage at the hotel. Scully joined Four Seasons in 2001 at the Beverly
Wilshire and has previously held
various food and beverage positions at the Hilton in Old Town Alexandria and at the Willard
Intercontinental.
Brad Barnett has joined HEI Hospitality in Connecticut as Senior Vice President of Sales and
Marketing. He comes from the Kor Group in Los Angeles where he was the Corporate Director of
Sales. He also served in various sales and marketing positions at the
Monaco and the Westin St.
Francis in San
Francisco.
Jack Bickart
has been named Chief Sales Officer at the Horseshoe Bay
Resort in Texas. He was most recently
the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Barton Creek Resort &
Spa for more than five years.
Previously he has held various sales and marketing positions at the Daufuskie
Island Club & Resort in South
Carolina and Wintergreen Resort
in Virginia.
Suzanne
Chabre has joined Pinnacle
Entertainment as Vice President-Brand
Marketing. She joined the company from MGM Mirage, where she served as Vice President of Marketing,
Residential Division for the City Center project in Las Vegas. Previously, she served as a
marketing integration team leader during and after Harrah's Entertainment
acquisition of Caesars
Entertainment.
Cristina
Romero-Peri has been named Area
Director of Sales, Mexico, for the Kor Hotel Group, based in Los Angeles. She comes from Rosewood’s Las
Ventanas al Paraiso where she was
(twice) the Director of Sales and Marketing. Romero-Peri had also been the Vice
President Sales and Marketing at the One&Only Palmilla.
Tracy Fitz has been appointed Director of Marketing at the
Mansion on Turtle Creek, taking over
from Shirley Dunn Hanks. He comes
from the Hotel Derek in Houston
where he was the Director of Marketing.
Previously he was the Executive Assistant Manager at the Lake Austin
Spa Resort and held the same position
at the Driskill. He has also served
as Director of Sales and Marketing at the Omni Houston, the St. Regis Houston and Rosewood’s Crescent Court.
Skip James is the new Director of Sales and Marketing at the
Westin Riverwalk in San Antonio. He
comes from the same position at the Wigwam in Arizona. He also served as Director of Sales and
Marketing at the Westin Park Central
and the Sheraton Park Central in
Dallas and the Westin Fort Lauderdale.
Matthew
Vesely has been appointed Director of
Sales and Marketing at the Ritz-Carlton Westchester scheduled to open this fall in downtown White Plains.
He joined Ritz-Carlton six years ago and was most recently the Director of Sales
at the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach.
Douglas
Wojick has been named Director of Sales
and Marketing at the Chateau on The Lake Resort in Branson. He previously worked with
Ritz-Carlton,
Hyatt and Hilton, as well as at independent resorts like the Mohegan
Sun in Connecticut and Treetop
Resort in
Michigan.
Michele
O’Malley has been appointed Director of
Sales and Marketing at the Eldorado Hotel & Spa. She has previously held various sales and marketing
positions in Napa Valley at the Harvest Inn and the Silverado Resort & Spa, and in San Francisco at Campton Place
and the Stanford
Court.
Michael
Newman joins the Doubletree-Times
Square as Director of Sales and
Marketing. He comes from the Grand Hyatt New York, where he has served as Director of Sales and Marketing
since 2005. During his twelve years with Hyatt, he also held the position of Director of Sales and
Marketing at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City.
Barbara
Hicks has been appointed Director of
Sales and Marketing for the Loden in
Vancouver, for the Kor Group. For
the past three years she has been the Director, Global Sales, for Fairmont
Hotels & Resorts in Chicago. She
previously served as the Director of Sales and Marketing at the Fairmont
Orchid and the Fairmont
Waterfront in
Vancouver.
Kenwood Inn & Caudalie
Spa has named Karyl
Bridgewater Director of Sales and
Marketing. Previously she was based in Los Angeles serving as Director of
Entertainment Sales at the Bel Age.
Barbara
Piagari has joined the Viceroy Santa
Monica as Director of Sales and
Marketing, taking over from Carolyn Harber. Piagari was previously the Director of Sales and
Marketing at the Le Méridien Sunny Isles Beach, a property she opened. She also was the Director of
Sales for the Fontainebleau Tower at
the Fontainebleau Hilton in Miami.
Peggy Ryan has been named Regional Sales Manager at the
Enchantment Resort. Most recently,
she served as Director of Sales at El Monte Sagrado. Previously she held regional sales positions at
Miraval – Life in Balance for seven
years and Canyon Ranch in Tucson,
for six years.
Mark Feldman has been named Director of Group Sales at the
soon-to-open Grand Del Mar. He was a
National Sales Manager for Pebble Beach Resorts and previously served as National Sales Manager at the
Ritz-Carlton Kapalua.
Mike
Pistana has been promoted to Executive
Director of Leisure Sales at Bellagio from his previous position of Director of Leisure
Sales. He has been with MGM Mirage
for fourteen years, previously serving in various management positions at the
Golden Nugget and Beau
Rivage.
Guy Bagg is the new Director of Sales-Mid Atlantic for the
Preferred Hotel Group. He has
previously worked at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa, Colonial Williamsburg and, most recently Hershey Resorts.
Raffles
L'Ermitage has named Trish
Kopera Director of Sales. Most
recently, Kopera was the Group Sales Manager at the Peninsula
Chicago.
Destination Hotels &
Resorts has named Alyson
Heidesch Director of Corporate and
Leisure Travel for Estancia La Jolla and Auberge Del Mar. She was previously the Corporate Sales Manager at
the Grande Colonial La Jolla and the
Sir Francis Drake in San Francisco.
Lisa Poksay is the new Director of Leisure Sales at
Meadowood. She comes from the global
sales office of Kempinski Hotels in
San Francisco. She previously served as Director of Corporate Sales at the
Peninsula Chicago and the
Pan-Pacific San Francisco as well as
Assistant Director of Sales at the Hotel Plaza Athénée in New York.
Jennifer
Oberstein has expanded her role to Area
Director of Public Relations for the Ritz-Carlton Hotels of New York and Boston. Her previous role was that of Area Director of Public
Relations for the Ritz-Carltons of New York.
Fairmont has promoted Lori Holland to Executive Director Public Relations. She joined the
company in 2001 and moves up from her previous position as Director, Public
Relations for the group.
Dan Waite has been promoted to Area Director of Human Resources
for the Morgans Hotel Group. He
moves up from Director of Human Resources at the Delano.
Afsi
Behnam moves to Director of Rooms at
the Four Seasons Resort Aviara. She
has been with the company for seventeen years in various positions at the
Four Seasons Newport Beach, the
Four Seasons Scottsdale and, most
recently, as the Director of Rooms at Four Seasons Santa
Barbara.
Jeff Rednour has been appointed Director of Rooms at the Four
Seasons Houston. Since 2005, he had
been a Corporate Rooms Division Manager for the company.
Jerry Mong has joined the Hollywood Roosevelt as Director of Rooms. He comes from the Fairmont
Newport Beach where he was the
Director, Rooms Division. Previously, he held various operational positions with
InterContinental in Buckhead,
Cleveland and Chicago.
Delaware
North has promoted Roland
Hénin as Corporate Executive Chef and
Chief Culinary Ambassador for their global hospitality operations. He most
recently served as Corporate Chef for the company’s Parks & Resorts
division.
Katsuo “Suki”
Sugiura has returned to his position of
Executive Chef at the Beverly Hilton after a brief stint in the same capacity at the Taj
Boston. He returns to the post he held
for two years after serving as Executive Chef at the Beverly Hills
Hotel.
Eric Klein has rejoined Wolfgang Puck as Executive Chef of Spago Las Vegas. He spent seven years at Spago Beverly
Hills as a Sous Chef, he had served as
Executive Chef at Maple Drive in
Beverly Hills, SW Steakhouse in
Wynn Las Vegas and, most recently at
Fix at Bellagio.
Miramonte Resort
in Indian Wells has named Robert Nyerick
Executive Chef. For the past two
years, he had been at Spencer’s in
Palm Springs. Previously, he was the Executive Sous Chef at the Four Seasons
Beverly Wilshire.
Gael Cruchet
has transferred to the Ritz-Carlton Tyson’s Corner as Executive Chef, taking over from John
Coleman who will be the opening
Executive Chef at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas. Cruchet comes from the Ritz-Carlton Boston Common
where he held the same position for the
past six months. Previously, he served as Executive Chef at the Ritz-Carlton
Boston and the Ritz-Carlton St.
Thomas.
The Westin
Kierland in Scottsdale has promoted
Todd Berry to Executive Chef. He
joined the resort a year ago as head of the banquet department. Prior to joining
the resort, Berry served as the Executive Chef at both the Sheraton Grand
Sacramento and Hidden Meadow
Ranch.
Martineau Bay
Resort has named Andrew
Niedenthal Executive Chef. He was most
recently the Executive Chef at Peter Island. Previously he served as Executive Chef at the
Marshall House, Pierre’s at Morada
Bay and Cheeca Lodge.
Guy Gateau has joined the Coral Gables Biltmore as Executive Chef. He was most recently the Executive
Chef at the Marietta Country Club in
Atlanta. At the Biltmore, Gateau takes over from Tim Keating who is now the Executive Chef at Flying
Fish at Disney’s Boardwalk
Resort in
Orlando.
Cupertino
Ortiz will be the opening Executive
Chef at the Tides Riviera Maya
for the Kor Group. He comes from the One&Only
Palmilla, where he held the position of
Executive Sous Chef.
Hubert
Desmarais has joined the Fairmont
Turnberry Isle as Executive Chef. He
spent seventeen years at what is now the Four Seasons Palm Beach,
taking part in its opening under its original name of Ocean
Grand.
Michael
Voltaggio is joining
Hemisphere at the
Greenbrier as Chef de Cuisine. He comes
from Sonoma where he was most recently the Executive Chef at Charlie
Palmer’s Dry Creek
Kitchen. This is a return to the resort
for the chef after spending four years at the Ritz-Carlton
Naples moving up from Sous Chef to Chef
de Cuisine.
Patrick
Fortemps will be the opening Food and
Beverage Director for Miami’s Canyon Ranch. He comes from the Boca Raton Resort and
Club where he was in charge of food and
beverage at the Beach Club, due to close this summer for extensive
renovations.
Marc Bromley has joined Four Seasons as Assistant Director of Food and Beverage at the
Four Seasons Chicago. For the past
four years, he had been with Peninsula, most recently as Director of Restaurants at the
Peninsula Chicago after serving as
Director of Banquets at the Peninsula Beverly Hills.
Michael
Gluckman has been promoted to Assistant
Director of Food and Beverage at the Ritz-Carlton Boston
Common. He was most recently
Director, Food and Beverage Outlets at the Ritz-Carlton Tyson’s
Corner.
Stéphane
Clasquin is the new Restaurant Manager
at Club XIX at the Lodge at
Pebble Beach. He was most recently the
Restaurant Manager at Ortolan in Los
Angeles after spending a total of seven years at L’Orangerie.
Gilles
Flores is the new General Manager of
La Cabaña in Buenos Aires operated
by Orient Express. He comes from St.
Lucia where he had been the Corporate Director of Food and Beverage for
Sunswept Resorts.
This is a return to Orient Express for
Flores who spent the previous four years in food and beverage management
positions at El Encanto, La
Samanna and the Bora Bora Lagoon
Resort.
Jared Heber will be joining Nancy Silverton and Mario Batali at their soon-to-open Mozza Osteria in Los Angeles as Sommelier. He comes down the coast
from his position as Lead Sommelier at Bouchon in Yountville and had previously worked at the
French Laundry as Sommelier, as well as
at Seattle’s Canlis.
Auberge du
Soleil has appointed Susan
O’Bryen Spa Director. She joins the
resort after stints at several leading destination spas in the Southwest,
including the Enchantment Resort’s Mii Amo Spa, El Monte Sagrado and, most recently, Miraval.
Pablo Curtosi has been appointed Yield & Reservations Manager at the Iguazu Grand Hotel Resort & Casino in Argentina. Curtosi was previously the Operations Manager at the Lennox Boutique Hotel in Ushuaia.
EUROPE
Paul Jones has been promoted to President of One&Only
Resorts, taking over from J.T.
Kuhlman who retires after serving as
Chief Executive Officer since October 2003. Jones, one of Kerzner’s most senior
employees, moves up from Chief Operating Officer.
InterContinental
has promoted Alexi
Hakim to the position of Chief
Operating Officer for the United Kingdom and Ireland, replacing John
Bamsey who has taken over the
Dubai-based role of Chief Operating Officer for the Middle East and Africa.
Hakim was the Vice President, Full Service Operations North America, for the
company.
Matthias
Kiehm moves to London to serve as Vice
President for the Ritz Paris and
General Manager of Catering and Entertainment for Harrod’s of
London. He comes from the Four
Seasons Sharm El Sheik where he had
been the General Manager since September 2004. He had previously served as the
Hotel Manager at the Four Seasons Chicago and the Four Seasons Boston.
Henning
Reichel has been named General Manager
of the Schloss Velden in Austria,
slated to open in June. He previously served as Resident Manager of Brenner’s
Park in
Baden-Baden.
Stefan
Bernstein moves to France as General
Manager of the Hotel de La Cité-Concorde in Lyon. He spent the past three years as Executive
Assistant Manager at the Sheraton Heathrow in London, following four years as Rooms Division
Manager at the Sheraton Brussels Airport.
Gianni
Riatsch is the new General Manager at
the Hotel du Louvre Concorde in
Paris. He previously served as the General Manager at the Hilton
Athens and the London Hilton on Park
Lane, following a twenty-year career
with Méridien.
Nicolas
Kipper has been named General Manager
of the Marriott Moscow Tverskaya. He
was the Director of Operations at the Moscow Marriott Grand. Prior to moving to Moscow, he spent fourteen years
with Hyatt in Morocco, Poland,
Egypt, Turkey, Spain, Yugoslavia and Mexico.
Carlo
Stragiotto returns to the Four
Seasons Milan as Hotel Manager,
replacing Patrizio Cipollini. He
began with Four Seasons as the Restaurant Manager of La
Veranda restaurant at the opening of
the Milan hotel in 1993. He since served as the Director of Food and Beverage at
the Four Seasons Istanbul and the
Four Seasons Hotel George V before
moving to the Four Seasons Sharm El Sheikh where he was most recently the Resort
Manager.
Sandeep
Walia has been named Hotel Manager at
the Ritz-Carlton Moscow due to open
this summer. He moves up from the position of Executive Assistant Manager, Food
and Beverage at the Ritz-Carlton Sharm El Sheikh.
Alessandro
Cresta was named Hotel Manager at the
Hotel Martinez in Cannes. He comes
from the Boscolo Hotel Carlo IV in
Prague, where he was the General Manager. He also held the position of Hotel
Manager at the InterContinental Dubai.
Claudio
Melli has joined the Sheraton Grand
Hotel & Spa in Edinburgh as
Executive Assistant Manager. He most recently served as Executive Assistant
Manager in charge of Food and Beverage at the Regent Taipei.
Seth Lewis has joined the Grand Hotel InterContinental
Paris as Director of Food and Beverage.
A Lausanne graduate, Lewis originally joined InterContinental in 2004 as
Director of Brand Standards and Operational Support. An American (his father was
the late Alan Lewis a well-known
restaurateur long associated with Joseph Baum) he has lived in London for many years, holding
executive positions at the Royal Lancaster, the Grosvenor House, First Great Western Trains and the Sheraton Park Tower.
Charles
Bourdin (whose father is legendary Chef
Michel Bourdin, formerly of London’s
Connaught) has joined Lenôtre
Restauration in Paris as Director of
Food and Beverage. He was most recently the General Manager at Exclusive
Hotels. He also served as the General
Manager of the Hotel Balzac and the
Hotel de Vigny in Paris, and as Director of Operations at the Hotel
Martinez in
Cannes.
Jean-Pierre
Soutric has joined Shangri-La
in Paris as Area Director of Marketing.
Since 1996 he had been stationed at Paris’ Hotel George V, before and under Four Seasons, most recently as Senior Director of Marketing France.
Soutric also spent eight years in senior Sales and Marketing positions with
InterContinental. With Shangri-La,
his first order of duty will be to develop marketing strategies for the upcoming
110-room Shangri-La Paris Palais d’Iéna.
Gilles
Humeau is Jean-Pierre
Soutric’s successor at the Four
Seasons George V as Director of
Marketing. He joined the company in October 2005 as Director of Marketing at the
Four Seasons Provence and has
previously worked at the Grand Hotel InterContinental Paris.
Andre Devillers takes over for Gilles Humeau as Director of Marketing at the Four Seasons
Provence. He had joined the hotel in
2005 as Director of Sales and previously served as Director of Sales at the
Hotel Concorde Saint Lazare.
Stéphane
Marcet returns to France with the
Concorde Hotel Group as Regional
Director of Sales. Since 2004, he had been the Director of Sales at the Hotel
de La Paix in Geneva, after serving as
Regional Director of Sales at the Disneyland Resort Paris for two years.
Florian Wolf has been appointed Director of Sales at Schloss
Veldenin in Austria. He previously held
Sales Manager positions for Kempinski in Berlin and Hamburg. Most recently, he served as
Director of Sales at the Ritz-Carlton Wolfsburg.
Stéphanie
Biabaut is the new Public Relations
Manager at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendôme. She was previously the Public Relations Manager for
FedEx in
Paris.
Alex Wagner has been appointed Executive Chef at the Château Eza, taking over from Pierre Darret who has joined the Pourcel Brothers in Montpellier. Wagner comes from Georges Blanc where he was a Sous Chef and has previously worked at the Auberge du Cep and Restaurant Pierre Orsi.
ASIA AND THE
PACIFIC
Markland
Blaiklock has joined Lehman
Brothers in Bangkok as Chief Executive
Officer to oversee a Thai hotel company Lehman recently acquired. For the past
two years, he was the Executive Director – Hotel Operations at the Wynn
Macau. Blaiklock previously served as
Managing Director for Raffles Hotels and Resorts.
Ruud van
Dijk has
transferred to the Four Seasons Tokyo
Marunouchi as General
Manager, taking over for Tracy Mercer, now the General Manager of the Four Seasons Palo
Alto. Van Dijk was most recently the
Hotel Manager at the Four Seasons Bangkok. He originally joined the company in 1998 as Director
of Food and Beverage at the Four Seasons New York prior to a promotion to Hotel Manager at the Four
Seasons Shanghai.
Sébastien
Carre has been promoted to General
Manager of the soon-to-open Four Seasons Bora Bora. He has been with the company since 2003, most recently
as Hotel Manager at the Four Seasons Provence. He originally joined as Hotel Manager at the Four
Seasons Washington D.C. following two
years as Director of Operations at the Sofitel Lafayette
Square. Carre had already spent five
years in French Polynesia in the nineties.
David
Mansfield has been named General
Manager at the Grand Hyatt
Andrew
Steele has been promoted by
Shangri-La to General Manager of the
Shangri-La New Delhi. He was
previously the Resident Manager at Shangri-La’s Tanjung Aru
Resort in
Malaysia.
Greg Allan has been named General Manager of the Singapore
Marriott. A Kenya-born Scotsman, he has
spent the past eleven years with Marriott International, most recently as
General Manager of the JW Marriott Jakarta. In Singapore, Allan replaces Robert
Stark, who will be the new General
Manager at the JW Marriott Seoul.
Greg Pirkle has been promoted to General Manager of the Four
Seasons Langkawi. He joined the company
in 1989 and has served as Resort Manager at the Four Seasons Great
Exuma and most recently at the Four
Seasons Hualalai.
Andrew
Houghton has been appointed General
Manager of the JW Marriott Shanghai.
He replaces John Northen who is
taking on a new role as General Manager of the soon-to-open Renaissance Zhong
Shan Park in Shanghai. Houghton’s most
recent role was Brand Executive Vice President, Full Service Brands for
Marriott International corporate
headquarters in Washington, DC.
Laurent
Garrido is the new General Manager at
the Sheraton Tahiti. He comes from
Mauritius where he was the Resident Manager at the
Oberoi has appointed Hans Hordijk General Manager of Rajvilas, effective this summer. A twelve-year veteran of
Peninsula, he spent the past three
years as Resident Manager at the Peninsula Bangkok. He also held various positions at the Peninsula
Beijing, the Peninsula Hong
Kong, and the Peninsula
Manila.
Andreas
Trauttmansdorff has been named General
Manager for Le Méridien Nirwana in
Bali. He previously served in various positions for Sheraton in Perth, Jakarta and Brisbane.
Per Aquum has appointed Scot Toon General Manager Spa Collection. He has been with Per
Aquum since 2003 and, over the past four years, has launched both the Dhoni
Mighili, Maldives and the Fortress,
Sri Lanka, as General Manager.
Vicky Wang has been named General Manager at the Chisun Grand
Akasaka in Tokyo. She previously held
various management positions at the Portman Shangri-La, the Sofitel Tokyo and the Mercure Narita.
The Four Seasons
Hualalai has appointed Ilse
Harley Resort Manager. She was
previously the Director of Rooms at the Four Seasons Maui and also served in various positions at the Four
Seasons New York and the Four Seasons Atlanta.
Titiya
Chooto takes over for Ruud Van
Dijk at the Four Seasons
Bangkok as Hotel Manager. She comes
from the Four Seasons Chiang Mai
where she was the Resort Manager.
Lubosh Barta has transferred to the Four Seasons Chiang
Mai as Resort Manager. He comes from
the position of Director of Food and Beverage at the Four Seasons
Bangkok.
Malcolm
Omond takes over for Lubosh
Barta at the Four Seasons
Chiang Mai as Director of Food and Beverage. He comes from fourteen
years with Hyatt, most recently as
Executive Assistant Manager – Food and Beverage at the Hyatt Regency
Osaka.
The Long Beach's Ancient
Village Resort & Spa in Vietnam has
appointed Kerstin Poetzsch Executive
Assistant Manager. She previously held the title of Manager of Marketing and
Sales at the One&Only Kanuhura in the Maldives.
Franck
Hardy is joining the St. Regis
Singapore as Executive Assistant
Manager. He was most recently at the Swissôtel the Stamford, also in Singapore, as Director of Food and
Beverage.
Olivier
Rochefort has been named Executive
Assistant Manager at the Radisson SAS Beijing. Since 2005, he had served as Director, Rooms Division,
at the Fairmont Château Frontenac in
Québec.
Norbert Vas has joined the Intercontinental Bali as Director of Operations. For the past two years he
had been serving as General Manager at the Swiss-Belhotel
International Bali and was
previously the General Manager at the Swiss-Belhotel Golden Sand
Resort in
Vietnam.
Paolo
Randone has joined the Dusit Thani
Bangkok as Executive Assistant Manager.
For the past two years, he was the Resident Manager at the Pan Pacific
Sonargaon. He was previously the
Director of Food and Beverage at the Sheraton Grande
Walkerhill, the Nusa Dua Beach
Hotel and the Hotel
Borobudur.
Esther
Boudara has transferred to the
InterContinental Bora Bora Moana Resort as Hotel Manager. She comes from Paris where she was
most recently the Club and Business Center Manager at the InterContinental
Paris Grand Hotel.
Martin Jones has recently been promoted to Managing Director - Food
and Beverage, Asia Pacific for Starwood. He was most recently the General Manager at the
Westin Kuala Lumpur and also
Chairman of Starwood Asia Pacific's Food and Beverage Council. He has been with
Starwood since 1999, when he started as Director of Operations, Food and
Beverage, at the Westin Stamford & Westin Plaza Hotels in Singapore, before becoming General Manager at the
W Seoul.
The Four Seasons
Singapore has appointed Byron
Chong Director of Food and Beverage. He
joined the company in 1996 at the Regent Hong Kong where he was the Banquet Sales Manager. He then held
various food and beverage management positions at the Four Seasons
Shanghai and the Four Seasons
Maldives.
Andrew de
Brito has transferred to the Four
Seasons Mumbai as pre-opening Director
of Food and Beverage. He was most recently the Director of Food and Beverage at
the Four Seasons Langkawi and
previously served as Assistant Director of Food and Beverage at the Four
Seasons Aviara.
Irra Malik has been appointed Director of Rooms for the
Ritz-Carlton Jakarta. She has spent
most of her working years in London working in various positions with companies
such as Hyatt International, the
Wesbury Mayfair, the Carlton
Tower and most recently the
InterContinental Jakarta as Rooms
Division Manager.
Akihiro
Ichikawa has been promoted to Director
of Marketing at the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Chinzan-so, a hotel he joined in 2005. He takes over for
Hiroyuki Hasebe who moves back as
Director of Rooms at the hotel. Ichikawa previously held various sales and
marketing positions at the Hotel Okura Tokyo, Okura Garden Hotel Shanghai and the Grand Hyatt Tokyo.
Shinichi
Tamegai has been promoted to Human
Resources Manager at the Four Seasons Tokyo at Chinzan-so, taking over from Osatake Ishino who has been called back to the parent company of
Fujita Kanko. Tamegai joined the
hotel in 2001 and has been the Training Manager for the past four
years.
James Viney has joined the Four Seasons Tokyo
Maranouchi as Executive Chef. He was
most recently the Executive Chef at the Saujana in Kuala Lumpur. Previously, he spent four years at the
Grand InterContinental Seoul joining
them as Sous Chef de Cuisine and moving up to Executive Sous Chef.
The Fullerton
Singapore has appointed Arnaud
Thulliez Executive Chef. He comes from
the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, a
property he joined in 2004 as Chef de Cuisine and within a year was promoted to
Executive Sous Chef.
Patrice
Martineau has joined the soon-to-open
Peninsula Tokyo as Chef de Cuisine.
Martineau comes from London’s Savoy where he has been the Executive Chef since 2005,
following six years at Daniel Boulud’s New York restaurants.
Matthew
Siegel moves to Hong Kong as General
Manager of Classified, a cheese shop
with aging rooms. He was most recently at the Tanglin Club in Singapore as Director of Food and Beverage. He also
was the Executive Assistant Manager Food and Beverage at the Kowloon
Hotel in Hong
Kong.
MIDDLE EAST AND
AFRICA
Fabio Piccirillo has been promoted to Chief Executive Officer of Sun
Resorts Ltd. in Mauritius. He was previously the Regional Executive
Director, One&Only Resorts,
Mauritius.
Raul Salcido has been promoted to General Manager of the
Ritz-Carlton Istanbul. He started
with the company in 1993 at the Ritz-Carlton Cancun and has held various positions at the Ritz-Carlton
Washington D.C., the Ritz-Carlton
Palm Beach and the Ritz-Carlton
Santiago, among others. Most recently,
he has held the position of Hotel Manager at the Hotel Arts
Barcelona.
Armin
Zerounian was transferred by
Hilton to General Manager of the
Conrad Istanbul. He was previously
the General Manager of the Hilton Prague. In Istanbul, he takes over from Asaad
Farag, who has returned to the United
States.
David
Todd has been named General Manager at
the Crowne Plaza Muscat in Oman. He
has been with InterContinental for
over five years throughout the Middle East and the United Kingdom, most recently
as Resident Manager at the Al Bustan Palace InterContinental in Oman.
Hans-Peter
Leitzke joins the soon to open
Rosewood Corniche in Saudi Arabia as
General Manager. He was most recently the Resident Manager at the Hotel Al
Khozama, a Rosewood sister property.
Leitzke also served as Resident Manager at the Corinthia Nevskij Palace
Hotel in St. Petersburg, Executive
Assistant Manager at the Sheraton Nusa Indah Resort, Bali and at Le Méridien Cairo.
Alejandro
Bernabe has been named General Manager
at the Kempinski Julai’a in Kuwait.
He has previously been with Kempinski in Spain, Istanbul and, most recently, at
the Kempinski San Lawrenz in Malta
as General Manager. His successor at the Kempinski San Lawrenz is Emel
Attikan.
Manfred
Keiler has been
appointed General Manager at The Empire Hotel and Country Club
in Brunei. He comes to the hotel from
the Intercontinental The Grand Mumbai.
Sylvain
Chauvet has been named General Manager
at the Corinthia Atlantic Hotel in
West Africa. He comes from Tanzania where he was the General Manager at
Karafuu for the past five years.
Prior to that, he spent four years as Director and Operations Manager for
Tanganyika Wildlife Safari Company also in Tanzania.
Charlie
Parker has been promoted to Resort
Manager at the Four Seasons Sharm El Sheikh. He comes from the Four Seasons Doha
where he was most recently the Director
of Rooms.
Jean-Marc Michel
has been appointed Resort Manager at the One&Only Le Saint
Géran in Mauritius. A Lausanne
graduate, he comes from Portugal where he spent the past six years as Hotel
Manager at Orient Express’ Reid’s
Palace.
Nicolas Solari has been appointed opening Manager for the new Maritim Royal Peninsula & Spa and will also head the Sharm El Sheikh international Congress Center, to be branded Maritim. He is currently the opening Hotel Manager for the Jolie Ville Royal Peninsula Resort & Spa. Previously, he served as the Hotel General Manager of the MS Viking Century Sky and has worked for Hyatt Hotels, Moevenpick, Radisson and Gloria Hotels in Asia.
Alexander
Wassermann has been appointed Resident
Manager for the Moevenpick Hotel Bur Dubai. He has been with the company since 2003 first at the
Moevenpick Resort and Spa Dead Sea
as Director of Food and Beverage. He moved thereafter to the Moevenpick
Resort Taba in Egypt.
Ziad Aoun is moving as Executive Assistant Manager to the
Sofitel Palace in Dubai slated for
opening this summer. He was most recently at Le Royal Méridien Abu Dhabi
as Director of Business
Development.
Michael
Ganster has been appointed Rooms
Division Manager at the Dusit Dubai.
He served the past two years as Front Office Manager at Raffles L’Ermitage
in Beverly Hills.
Fabrice
Canelle has been named Executive Chef
at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai, taking
over from Jean-Paul Naquin. Canelle
was the Executive Chef at the Ritz-Carlton Istanbul. Previously, he held the position of Director of
Culinary Operations at the Pudong Shangri-La and Executive Chef at the Kempinski Ciragan
Palace.
Jean-Paul
Naquin will move over to the
Atlantis Palm Dubai as Executive
Chef. He comes from the same position at Hotel Burj al Arab also in Dubai. Previously, he has served as Executive
Chef at Raffles Singapore, the
Ritz-Carlton Seoul and the
Atlantis Bahamas.
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