The Newsletter of The Boutique Search Firm, a
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Global Update: Who's where and doing
what:
November 2006
THE AMERICAS
Butch
Kerzner, Chief Executive Officer of Kerzner
International, was killed last month in a helicopter accident in the
Dominican Republic. Paul O'Neil, former Chief
Executive Officer of the Company's Paradise Island operations, has
been appointed acting Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Kerzner, who was
42, had been appointed Chief Executive Officer in January 2004. He is survived
by his wife and two young children.
Eric Calderon has joined Ty
Warner Hotels and Resorts in Santa Barbara
as Chief Operating Officer, following seventeen years as the Vice President and
General Manager at the Little Nell in Aspen. A
Lausanne graduate, he had also been the Vice President and General Manager of
the Lodge at Pebble Beach, following
assignments with Four Seasons and
Westin. The Ty
Warner portfolio includes San Ysidro Ranch and Las
Ventanas al Paraiso, both operated by
Rosewood, as well as the Four Seasons
Biltmore Santa Barbara and the Four Seasons New
York, and Kona Village, the
Miramar Santa
Barbara along with some non-hotel real assets.
HEI
Hospitality has appointed Ted Darnall Partner and Chief
Operating Officer as well as President and Chief Operating Officer of Merritt
Hospitality, its management subsidiary. Since 2002, Darnall was
President of the Real Estate Group at Starwood,
a company he had joined in 1996 following a career with
Marriott and Interstate.
Interstate
has promoted Joseph Klam to Executive Vice
President, Hotel Finance. He was most recently the Senior Vice President of
Hotel Finance for the company. Klam joined Interstate in 2003 from Millennium
Hotels & Resorts, where he served
as Vice President of Finance-North America.
Douglas Ludwig has been named
Chief Financial Officer of Baha Mar Development. He spent the
last twenty years working for Four Seasons, where he was the
Chief Financial Officer for the past ten years.
Pinnacle
Entertainment has promoted Larry Buck to the newly
created position of Regional Vice President. He will also hold the title of
President of Pinnacle-Atlantic City. He was most
recently the Vice President and General Manager of Pinnacle's Belterra Casino
Resort. Kim Townsend who was most
recently Pinnacle's Senior Vice President of Marketing will relocate to Atlantic
City to serve as Executive Vice President of Pinnacle-Atlantic
City.
The InterContinental Hotel
Group has appointed Christian
Hempell Vice
President Strategy, Americas Region. He was most recently based in London as the
group's Vice President of Global Strategy. Hempell, a Cornell graduate, spent
six years with Andersen Consulting prior to getting
an MBA from Harvard.
The
Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay has appointed
Pete Ells General Manager, replacing Paul
Ratchford who is now the President of the
Greenbrier. Ells served most recently at the Ritz-Carlton
Phoenix as General Manager and was previously the General
Manager of the St. Anthony and the
Renaissance Parc 55 in San Francisco.
Roberto van Geenen has transferred
as General Manager to the Ritz-Carlton Dallas. He was most
recently in the same position at the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach
after serving as Hotel Manager at the Ritz-Carlton
Naples.
Cornell man Brad Jencks is the General
Manager of the soon-to-be-named-again Ritz-Carlton Rancho
Mirage. The property, launched by Ritz-Carlton in the
eighties, had become the Lodge at Rancho Mirage, a
RockResort. New ownership is investing heavily in upgrading and
enlarging the property, adding a substantial residential component for future
re-opening as a Ritz-Carlton. Jencks originally joined the company in 2004 as
General Manager of the Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas. Prior to that,
he ran a number of luxury properties including the Turtle Bay
Resort in Hawaii, the Pointe Hilton South
Mountain in Arizona, the InterContinental
Wailea, and Halekulani.
Taking over from Brad Jencks as General
Manager of the Ritz-Carlton St.
Thomas is Marc Langevin, formerly the
Hotel Manager at the Ritz-Carlton Grand
Cayman. Langevin rejoined Ritz-Carlton in 2004, following a
stint as Regional Director of Operations for Boykin
Hospitality. He had been the Director of Food and Beverage at the
Ritz-Carlton Cleveland.
John Remmers has been
appointed General Manager of the soon-to-open Hotel Zaza
Houston. The former Warwick is being
reincarnated into a hip 335-room hotel. Remmers recently opened, as its General
Manager, the Dolce Zermatt Resort in Utah. He
originally joined Dolce as the General
Manager of the Lakeway Resort in Austin.
Remmers was previously on the East Coast as General Manager of the Omni
Jacksonville.
Christoph Roshardt has been promoted
to General Manager of the Ritz-Carlton Phoenix. He was most
recently at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel where he held the
title of Hotel Manager since 2004. In Phoenix, he takes over from Pete
Ells, now the General Manager of the Ritz-Carlton Half
Moon Bay.
Rick Evanich returns to New
York as General Manager of the Ritz-Carlton Battery
Park, from the same position at the Ritz-Carlton Boston
Common. He was previously the General Manager of the
Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park.
Darrell Sheaffer has joined the
Fairmont Turnberry Isle as General
Manager. He briefly consulted for the Kor Group in Los Angeles as
Area General Manager following a stint as opening General Manager at the
Mandarin Oriental Washington DC. Sheaffer is also
a former Ritz-Carlton man, for whom he
served as General Manager in Palm Beach, Doha, Philadelphia and
Atlanta.
Thomas Becker has been named
General Manager of the yet-to-be-named “lifestyle hotel“ to be operated by the
Light Group in Las Vegas. The property will be part of MGM
Mirage's City Center. Becker was most
recently the General Manager at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission
Inn. Prior to that, he spent three years with Sun
International (now Kerzner International) in Mauritius,
following nine years with Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong,
Singapore and San Francisco.
Guenter
Richter has been appointed General Manager of the Regent Bal
Harbour due to open April 2007. He had been the Managing
Director of the St. Regis New York and the General
Manager of the Swissôtel New York The Drake following
thirteen years with Grand Bay Hotel and Resorts.
Ellis O'Connor has joined the
Gramercy Park Hotel in New York as
General Manager, replacing Jim McPartlin. Since 1996,
O'Connor had been with the Peninsula Hotel Group in Beverly Hills
transferring to the Peninsula New York as Resident
Manager at the beginning of this year.
Richard Behr has joined
Miramonte in Indian Wells as General Manager. He was most recently the General Manager
of the Hilton Scottsdale and previously
served as Resort Manager at the Royal Palms Resort and
Spa in Phoenix.
Les Utley has been named
General Manager of the South Coast Winery Resort and
Spa in Temecula. He was most recently the General Manager
of the Hotel Zoso in Palm Springs,
and has previously worked at the Fairmount Hotel San
Antonio, and the Vail Athletic Club.
Jonathan Crellin has transferred
as General Manager of the Fairmont Hamilton Princess in Bermuda. He was
most recently the General Manager of the Fairmont Copley
Plaza in Boston.
Michael
Kaile has been named General Manager of the Fairmont
Chateau Whistler. He joined the
company in 1991 as General Manager of the Fairmont Waterfront
in Vancouver, and was later appointed Vice President and
General Manager in 1995. He has also managed the Fairmont Hamilton Princess
and, most recently, the Fairmont
Dubai.
Karen Kelly is the new
General Manager for Resortquest at Snowmass and
Aspen taking over for Gunter Muller. She previously
served as Vice President of Hospitality at Snowshoe
Mountain, an Intrawest resort.
Jeffrey Brower follows Horst
Schulze's West Paces Hotel Group from L'Auberge
de Sedona, to Augusta's venerable Partridge
Inn, as General Manager in both
cases. He previously served eight years with Ritz-Carlton
including a stint as Executive
Assistant Manager, Rooms Division at the Ritz-Carlton
Sarasota.
Paul Tormey has transferred
to the Fairmont Copley Plaza as General
Manager. He was most recently the General Manager at the Fairmont Chateau
Whistler.
Kevin
Kaufman is being promoted to General Manager of Pinnacle
Entertainment's Belterra Casino Resort. He was most
recently the Senior Director of Casino Operations at the property he joined in
2001 as Director of Casino Operations.
Todd
George will relocate to St. Louis to become Vice President and
General Manager for Pinnacle Entertainment's casino now
under construction. He was most recently the General Manager of Pinnacle's
Boomtown Bossier City and joined
Pinnacle in the accounting department of the Belterra Casino
Resort in 2000. George is replaced at Boomtown Bossier City by
Barry Regula whose previous title at the resort was Senior Director
of Casino Operations.
Jean-Luc Maumus has been named
General Manager at the Knob Hill Inn in Idaho. He was
most recently the Estate Manager for the Saperstein family in Beverly
Hills. Previously, Maumus was the opening General Manager at Elk Mountain
Resort, the Managing Director at Monmouth
Plantation and the Managing Director at Maison de
Ville in New Orleans.
Oscar Cruces has been
appointed General Manager of the Grand Velas Resort in Puerto
Vallarta. He was most recently the General Manager of the Marquis
Reforma in Mexico City and previously headed up operations at
the Gran Caribe Real and the Porto
Real Hotel in the Yucatan Peninsula.
Alain Negueloua has joined
Meadowood in St. Helena as General Manager. He had been with
Mandarin Oriental since 1997, most
recently as the General Manager of the Mark in New York, due
to close at the end of December.
Stuart Meyerson has been named
General Manager of the Liberty Hotel in Boston slated
to open Spring 2007. He has thirty years experience with
Hyatt most recently as the General Manager of the Hyatt
Regency Cambridge and the Hyatt
Regency Newport.
Randy Kwasniewski has been appointed
President of Morgans Hotel Group Las Vegas, and President and Chief
Operating Officer of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, following the
completion of the acquisition of the property by Morgans. He was most recently a
Senior Vice President at Starwood Capital and had previously been the
Chief Operating Officer of the Hard Rock Las Vegas, when the property was still
owned by Peter Morton.
Omar Said has been promoted
to Regional Director of Residences by Ritz-Carlton. He has been with
the company thirteen years and was most recently the Area Director of Residences
for the Sarasota properties. Said also served as Executive Assistant Manager
Rooms at the Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas and the
Ritz-Carlton Dearborn.
Senih Geray has been named General Manager at the St. Regis
Aspen. He was most the General Manager
of the Sheraton Voyager Antalya in
Turkey for the past four years. He was with the St. Regis New
York from 1994 to 2002 in various
capacities ending as Financial Controller.
Tom
Waithe has joined Vancouver's
Pacific Palisades Hotel as General
Manager/Director of Operations. He has held various positions with Four
Seasons in Vancouver, Chicago, Hawaii
and Tokyo. He was most recently at the Willows Lodge in Seattle.
Hector Rubio
has been promoted to Resident Manager at Esperanza in Los Cabos. He was most recently the Rooms Division
Manager at the hotel. He is replaced by Silvana Diego who moves up from her position as Executive Assistant
to the General Manager/Vice President, Severino Gomez.
Clifford Atkinson has been named Hotel Manager at Ian
Schrager's Gramercy Park
Hotel. He was most recently the
Director of Sales at Ideas Revenue Optimization and was previously with Mandarin Oriental
for seven years most recently as the
Executive Assistant Manager-Rooms Division at the Mandarin Oriental New
York.
Michael
Abbott has joined Affinia
Chicago as Director of Operations. He
was most recently at the InterContinental Chicago as the Director Food and
Beverage.
Steve Ohern
has joined the White Face Lodge in
Lake Placid as Resort Manager. He was most recently at Twin
Farms in Vermont as the Assistant
Manager.
Rafael Verde
has been promoted to Assistant General Manager at Boomtown New
Orleans. He joined Pinnacle
Entertainment at Boomtown in the
accounting department in 1999 and has held positions with the company as the
Senior Director of Finance and Administration at Belterra Casino
Resort. He most recently was the Senior
Director of Finance at L'Auberge du Lac.
Nelson Alvarez has been appointed Controller at the Inn at Little
Washington. Over the last three years,
he was with Interstate Hotels as the
Director of Finance for the Latham and the Georgetown Inn in Washington, DC. He was previously a Controller for
Hyatt in Virginia, Boston and
Washington, D.C.
David
McIntyre has joined the MGM
Grand in Las Vegas as Executive
Director of Food and Beverage. He was previously the Executive Assistant Manager
Food and Beverage at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington and the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne.
Eric Christensen has
been named Food and Beverage Director at the Dallas Magnolia.
He was previously the Director of Food and Beverage for the Inn at Lost
Creek in Telluride. He also served as the Outlets Manager at the
Peaks in Telluride and as Banquet Manager for the Wyndham
Colorado Springs.
Robert
Muehlich has been appointed Director of
Food and Beverage at the Setai in
Miami. He was most recently in the same position at Rosewood's Caneel Bay on St. John and previously served as Assistant Director
of Food and Beverage at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort and
Spa.
Magnus
Olovson has been appointed Director of
Food and Beverage at Peter Island in
the British Virgin Islands. He was most recently involved in the opening of the
Sheraton Oran Hotel & Towers in
Algeria as Director of Food and Beverage.
Mike
VanDuzer has been appointed Director of
Facilities at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado. He was most recently the Director of
Facilities at the Lansdowne Resort
in Virginia and was previously an Engineer at the Resort at Squaw
Creek in Lake
Tahoe.
Noble House Hotels & Resorts has named John Davies Vice President of Marketing and Ted
Davis Vice President of Sales. Davies
originally joined the company in 1998 as Vice President of Sales and Marketing
and assumes his new position after eight months of consulting work for Noble
House. Davis was previously an Area Director of Sales and Marketing for LXR
Luxury Resorts.
Mario Maesano is relocating to St. Louis as Senior Director of
Marketing for Pinnacle Entertainment. He was most recently the head of marketing at
Boomtown Bossier City and joined
Pinnacle in 2000 in the marketing department at Belterra.
Keith Henson
has relocated to Las Vegas as Vice President of Relationship Marketing for
Pinnacle Entertainment. He was most
recently the Senior Director of Human Resources at L'Auberge du
Lac in Lake Charles, having joined
Pinnacle in 1997 as a table games dealer at the Boomtown Reno.
The Dallas
Magnolia has appointed Raluca
Leibowitz Human Resources Manager. She
was previously the Corporate Director of Human Resources for Encore
Hospitality. She also has served as a
human resources consultant with Gemstone, as the General Manager of the Grove Isle Resort and
Club in Miami, and as the Hotel Manager
of the Hotel ZaZa in Dallas.
Allen
Anderson will be re-joining
Destination Hotels and Resorts as
Director of Sales and Marketing at the Skamania Lodge in Washington. He took his current position of Director
of Sales and Marketing at the Ocean Hammock Resort prior to its sale by Destination/Lowe
to Centex.
The Chateau on the Lake
Resort & Spa in Branson, Missouri
has appointed Peter Regan Director
of Sales and Marketing. He comes from the L'Enfant Plaza (formerly Loews) in Washington D.C. Regan also held various sales
positions with the Peabody Hotel Group and Crestline.
Fairmont has
appointed Jon Mamela to the newly
created position of Director, Product and Service Strategy. Previously, he
served as Fairmont's Director of Relationship Management.
Windsor Casino
Limited has appointed Patricia
Nicholl as Director, Hotel and
Convention Sales. Her previous hotel experience includes the Windsor Hilton
and the Deerhurst
Resort where she was the Marketing
Director. In addition, Nicholl previously held positions as the Director, Sales
and Marketing for Canadian Pacific
in Calgary and at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa.
Alana
Miranda has been named Director of
Villa Sales for the Cabo Azul Resort & Spa scheduled to open in Spring 2007 in Los Cabos. She was
most recently with Starwood French Polynesia as Director of Sales – North
America. Taking over her responsibilities is Victoria
Page who comes from the Luxury
Collection sales office in Los
Angeles.
Jon
Makhmaltchi has been promoted to
Director of Global Sales at Small Luxury Hotels, based in
Los Angeles. Since 2004 he has been the Director of Sales, Western United
States, for the company. He was previously the Director of Sales and Marketing
at the Carneros Inn in Napa and the
Huntington in San
Francisco.
Arthur
Backal is the Owner/Partner of
Backal's in Scarsdale, New
York. He partners with Tony
Fortuna of the Lenox
Room, with whom he had worked with at
the St. Regis New York where Backal
was the Director of Catering and Fortuna was the Manager of
Lespinasse. For the past three
years, Backal has also been the Director of Catering at the Mandarin Oriental
New York.
Cynthia
Boyett has transferred to the Four
Seasons Westlake Village as Director of
Catering and Conference Services. She previously held the same position at the
Four Seasons Miami. Prior to that,
she was the Associate Director of Catering and Conference Services at the
Mandarin Oriental Miami.
The Dallas Magnolia
has appointed Mai
Nguyen Catering Manager.
Patrick
Fortemps has joined the Boca Raton
Resort and Club as Assistant Director
of Food and Beverage. He had spent many years at the Parker Méridien New York
as Director of Catering and also served
as Assistant General Manager at Jalousie Plantation in St. Lucia. Fortemps had also been the Assistant
General Manager at the Hotel Hermitage in Monte Carlo, and served as Director of Food and
Beverage at the George Cinq in
Paris, prior to its reincarnation as a Four Seasons.
Damon Gordon has joined the soon-to-open Ivy
Hotel in San Diego as Executive Chef.
Since 1999, he had been with China Grill Management as Executive Chef at Ono at the Hotel Gansevoort, Mix New York, Delano and
Royalton, among
others.
Stefan Kauth has been appointed Executive Chef at the Renaissance
Las Vegas. He was most recently the
Executive Chef at the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove and was previously the Banquet Chef at the Paris Las
Vegas Hotel and Casino, Executive Chef
at the Stirling Club at Turnberry Place and Chef de Cuisine at the Ritz-Carlton Palm
Beach.
Andreas
Nieto has joined the newly re-opened
US Grant Hotel in San Diego as
Executive Chef. He was most recently at the Hyatt Regency Century
Plaza (formerly the Westin Century
Plaza) where he had been the Executive
Chef since 1999, save for a brief break in 2004 when he went to the Hard Rock
Hotel and Casino in Las
Vegas.
Brooke
Vosicka has transferred to the Four
Seasons Boston as Executive Chef. He
has been with Four Seasons since
1982 in Atlanta, Chicago, Washington DC and most recently as Executive Chef at
the Four Seasons New York.
Paul Barnard has been appointed Executive Chef at the Discovery
Resort in St. Lucia. He was most
recently the Executive Sous Chef at the Elbow Beach Hotel by Mandarin Oriental in Bermuda.
Yoshinori
Kojima has joined Wolfgang Puck
Catering as Executive Chef of the
Pacific Design Center in Los
Angeles. He was most recently the opening Executive Chef at
Okura in Palm Springs. He previously
served as Executive Sous Chef at Latitude in Sonoma, Executive Chef at MC2
Restaurant in San Francisco and
Executive Chef at the Pan Pacific Hotel, also in San Francisco.
Stephen
Adelle-Jondeau has joined the Blue
Waters Hotel in Antigua as Executive
Chef. He was previously the Executive Chef at Sandals Montego Bay and
Executive Sous Chef at Little Dix Bay.
Patrick
O'Connor joins the InterContinental
Dallas as Executive Chef. He was most
recently the Executive Sous Chef at Disney's Swan and Dolphin Resort.
Todd Wolfson has been appointed Executive Chef at the Glen Cove
Mansion on Long Island. He was most
recently the Executive Chef at another Benchmark property, Berry Hill Plantation.
Australian Sean
Dent has joined Circa
55, the new restaurant at the
Beverly Hilton as Chef de Cuisine.
Prior to having his own catering operation, Dent was the Executive Chef at the
now-shuttered Citrus in Los Angeles.
He also served as Executive Sous Chef at Le Merigot Santa Monica Beach Hotel
and Sous Chef at
L'Orangerie.
David Murphy has joined Nero's Grill at Caesar's Palace in Atlantic City as Chef de Cuisine. He was most
recently at Galipette Restaurant in
Florida as the Executive Chef/Partner and was previously the Executive Chef at
Wave Restaurant at the W Hotel
Lakeshore. In addition, he has held the
position of Executive Sous Chef at Michael Jordan's
Steakhouse and 23
Sportcafé at the Mohegan Sun
Casino in
Connecticut.
Patrick
Ponsaty has been appointed Executive
Chef at Bernard Mougel's
Bernard'O in Rancho Bernardo. He was
most recently the Executive Chef at La Bastide Bistro in San Diego and previously the Chef de Cuisine at
El Bizcocho at the Rancho
Bernardo Inn. Ponsaty is a former
Executive Chef at the Park Bistro in
New York. Early in his career, he served as Pastry Chef at La
Samanna.
Nicolas
Legret has joined the Willard
InterContinental as Chef de Cuisine
where he will be in charge of the Willard Room. He was most recently the Chef at Bistro
123 in Virginia and previously the
Executive Sous Chef at the Sofitel Washington DC and Le Mas Perrier in Pennsylvania.
Céline Plano has joined the Four Seasons Westlake Village
as pre-opening Executive Pastry Chef.
She was most recently at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead as Head Pastry Chef and previously at the
Ritz-Carlton San Francisco.
Anthony
Olheiser has been named General Manager
of Studio 54 at the MGM
Grand in Las Vegas. Previously, he
served as the Assistant General Manager of TAO at the Venetian. He also served as Operations Manager at
MIX, in THE Hotel at Mandalay
Bay.
Shelly Davis has joined Reds Restaurant at the Sedona Rouge Hotel and Spa as Restaurant Manager. She spent the past three years
at the Amara Resort also in
Sedona.
David Ebanks has joined the Resort at Singer
Island in Florida as Director of
Housekeeping. He was most recently in the same position at the Diplomat
Country Club and Spa and was previously
the Director of Housekeeping at the Ocean Point Resort and
Club.
Lucio López returns to the Ritz-Carlton Cancun as Associate Director of Engineering. He was most
recently in the same position at the Ritz-Carlton San Juan and was previously at the Cancun property since
1993.
Toni
Maggiore has been named Spa Director at
the Four Seasons Atlanta. She was
most recently at the Four Seasons Aviara where she served as Spa Operations
Manager.
Katie
Pederson has been named Spa Director at
the Spa at the
Inverness in Denver. She was most
recently the Director of Technical Services at the Essentiels
Spa in Boulder.
Sara
Thatcher has been named Spa Director at
the Palms on Turks and Caicos, now a
Regent property. Most recently, she
worked as Sports and Leisure Manager at London's prestigious Royal Automobile
Club.
EUROPE
Agnes
Bourguignon has joined Alain
Ducasse's fast growing empire as
Managing Director of Alain Ducasse Formation. ADF includes a professional culinary school, a cooking
school for non-professionals and Identité Culinaire, a consulting firm. Bourguignon is well known in
Europe, where she recently was a senior executive for Accor in charge of the Sofitel brand in Europe. She had also been the President of the
hotel division of the Compagnie Immobilière du Phénix. As such, she launched the Demeure and Libertel
hotel brands, now parts of Accor.
André
Martinez has been named President of
Hospitality by Morgan Stanley. He
logged several years with Accor in
some of the company's top posts, following tenure as President of
Méridien
hotels.
Long time
Hilton man Peter Van Der
Vliet, Vice President for Belgium,
Holland and Luxembourg, is retiring. His successor is Ridu
Jagersbacher.
Jean Faivre has been promoted to Vice President France and Geneva
for Hilton. He was most recently the
Regional General Manager - Paris for the company and had previously been the
General Manager at the Hilton Rabat
and the Bucharest Hilton.
Previously, he was with InterContinental as Hotel Manager at the Dubai
InterContinental and Resident Manager
of the Mayfair InterContinental in
London.
Fairmont has appointed John Williams Executive Vice President for Europe, Africa and the
Middle East. He began his career with Fairmont in 1995 as the Regional Vice
President, British Columbia Region and the General Manager of the Fairmont
Empress. He most recently served as
Executive Vice President Operations for Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.
Hilton has
announced the appointment of Simon Vincent as Area President of the company's United Kingdom and
Ireland region, replacing Howard Friedman who is returning to the United States following over
seventeen years service with Hilton. Simon was most recently at
Opodo where he was the Chief
Executive Officer.
Sylvain Ercoli is coming back into the fold of Barry
Sternlicht's Concorde Hotel
Group, as General Manager of the
Hotel de Crillon. He had left the
group in the spring to become the General Manager of London's
Claridges. From 2001 to 2006, Ercoli
had served Concorde as General Manager of the Hotel Martinez in Cannes, with additional regional responsibilities
over its sister property the Palais de La Méditerranée in Nice. Part of his mandate in Paris will be to help
define and develop the Crillon brand for Sternlicht. The top job at the Crillon
was left vacant when Franka Holtmann
became the General Manager of the Meurice, also in Paris.
Kiaran MacDonald has
been named General Manager of the Savoy in London, taking over the
position left vacant since April when Mark Huntley joined the MGM
Grand Las Vegas. MacDonald joins from the Fairmont Scottsdale
Princess, where he had been the General Manager since
2003.
Dagmar
Woodward has joined the Hotel Royal
Monceau in Paris as General Manager.
She was previously the General Manager of the Intercontinental
Paris, the Mayfair InterContinental
London and the InterContinental The
Portmann also in London. At the Royal
Monceau, Woodward steps in where Kristof Mares had left when the tentative joined venture between
Mandarin Oriental and the Royal
Monceau was aborted.
Jean-Marie
Marcadier has been appointed General Manager for the Hotel
Mirabeau in Monte Carlo. He was most
recently at the Hotel Le Pigonnet in
Nice as General Manager and previously spent nine years at the Ritz in
Paris as Director of Food and Beverage and Director of
Operations.
Gian Luigi
Epis has joined the Hotel Castillo
Son Vida in Mallorca as General Manager
taking over from Lionel Alvarez who
has left the company. Epis was most recently the General Manager at the Hotel
and Casino Torrequebrada in Malaga, and
previously the General Manager at sister property Puente
Romano.
Gastone Di
Domenico has joined Acqua Marcia
Turismo in Italy as Cluster General
Manager where he will be converting the company's three luxury hotels into
Hilton properties. He was most
recently the General Manager at Il Ciocco Hotel and Resort and previously served as General Manager at the
Sheraton Royal Gardens in
Cairo.
Jean-Francois
Pelouard returns to Budapest as General
Manager of the Baglioni slated to
open in September 2007. He was previously the General Manager at the Hotel du
Parc in Mulhouse, the Riverside
Hotel in Prague, the Andrássy
Hotel in Budapest and the Sands
Resort Mauritius.
Robert Patrick
Herr was appointed General Manager of
the InterContinental Prague
replacing Leon Larkin who is moving
to a soon-to-be announced position. Herr started his career with
InterContinental in 1993 and was the Resident Manager at the InterContinental
Vienna and the InterContinental
Prague, the General Manager at the
Crowne Plaza Hamburg and most
recently the opening General Manager at the InterContinental
Düsseldorf.
Stephan Kaminski
has joined the Kempinski Vierjahreszeiten in Munich as General
Manager. He held a similar position with Kempinski at their Emirates
Palace in Abu Dhabi, and also was the General Manager at the Grand Hotel
Europe in St. Petersburg for Kempinski.
Jean-Pierre
Marcadier has transferred to the
Hyatt Regency Belgrade as General
Manager, taking over for Ed Andrews.
Marcadier was previously the General Manager of the Hyatt Regency Paris
Roissy. He had originally joined the
company in 1999 as General Manager of the Grand Hyatt Muscat. He also served as General Manager of the Hyatt
Regency Casablanca.
Estelita Sebeto has transferred to the
Ritz-Carlton Carratraca in Spain, as pre-opening General Manager. She had
once been the Front Office Manager at the Ritz-Carlton Washington
DC.
Heinz
Hunkeler has been appointed General
Manager at the Grand Hotel Kronenhof Pontresina in St. Moritz. He was most recently the Executive
Assistant Manager at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski in Munich and was previously the Director of Food and
Beverage at the Hotel du Rhône in
Geneva. His wife, Jenny, joins him
at the hotel as Directrice.
Olivier
Bigot has transferred to the Sofitel
Toison d'Or in Brussels as General
Manager. He was most recently the General Manager of the Sofitel
Nice and was previously the General
Manager at the Hotel Astor in
Paris.
Warren
Lavender has joined the
Berkeley in London as Chief Engineer.
He was most recently at the Four Seasons Canary Wharf as the Director of Engineering. Lavender also toiled at
the Sun City Resort in South Africa
and was the Chief Engineer at the Eton Town House Group and the Harrington Club.
Michaël
Thevenet has been named Food and
Beverage Director at the Moscow Marriott Royal Aurora. He was most recently the Food and Beverage Manager at
the Le Méridien Président in Sénégal
and previously at Le Méridien Etoile
in Paris as the Assistant Food and Beverage Manager.
Jean-Marie
Dubos has joined Arabella Hoteles e
Inversiones de Espana in Spain as the
Regional Director of Food and Beverage. He was previously the Director of Food
and Beverage at the Ritz Paris,
following three years with
Rosewood in Dallas and New
York.
Rocco Forte
Hotels has appointed Murray
Thomson to the newly-created position
of Brand Conference and Incentive Director. He was most recently their United
Kingdom Sales and Marketing Director. Thomson joined Rocco Forte Hotels in 1997
and has previously occupied the role of Director of Sales and Marketing at both
the Balmoral and the
Lowry.
Gregory
Bradelle has been promoted Director of
Sales and Marketing at Le Richemond
in Geneva. He was most recently the International Sales Director at the hotel
and previously the Assistant Director of Sales and Marketing at the Hotel de
Russie in Rome. In addition, Bradelle
was the Corporate and Leisure Sales Manager at the Mark in New York.
Marie Cécile
Dumont is the new Director of Sales and
Marketing at the Westin Paris
(formerly the Paris InterContinental). She transfers from the same position at sister hotel
the Trianon Palace, in Versailles.
Rocco Forte Hotels has
appointed Mark Allvey Global Sales Director based at the company's head
office in London. He was most recently with One&Only Resorts as Vice
President of Sales and was previously the London Regional Sales Director for
Morgans Hotel Group, where he was responsible for the Sanderson
and St. Martin's Lane.
Nathalie
Cockayne has been appointed Rooms
Division Manager at the Savoy in
London. Prior to that, she was the Front Office Manager at the Setai
South Beach.
Devrim
Kahramanoglu has been promoted to Front
Office Manager at the Cumberland in
London. He was most recently the Assistant Front of House Manager at the hotel
and was previously at Browns as
Reception Manager and Front Office Manager at Kingsway Hall.
Luc Califano has been named Front Office Manager at the Royal Plaza in Montreux. He was previously the Front Office Manager at the Le Plaza in Brussels and the Reservation Manager at the Royal Riviera in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.
ASIA AND THE
PACIFIC
Andrew Hirst has been named Director of Operations for Mandarin
Oriental, based in Hong Kong. He will be in charge of all hotels
in Asia, plus global responsibility for customer service, food and beverage and
spas. Ingo Schweder, who was in
charge of spas, has left the company. Hirst has previously been the General
Manager at the Oriental in
Singapore, the Mandarin Oriental Macau and, most recently, the Excelsior in Hong Kong.
Jean-Marc
Vermorel has been promoted from General
Manager at the Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort to Director of Operations for South
Pacific Management, the operator of Pearl Resorts. Vermorel had joined the
group in April 2004, after serving as Financial Controller for
Orient-Express' Bora Bora Lagoon
Resort. At SPM, he takes over from
François Hemery, who has left the
company.
Taking over from Jean-Marc
Vermorel as General Manager of the
Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort is
Cornell graduate Xavier Bessou, who
moves up from the position of Executive Assistant Manager at the
property.
Philip
Dailey has transferred to the
Shangri-La Chiang Mai as General
Manager. He has been with the company since 2001 at the Putrajaya Shangri-La
and the Makati
Shangri-La. Previously he worked with
Ian Schrager Hotels for six years at
the unfinished Miramar in Santa
Barbara and Morgans in New
York.
François
Hemery has joined the Sunway Phnom
Penh as General Manager. He was most
recently the Director of Operations and Human Resources at Pearl
Resorts in Tahiti. Previously, Hemery
was the General Manager at the Kuala Lumpur Parkroyal and the Penang Parkroyal.
Rainy Chan has transferred to the Peninsula Hong
Kong as General Manager taking over
from Ian Coughlan who left the
company to join Wynn resorts. Chan
comes from the Peninsula Bangkok
where she had taken over the General Manager position again from Coughlan when
he left for the Hong Kong property.
The Ramada
Sapporo has appointed Shigeki
Murao General Manager. He most
recently directed the re-branding and re-launch of the Ramada Osaka
as Director of Sales and Marketing.
C.V. Healy has transferred to the Shangri-La
Putrajaya in Malaysia as General
Manager. He was most recently at the Shangri-La Penang as General Manager and has previously worked in Taipei,
Shanghai and Qingdao.
Mark Heather has been appointed General Manager of the Anantara
Resort Golden Triangle in Northern
Thailand. He was most recently at the Harbour View Hotel in Haiphong
and previously held operational and Sales and Marketing roles with Dusit
Hotels.
Ivan Casadevall will oversee the Anantara Resort Hua
Hin. He joined Anantara Resorts
& Spas in early 2006 and has
previously been with Sol Melia in
Indonesia and Vietnam.
Ludwig Szeiler has been appointed General Manager of the Sheraton
Nanjing. He was previously the General
Manager at the Sheraton Dammam.
Robin Edwards has been appointed General Manager of the Crowne
Plaza Sanya on Hainan Island. Edwards
was previously the General Manager of the Golden Palms Hotel and
Spa in Bangalore and has held positions
with Starwood and Jebel Ali
International Hotels in the Middle
East.
Rick Lopez has been appointed Resident Manager for the recently
opened Boracay Mandarin Island Hotel
in the Philippines. He was formerly the Operations and Marketing Director at
Villa de Oro Boracay for three
years.
Cornell graduate Noel Merainer has joined Shangri-La Hotels and
Resorts as Regional Director of Revenue
Management - North America. He will be based out of Hong Kong until 2008 and
will then relocate to Vancouver. He was previously at the Four Seasons
Washington DC in various capacities,
most recently as Director of Revenue Management.
Bernard
Viola has transferred as Hotel Manager
to the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo slated for
opening in March 2007. He was most recently in the same position at the
Ritz-Carlton Moscow. Viola
originally joined Ritz-Carlton in 2004 as the Executive Assistant Manager, Food
and Beverage, at the Ritz-Carlton Rose Hall, in Jamaica.
Charles-Henri Chevet has
been named Hotel Manager at the Sofitel Wanda Beijing slated for opening
June 2007. He was most recently at the Sofitel Métropole
Hanoi.
Stefano
Ruzza has transferred to the Hilton
Cebu Resort and Spa in the Philippines
as Director of Operations. He was most recently at the Hilton Phuket Arcadia
Resort and Spa as Director of Food and
Beverage.
The InterContinental Hong
Kong has appointed Jeffrey
Ong Executive Assistant Manager.
He was most recently the Executive Assistant Manager, Sales and Marketing at
Raffles The Plaza, Singapore, and
previously spent two years in Japan as Director of Marketing for
the Swissôtel Nankai in Osaka.
Richard
Langonne has been named Rooms Division
Manager at the Sofitel Métropole Hanoi. He was previously at the Sofitel Silom
Bangkok.
Gary Martin has been appointed Food Director for Starbucks
Greater China. Based in Shanghai, he
will oversee the food program for the Greater China region including Hong Kong
and Taiwan. He was most recently a consultant with Maxim's Hong
Kong.
Konstantino
Blokbergen has joined the Oriental
in Bangkok as Director of Food and
Beverage. He has previously been with Raffles Singapore as Food and Beverage Manager and the Kahala Mandarin
Oriental in
Hawaii.
Raj Mohan returns to Marriott International, joining as Food and Beverage Manager at the
Renaissance Kowloon, Hong Kong. He
had earlier served with Marriott for four years in India at two different
properties.
John Rees has been named Area Sales Director for Summergate
Macau. He was most recently the
Culinary Director of the Macau Shun Tak Tower Convention and Entertainment
Center. Rees also served as Executive
Chef for the Swissôtel Nankai,
Shangri-La's China World
Hotel, the Atlantis
Resort in the Bahamas and the
Peninsula New York.
Anantara
Resorts has appointed Narelle
McDougall as Brand Director of Sales.
She was most recently the Director of Sales and Marketing for Le Méridien
Golf & Spa Resort Bali and has
previously held a range of senior level positions with
InterContinental and
Parkroyal Hotels.
Marion Walsh has been named Brand Director of Public Relations for
The InterContinental Hong
Kong has named Teresa
Goh Director of Events. She comes from
the Four Seasons Hong Kong where she
was the Assistant Director of Catering and Conference Services. Goh also
logged three years as Assistant Director of Events Management for the Island
Shangri-La Hong
Kong.
Eric Balland has been named Director of Food and Beverage at the
InterContinental Papeete. He comes
from a similar position at Les Villas Du Lagon,
on Reunion Island.
Richard
Cross has been appointed Executive Chef
at the Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel & Towers. He has previously worked at the Lodge at
Vail, the Isle of Eriska
Hotel in Scotland, the Huka
Lodge in New Zealand and Lizard
Island in Australia.
Yusuf Yaran has been appointed Executive Pastry Chef at the
Shangri-La Makati in Manila. He was
most recently the Executive Pastry Chef at the Ciragan Palace
Kempinski. He also held similar
positions at the Ritz-Carlton Istanbul, Four Seasons Istanbul, and the Holiday Inn Istanbul.
Holger Deh has been named Executive Pastry Chef at the
Peninsula Beijing. He was most
recently the Pastry Chef at the Datai in Langkawi and has previously worked for
Hyatt in Amman and Berlin in
addition to being on the opening team at the Peninsula
Chicago.
Jimmy Tang has joined the Mandarin Oriental Macau as Assistant Director of Food and Beverage. He previously held various management positions at Jumeirah's Emirates Towers in Dubai, Raffles Singapore and the Peninsula Chicago.
MIDDLE EAST AND
AFRICA
Adrian Rudin has joined the Qaryat Al Beri
Shangri-La in Abu Dhabi as General
Manager. He has previously been the Director of Food and Beverage at the
Mandarin Oriental Bangkok and the
Executive Assistant Manager Food and Beverage at the Island
Shangri-La.
Klaus Lapp has been appointed General Manager of the Swissôtel
Göcek, in Turkey,
taking over for Stephan Franco. He
previously spent two years as General Manager of the Swissôtel Lima from
2001 until 2003. He then worked as General Manager of the Villarica Park
Hotel in Chile and was more recently
the Managing Director of Paradisus Puerto Rico.
Jan Tibaldi has transferred to the One&Only Le Saint
Géran in Mauritius as General Manager.
He takes over for Mauro Governato
who is now the General Manager at the One&Only Ocean Club in the Bahamas. Tibaldi was most recently the Resident
Manager at the One&Only Le Touessrok also on Mauritius and previously the Resident Manager
at Sandy Lane in
Barbados.
Julio de
Sousa has joined the Sonesta Cairo
as Executive Assistant Manager Food and
Beverage. He was most recently at the Alfa Corinthia in Lisbon as
Director of Food and Beverage. He also was the Food and Beverage Director at the
Intercontinental Costa Rica, and
what used to be the Cesar Park Penha Longa in Portugal (now operated by
Ritz-Carlton).
Ashraf
Elmanawaty has been appointed Director
of Marketing at the soon-to-open Four Seasons Alexandria in Egypt. He was most recently the Director of
Marketing at the Four Seasons Sharm el Sheikh.
Lee-Anna
Nussbaumer joins Mövenpick
at
the pre-opening office for its four
new Dubai hotels as Director of Human Resources and Training. Her previous
experience includes the opening of the Empire Hotel & Country
Club in Brunei and the Hilton
Niagara Falls, in Canada. More recently
she was a part of the opening team for the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi.
Louisa
Saville has joined the Burj al
Arab as Human Resources Manager. She was most recently at the
Savoy in London as the Assistant
Director of Human Resources. Taking over her position in London is Victoria
Osenton who has been promoted from
Human Resources Assistant.
Dominique Michel
Zunda has been named Executive Chef of
the Jolie Ville Island Resort in
Egypt. He was most recently at the Hilton Waterfalls in Sharm El Sheikh as Executive Chef.
Pierre Fares has joined Corniche, A Rosewood
Hotel in Jeddah due to open in
December, as Assistant Food and Beverage Manager. He was most recently the
Restaurant Manager at the Sukhothai
in Bangkok. He also served as Restaurant Manager at Raffles
Singapore.
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