The Newsletter of The Boutique Search Firm, a
worldwide recruiting firm specializing in hospitality management.
For any information, please
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Global Update: Who's where and doing what:
May
2006
THE AMERICAS
Cornell hotelman Richard
Cotter has left his position of Executive Vice President Hotel
and Food and Beverage for Wynn Las Vegas after two and a
half years to launch his own advisory boutique. A luxury specialist, he had been
the Managing Director of New York's St. Regis, the New York
Palace and the Beverly Hilton.
Mark Huntley has been
appointed Senior Vice President Operations at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Hotel and
Casino. The Englishman was most recently running London's
Savoy for Fairmont, following ten years at the helm of the
Fairmont San Francisco.
Tobias Mattstedt has been promoted
by MGM MIRAGE to Vice President Corporate Development and
International Operations. He had most recently held dual roles at the MGM
Grand Las Vegas, as both Vice President Development and Vice President
of Operations for Skylofts. He originally
joined the MGM Grand in 2001 as Vice President of Food and
Beverage.
Robert Katz has been
appointed Chief Executive Officer of Vail Resorts. Ed
Mace has resigned as the President of Vail Resorts'
subsidiary Rockresorts. Former
Rockresorts Vice President Operations William Hall becomes Vice
President – Lodging Division for Vail Resorts.
Paul Westbrook has been promoted
to Senior Vice President Product and Brand for
Ritz-Carlton based in Chevy Chase. A Lausanne graduate, he was most
recently at the Ritz-Carlton Washington DC as the Vice
President and Area General Manager.
Adriaan Radder has taken over
from Westbrook at the Ritz-Carlton Washington DC. He was most
recently the General Manager at the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon
City.
Kai Speth has transferred
to the Park Hyatt Los Angeles as General
Manager, taking over from Malcolm Thompson who has left the
Hyatt fold. Speth was most recently the
General Manager at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort and
Spa. He previously headed
up food and beverage at the Grand Hyatt Taipei and the Grand
Hyatt Bali.
Scott Mason
has been appointed General Manager of the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort and Spa replacing Kai Speth. Mason has been the Executive
Assistant Manager at the Park Hyatt Chicago following stints at the
Grand Hyatt New York, the Hyatt Regency Cerromar and the
Stanhope Park Hyatt.
Alex Andrade
has been named General Manager of Yacht Haven in St. Thomas. He was most recently the General Manager
at the Mayan Palace in
Manzanillo. He is also a former General
Manager of the Hyatt Cancun Caribe.
Patrick
Brizio will be the opening General
Manager at Discovery at Marigot Bay on St. Lucia. The soon-to-open property was originally
managed by Sonesta but is now part
of Grace Leo Andrieu's GLA
Hotels. Brizio is the former Managing Director
of Frégate Island in the Seychelles
and was previously at the Lyford Cay Club in the Bahamas.
At Sir Richard
Branson's Necker
Island, General Manager Martijn
Brouwer will be leaving after six years
(and a total of nine years with the Virgin Group). He will be replaced by Shawn and Beverly Matthews, who had been the resort's original Managers, back in
1982. They had since spent some time with Adrian Zecha's Amanresorts, prior to opening and running the enormously successful
Twin Farms for Thurston
Twigg-Smith. The Matthews had returned
to Amanresorts in 2005 to work on their Norman's Cay project in the Bahamas.
As for Martijn
Brouwer he will be the Co-Manager, with
Laura McCraith, of the exclusive,
seven-room Palmasola on Mexico's
chic Punta Mita.
Pippa Ona
Williamson will be named General
Manager at Cotton House taking over
from Nicholas Simmonds who will be
leaving the company. Williamson is the Hotel Manager at the Royal
Riviera in St. Jean Cap Ferrat. Like
Cotton House, the Royal Riviera is part of Paris-based GLA
Hotels.
John Hutar is the Vice President of Hotel Operations for the
MGM Grand Detroit due to open in
early 2008. For the past nine years, Hutar had been the General Manager of the
Hotel Nikko San Francisco. Hutar's
successor at the Nikko is Anna Marie Presutti, a former Kimpton executive now in her second year as Nikko's Director of
Sales and Marketing.
Samuel
Huegli has been named General Manager
at the Sheraton Hotel and Casino in
Puerto Rico. He was most recently the Director of Hotels at the Porto Carras
Grand Resort in Greece and has
previously been handling operations at the Palmas del Mar Country
Club and the Caribe
Hilton both in Puerto
Rico.
Geoff
Stewart has been named General Manager
of the Sheraton Bradley Hotel in
Windsor Locks, Connecticut. He had previously worked for
Interstate,
InterContinental and
Marriott.
Michael
Hoe-Knudsen is the new General Manager
of the Holiday Inn SunSpree®Resort in Montego Bay. A Cornell graduate he previously held
various positions with InterContinental hotels in Frankfurt, New York, San Francisco, Miami,
Rio and most recently as Hotel Manager of the Tamanaco InterContinental
Caracas.
Lucy Ruiz has taken
over from Lionel Alvarez as the
General Manager of Paraiso de la Bonita in Mexico. Alvarez has moved back to Europe to be the
General Manager of the Castillo Son Vida in Mallorca.
Ellen
Ruane-Johnson has been appointed
General Manager at the Founders Inn in Virginia Beach. She was most recently the
Director of Operations at the North Maple Inn in New Jersey.
Seth
Horowitz is running both the Luxe
Hotel Sunset Boulevard Bel Air and the
Luxe Hotel Rodeo Drive Beverly Hills. Horowitz began his career in his native South Africa
at the Carlton Hotel in Johannesburg
and was until recently the Vice President of Hotel Operations for the Oceana
Hotel Group.
The Ocean Edge Resort &
Club on Cape Cod has named John
Murtha General Manager. Prior to
joining Ocean Edge, Murtha spent a decade as General Manager of the Royal
Sonesta Hotel Boston, Sonesta Beach
Resort Bermuda and Sonesta Beach
Resort & Casino Curaçao.
The Blackstone Group has promoted Matthew La Vine to General Manager of the Edgewater Beach
Hotel in Florida from the position of
Hotel Manager at the Bel Age in West
Hollywood. La Vine also toiled as Front Office Manager at the defunct St.
Regis Los Angeles. In addition, he was
with Four Seasons for ten years in
Dallas, Toronto, Carlsbad and Beverly Hills.
Armel Santens
is the new General Manager at the
Bel Age with the tall order to
transform the hotel into The London-Los Angeles, a lifestyle hotel featuring a restaurant by Gordon
Ramsay. Santens was until recently the
Managing Director at the Brown Palace in Denver.
Cornellman John
Sharpe, who had retired from the
position of Chief Operating Officer with Four Seasons (a company with which he spent twenty two years), will
be the Chief Operating Officer of the upcoming 400-room Charlie Palmer
Hotel in Las Vegas. Interior designer
Adam Tihany will be a partner in the
project.
Bryan
Forsythe has been named General Manager
at Berry Hill Plantation in
Virginia. He was previously the Director of Operations at Stonewall
in West Virginia.
Tom
Petot has been appointed General
Manager of the Inn By The Sea on Crescent Beach in Maine. Petot, a Cornell graduate, was previously
managing the Inn at Little Washington in Virginia.
Sarah
Cruse has accepted the position of
General Manager of the Peninsula Group's Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley. She was previously the General
Manager of the Olympic View Golf Club and the Furry Creek Golf and Country
Club both on Vancouver
Island.
Tracy Pikhart Ritter has been promoted from Director of Food and Beverage to
General Manager at Sunrise Springs
in Santa Fe. Ritter had also been the Executive Chef at the Golden Door Spa
in California.
Ron Vuy has
been appointed General Manager and Regional Area Director of Dolce
International's Lakeway Resort and
Spa in Austin. He was most recently the
General Manager of
the Oak Brook Hills Resort in Chicago and
previously the Managing Director at the PGA National Resort &
Spa in
Palm Beach Gardens.
Kevin
Osterhaus has been named General
Manager at Casa Casuarina in Miami.
For the past nine years, Osterhaus was with Pinehurst Resorts at the Barton Creek Resort and Spa in Austin and the Daufuskie Island Club and
Resort on Hilton Head
Island.
Alejandro
Rueda has accepted the position of
General Manager at the Hotel Basico
in Mexico. He spent several years in Sales and Marketing with Presidente
InterContinental Hoteles.
Mark Steenge is the new General
Manager at Nine Beaches in
Bermuda. He was briefly the
Director of Fine Dining at the MGM Grand Las Vegas and previously ran Restaurant
Lumière in
Vancouver.
Chauncey
Copeland has been appointed Hotel
Director of the Fisher Island Hotel and Resort. He replaces Courtney Tai. Copeland was most recently the General Manager of the
Beach House also in Miami
Beach.
Hans
Schaepman has joined the
Ritz-Carlton Huntington in Pasadena
as Executive Assistant Manager Rooms. He was most recently the Director of
Operations at the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove and has been with the company since 1992 in such
properties as the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort Naples, the Ritz-Carlton Sharm El Sheikh, the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City, the Ritz-Carlton Sydney, the Ritz-Carlton New York and the Ritz-Carlton Boston.
Edward
Boylan has been promoted at the
Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne to
Executive Assistant Manager Rooms Division. He comes from the Ritz-Carlton
Orlando Grande Lakes where he was the
opening Assistant Director of Rooms.
Robert
Rechtermann has been appointed Resident
Manager at the award-winning Peninsula Chicago, filling the spot left vacant when Colm
O'Callaghan left to become the General
Manager of the Conrad Chicago. Most
recently the Director of Operations at the Ritz-Carlton Boston
Common, Rechtermann had, like Peninsula
Chicago General Manager Maria Razumich-Zec, previously toiled at the
Waldorf=Astoria and the Hilton at
Short Hills.
David
Bodette is leaving the Langham
Boston, where he had been the Director
of Food and Beverage for the past two years, to become the Executive Assistant
Manager in charge of Food and Beverage at the Ritz-Carlton
Boston. Prior to his move to Boston, he
had served as Director of Food and Beverage at Auberge du
Soleil.
Omar Said has been appointed Director of Residences at the
Ritz-Carlton Sarasota. He was most
recently at the Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas were he was the Executive Assistant Manager, Rooms
Division.
Reto
Torriani will be joining the
no-longer-a Rockresort Cheeca
Lodge as Resort Manager. He was most
recently the General Manager of the newly opened Dolphin Bay Hotel and
Residences in Shell Beach, where he was
replaced by Shaw William McPherson,
formerly the Director of Food and Beverage at the Sunset
Towers in West Hollywood. At Cheeca,
Torriani joins General Manager Jerry Broz, formerly of Auberge Resorts' Inn at Palmetto Bluff.
Kim Phoebus has moved
to Thompson Hotels as Vice President
Finance. She was most recently the
Controller at the St. Regis New York.
Rabih
Feghali has been named Director of
Operations at the Westin Governor Morris. He was most recently at the Melrose
in New York as Director of Rooms and
following various operational positions at the New York
Palace.
Didier Belmonte has been named Executive Assistant Manager in charge of
Food and Beverage at the Bodyholiday at LeSport in the Caribbean. He was most recently the Assistant
Food and Beverage Manager at the Madinat Jumeirah Dubai and previously worked at the Chedi
Muscat and the Royal
Mirage in Dubai.
Antoine
Maalouf has been appointed Director of
Food and Beverage at the Sunset Towers in West Hollywood, taking over from Shaw
McPherson. Maalouf was most recently at the
Beverly Hilton as Associate Director
of Food and Beverage. He previously assumed a similar role at the Beverly
Hills Hotel and the Westin
Bonaventure.
Eric Dupaix has accepted the position of Director of Food and
Beverage at the Westin Times Square.
He comes from the same position at the Essex House. Dupaix also served as Food and Beverage Director at
Rosewood's
Carlyle for three
years.
Avinash
Haksar has replaced Brooke
Gardner as the Director of Food and
Beverage at the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. Haksar was most recently the Director of Beverage for
the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He
previously ran food and beverage at the Westin St. Francis and the Westin Century Plaza. Second time around with Four Seasons for Haksar who
used to be the Director of Banquets at the former Four Seasons
Olympic in
Seattle.
At the MGM Grand Las
Vegas, Alex
Jureeratana has been named Director of
Food and Beverage at the Mansion,
which includes the Mansion Dining Room, L'Atelier
and Joel Robuchon at the Mansion.
Jureeratana was most recently the General Manager at the MGM Grand's
Shibuya and was previously at the
Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas.
Guillaume
Flament has been promoted at the
Westgate in San Diego to Director of
Food and Beverage. He had joined the hotel in 2001 as the Banquet Manager from
his position at the Ritz in Paris
where he was the Catering Sales Manager.
Farzin
Khorsandjamal has been named Director
of Food and Beverage at Estancia La Jolla. He was most recently a Food and Beverage Manager at
Raffles L'Ermitage Beverly Hills and
previously served as Restaurant Manager at the defunct Aqua at the St. Regis Monarch
Beach.
Inga Heubach has joined the Boulders as Food and Beverage Operations Manager. She was most
recently the Director of Food and Beverage at Campton Place in San Francisco.
Ramón Arrau has been appointed Food and Beverage Director at the
Grenada Grand Beach. He was most
recently the Director of Food and Beverage of the Lodge Kura Hulanda and
Beach Club in
Curacao.
Olivier
Glattfelder has been appointed Rooms
Division Manager at the Barton Creek Resort and Spa in Austin. For the past six years, he was the General
Manager of the Porches Inn in
Massachusetts.
Rosalyn
Smith has been appointed Area Director
of Human Resources at the Omni Atlanta. She originally joined Omni in April 1999 and has been in Human Resources at the
Omni Austin Downtown, the Omni
Austin Southpark and the Omni
Mandalay in
Dallas.
Julia Gajcak is now the Vice President Marketing and Communications
for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
based in Chevy Chase. She was most recently the Vice President, Communications
for the company and previously has served as Director of Public Relations at the
Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa.
Michael
Doneff has been named Vice President
Marketing for SBEHG, SBE Hotel
Group, the hotel company owned by Sam Nazarian. SBE will be launching its own brand of hotels all to
be designed by Philippe Starck.
Doneff comes from the respected Susan Magrino Agency in New York, where, as the agency's Executive Vice
President, he handled such hospitality accounts as One&Only
Resorts and
Blackstone's LXR Luxury
Resorts.
The Hotel Twin
Dolphin in Cabo San Lucas has employed
Rowena Jurado as Director of Sales.
Jurado was most recently at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay as National Travel Industry Sales
Manager.
Peter Cronin has been name Director of Sales at the Omni
Atlanta. Previously, he was Vice
President of Sales for Associated Luxury Hotels International
and has served as the Assistant
Director of Sales for the Hilton Atlanta & Towers.
Aileen
Carreon has joined the
Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills as Director of Sales. She was at the
Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey for the past four years and previously at
Raffles L'Ermitage.
Tony
Rodriguez has been
promoted from Director of Sales to Director of Marketing at the Four Seasons
Miami. He was previously
the Director of Sales at the Four Seasons Philadelphia and the Group Sales Manager at the
Four Seasons Houston.
Marie
Denebeim has joined Leading Hotels
of the World as Sales Manager based in
Mill Valley. She was most recently with Wyndham
as Director of
National Sales.
Steven
Eidelberg has been named Director of
Travel Industry Sales for Noble House Hotels & Resorts to be based in New York City. He was with Sonesta
Hotels, Resorts & Nile Cruises most
recently headquartered in Miami as the Regional Director of Travel Industry
Sales. During his ten years with Sonesta he was the Director of Sales and
Marketing for the Chateau Sonesta New Orleans, as well as the Director of Leisure Sales and Tour and
the Travel Sales Manager at the Sonesta Beach Resort Key
Biscayne.
Susan Benshoff has
been appointed Corporate Director of Revenue Management at Noble Investment
Group. Prior to joining Noble, Benshoff
was Central Director of Revenue Management for Wyndham
International.
Janelle
Cornett has been named Corporate
Director of Revenue Management for the Coastal Hotel Group. Most recently, Cornett was Director of Catering and
Group Revenue Management at the Waldorf=Astoria, the first position of its kind in the Hilton
organization.
Nelson
Garrido has been appointed Vice
President of Information Technology at Noble Investment Group. He joins from Dolce International where he held a variety of positions culminating in
Senior Director of Global Technology.
Paula
Winkler has been promoted to Chief
Information Officer for Carlson Hotels Worldwide. She was previously the Vice President of Technology
and Program Executive for Carlson Global Solutions.
David
Federico has joined the
Boulders as Director of Rooms. He
had been the Director of Housekeeping at the Paradise Point
Resort in San Diego, after serving as
Director of Front Office Operations at both La Mansion Del Rio and the
Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa.
The Langham in Boston has promoted Mark Sapienza to Executive Chef replacing Daniel
Kenney, who is moving to Washington,
D.C. Sapienza originally joined the hotel in 1998 and after a brief
intermission, rejoined the culinary team in March 2004 as Chef de Cuisine for
the Julien restaurant. In addition,
he has worked at the Boston Harbor Hotel and Claridge's in London.
Daniel Kenny takes over for Guenael Le Berre as Executive Chef at the Willard
InterContinental. Kenny was most
recently at the Langham Boston where
his successor is Mark Sapienza.
Michel
Piéton is the new Director of Culinary
Operations at the Boulders in
Arizona. He had been with Four Seasons since 1975 in Texas, Chicago and since 1986, at the
Four Seasons Newport Beach as
Executive Chef.
Frédéric
Castan will be joining the St. Regis
Monarch Beach Resort and Spa as
Executive Chef. Castan was most recently in the same position at the Sofitel
Water Tower in Chicago.
He had also been the Executive Chef at
Big Horn Country Club in Palm
Springs, the Westin South Coast Plaza, Coto de Caza Golf and Racquet Club and the Ritz-Carlton Huntington.
At Wynn Las
Vegas, talented Alsatian Eric
Klein is out as the Chef of
SW Steakhouse where he has been replaced by David
Walzog. The latter had been the Chef at
Wynn's Country Club restaurant,
where he had replaced Jimmy Sneed
(who had left prior to opening).
Chris Shackelford, who
had been the Sommelier at Erna’s Elderberry House Restaurant at
the Chateau du Sureau for the past ten years,
Scott
Simpson has been appointed Executive
Chef at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa. He was most recently the Executive Chef at the
Renaissance Hotel & Marriott Lake Chalet Apartments in Mumbai, India.
Guillaume
Brard is the new Executive Chef at
Nine Beaches in Bermuda, following
five years with InterContinental in
Cleveland and Beirut. As the Chef de Cuisine at Classics at the
InterContinental Cleveland, Brard
was credited for earning the restaurant an AAA Five-Diamond
rating.
Philip Mahl has recently joined the culinary team at the
Maidstone Club in Southampton. He
rejoins mentor Executive Chef Ian Scollay under whom he had worked in the kitchens at La
Grenouille. His resume also includes stints at Per
Se under Thomas
Keller and at
Maestro at the Ritz-Carlton
Tyson's Corner under Fabio
Trabocchi.
Darren
McCabe has joined the new Hilton
Financial District in San Francisco as
Executive Chef. He comes from the McKinley Chalet Resort in Alaska.
Brian
McBride has been named Executive Chef
at the Blue Duck Tavern in
Washington, DC. He was most recently the Executive Chef at the Park Hyatt
Washington, DC.
Alvaro
Arbeloa will be joining the team for
the re-opening of Ceiba del Mar Spa Resort in Riviera Maya. He was previously the Executive Chef
at the Mantra Resort in Punta del
Este.
Joshua Nudd has been named Chef de Cuisine at the Island
Hotel in Newport Beach. Most recently
the Chef de Cuisine at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental responsible for Hoku's Restaurant, he had logged eight years at the Peninsula Beverly
Hills under the Island's Executive Chef
Bill Bracken.
Wendy Little has accepted the position of Chef de Cuisine at the
Boulders Resort & Golden Door Spa. Little began her career at San Ysidro
Ranch and has since served in the
kitchens of Mustard's Grill in Napa
Valley, the Four Seasons Biltmore,
Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur and the
Jacksonville Inn in Oregon. A
champion of organic cuisine, Little then successfully opened and ran
ZigZag in Carmel.
Maxim Ridorossi has been appointed Chef at the King Pacific
Lodge in British Columbia. He
previously worked in the kitchens of West Restaurant, Sooke Harbour House and Cafe Brio, all in British Columbia.
Truman Jones has been named Chef de Cuisine at the Ritz-Carlton
Lake Las Vegas overseeing Restaurant
Medici. He was most recently the
Executive Chef at Friday Harbor House in the San Juan Islands. Jones has also been the
Executive Sous Chef at Campton Place
in San Francisco.
David Werly has moved to New York as Executive Sous Chef at the new
Le Cirque. He comes from Le
Cirque in Mexico City.
Regis Monges has transferred as Pastry Chef to the soon-to-open
Le Cirque in New York City. He had
been the opening Executive Pastry Chef at Le Cirque Mexico
City.
Chris
Wessling has returned to Las Vegas to
accept the General Manager position at Simon Kitchen &
Bar. He had local experience at several
MGM Grand outlets before he departed
to run food and beverage operations at the Aspen Meadows
Resort.
Isabelle Husser has transferred as Wine Director from Le
Cirque in Mexico City to Le
Cirque in New York City. She used to be
the Assistant Chef Sommelier at Le Cirque 2000.
Bob Kelly has been hired as the new Sommelier for Piero
Selvaggio's
Valentino at the
Venetian, filling the position left
vacant when Steven Hua left to
become the Sommelier at Michael Mina's Nob Hill at the MGM Grand.
Samantha
Telesford has transferred as Spa
Director to the Ritz-Carlton Huntington in Pasadena. Telesford was most recently in the same
position at the Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort Jamaica. She was previously the Spa Director at Our Lucaya
Beach & Golf Resort in the
Bahamas.
Holly Cohen has
joined Estancia La Jolla as Spa
Manager. She came from the Steiner Day Spa Group.
EUROPE
Hotelier Giles
Shepard, has died of cancer in London.
He had guided the Savoy Group
through its battle against takeover by the Forte Group, and then moved in the mid-1990s to the Ritz
London. He had retired from the Ritz in
2004.
Clement
Barter will be retiring from Conrad
International, the company he helped
build as Hilton Hotels Corporation's
international luxury brand. He was the driving force in the opening of Conrad's
earlier and finest properties in Brussels, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London,
Singapore and Dublin. With Barter's departure, Conrad will shed its Brussels
headquarters to share office space with sister company Hilton
International in Watford, England.
Prior to starting Conrad, Barter had a distinguished career with
InterContinental.
Richard
Blamey, who had joined
Conrad in 2001 as Vice President
Marketing, is promoted to Senior Vice President and Brand Manager and gets to
move to Watford.
Michael Wale has been promoted by Starwood to Senior Vice President Operations for Le
Méridien. Based in London, he will also
continue to be the Area Director of Operations for the group's twenty-one hotels
in North Western Europe.
Franka
Holtmann has rejoined the Dorchester
Group as General Manager of the
Hotel Meurice, taking over from
long-time General Manager Dominique Borri. Holtmann had left the Plaza-Athénée
after three years as Hotel Manager to
become the General Manager of the recently sold Hotel de
Crillon.
Noel de
Munck has transferred as General
Manager to the City Hilton in
Brussels. He has been with Hilton International Hotels since 1992 most recently as the General Manager at the
Luxembourg Hilton.
Andreas
Jersabeck has been appointed General
Manager at the Imperial Hilton in
Croatia. He previously served as General Manager at the Watford
Hilton, the Trafalgar
Hilton and the Park Lane
Hilton both in
London.
Philip
Skitch has been named General Manager
of the Thistle Piccadilly Hotel and
the Thistle Trafalgar Square Hotel.
Skitch was most recently consulting in Berlin following a stint as Executive
Assistant Manager at the Millennium UN Plaza Hotel in New York.
Michael Metaxas
is the new General Manager at the
Metropolitan Hotel – Athens, a member
of Chandris Hotels and Resorts. He
was previously the General Manager of the Anassa in Cyprus.
Gastone Di
Domenico has been named Managing
Director for Amthotels based in
Palermo. For the past five years, he had been with the Il Ciocco Hotel and
Resort.
Raul Salcido has accepted the position of Hotel Manager at
Ritz-Carlton's Hotel Arts
Barcelona. He transfers from the
Ritz-Carlton Santiago where he held
the same position.
Jacques Vitu has been appointed General Manager of the Andrassy
Hotel in Budapest. He was previously
with Le Plaza Brussels and the
Conrad Brussels. He spent seven
years with InterContinental in
various capacities.
Stefan-Peter
Buchs is the new General Manager at the
Millennium Mayfair in London. He was
most recently the General Manager at the Radisson SAS Hotel
Praha where he started as the Director
of Sales and Marketing.
Vito Romeo has been appointed Executive Assistant Manager at the
Conrad Brussels. He comes from the Dorchester Hotel
Group where he served as Food and
Beverage Director at the Hotel Principe di Savoia. Romeo previously worked as the Director of Operations
and Development for the Alain Ducasse Group in New York.
Olaf van der
Horst has accepted the position of
Director of Food and Beverage at the Rive Gauche St Jacques Hotel and
Conference Center in Paris. The
property will be re-branded Marriott
at the end of 2007 after extensive renovations. He was previously the Director
of Food and Beverage at the Renaissance La Défense Paris and the Dayton Marriott.
Pascal Rey has been named Director of Business Development at the
Royal Luxembourg. Until last year,
Rey was the Director of Marketing at the Palace Gstaad.
Olivia Aubry has been named Director of Sales and Marketing of the
Ritz in Paris. She was most recently
the Director of Sales and Marketing at the Ambassador
Concorde.
After three years as Director of Sales and Marketing at
Paris' Hotel Louvre
Concorde, Laeticia
Elmaleh has been promoted to Director
of Sales and Marketing at both the Ambassador Concorde and Concorde St. Lazare Hotels.
Stéphane
Ferrec is the new Executive Housekeeper
at the Dolce Domaine de
Chantilly, following three years as
Assistant Executive Housekeeper at the Hotel Montalembert.
Laurent Delarbre
is the new Executive Chef at Café de la Paix at the Grand Hotel Intercontinental
Paris. Delarbre was previously at the
Hotel Astor Saint-Honoré and at the
Ritz.
Jean-Francois
Sicallac is leaving La Tour
d'Argent to open his own restaurant,
La Coquille in Concarneau. He had
been the Chef de Cuisine at La Tour d'Argent for the past six years. Stéphane
Haissant, his Executive Sous Chef, will
be his successor on a temporary basis.
Christophe
Kelsch will be joining Executive Chef
Michel Roth as General Manager of
the fine-dining restaurant L'Espadon
at the Ritz Paris. Kelsch, who
started his career at the Ritz London became the Assistant General Manager of the restaurant
Le Cinq at the Four Seasons
George V in 2001. In 2003, he was named
Director of Food and Beverage at the Elysées du Vernet.
ASIA AND THE
PACIFIC
Mark Brown has joined the Sands Macau as President. Brown was most recently the President of
Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts.
Craig Smith has been promoted to Area Vice President Asia for
Marriott International based in Hong
Kong. He was most recently the General Manager of JW Marriott Phuket Resort
and Spa and has been with Marriott
International since 1988.
Pieter van der
Hoeven has joined the Evason
Hideaway and Evason
Resort in Thailand as General Manager.
He was previously the Resident Manager of the Anantara Resort and Spa Hua
Hin and the Rooms Division Manager at
the Peninsula Bangkok.
John
Marshall has been named General Manager
at the Te Tiare Beach on the island
of Huahine in French Polynesia. He previously served as General Manager and
Director of Operations for a variety of resorts, including Pacific Explorer
Hotels, the Captain Cook Beach
Hotel, Bali Hai
Hotels and the Société Hotelière de
Taharaa et Bora Bora.
Malcolm
Thompson is returning to Tokyo as the
opening General Manager of the Peninsula. He previously ran the Park Hyatt
Tokyo before transferring as General
Manager to the Park Hyatt Los Angeles. He joined the company in 1984 at the Hyatt Regency
Sydney.
Gerd Knaust
has been named General Manager of the Mandarin Oriental Sanya. He joined Mandarin Oriental in 1994, as the Executive
Chef at the Oriental Singapore where
he was subsequently named Director of Food and Beverage before moving as General
Manager to the Mandarin Oriental Surabaya. His most recent assignment was as the Hotel Manager of
the Excelsior in Hong
Kong.
John Webb transfers as General Manager of the JW Marriott
Phuket Resort & Spa. He was most
recently the General Manager at JW Marriott Mumbai.
Peter Wynne has been appointed General Manager at Raffles
Beijing. He was most recently the
General Manager at the Taj Exotica Resort and Spa in the Maldives and previously the General Manager of
the Taj Lake Palace and the Taj
Falaknuma Palace. Prior to joining Taj,
Wynne ran the Lemuria Resort in the
Seychelles, following a three-year stint at the helm of Begawan
Giri on Bali.
Sven Isberg has transferred to the Chongquing
Hilton as General Manager. He had previously been with Hilton
International as General Manager at the Parmelia Hilton, the Seoul Grand Hilton and the Beijing Hilton.
Jay Leonard has been appointed General Manager of the Radisson
Waikiki Prince Kuhio. He previously
oversaw the conversion of the Radisson Orlando to the Doubletree Hotel at the entrance to Universal Orlando.
Maximilian
Pleyer has been promoted
from Hotel Manager to General Manager of the World Trade Hotel and Service
Apartments in China
taking over from Terry Ko who is joining
Starwood as General
Manager of the soon to open Sheraton at Chansha, Hunan Province. Pleyer has previously
been with Hilton,
Westin and Dusit
Thani.
Akram Touma has joined the Méridien Shanghai as the opening General Manager. He was most recently
the General Manager at the Westin Resort Macau and previously the General Manager at the Sheraton
Shenyang Lido Hotel and the Sheraton
Guilin.
Phan Ing Pai is the pre-opening General Manager at the Hotel
Soul in Suzhou, China. He was most
recently at the Swiss-Belhotel on the Park in Wuhan.
Spencer
Wadama has been transferred to the
Ritz-Carlton Osaka as Executive
Assistant Manager Rooms Division. He comes from the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon
Bay where he held the same position.
His previous assignments with Ritz-Carlton took him to Atlanta, Dearborn, Hawaii
and San Francisco.
The Kahala
Resort has appointed Sharon
Klaschka as Director of Sales. She was
most recently the Director of Leisure Sales at the Fairmont Kea
Lani for the past fourteen years and
previously at the Stouffer Wailea Beach and Maui Intercontinental.
At Honolulu's Kahala
Resort, Vernon
Hulihe'e has been promoted to Associate
Director of Sales, International. Hulihe'e has been involved in international
sales with the hotel for more than ten years. He has also been involved in
international sales for Sheraton Hawaii and Halekulani.
Bradley
Packer has joined the Four Seasons
Resorts of Lanai as Director of Public
Relations. He was previously heading up public relations for Noble House
Hotels & Resorts and Island
Outpost.
Sonny Ang has joined the opening team of the Méridien
Shanghai as Director of Sales and
Marketing. He was most recently with Hilton International based in Shanghai, overseeing the National Sales Office
and was previously on property overseeing sales and marketing at the Hilton
Shanghai.
Elaine Chin is now at
the Westin Beijing as Director of MICE. She was most recently at the
Sheraton Dongguan where she began as Director of Catering and was
promoted to Director of Sales.
Sean Spinks has transferred to the Grand InterContinental
Seoul as Executive Assistant Manager in
charge of Food and Beverage. He was previously the Director of Food &
Beverage at the Crowne Plaza Dubai.
Patrick
Robineau is the new Director of Food
and Beverage at the Raffles Grand Hotel D'Angkor. He was most recently the acting Food and Beverage
Director at the Trans Asia Hotel in
Sri Lanka and was previously in food and beverage at the Millennium
Hotel in London,
Boudoir in Dubai, the Jumeirah
Beach Hotel and One
Aldwych in
London.
Jess Lam has been promoted to Rooms Manager at the Mandarin
Oriental Kuala Lumpur. He was most
recently the Front Office Manager for three years at the property and previously
at the Marriott Kuala Lumpur.
Patrick
Behrens has
transferred to Raffles The Plaza in Singapore as Food and
Beverage Manager. He previously held the same position at the Raffles Hotel
Le Royal in
Phnom Penh. His successor there is Frank Bochmann.
Laurent Le
Deu has joined the Peninsula
Group's Repulse Bay
Hotel in Hong Kong as Food and Beverage
Manager. He had recently been the Assistant Food and Beverage Manager at the
Al Bustan Palace in Oman. This is a return to Hong Kong for Le Deu
who previously spent three years at the Excelsior.
Joachim
Textor has been named Executive Chef at
the soon-to-open Regent Beijing. He
was most recently at the Westin Chosun Seoul following eight years at the Meritus Mandarin Hotel
Singapore.
Denis Lartigue
has left Hilton International after
fourteen years and joined the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong as Executive Chef. Lartigue was in the kitchens for
Hilton in Barbados, Shanghai, Hong
Kong and Chicago.
Thomas Laberer has joined the Singapore Hilton as Executive Chef. He was most recently overseeing the
kitchens at the Shanghai Hilton.
Jean-Christophe
Basseau has joined the Méridien Bora
Bora as Executive Chef. He was most
recently in the same position at the Legends Resort in Mauritius following two years as Executive Chef at
Udaivilas in
India.
Guenael Le
Berre has been appointed Executive Chef
at the Osaka Hilton. He was most recently the Executive Chef
at the Willard InterContinental in
Washington, DC and previously the Executive Chef at the Elyseum
Resort in Cyprus and the Banyan Tree
Bangkok.
Benny
Dong has been named
Executive Chef at the World Trade Hotel in China. He was most recently at the
Westin Shanghai where
he served as Senior Sous Chef.
Frédéric
Colin will be the opening Executive
Chef at the St. Regis Bora Bora.
He just spent three years with
Hotels AB as Executive Chef at the
Raleigh in Miami and the Sunset
Beach on Shelter Island. No stranger to
small islands, Colin spent several years on St. Barthélémy and
Barbuda.
Jean-Francois
Pelaez is the new Executive Chef at the
Imperial in New Delhi. He was most
recently in a similar position at the Oberoi also in New Delhi and was previously the Executive Chef
at Udaivilas in Udaipur. Prior to
moving to India, Pelaez served as Executive Chef at the Lyford Cay
Club in the Bahamas and the Four
Seasons Mexico City.
Julien
Jouhanaud has joined the
Hilton Singapore as
Chef de Cuisine at the Harbour Grill and Oyster Bar. He was previously at Alain
Ducasse's Louis
XV in
Monaco.
Gilles Favre is heading to the ITC Welcomgroup in India as Corporate Pastry Chef. He was previously
the Executive Pastry Chef at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel &
Casino in Seoul and Casa de
Campo and Barcelo Bavaro Beach
Resort, both in the Dominican
Republic.
Philippe
Daue has joined the Shangri-La
Bangkok as Pastry Chef. He was most
recently in the same position at the Mandarin Oriental Kuala
Lumpur.
At Christophe
Megel's
at-sunrice,
the Singapore Culinary
Academy and Spice
Garden, Frédéric Deshayes is Chief Instructor for pastry and
bakery; Alexandre Lozachmeur is Chief Chef Instructor and Elise
Jouhanaud is Food and
Beverage Manager. Deshayes previously worked at Paris'
Plaza-Athénée as
Assistant Pastry Chef with Christophe Michalak. Lozachmeur was previously with Alain
Ducasse at the Plaza-Athénée as Sous Chef and Jouhanaud was previously
with Alain Ducasse's
Louis XV in Monaco as
Assistant Food Beverage Manager.
MIDDLE EAST
AND AFRICA
Bahram
Sepahi has transferred as General
Manager to the Four Seasons Festival City in Dubai. He was most recently the General Manager of
the Four Seasons Riyadh.
Francois
Waller has been promoted to General
Manager at the soon-to-open Sheraton Aleppo in Syria. He most recently served as Deputy General
Manager at the Sheraton Amman Al Nabil Hotel and Towers. A
Lausanne graduate, Waller spent over five years with
Shangri-La in Asia prior to joining
Sheraton in Egypt in
1998.
Juan Uribe has been promoted General Manager of the Eko Hotels
& Suites in Lagos. He was
previously the Assistant General Manager for the property, the former Le
Méridien Eko Hotel.
Paul
McIntyre is the new General Manager at
the Crescent Beach Hotel and Leisure Resort in the Azerbaijan Republic. He replaces Sean
Halliday who is now in Vietnam.
McIntyre was most recently a project manager for ESS in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
The Sheraton Miramar Resort El
Gouna has named Klaus
Christandl General Manager. He was most
recently the Deputy General Manager at the Sheraton Abu Dhabi Resort
& Towers and previously at the
Hotel Vier
Jahreszeiten in Hamburg, the
Mandarin
Oriental in Macau and Manila and the
Phuket
Yacht Club Hotel & Beach Resort. Prior to joining Sheraton in Abu
Dhabi in 2005, he held the position of Deputy General Manager at the
Sheraton
Dubai Creek Hotel & Towers.
John Pelling has transferred as the opening General Manager of the
Jumeirah Al Khor in Dubai. He was
most recently the General Manager of the Jumeirah Mina A'Salam
where his successor is Richard
Alexander.
Wolfgang Maier has been appointed General Manager at the Jeddah
Hilton International. He was most
recently the General Manager at the Cebu Hilton Resort and
Towers. Maier also held General Manager
posts at the Hilton Dalian, the
Beijing Hilton, the Sydney
Airport Hilton and the Kuching
Hilton.
Jan Ifcic has been named Executive Assistant Manager at the
Holiday Inn Downtown in Kuwait. He
joined the Intercontinental Hotels Group in 1992 with his most recent assignments at the
InterContinental Abu Dhabi,
InterContinental Hotels Group Headquarters and the InterContinental London.
The Mövenpick Hotel Bur
Dubai has promoted Prisca
Lobo to Assistant Director of Sales and
Marketing. Lobo started in the hotel industry in 1987
at the TAJ Mahal InterContinental Bombay and has been with the Mövenpick Hotel Bur Dubai
since 2004 in various sales positions, most recently as Assistant Director of
Sales.
Denis
Dernault has been named Director of
Food and Beverage at the Domina Coral Bay in Egypt. Dernault was most recently at the Hilton
Ethiopia after serving as Director of
Food and Beverage at the Bora Bora Nui Resort and the White Sands Resort and Spa in the Maldives.
Sébastien
Noat will be rejoining
Shangri-La, this time in Dubai, as
Director of Food and Beverage. He spent the past year opening the Monte Carlo
Bay Resort. He previously served with
Shangri-La in food and beverage for
four years in Beijing, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. A Lausanne graduate Noat also
spent four years with Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey, San Francisco and St.
Thomas.
Willi
Elsener has been appointed Group
Director of Restaurants and Bars for Jumeirah International. He, who had been the Executive Chef at London's
Dorchester for fourteen years,
started consulting for Jumeirah in 2001.
Alfred Abi
Moussa has been named Food and Beverage
Manager at the Holiday Inn Downtown Kuwait. Abi Moussa has joined the InterContinental Hotels
Group when he first started at the
InterContinental Phoenicia in
Beirut, later moving to the Carlton InterContinental in Cannes.
The Holiday Inn Downtown
Kuwait has named Danny
Kattar Executive Chef. Kattar started
at the InterContinental Phoenicia in
Beirut, and later moved to InterContinental Saint Julien, in Malta then to the InterContinental
Doha as the Executive
Sous-Chef.
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
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