| Steven Heyer has been appointed to succeed founder Barry Sternlicht
as the Chief Executive Officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Heyer
joins the hotel group from Coca-Cola, where he was President and Chief
Operating Officer. Prior to that, he held the same position at Turner Broadcasting
System and was the President of advertising giant Young & Rubicam.
Victoria Dolan bas been promoted to Senior Vice President and Chief
Financial Officer of Marriott Vacation Club International. She was until
recently Senior Vice President of Finance for Marriott's international
Lodging Division. Prior to joining Marriott, Dolan spent nine years at
the Coca-Cola Company.
Scott Nasser has been appointed Vice President Operations at Fairfield
Resorts. Nasser comes from Harrah�s where he was the Director of Hotel
Operations. He previously had a career with Ritz-Carlton, which culminated
with the position of General Manager at the Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage.
Stephen Darling, a Cornell graduate, has been appointed Regional Vice
President for Shangri-La in North America as well as General Manager of
the new Shangri-La Hotel in Vancouver. Darling had previously been with
the company for ten years when it operated Vancouver�s Pacific Palisades
Hotel. He was most recently the General Manager of the Westin Grand also
in Vancouver.
Richard Baker has been promoted to Regional Vice President/Dallas by
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts. Formerly the Managing Director of Dallas'
Mansion on Turtle Creek, Baker will now also oversee Rosewood�s second
Dallas landmark, the Hotel Crescent Court. Prior to taking the helm at
the Mansion in 2001, Baker spent nine years with Four Seasons in executive
roles in Beverly Hills, Toronto, Hawaii and Dallas.
Linda Wan has been promoted to General Manager at Rosewood�s Hotel Crescent
Court. Wan had been the Hotel Manager at the property for the last four
years.
Shane Krige has been hired as the General Manager at the Mansion on
Turtle Creek, taking over from Richard Baker. Krige has held senior management
positions with Ritz-Carlton and Hyatt Hotels. As Executive Assistant Manager,
he helped launch the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C. and Georgetown and
has most recently overseen operations at the Grosvenor House (then a Méridien
hotel, now a Marriott) in London.
Larry Brown has been appointed General Manager of the Renaissance Las
Vegas. He most recently served as Vice President/Hotel Manager at the Gaylord
Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville.
Jamie Holmes has been appointed General Manager at the Resort at Paws
Up, a new 37,000-acre luxury resort in western Montana opening in June
2005. Holmes joins from the Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas where he was the General
Manager. Prior to his five-year stint with Ritz-Carlton, Holmes was the
General Manager of Biras Creek in the British Virgin Islands. He also ran
the exclusive Peter Island for five years.
Stephen Marshall, who had been the General Manager of Branson's Chateau
on the Lake Resort since 1997, has been promoted to Vice President. Prior
to joining the Chateau, Marshall was the General Manager of the Four Seasons
Houston.
Frederick Roth has been promoted to Group Director of Operations for
Hoteles Quinta Real in Mexico. He was previously the General Manager of
the Quinta Real Huatulco.
Greg Claytor is the newly appointed Co-General Manager of the Mount
Nevis Hotel, in tandem with wife Josephine Claytor. He was once the Manager
at the private Mill Reef Club in Antigua. She was the Executive Housekeeper
at L�Auberge du Soleil.
Matthew Opferkuch is the new General Manager of Brentwood Bay Lodge
in Canada. Like his predecessor Scott Mawhinney, he comes from Metropolitan
Hotels of Canada. Opferkuch was the Executive Assistant Manager of the
Metropolitan Vancouver and previously spent four years at the Metropolitan
Toronto.
At Napa Valley's Carneros Inn, Joe Fairchild has been promoted to General
Manager. He was previously the resort�s Food and Beverage Manager and had
been recruited from gourmet grocer Dean and Deluca.
Alejandro Helbling has been appointed General Manager at the Ritz-Carlton
Montreal where he is replacing Allan Federer. Helbling has been transferred
from the Ritz-Carlton Dubai where he was the Executive Assistant Manager
in charge of Food and Beverage. Prior to that, he was with Hyatt for ten
years in various management positions in South America and Asia.
Elias Assaly has been appointed Managing Director of the soon-to-open
St. Regis San Francisco. Since 2000 and until recently, he was the Managing
Director of Rosewood�s Crescent Court in Dallas. Assaly is no newcomer
to Starwood or San Francisco, having been the opening General Manager of
the W San Francisco.
Philippa Perry, formerly of Auberge du Soleil, has been appointed General
Manager at Les Mars, a new luxury inn slated to open in November 2004 in
Northern California.
Michel Morauw has been appointed General Manager at the Park Hyatt Washington,
DC. He previously worked in the same capacity at the Hyatt Regency Roissy
Charles de Gaulle where he has been replaced by Jean-Pierre Marcadier.
Morauw, a graduate of the Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne, originally
joined Hyatt in 1984.
Eric Buitenhuis is back in California as General Manager of the Sofitel
San Francisco Bay, a transfer from the same position at the Sofitel Houston.
Michael McMahon has been promoted to the position of Hotel Manager at
the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, where he replaced Brad Cance, now
the General Manager of the Ritz-Carlton St. Louis. Prior to that, McMahon
was the Director of Sales and Marketing for the Ritz-Carlton Hotels of
Naples for two years.
Wayne Wielgus has been elevated to the position of Executive Vice President
and Chief Marketing Officer for Choice Hotels International. Wielgus previously
had been Senior Vice President, Marketing, a position he assumed when he
joined Choice in September 2000.
Gregg Herning has been promoted to General Manager of the Peabody Little
Rock replacing Timothy Gonser. Herning was previously the Director of Sales
and Marketing for the Peabody Memphis, a position he held for the past
three years. Gonser will continue his twenty-year career with the Peabody
Hotel Group as its Vice President, Food and Beverage.
Rikki Boparai has been named Director of Operations at the Cheyenne
Mountain Resort. Prior to joining the resort two years ago as its Director
of Rooms, he served as Director of Operations at La Playa Beach and Golf
Resort in Naples.
Pamela Baldwin has been appointed General Manager at the Hotel Providence
in Rhode Island. She previously served as General Manager for two boutique
hotels in San Francisco, Marina Inn and Hotel Louise, now the White Swan.
Baldwin most recently served as Vice President of Finance and Administration
for Ibis Consulting of Providence.
Frédéric Luvisutto has been appointed Hotel Manager at
the Loews Don Cesar Resort in St. Petersburg. He was previously the Rooms
Division Manager at the Boca Raton Resort and Club for five years and also
held the position of Financial Analyst in charge of Special Projects with
Boca Resorts. Luvisutto is a graduate of the Ecole Hotelière de
Lausanne.
Franck Arnold joins the Four Seasons Chicago as Hotel Manager from the
same position at the Intercontinental, The Barclay New York. Arnold had
been with Intercontinental since 1991, holding positions in Paris, London,
Athens, Brussels, Madrid and Valencia. He is a graduate of IHMI Cornell
Essec.
Nikolay Hotze has joined Rosewood�s soon-to-open Acqualina as Hotel
Manager, from the position of Director of food and Beverage at the Loews
Miami Beach. Hotze had previously worked with Acqualina Managing Director
David Kurland when the latter was the Managing Director at the El San Juan
Hotel and Casino.
Kamal Simon Fakhoury has been appointed Executive Assistant Manager
at the Sheraton Cavalier Hotel in Calgary. Fakhoury previously held a similar
position with the Hotel Saskatchewan Radisson Plaza in Regina, Canada.
Previous experience includes various food and beverage management posts
with the Regina Inn and the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai.
Steven Hegewald has joined the soon-to-open Palms Resort and Spa in
Turks and Caicos, as its Director of Finance. He moves from South Carolina
where he held the position of Finance Director at Wild Dunes for Destination
Hotels and Resorts. Hegewald's prior experience also includes Controller
posts at the Delano and at Little Dix Bay.
Kenneth Kominski has been named Director of Human Resources at the Orrington
outside Chicago. His background includes human resources and employee training
positions at hotels in China, Thailand and Singapore.
Gemma Cardenas replaces Nancy Kupka as Director of Human Resources at
Shutters on the Beach and Casa del Mar both in Santa Monica. Cardenas spent
twenty-three years with Westin/Starwood and was most recently the Director
of Human Resources at the St. Regis Monarch Beach.
Douglas McPherson has been appointed Director of Engineering at the
Westin Mission Hills Resort in Rancho Mirage. McPherson was previously
Director of Engineering for the Kapalua Bay Hotel on Maui.
Dan Craig has been promoted from Director of Sales and Marketing to
General Manager at the Hotel Opus in Vancouver. Craig replaces David Curell
who left to open the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco as Managing Director
for Chip Conley�s Joie de Vivre Hospitality.
Susan McIntosh is joining the Carlyle as Director of Sales and Marketing
replacing Albert Herrera now with Virtuoso in New York. McIntosh was formerly
at the Fairmont regional sales office in Washington, DC as Director of
Sales.
Lilian Wagner is the pre-opening Director of Sales and Marketing at
the St. Regis San Francisco. Wagner held similar positions at the Ritz-Carlton
and Park Hyatt both in San Francisco.
Leila Thorne has accepted the position of Director of Sales and Marketing
for El Monte Sagrado in Taos. She held the position of Director of Sales
and Marketing for Rosewood�s Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos from
1997 to 2002.
Tim Burke has left San Ysidro Ranch where he was Sales Manager for three
years. He joined the Parker Palm Springs where he will work in a similar
capacity, based in the Los Angeles area.
Chris Bentley has been appointed Director of Sales at the Resort at
Paws Up. Bentley was formerly the Director of Marketing at the T-Lazy-7
Ranch in Aspen.
Brian Gipson replaces Jon Makhmaltchi as Director of Sales and Marketing
at Carneros Inn in Napa Valley. Gipson comes from Starwood�s Regional Sales
Office in San Francisco.
Jonathan Kreuter will be the new Director of Group Sales, Eastern United
States, for Concorde Hotels. Kreuter was previously Group Sales Manager
for the Elbow Beach Resort, Bermuda.
Gerald Feurer, a Lausanne graduate, returned to the Peninsula New York
as its newly appointed Director of Food and Beverage. Feurer was previously
the Director of Food and Beverage at the New York Palace. Feurer previously
spent over three years at the Four Seasons New York. His first stint at
the Peninsula New York was as Assistant Food and Beverage Manager from
1997 to 1999.
Axel Rudolph is the new Director of Food and Beverage at New York�s
Tribeca Grand. He comes from China Grill Management for whom he held management
positions at Tuscan and the Hotel Gansevoort.
Patrick de Staercke has been appointed Food and Beverage Director at
Elk Mountain Resort in Telluride. He comes from the Hotel Jerome in Aspen
where he spent the past three years. De Staercke also worked as Back of
House Manager at the Intercontinental Paris and as Chief Steward at the
Forum Hotel London.
Volker Schmitz has been appointed Senior Director of Operations for
the Ladeki Restaurant Group in La Jolla. With over twenty years of hospitality
experience, Schmitz was until recently with Constellation Restaurants,
now the Tavistock Group.
Scott Engelman has joined the about-to-open Hotel Victor in Miami as
its Food and Beverage Director. He was previously the Director of Operations
at the Aspen Mountain Club, an annex property of the Little Nell.
Antoine Maalouf has been appointed Assistant Director of Food and Beverage
at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. Maalouf held the same position
until recently at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Replacing Maalouf at the Beverly Hills Hotel is Khalid Mirza, a twenty-two-year
Four Seasons veteran whose last job with the company was as Director of
Food and Beverage at the Regent Beverly Wilshire.
Afsi Behnan makes a lateral move as Director of Rooms from the Four
Seasons Scottsdale to the Four Seasons Santa Barbara.
Anna Anderson is the Rooms Division Director at the soon to be relaunched
Orrington outside Chicago. She was most recently at Chicago's Westin River
North.
Aurieann LaPata is the new Director of Catering at the Orrington. She
most recently served as Director of Catering and Special Events for Heaven
on Seven Restaurants.
Sandra Brent has been appointed to the newly created position of Task
Force Director of Catering, North America for Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
Most recently, she was the Director of Catering and Convention Services
at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. She held similar positions at the Palace
Hotel in San Francisco, the Sheraton Washington Hotel and the Sheraton
New Orleans Hotel.
Sam Cole has been appointed Associate Director of Catering at the Regent
Beverly Wilshire. Cole was most recently the General Manager at the Roosevelt
in Hollywood. Prior to that, he ran Avalon and Maison 140 in Beverly Hills
for the Kor Group.
Diane Dillon has been appointed Director of Catering and Conference
Services at the Sutton Place in Vancouver. She previously spent twelve
years with Four Seasons and seven years at the Sutton Place when it was
Le Méridien Hotel Vancouver.
Nick Fielding has joined Spago Beverly Hills as Director of Service.
Fielding recently arrived in Los Angeles following an extensive seven-year
tenure at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort and Club in South Florida.
His last position at the resort was that of Assistant Food and Beverage
Director.
Bryan Kindred has been named Assistant Manager at the Resort at Paws
Up. Kindred was formerly Director of Lodging at Robert Redford�s Sundance
Resort.
Alain Allegretti is the new Executive Chef at Atelier at the Ritz-Carlton
Central Park South. He joins the hotel from Le Cirque 2000 where he was
Co-Executive Chef for the past three and a half years. Prior to moving
to New York, Allegretti worked in various award-winning restaurants in
the South of France and spent four years in Monte Carlo at the restaurant
Louis XV under Alain Ducasse. At Atelier, he replaces Gabriel Kreuther.
Eric Scuiller is the new Executive Chef at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Scuiller was most recently both the Executive Chef and the Director of
Food and Beverage at Denver�s tony Rolling Hills Country Club. He also
was the opening Executive Chef at Las Vegas� Paris Hotel and Casino. At
the Beverly Hills Hotel, he takes over from Katsuo "Suki" Sugiura.
Eric Cousin is the Executive Chef at the Essex House in New York. He
was previously the Executive Sous Chef at the Beau Rivage Hotel and Casino
in Mississippi and had worked in New York in the same capacity at the Plaza
for three years. At the Essex House, he took over from Robert Bagli who
left in March after thirteen years (including five as Executive Chef).
Collin Crannell is the new Chef de Cuisine at Chloe in Playa del Rey,
where he replaces former Chef/Partner Jeffrey Osaka. Crannell comes from
Casa del Mar in Santa Monica where he was the Chef de Cuisine at Oceanfront.
He also used to be the Executive Sous Chef at Los Angeles� Water Grill.
Eric Greenspan is the new Executive Chef at Alex in Los Angeles, recently
taken over by Restaurateur and Chef Tim Goodell. Greenspan has been in
the kitchen with Joachim Splichal at Patina and Alain Ducasse and David
Bouley in New York.
Rainer Schwarz has joined the Vail Cascades Resort as Executive Chef.
Schwarz was most recently at the Viceroy in Santa Monica as Executive Chef.
His successor there is Warren Schwartz, another former Patina man, who
had been the Executive Chef at Saddle Peak Lodge for the past three years.
Sean O'Brien joins Tom Duffy as Chef-Partner in Myth, the redo of the
former MC2 in San Francisco. O�Brien formerly worked with Gary Danko for
most of the past nine years, first at the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco, then
at Viognier in San Mateo and at Danko's eponymous restaurant in San Francisco.
Eric Sala is the new Executive Chef at Orient-Express� La Samanna in
St Martin. He replaces Erwan Louaisil who moves on after two years.
Christopher Eagle has taken over the Executive Chef post left vacant
by Bruno Lopez at Raffles L'Ermitage in Beverly Hills. He had been the
Executive Sous Chef at the hotel for two years. Prior to working at L'Ermitage,
Eagle worked as an Executive Sous Chef at the Ritz-Carlton Club in Aspen.
Guenael Le Berre joins the Willard Intercontinental in Washington, DC
as Executive Chef. It will be Le Berre's first post in the United States
after working in Cyprus, Thailand, Mauritius, Singapore, Jakarta and England
in similar capacities. He joins the Willard from the Elyseum Resort in
Cyprus.
Alan Ashkinaze has been named Executive Chef of Aqua at the St. Regis
Monarch Beach Resort & Spa. Ashkinaze comes from Trevisio in Houston
where he had been since 2002.
Dennis Leary, who left Rubicon recently after four years as Executive
Chef, has signed a lease for the Titanic Cafe in the Commodore Hotel in
San Francisco.
Aaron Elliott has joined the Peninsula Chicago as Wine Director. Elliott
was formerly the Assistant Sommelier at Tru, also in Chicago. |
