Ms Leong, who joined the Mandarin Oriental, Macau in 1983, gained her extensive experience in various hotel departments including Front Office, Banquet Sales, and Public Relations. In 1989, she was promoted to Head of Human Resources and assumed the title of Human Resources Director in 1997.

In February 2003, she transferred to the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong as Director of Human Resources before moving to assume her current role last November.

Macau-born Ms Leong is looking forward to the prospect of her first hotel opening. �The Landmark Mandarin Oriental offers me a rare and exciting opportunity to participate in the opening of a contemporary, luxury hotel.  I am relishing the challenge of starting everything from scratch, developing and establishing a hotel culture to meet the hotel�s objectives and to ensuring the right people are in the most suitable positions.�
 
To meet her objectives, she has defined a number of personal qualities that she considers pre-requisites for anyone considering a career at the hotel, which is now running an intensive recruitment campaign.

�They must, first and foremost, be service oriented, open-minded.  Secondly, they have to be very stylish and understand the concept of luxury. We hope to attract open-minded, meticulous individuals with a pleasant and outgoing personality, and a refined quality of grooming standard,� she says. 

�They must also possess a high degree of initiative, be familiar with foreign cultures, and be flexible, caring and considerate.�

To assist in the search, Ms Leong has developed a programme called �Attracting Talents to The Landmark� which aims at identifying personnel who are the right people for our target clientele of up market and high-end leisure market.�

�We will use innovative assessments to look for potential candidates on our upcoming recruitment day in March.  We will look at their abilities to solve problems creatively, work well in a team, interact socially, cope with pressure and communicate effectively.�

To attract such individuals, the hotel will offer innovative, exciting compensation and benefits packages. 

About The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong

Superbly located in the heart of Central, The Landmark Mandarin Oriental will set new standards in Asia for deluxe contemporary accommodation and state-of-the-art in-room facilities when it opens in mid-2005. This exclusive, ultra-chic luxury hotel will offer 113 beautifully-appointed rooms and suites, offering the largest average room size of any hotel in Hong Kong, LCD televisions in every room, and revolutionary home entertainment technology. The hotel will also feature unique and innovative dining concepts, and the most comprehensive urban spa in the region.

The Landmark Mandarin Oriental is owned by Hongkong Land, and managed by Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, the award-winning owner and operator of some of the world�s most prestigious hotels and resorts, currently operating 21 luxury hotels with a further five under development in Hong Kong, Riviera Maya, Mexico and Tokyo (2005), Prague (2006) and Boston (2007). In total, Mandarin Oriental now operates, or has under development, some 8,000 rooms in 14 countries with 12 hotels in Asia, nine in The Americas and five in Europe.