| Following a three-month search "outside" the company¹s own ranks,
a new General Manager has been appointed at the Ritz-Carlton New York Central
Park South. He is Rick Evanich, who did not have to travel from afar since
he was the property¹s Hotel Manager. Evanich was once the Director
of Food and Beverage at the Westin Maui.
Michelle Taylor, former President of Kiehl's, has been appointed Managing
Director of Montecito's San Ysidro Ranch. Anne-Edith Cameron, a longtime
employee of the Ranch, has been promoted to General Manager. Ty Warner
purchased the property in 2000 from Auberge Resorts. Taylor¹s
mandate is to guide the century-old property through a careful restoration.
Luis Argote has been appointed Opening General Manager of the Four Seasons
Costa Rica. His successor at the award-winning Four Seasons Mexico City
is Thomas Lind who moves up one notch from the position of Hotel Manager.
Bill McCreary has been named President of Tishman Hotel Corporation.
He has been involved with the company since 1989, when he opened the Walt
Disney World Swan Resort as General Manager. McCreary replaces John
Griswold who has been named President of CNL Hospitality Corp. and President
of CNL Hospitality Properties, Inc.
At Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Tim Aubrey has been named senior Vice
President, Finance; Vineet Gupta is the new Vice President Technology and
Brian McDonald has been appointed Vice President & Controller. Aubrey
had held the position of Vice President, Technology since January 1999.
Gupta was Fairmont¹s Executive Director of Technology. McDonald has
been with Fairmont for two years, and with Canadian Pacific for eighteen
years.
Craig Madison has been promoted from Vice-President and General Manager
of the Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa, to President and Chief Executive
Officer of the resort. Appointed General Manager in September 1999, Madison,
45, -whose great-great-great-great-grandmother was THE Dolly Madison- started
at the Grove Park Inn in 1985 as its Director of Sales and Marketing. He
is Board Chairman for the International Resort Managers Association.
Richard Payette has been appointed Regional Vice President, Quebec Region
and General Manager, Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth with Fairmont Hotels
and Resorts. He originally joined Fairmont in 1998 as General Manager of
the Queen Elizabeth.
Robert Allegrini has been named Assistant Vice President of Corporate
Communications for Hyatt Hotels. Formerly with Swissôtel and the
Chicago Hilton, he will oversee Public Relations and internal communications
for Hyatt.
Ralph Grippo has been promoted to Vice President and Area General Manager
for Ritz-Carlton. He will continue to serve as General Manager for
the Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena, and will have
the added responsibility of overseeing the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel and
the Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey. Grippo joined Ritz-Carlton in 1988 and
has served as a Director of Sales & Marketing, Hotel Manager and General
Manager for properties in California, Boston and Osaka.
Emily Snyder has been named Director of Sales at the Mandarin-Oriental
New York. She was previously with the Ritz-Carlton Central Park South,
which she opened as Director of Sales and Marketing. Snyder also worked
as Director of Sales at the St. Regis New York.
Steven Conte has been appointed Director of Human Resources for the
soon-to-open Mandarin-Oriental New York.. Conte was briefly with the Melrose
New York, following a four-year stint as Director of Human Resources at
the Regent Wall Street.
Also recently departed from the Regent Wall Street is Executive Chef
John Halligan, who had opened the hotel following a long tenure at the
Rhiga Royal.
Stephen Deucker has joined the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota as Director of
Sales and Marketing. He most recently was the Director of Sales for
"stepsister property" the Renaissance Orlando Resort at SeaWorld. During
a fourteen-year tenure with Renaissance, Deucker worked his way from Front
Office Manager to various conference services and sales positions and finally
to Director of Sales in 1999.
Marc Pujalet has been named Chief Marketing Officer with Noble House
Hotels and Resorts and Tom Kovacs has been named Corporate Director of
Catering with the company. Pujalet joins Noble House from the Seattle Convention
and Visitors Bureau, where he held the position of Senior Vice President
Marketing. Prior to his position with the SCVB, Pujalet spent twenty years
with Westin Hotels and Resorts. Kovacs is a former Executive Chef of both
Commander¹s Palace and Brennan¹s restaurants in New Orleans.
Randy Hayes has joined the Hilton Dallas Fort Worth Lakes as Director
of Food & Beverage Operations. Hayes was most recently the Vice-President
of Operations at Main Event Entertainment. Prior to his move to Texas,
he was the Regional Director of West Coast Operations for the twelve (then)
West Coast locations of Planet Hollywood Restaurants.
Patrick Duff is the new Executive Chef at the Phoenician. Duff is stepping
into the job left vacant since the departure of Peter Hoefler over a year
ago. He just completed a one-year assignment as Executive Chef of the Inter-Continental
Hong Kong, (formerly the Regent of Hong Kong). Prior to that, Duff was
with Ritz-Carlton, first as Executive Chef in Jamaica then in Seoul, Korea.
Michael Platt has been appointed Director of Food and Beverage at the
St. Regis Hotel & Spa Los Angeles. Previously he was Vice
President Hotel Food and Beverage Operations for Harrah's Hotel & Casino
in St. Louis Missouri and Shreveport Louisiana.
Sarah Cairns has joined the St. Regis in Los Angeles as Director of
Public Relations. She has worked in the same capacity in Asia at the Ritz-Carlton
Millenia in Singapore and Mandarin-Oriental in Hong Kong. Originally from
England, she started her career at the Grosvenor House in London and also
worked in various marketing positions with Regent International Hotels.
Cheryl Magdaleno is the Director of Human Resources for the soon-to-open
Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grand Lakes. She was previously the Director of Human
Resources at the Ritz-Carlton Marina Del Rey for almost five years. Karring
McCarron replaces her in Marina Del Rey where she was previously the Director
of Training and Development.
Mobashir (Moby) Ahmed has been named Area Director of Operations for
Wyndham's seven properties in Michigan, Ohio, Missouri and Minnesota. Prior
to joining Wyndham, Ahmed worked with Starwood as Area Managing Director
for the New Orleans and Philadelphia regions. He has also served as President
of the Potomac Hotel Group in Washington, DC.
Jerry Broz has been appointed General Manager of Benchmark Hospitality¹s
Georgian Terrace Hotel in Atlanta. Most recently, Broz served as the General
Manager at Emerald Pointe Resort and Conference Center at Lake Lanier Islands.
Tim Eldridge has been appointed Director of Food & Beverage at the
Georgian Terrace. Most recently, he served as the Clubhouse Manager of
the Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta.
Bob Zappatelli has been promoted to Corporate Director of Food and Beverage
for Benchmark Hospitality. In addition to his new role, Zappatelli will
continue to serve as Director of Hotel Operations for the Founders Inn
in Virginia Beach, a property he originally joined as Executive Chef in
1999.
André Van Hall has left his position of General Manager at the
Adam¹s Mark Denver, and has been appointed Chief Executive Officer/General
Manager of the prestigious Denver Athletic Club. He had been with
the Adam¹s Mark Denver for four years, following a long career with
Hyatt Hotels.
Keith Harry has been appointed Executive Chef at the Raleigh in Miami,
sister hotel to New York¹s mercer and Hollywood's Chateau Marmont.
Harry previously was the opening chef at New York¹s Butter. He also
logged several years at the landmark Chanterelle.
Isabelle Alexandre is the new Chef de Cuisine at Citronelle in Santa
Barbara, taking over from Félicien Cueff, who returned to France
after ten years as the restaurant's top toque. Alexandre was previously
Chef de Cuisine at the Old Angler's Inn. It is her second time around working
for Citronelle's founder Michel Richard: she was a Sous Chef at the Washington
DC Citronelle in the mid nineties, and opened the short-lived Bistro M
(as in Michel) at the Hotel Milano in San Francisco.
Christophe Feyt has been hired as Assistant Pastry Chef for the Four
Seasons Boston. He previously worked as Pastry Chef at Le Méridien
Boston.
At the Sam Houston Hotel, Sam Schorr has left as General Manager. His
replacement is Steven André, who comes from Beverly Hills' Avalon,
where he stayed a mere eight months.
Paul Birchall is the new General Manager of the Luxe Hotel Rodeo Drive.
Until last summer he had been working in the same position at Avalon in
Beverly Hills, where he was Steven André's predecessor.
Doug Geoga has been named President of the Global Hyatt initiative.
The new company serves as umbrella for all Hyatt Hotel properties domestically
and internationally. Since 2000, Geoga had been President of the
Hospitality Investment Fund LLC, also owned by the Hyatt-owning Pritzker
family, and from 1994-1999, he was President of Hyatt Hotels Corporation.
Edward Rabin, previously Executive Vice President of Hyatt Hotels, becomes
President, succeeding Scott Miller, who moves up to Vice Chairman.
Bernd Chorengel remains President of Hyatt International, now reporting
to Geoga. Steve Goldman, (Cornell class of 1983) who was until recently
the Executive Vice President Development for Starwood, will oversee development
and acquisition activities for the parent companies of both Hyatt Hotels
and Hyatt International.
Thomas O'Toole, formerly Senior Vice President for Marketing and Informational
Technology at Hyatt Hotels, will direct information technology, distribution
strategy and related functions at both parent companies.
Kirk Rose, previously Senior Vice President of Finance for Hyatt Hotels,
becomes Senior Vice President of Finance for both companies.
Michael Sansbury (Cornell class of 1974) has been honored as the Resort
Executive of the Year for 2002 at the 2003 Resort Management Conference
in San Diego. As Regional Vice President and Managing Director for Loews
Hotels at Universal Orlando, Sansbury has introduced three new Loews Hotels,
the Portofino Bay Hotel, the Royal Pacific Resort, and the Hard Rock. The
combined number of rooms for the three properties is 2,400 rooms.
Chef-restaurateur Alison Barshak, who had made a big name for herself
when she spearheaded Philadelphia's Striped Bass some ten years ago, is
at it again: she is launching Alison at Blue Bell in the city of brotherly
love. Barshak had also been the creator of Venus and the Cowboy a few years
ago.
Vincent Robinson joined Miramonte Resort in Indian Wells as Director
of Food and Beverage in November. He most recently held a similar position
at the Enchantment Resort in Sedona. Prior to that he served five years
at the Hotel Del Coronado in various food and beverage management positions.
Executive Chef Didier Lenders has left Meadoowod after a combined tenure
of seven years (in two stints). No successor has been announced.
Erwan Ehanno is the new General Manager at Joachim Splichal's Zucca
downtown Los Angeles. He was most recently the Sommelier at Beaucoup
in San Francisco. He also spent four years in the same capacity at San
Francisco's La Folie and the defunct Restaurant Alain Rondelli.
Jean-Michel Chelain is the new Executive Chef at Vail's Left Bank. He
comes from the BleuJacket in Lawrence, Kansas. Chelain had also been the
Executive Chef at Noel and Gordon Hentschel's tony Stonepine, a Relais
& Chateau in Carmel Valley.
Jérôme Lagarde is the Executive Sous Chef at the Sofitel
Miami. He was previously in French Polynesia for a few months with the
Sheraton Moorea. |
