September 13, 2011 - Following Olivier Poirot’s decision to leave his positions to join another company, Jim Amorosia is appointed Chief Executive Officer of Motel 6 and Studio 6 from October 3, 2011. Jim Amorosia has an MBA from the University of Arizona. He started his career with Motel 6 in 1985 as Regional Marketing Director and went on to occupy a series of strategic positions. He was appointed Executive Vice President of Motel 6 in 2000 and has been President and COO of Motel 6/ Studio 6 for the last four years.

He will be responsible for managing the Motel 6/ Studio 6 brands in North America and accelerating the transformation of Motel 6 business model, with the goal of significantly reducing capital employed over the medium term. He will be assisted in his task by Alan Rabinowitz, who is promoted to the position of Executive Vice President, Director of Business Affairs and General Secretary in charge of strategic operations for Motel 6 / Studio 6.

Didier Bosc is appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Accor North America. He is a graduate of Amiens business school ESCAE and holds a doctorate in Management Control as well as a degree in law. He joined Accor in 1985 and progressed rapidly before becoming Vice President of Finance for Sofitel and Novotel North America in 2003.

He has been Executive Vice President and CFO of Accor North America since 2007 and will retain his previous responsibilities as well as now supervising the cross-divisional services (IT, legal services, procurement, and technical services) of Novotel and Sofitel North America.

Working with him, Erik Anderouard and Eric Buitenhuis remain respectively SVP Operations for Sofitel Americas and VP of Novotel Canada.

Samuel Shih is appointed Chairman and Chief Operating Officer for Accor Greater China, from October, 2011. He will report directly to Michael Issenberg, Chief Operating Officer of Accor Asia Pacific. Samuel Shih is a graduate of the University of British Columbia, Canada and holds an MBA from the University of Macau. He started his career with PepsiCo Inc. before joining Red Bull as Managing Director for Asia Pacific.

Samuel Shih will be responsible for Accor’s operations in Greater China (including Hong Kong, Macau and Taipei) where the group currently operates 107 hotels and has plans to quadruple its network by 2015.

Robert Murray, formerly Senior Vice President for Accor Greater China, is appointed to the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer for Accor in South East and North East Asia. He will commence this role as soon as Samuel Shih's assumes his new functions. Robert Murray joined Accor in 1993 and has since held various operating positions in Australia, New Zealand and China.

Accor, the world's leading hotel operator and market leader in Europe, is present in 90 countries with 4,200 hotels and more than 500,000 rooms. Accor's broad portfolio of hotel brands - Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure, Adagio, IBIS, all seasons/ibis Styles, Etap Hotel/ibis Budget, Formule 1, hotelF1 and Motel 6 - provide an extensive offer from luxury to budget. With 145,000 employees worldwide, the Group offers its clients and partners nearly 45 years of know-how and expertise.