People on the move

New roles for the industry’s movers and shakers

Royal Tulip Sea Pearl Cox’s Bazar, Inani, Bangladesh

Golden Tulip Hotels South Asia, has announced the appointment of Arun Arora as general manager of Royal Tulip Sea Pearl Cox’s Bazar, Inani, Bangladesh. In his new role, he will be responsible for the operational set up and steering of the overall management of the hotel. He will also play a vital role in employee training and development, while driving performance across various dimensions including financial success, brand value, guest satisfaction and engagement as well as quality in service.

Golden Tulip Chattarpur

Golden Tulip Hotels South Asia part of the international hospitality chain – Louvre Hotels Group, has appointed Sandipan Bose as general manager, Golden Tulip Chattarpur. In his new role, he will be responsible for overseeing the hotel operations, maximising revenue generation, training and leading a team of department heads. Prior to joining the hotel, he was the food and beverage manager at Carlson Rezidor. Prior to this, he spent three years at ITC Hotels. He has also been associated with InterContinental – The Grand, Park Royal now InterContinental Eros and started his career in hospitality in 1998 as a management trainee for Hotel Golkonda.

EasyDiner.com

Renowned food critic and popular restaurant business blogger Sourish Bhattacharyya has come on board EazyDiner.com as lead critic for Delhi-NCR. Bhattacharyya joins the team headed by Vir Sanghvi; comprising Kalyan Karmakar and Roxanne Bamboat in Mumbai and Priyadarshini Nandy and Ipsita Basu in Bengaluru. With this new role, apart from reviewing restaurants and bars in Delhi-NCR, he will map food and beverage traditions and trends in the national capital and its neighbourhood.

Taj Krishna, Hyderabad

Arif Said Khan has been appointed as director of sales and marketing of Taj Krishna Hyderabad effective October 2015. In his new role, his responsibilities would entail driving revenues, marketing activities, positioning initiatives and revenue maximisation for Taj Krishna, Hyderabad. He started his career in the hospitality business in 1996 in sales and marketing after doing his MBA in marketing.

Taj Banjara Hyderabad

Hitendra Sharma has been appointed as general manager at Taj’s iconic hotel Taj Banjara Hyderabad effective August 2015. In his new role, Sharma’s responsibilities would entail overseeing operations and business of Taj Banjara Hyderabad. He started his career in 1997 after completing his graduation in hotel management and continued to work with the finest hospitality brands in India before joining the Taj Group of hotels. He joined as a front office manager at the Taj Vadodara and steadily grew up in rank to become an EAM – accommodations at Taj Club House, Chennai.

Howard Johnson Bengaluru Hebbal

Howard Johnson Bengaluru Hebbal has appointed Rishi Neoge as general manager. With over 19 years of experience, he has held several positions in the food and beverage section within leading luxury and business hotels across India like ITC, The Imperial, IHCL and IHG to name a few.

Park Plaza Gurgaon

Harpreet Vohra has been appointed as general manager, Park Plaza Gurgaon. Prior to this, he was working at Radisson Blu Agra. He has worked in several leading hotels such as Hyatt International, Taj Hotels, Golkonda Resorts and Angsana Spa, The LaLit New Delhi and Hyatt Regency in Mumbai. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Bhopal University along with hotel management.

Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire

Belmond has appointed Jan-Paul Kroese as general manager of Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire. Hailing from the Netherlands, Kroese is a seasoned hotelier with over 18 years’ experience in the hospitality industry. He will join Belmond on December 14, 2015 from Château St Gerlach, a Camille Oostwegel ChâteauHotels & Restaurants property he has managed since March 2011. Prior to this, Kroese oversaw the pre-opening of Sankara Nairobi in Kenya and held roles at leading luxury hotel brands including InterContinental and Mandarin Oriental.

Marriott International

Manish Tolani assumes office as the newly appointed area director of sales and marketing – South Asia at Marriott International. With the Marriott since 2003, Tolani brings to the table a decade of experience within the hospitality sector having served at multiple designations. In his new role, he will be leading and overseeing the sales and marketing portfolio for the existing 29 Marriott hotels across India, along with developing core strategies for the upcoming properties across Asia Pacific. He will be part of the core team working on achieving marketing and sales operational objectives, recommendations to strategic plans and reviews and completing action plans, all the while ensuring productivity, quality and customer-service standards.

Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa

Sunishchal Parasnis has been appointed as director of sales for Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa. In his new role, he will be supervising and supporting the sales and events team of the hotel both in Mumbai and Goa for the 249 keys luxury resort in South Goa. A native of Mumbai, he has done his higher education in Guwahati and Masters Degree in Mumbai.

Alila Diwa Goa

Alila Diwa Goa has appointed Rakesh Kumar as executive sous chef. His key roles will include making sure that the food operations is controlled in a manner which reaches the desired cost of sales, and liaising with the food and beverage manager to maximise potential and optimise resources. He will also ensure the consistent smooth running of food production within the designated areas, especially in the restaurants and banquets. He began his culinary career at The Marriott Resort Goa in 2006, later moving to The Oberoi Udaivilas in 2008 and The Westin Sohna Resort and Spa, Gurgaon in 2009. His most recent stint was as sous chef at Pappagallo Ristorante, an Italian fine dine in Grand Cayman prior to joining Alila Diwa Goa.

Hyatt Regency Gurgaon

Hyatt Regency Gurgaon has appointed Chef Liam Crotty as executive chef. Prior to joining Hyatt Regency Gurgaon Crotty was a part of the pre-opening team at Hyatt Regency Dubai Creek Heights. He is in charge of overseeing all the culinary aspects of the kitchens, menus, training modules and most importantly securing the standards of excellence expected by both domestic and international patrons.

Hyatt Hotel Corporation

Sanjeev Tandon has joined the Hyatt family in India as director of sales and marketing, Grand Hyatt Mumbai and area director – sales and marketing, west India, Hyatt Hotel Corporation. In his new assignment he will be overseeing the sales and marketing function of Grand Hyatt Mumbai as well as assisting the west India hotels – comprising seven hotels in Mumbai, Pune and Goa and soon to open Hyatt Place Goa. His extensive experience comprises stints at Sheraton, Le Meridien, Taj, Oberoi, Dusit Thani, Jumeirah International and Movenpick.

Grand Hyatt Mumbai

Grand Hyatt Mumbai has appointed Varun Mohan as front office manager. He will be a part of the rooms division team and will be leading the front office and guest services teams. He started his hospitality journey with Grand Hyatt Mumbai as a corporate leadership trainee in 2008. He was subsequently part of the front office team at the hotel till 2012, when he moved to Hyatt Regency Chennai, the first foray of Hyatt in South India, as the assistant front office manager.

Hilton Worldwide

Hilton Worldwide has appointmented Kaushik Vardharajan as vice president, development – India. He reports to Andrew Clough, senior vice president, development – Middle East and Asia Pacific, Hilton Worldwide, and he is based at the company’s India regional office in Gurgaon, Delhi NCR. He holds a Masters Degree in Hospitality Administration as well as a Bachelors Degree of Science in Hotel – Restaurant / Institutional Management from Johnson & Wales University, Providence, RI. He is also a graduate of the Owners and Presidents Management (OPM) programme at Harvard Business School.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has announced the appointments of Martin Schnider as general manager, Mandarin Oriental, Doha, and Jill Goh as general manager, Mandarin Oriental, Macau.

Schnider began his career with the group at Mandarin Oriental, Singapore in 1994, progressing from there to assistant food and beverage manager of Mandarin Oriental, Manila, before joining Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur in 2000. Thereafter he moved from food and beverage to a resident manager position in 2005. Goh began her career with the group in Singapore in 1993, working her way up through the rooms division to become director of rooms in 2000, and eventually resident manager in 2006. Most recently, she was resident manager of Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London before taking on the role of corporate operations manager, Asia based in Hong Kong in 2013.

Resort Rio, Goa

Resort Rio, Goa has announced the appointment of Lokesh Lalla as vice president. In this newly created role, Lalla’s responsibilities will entail overseeing the overall operations and management of Resort Rio. With more than 14 years of experience, he has worked with various five-star hotel chains like InterContinental, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Movenpick and The Leela. Before joining Resort Rio, he was with Movenpick Heritage Hotel Sentosa.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Starwood Hotels & Resorts has appointed Janet McNab as managing director of Sheraton Macao Hotel, Cotai Central and The St Regis Macao, Cotai Central. She reports directly to Josef Dolp, who has been promoted to vice president of operations for Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and Korea. In her new role, McNab will oversee all of the hotel operations at the 4,000-room Sheraton Macao Hotel – Starwood’s largest Sheraton worldwide – as well as the 400-room St Regis Macao set to open in December.

People on the move

New roles for the industry's movers and shakers