Gregg Montanez is the new Executive Chef at the prestigious Lyford Cay Club in the Bahamas. He was until recently the Executive Chef at Mandarin-Oriental's Ananda in the Himalayas.

Vikram Reddy is the new Hotel Manager at the Four Seasons Philadelphia. He previously was the Director of Rooms at the Four Seasons Singapore. Prior to moving into operations, Reddy was Area Financial Controller for Four Seasons in Asia. Reddy takes over from Radha Arora who became the General Manager of the Four Seasons Wailea on Maui.

Jean-Christophe Basseau has been promoted from Chef de Cuisine at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua's Banyan Tree fusion restaurant to Executive Sous Chef at the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach. Other new arrivals at that hotel include the General Manager, Marc Hoffman, a former General Manager of the year for Marriott Corporation, and a new Director of Food and Beverage, John Speers.

Richard White, a longtime Hyatt Sales and Marketing executive, who was until recently an Area Director of Marketing and Sales in Asia, has been appointed Vice President - Global Sales for Hyatt Hotels, and will be based out of Chicago.

Also at the Hyatt home office, Gordon Tareta has joined the company as Director of Spa Operations. He was previously the Corporate Director of Spa Operations for Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.

Jeffrey Jackson will be the opening Executive Chef for the 175-room Lodge at Torrey Pines, slated for a year-end opening in La Jolla.  Jackson just spent over eight years at Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica, which he opened as Executive Chef. He had been promoted to Director of Food and Beverage in 1999.

The biggest hotel in Mexico will be the Grand Mayan Palace, a 3,000-room behemoth to open in stages in Cancun. Eric du Baele is General Manager, who previously did consulting and development for Marbella Club Hotels and other high-end projects in Spain.

Orient-Express Hotels announced that Michael Pownall has been named General Manager of Keswick Hall at Monticello, Virginia.  Pownall comes to his new post from the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa where he has been Hotel Manager at the Orient-Express-owned property since July 1999. Daniel Mann had been managing Keswick Hall (as well as its sister property, The Inn at Perry Cabin) until December 2000.

Timothy Gonser, Vice President, Food & Beverage, Peabody Hotel Group, has been appointed General Manager of the Peabody Little Rock, formerly known as The Excelsior. He takes over from Gregg Nelson who left the company. Gonser had been with Peabody Hotel Group since 1987, as Director of Food and Beverage at the award-winning Peabody Orlando. Prior to joining Peabody, Gonser was the Assistant Food and Beverage Director at the Century Plaza Hotel and Tower in Los Angeles.

Christian Clerc has been promoted from Director of Rooms Operations to Hotel Manager at the Four Seasons Washington DC, a property he had joined in August 2000, coming from the Hay-Adams. Clerc, a Swiss citizen, is a Lausanne hotel school graduate. He replaces Bahram Sepahi, who is going to be the opening General Manager at the new Four Seasons Riyadh.
     
Sharon Telesca is leaving her position of Director of Marketing at the St. Regis New York after eight years to pursue a career outside the industry. She will be the Director of Sales and Marketing for Furnished Quarters LLC. Founded in 1998, Furnished Quarters is the leader in extended stay apartment rentals in Manhattan. 

Jim Hartigan has been named Senior Vice President - Quality Assurance and Guest Assistance for Hilton Hotels Corp. He most recently served as Vice President - Quality Assurance and Guest Assistance, a position held since 1997. Hartigan joined Promus Hotel Corp. (now Hilton Hotels Corp.) in 1992 and served as the General Manager of the Embassy Suites Omaha, Nebraska. 

Jack Vaughn (CHA), a veteran Hotelier who grew the world-famous Opryland Hotel from the ground up into a 2,884-room award-winning convention destination, has joined Nashville-based Stanfield Hospitality Consultants LLC (SHC) as chairman of the SHC Board of Advisors. 

Maarten P. Drenth was named Director of Food and Beverage for the Hotel Inter-Continental Miami. An alumnus of the renowned Hotel School The Hague in the Netherlands, Drenth had served as Assistant Director of Food and Beverage at the hotel in the early nineties, and was most recently the Director of Food and Beverage for the Willard Inter-Continental in Washington, D.C. 

Joe Vina is the Director of Sales at the Shore Club (now only opening in July 2001, after an over-six-month delay - that is par for the course in Miami where a building frenzy has created a major shortage of construction crews.) Vina comes from the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner where he was an Associate Director of Sales and replaces John Harrison who moved on to the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston, a property where he had started his career years ago.

At Destination Hotels & Resorts¹ L¹Auberge Del Mar, the new Director of Sales and Marketing is Patsy Bock. She comes from the very "unboutiquey" Westin St. Francis and replaces Tohnia Miller who has left the company.

Bradley Reynolds has taken over from Julie Naberhaus as Director of Food and Beverage at Rosewood's very plush Mansion on Turtle Creek. Reynolds, who had worked for Rosewood in the past (he was an Associate Food and Beverage Manager at the Crescent Club also in Dallas) was most recently with Shelly Fireman's Shelly's in New York and the late Warner Leroy's Russian Tea Room.

Still with Rosewood, Laura Latronico, has been named Director of Spa at The Crescent in Dallas. She was formerly Vice President and Executive Director of Cooper Aerobic Enterprises. Latronico earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Kinesiology/Health, Recreation and Sports Management from Saint Edwards University in Austin, Texas.

Shawn Hauver has been promoted at the highly successful 800-room Loews Miami Beach from Director of Food and Beverage to Resident Manager Hauver had joined the hotel in December 1999, following a ten-year career with Hyatt Hotels (in St. Louis, Greenville, Hilton Head and Orlando) His successor at the helm of the Food and Beverage Division is Dan Federspiel. Also new at the Loews Miami Beach is Executive Steward Frédéric Cournède, previously the Director of Kitchen Operations at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York.

Martial Noguier has left the Pump Room to be the Chef at 160 Blue in Chicago. Noguier has also previously been Executive Chef at Jumby Bay in Antigua, and at Michel Richard's Citronelle both in Washington DC and in Santa Barbara.

Andreas Meinhold has resigned as President of Swissôtel, following the company¹s takeover by Raffles International of Singapore.

At Swissôtel North America, Frank Spielvogel is the new Executive Assistant Manager at the Swissôtel Chicago under General Manager Joseph Violi. Spielvogel joins from the company's Lima (Peru) property where he was the Acting Manager. Alper Oztok has been promoted from Director of Food and Beverage at Swissôtel Chicago to Executive Assistant Manager at the Swissôtel Atlanta.

Cari Printy has joined Las Vegas' soon-to-open Stirling Club as Spa Manager. She previously held the same title at Aqua Sulis, the spa at the struggling Regent of Las Vegas.

At Bacara in Santa Barbara the new Assistant Spa Director is Angela Taverner, who came straight across the continent from the Peninsula in New York City. 

Jane Hurley Clare was appointed General Manager of the upcoming Ninezero Hotel in Boston, a Destination Hotel & Resort.

Lee Bowden, a Cornell hotel graduate, has been named General Manager of the historic Sagamore in Lake George, New York. He previously spent ten years at the helm of The Equinox in Manchester, Vermont.     

Vicky Lindsay has joined Rosewood Hotels and Resorts in the position of Corporate Director of Recruitment and Benefits, coming from the Regent of Sydney where she was the Director of Human Resources. To make Rosewood¹s global image more obvious, she will symptomatically be based out of Sydney, while Rosewood corporate headquarters are in Dallas. At the Regent of Sydney she is being replaced by Mitchell Sipiala, formerly the Director of Human Resources at the Four Seasons Dallas.

At Orient-Express' Bora Bora Lagoon Resort, General Manager Miguel de Almeida is leaving, being promoted to General Manager of the company's century- old Mount Nelson Hotel in Capetown, South Africa. It is Almeida's third GM posting with Orient-Express, since he started out as General Manager of the Lapa Palace in Portugal. All three of Almeida's postings with Orient-Express have been Leading Hotels of the World. His replacement at the Bora Bora Lagoon Resort has yet to be announced.
     
Marc Aeberhard, a Lausanne Hotel School graduate, has taken the position of Hotel Manager at the soon-to-open Soneva Gili Resort & Spa in the Maldives. The resort will feature 44 luxury villas. Aeberhard was previously with Amari Hotels of Bangkok.

Moves at Shangri-La: Steven Hicks has left his position of General Manager at the Shangri-La Singapore. He is being replaced by Cetin Sekercioglu, who moves up from the Shangri-La Bangkok. From the Shangri-La Singapore he will also have regional responsibilities over Malaysia and Indonesia. Mark Heywood who transfers from the Shangri-La Kowloon, takes the helm of the Shangri-La Bangkok with additional responsibilities over Thailand and Myanmar. 

There is a change of Executive Chef again at The Ritz in Paris, where the position created 105 years ago by Auguste Escoffier will now be held by Michel Roth. Roth, who had left the Ritz less than two years ago to be the Chef at Paris' esteemed Lasserre Restaurant, is taking over from Maurice Guillouet. The latter had taken over from a retiring Guy Legay in 1999. Michel Roth, who is 42, had spent twenty years at the Ritz during which he became a Meilleur Ouvrier de France and earned a Bocuse d'Or.

Tom Hegarty has been named Managing Director of the Sheraton Paris Airport. He was transferred from the Sheraton Tel Aviv.

Jean-Louis Bottigliero, currently the General Manager of Concorde's Hotel Martinez in Cannes, a Leading Hotel of the World, has been named Executive Director of Relais & Chateaux, effective September 2001. As such he will be working closely with Relais & Chateaux President Régis Bulot. Bottigliero who is only 37, had his first General Manager position at age 24, running the Chateau de Gilly, a Relais & Château in Burgundy.

Diane Desseigne-Barrière died in France at age 44. The sole heiress to legendary French hotelier and casino mogul Lucien Barrière, she had been critically injured in a mysterious private plane collision in 1995.  She had been bedridden since the accident. Her death occurred May 18, 2001.

Martine Giuliani-Maurin, a long-time senior executive with the Lucien Barrière Group was appointed General Manager of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, where international events such as the Cannes Film Festival are held. She was previously the Regional Vice President of the Lucien Barrière Group on the French Riviera heading the Hôtel Majestic, Hôtel Gray d'Albion, Casino Croisette and Casino de Menton.

Rémy Crégut has joined the group LSO International in France as Executive Vice President of Marketing and Development. He will directly oversee the regional offices in Lyon and Paris. He was, until very recently, Director of Sales and Marketing for the Grimaldi Forum Monaco. Crégut has spent the majority of his professional career working for international hotel chains in marketing and sales capacities (Accor, Hyatt and Inter-Continental). More recently he was at the head of Disneyland Paris Business Solutions, responsible for business tourism and corporate events at EuroDisney. 

John Frazer has been appointed General Manager of the legendary Marbella Club Hotel, Golf Resort and Spa. Frazer joins from Rosewood Hotels and Resorts' The Lanesborough in London and The Bristol in Panama City.

George Fistrovich has left Harrods¹, one month after Director of Food and Beverage Claude Cevasco (who had taken over from Michael Neuner a mere five months earlier). Fistrovich started at Harrods' in July 1999. He was replaced by his former Executive Sous Chef Steven Wheeler who had worked with him eleven years ago at Hayman Resort in Australia.

Richard Ayson has left his position of Director of Sales and Marketing at The Athenaeum in London. He was replaced by Joanne Beems, formerly the Director of Sales at the Landmark Hotel London (formerly The Regent of London).