The latest industry appointments – Asia
FABRICE BREGIER has been announced as the new President & CEO of Airbus. A French national, Bregier was previously the European planemaker’s Chief Operating Officer. He takes over the top job from Tom Enders, who has moved to head-up Airbus’ parent company EADS as its new CEO.
ABID BUTT has been announced as the new Chief Executive Officer for Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts. Butt joins from US-based Host Hotels & Resorts, where he was Vice President of Asset Management. He served as Banyan Tree’s Vice President of Operations from 2000-2002.
JAMES RAMAGE has been appointed Assistant Vice President of Global Sales for Dusit International. Ramage has almost three decades of travel and hospitality experience, most recently serving as Regional Director of Sales & Marketing for Starwood, where he was responsible for 22 hotels.
GEORGE MAFFEO has been named as the new President of Boeing Japan. Maffeo has worked with Boeing for 34 years, most recently Vice President of 787 Supplier Management. He is familiar with the Japanese market due to his work on the 787 project, for which ANA was the launch customer.
MARGARET SOH has been appointed Vice President of Sales for The Travel Corporation, based in Shanghai. She will be in charge of outbound sales from China for Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, Contiki Holidays and Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection. Ms Soh joins from Randell Marketing.
JAN CHOVANEC has assumed the position of General Manager at the Swissôtel Beijing Hong Kong Macau Center. Chovanec, who has 39 years’ experience, first joined Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts in 1998 and most recently served as General Manager at Swissôtel Krasnye Holmy Moscow.
AXEL DE BOYNES has been named as the Apple Tree Group’s new Operations Manager for Laos. A French national with 15 years’ experience, de Boynes will now take over managerial responsibilities for the group’s three properties in Laos – Villa Maly, Nava Mekong and Kamu Lodge.
MARIA KUHN has been named as the new Vice President of Public Relations for Kempinski Hotels. Based in Geneva, the German national will be responsible for Kempinski’s worldwide PR. She joins Kempinski from Shangri-La in Hong Kong, where she was Director of Corporate Communications.
RORY SLATER has been appointed Executive Assistant Manager of Food & Beverage at The Ritz-Carlton Beijing Financial Street. A UK national, Slater’s career has spanned 17 years at a number of top hotels in London and New York. He previously worked for the Savoy Group.
JESSICA SOMERS has been announced as the new Director of Communications at the Shangri-La Hotel Sydney. Ms Somers arrives at the hotel with six years of PR experience including a spell with British Airways. Most recently she worked at Fleishman-Hillard International Communications.