Kelly-Ann takes over Vincent as Social Media Coordinator. She will be in charge of all social networks and administration of the websites for IMHI and AAIMHI.

We wish her good luck in her new functions! 

Check here the professional news, from the latest e-Newsletter! To see the full newsletter, click here

Georges Safi H03 moved to Director of F&B at Hotel President Wilson Geneva, (Starwood luxury collection) property. Prior to this he worked 6 years at the Ritz Paris, as a director of room service then Assistant F&B Manager. 

 

Thomas Landais H10 (ex-apprentice at LaFourchette.com hired as Marketing Manager upon graduation) promoted Country Manager at LaFourchette Swiss SA. To develop LaFourchette in Switzerland. He hired Laurent Lacourt H10 as Sales Manager. Their team is now composed of 7 people in order to launch www.lafourchette.ch in June 2012.  

  

Charles Guyonnaud H01 has been appointed Director of Operations within Hotel Concorde La Fayette in December 2011. He is thrilled by those new responsabilities after 10 years of experiences working as Cluster Revenue Manager for InterContinental Montreal, Concorde Hotels, Expedia and Lucien Barrière Group.  

   

Anna Campos Blanco H07 has been appointed by The Deerbrook Group in London, UK at the position of Manager within theHotel Acquisitions & Asset Management. Following just over four years as Senior Associate, Consulting and Valuation Department with the London office of HVS.    

 

Thiébaut Ossola H08 has joined FRHI (Fairmont Raffles Hotels International) in December 2011 at the Corporate Office in Zurich. He is in charge of defining and implementing all products and services for the Swissôtel brand on a global basis, with the objective to streamline the entire guest experience. Prior to that he was working as Food & Beverage Manager at the Sofitel Marseille Vieux Port, and as Director Food & Beverage at the 5-star property Le Mirador Kempinski, located on Lake Geneva (Switzerland).

 

Bastien Blanc H97 worked in Western Europe, North America, Eastern Europe, Russia and Middle East, before his recent move to Mauritius as Area Manager - Indian Ocean at Sofitel Luxury Hotels and Resorts. He was previously the General Manager of Sofitel Cairo El Gezirah and before Area Manager in charge of operations and revenue for ACCOR Russia multi-brand hotels.    

  

Bruno Juin H00 was promoted Business Development Director and Executive Board Member at BNP Paribas Real Estate Valuation. Bruno was the Director the Hotel Valuation team at BNP Paribas Real Estate Hotels and will continue to head the hotel team.  

 

Bani Haddad H00 was promoted Regional Vice President Middle East & Africa for Wyndham Hotel Group in January  2012. Beforehand, Bani was Vice President Development for the region. Wyndham Hotel Group, LLC, part of the Wyndham Worldwide (NYSE:WYN) family of companies, is the world's largest hotel company with approximately 7,210 hotels and 613,100 rooms in 66 countries. The group operates and franchises 15 brands.

 

Pablo Szefner H04 has launched his own startup, The Fab Shoes, creating a shoe company for women fashionistas online. Before he launched and developped Weekendesk in France, Spain, Benelux and Italy, from scratch till reaching a turnover of 30M€.

 

Philipp Von Bodman H04 was promoted in January 2012 to Regional Director of Operations within Grand City Hotels group. He is now responsible for 9 hotels in the Region West and coordinates the strategic positioning of each hotel within the respective markets. Prior to this, he was with Grand City Hotels for over 3 years as Corporate Analyst. He had a variety of responsibilities, such as assisting the owners of the group in the acquisition of new hotels (The group grew from 40 hotels in 2008 to more than 100 in 2012); assessing strategic plans for the portfolio and creating and implementing numerous cost saving actions within the hotels.

 

Pierre Ricord H08 was appointed by Hilton Worldwide in Watford, UK as Manager within the Feasibility and Investment Analysis department. Following just over three years as Senior Associate, Consulting and Valuation Department with the London office of HVS, he will now be involved, together with the development teams of Hilton, in underwriting new developments, conversions and acquisitions across the Europe and Africa region.

 

Wissam Chelala H04 was promoted to Vice President Development Planning & Feasibility at Marriott International EMEA.  Wissam joined Marriott's Feasibility team straight away after his MBA in Hospitality Management at ESSEC and has been a key contributor to the company growth across a wide variety of markets.   

 

Xavier Halbi H04 has recently been given the responsibility to handle the Revenue Management function of the Park Hyatt Hadahaa, Maldives.   This comes in addition to the Hyatt Regency Dubai that he has been managing since December 2006. His responsibilities are to analyze the performance of all the departments of the hotels, bring recommendations and formulate the selling strategies of the properties.

 

Nathalie Gualino H07 was promoted National Sales Travel Manager China for Allianz Global Assistance. Prior to her recent promotion, Nathalie was Travel Key Account Manager in Paris for Allianz Global Assistance and before her MBA in Hospitality Management was working as E-Commerce Manager for Mondial Assistance.

Audrey Bachelier H09 was promoted Performance Delivery Executive EMEA at InterContinental Hotels Group. Prior to this she was Co-ordinator Owner Communications & Franchise Support - EMEA at IHG and Project Coordinator with Adagio City Aparthotel.   

How it works
As an IMHI alumnus (diplômé de l'IMHI) you may chose a basic subscription with the alumni association of IMHI (AAIMHI) or join the main ESSEC Alumni Association
AAIMHI services include the IMHI alumni database, selected hospitality sector job offers and recruiting companies.

The fees are:
Active membership - 25 Euros
Couple membership - 40 Euros

Note: Do not pay the 25 or 40 Euros of AAIMHI if you decide to pay the ESSEC membership dues. The AAIMHI dues are included in the 160 Euros (or more) ESSEC dues.

To pay your IMHI Alumni (AAIMHI) dues click here and enter your AAIMHI Login and Password. If you have forgotten your Login or password please contact us here.

To pay your ESSEC Alumni dues (which automatically include the AAIMHI dues) please click here.

To pay your ESSEC Alumni USA dues (which automatically include the AAIMHI dues) please click here.

To pay your Cornell dues as affiliate member (if you graduated from the two year program between 1983 and 2006) please click here and if you are a first time member please contact: Erin Rodriguez, Alumni Affairs: emr78@cornell.edu.

Yours sincerely 

Ilan Elkaim wins the Most Successful Alumnus Award at the MKG 12th Worldwide Hospitality Awards November 21st, 2011 in Paris. Congratulations!! Watch the video here

14 alumni met in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily for the wedding of Leonardo Stassi H08 and Zuzana Kovacova H08 on September 16th 2011. This somehow constituted the first Alumni Get-Together in Sicily. We all wish Zuzi and Leo a happy married life!!

Prof. Peter O’Connor – Hospitality Educator of the Year.
Awarded by HSMAI (Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International) Europe

One of the Top Ten Extraordinary Minds in the European Hospitality & Tourism Sectors. Awarded by HSMAI (Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International) Europe

For the 9th consecutive year, the MBA in Hospitality Management  ESSEC (IMHI)  is in first place in the SMBG graduate studies ranking in the category: Tourism and Hospitality.
To read the full article in french please click here.

Charles Lüthi '83 and the board have been reelected at the head of AAIMHI. Monika Moser H10 joins the board and will be heading a new project called the AAIMHI Industry Leaders Society, pertaining to networking for IMHI Alumni executives.
From left to right: Monika Moser Rooms Division Director Fouquet's Barriere, Stéphane Klein owner Evandre, Eric Vincent COO groupe Flo, Claire Battard Aptitudes & Alternatives, Isabelle Arnaud Talents First, Charles Lüthi President AAIMHI, Francis Rollin Treasurer AAIMHI, Marc Descrozaille Sr.Director brand performance Hilton EMEA.

Charles Lüthi '83 and the board have been reelected at the head of AAIMHI. Monika Moser H10 joins the board and will be heading a new project called the AAIMHI Industry Leaders Society, pertaining to networking for IMHI Alumni executives.
A very nice crowd of alumni and the students who assisted the alumni association during the entire year attended the general assembly and the traditional cocktail along with Geraldine Dobey, GM of the Hilton Arc de Triomphe.

Peter O'Connor, co-Director of IMHI, received the Best Paper Award for his paper "Social Media Adoption by International Hotel Companies: a Benchmark and Exploration of Best Practices" at the 2011 Conference on Social Media in Hospitality and Tourism, Oct 21-22, 2011 in Verona, Italy
Congratulations!!
For those interested in the paper, they can download it here 

Professional news - to see the whole newsletter, click http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=6kshppbab&v=001gjTeQvTgjpp3k7kd2YeceBl7YcjFgDhPQPVmrr6gIWXeC-AkZfng_9UkzrekxDFRFBn0JuMiokIplk5TFeUx_yb1ffI9h25IaF100p0ieuME6VfGNA1wUA%3D%3D

Fabrice Gaudriot H99 was appointed brand director at Belambra Clubs in August 2010. Belambra Clubs is N°1 of the holiday clubs in France with 57 clubs (40,000 beds) for French and European families. With exceptional locations in the best holiday spots in France, Belambra clubs' inspire sharing fun and relaxation holidays for almost 500,000 people per year of all ages (including 80,000 children). Prior to that, he was Product and Services Director for Ibis hotels.

Francois Baudin H93 was appointed Senior Vice President of Development Europe Middle East and Africa for Fairmont Raffles Hotels International (FRHI) in January 2011. In 1993 Francois joined Starwood Hotels & Resorts (formerly ITT Sheraton Corporation) as Project Controller Europe for numerous developments and hotel refurbishments and was member of the acquisition team of the Ciga Hotels. In 1998 Francois held the role of Director of Finance for the development of a Warner Bros. Park in Madrid, Spain. In 2003 Francois joined the InterContinental Hotels Group, where he held the position of Director of Corporate Finance Europe for InterContinental hotels and subsequently Director of Development Europe.

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IMHI's who joined Mandarin Oriental Paris 

 

Sophie Verneuil  H02 in July 2010 as Personal Assistant to the General Manager. Prior to that she worked at the Hôtel Westminster as Seminar and Banqueting Coordinator.

Vincent Tincelin H07   in March 2011 as Revenue Manager. Prior to that he was Revenue Manager in Hôtel Plaza Athénée Paris.

Pierre-Olivier Lauriol  H95  as Financial Director.

Sonia Timsiline H04  as Purchasing Manager, prior to that she was Purchasing Manager at Shangri-La Paris.

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Jean-Philippe Boublil H01 was appointed Director of Operations of the Radisson Blu Cardiff in February 2011. Prior to that he was in charge of the food and beverage at the Radisson Blu London Stansted Airport.

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Puneet Chhatwal H91 was promoted Executive Vice President & Chief Development Officer for Rezidor SAS Hospitality in April 2011. He joined Rezidor in 2002 and is currently responsible for growing all the company brands (Regent, Radisson SAS, Missoni, Park Inn and Country Inn). Prior to joining Rezidor SAS, Puneet was with Carlson Hotels Worldwide, where he was appointed Director of Development in 1998, with responsibility for development in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 

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Zuzana Kovacova H08 was promoted Associate Director at Colliers International  within the EMEA Corporate Solution team inMay 2011.

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Florent Dieudonnet H05 was appointed Global Account Manager MICE - Europe within Warwick International Hotels in July 2011. Prior to that, he has worked in the event industry. He has an international experience with Starwood and Rocco Forte. For the coming years, he will promote the Warwick collection to major corporations and agencies.   

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Lasse Ristolainen H05 was promoted Development Director Central, Eastern & Southern Africa at Hilton Worldwide in July 2011. He joined Hilton in 2007 and his last position was Director of Feasibility and Investment Analysis, Asia Pacific & Middle East. Prior to that Lasse was Associate at HVS.  

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Rocco Forte Hotels announced the appointment of Franck Arnold H91 as general manager of the Balmoral in Edinburgh in August 2011. He joins The Balmoral from The Jefferson Hotel in Washington DC, where as managing director, he oversaw an extensive renovation of the property. Prior to taking up his post in Washington he was hotel manager of the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago. Previously, he held several posts at Intercontinental Hotel & Resorts' in England, Greece, Belgium, Spain and the USA.

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Bani Haddad H01, Vice President Development, Wyndham Hotel Group, was awarded "most senior representative for US hospitality giant Wyndham based in the Middle" East in "Middle East Hotelier" September 2011 Edition: Meet the 50 most powerful hoteliers driving growth in the Middle East Hospitality Industry in 2011. Bani Haddad joined the Power 50 club at number 13. He was ranked 4th among the 10 new comers.

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Thomas Schwall H01 was appointed Hotel Manager for Le Méridien Nouméa, in September 2011 after 10 months as Hotel Manager for  The Saint Régis in Singapore, and 3 years as Executive Assistant Manager at Sheraton on the Park in Sydney.

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Alexandra Dumoulin H07 joined Shanti Hospitality Group, hotel and leisure division of C&C Alpha Group, as Business Development Manager in September 2011. She remains in London after having worked for the Hotels' team of Colliers International as a Senior Consultant, and previously to this as an Associate at HVS International.  Alexandra will be actively involved in the evaluation of development opportunities and asset management of existing properties.

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Olivia Chaplin H08 joined IHG (Intercontinental Hotels Group) as analyst in their Corporate Finance & Development team, based at their headquarters in Denham, UK, in September 2011. Prior to that she was in consulting roles with BNP Paribas Real Estate and MKG based in Paris. She is enjoying being back on British soil and looks forward to catching up with other London-based alumni.   

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Yuyu Zhou H10 was appointed Development Manager for Hilton Worldwide in September 2011. She is based in Shanghai. Prior to that she was Senior Associate at HVS China.

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Isabel Isakeit H10 was appointed Senior Analyst at Revenue Management Solutions on September 1st 2011. 

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Jacky Delorme H98 was appointed Key Account Manager at vente-prive.com in the Rosedeal business unit in October 2011. The concept of the Rosedeal is to create special events devoted to highlight brands and their retail network, using vente-privee.comqualified member database (9.7 million members in France and over 12 million in Europe). The members are in "one to one" direct relationship with the brands, and commit to spend money in the shops by buying a voucher.  He joined this company in July 2010as Buyer/European Sales Coordinator in the commercial department.

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Laurent Barelier H99 was appointed as Front Office Reservations Support Manager for Accor Middle East hotels in October 2011. He will be in charge of the rollout & training of the various CRS applications; optimize the hotels' operational processes; provide systems support for Accor's new hotel openings & conversions, and act as first point of contact for the hotels & a liaison with the Central Team in Paris. Previously, Laurent was the Regional Revenue Manager for Accor ME since 2009. He continues to be based in Dubai.

On her way to InterContinental Moorea Resort & Spa, where she has been hired as House Manager, Marion Laporte H11 stopped by Tahiti for a nice Get Together with Vincent Poulingue H02, Deputy Manager InterContinental Tahiti Resort and Spa. Good luck to her in her new job and new adventure!