Profile Press Office

October 2007

The 3rd Profile & Preferred Golf Day staged at Wentworth on the 17th October was blessed with brilliant weather and was a thoroughly enjoyable occasion, in particular for Andrew Lawrence of the Pyrford Club, overall winner with the best individual score and the longest drive & part of the winning team playing with Richard Lewis, Michael Longshaw and Walton Eddlestone. Guests who attended included representatives from Gleneagles, Grayshott, Brockett Hall and the Roehampton Club.

Andrew was kind enough to put his prize for the longest drive, a day’s sailing with Profile Sailing, up for action raising £800 for Hospitality Action.

August 2007

"Profile" busy in action in Cowes Week under charter to Skandia Investment Management 

July 2007

The Landmark was the place to be on Thursday 19th July 2007, when the HCPTA hosted their annual Awards for Excellence in the hotel’s Ballroom. This year’s theme was “Magical” (just in time for the launch of the new Harry Potter!) and the evening certainly went with a bang. Profile was represented at the event by Liz Hartstone, James Hey, Mandy Colley Kim Dunsmore, with the latter two sitting on the committee of the HCPTA and responsible for the organisation of the event. Award winners this year included Maybourne Hotel Group, Kew Green Hotels, and Four Seasons Canary Wharf, with Nicole Davies of The Royal Garden and Laura Smith of the Wentworth Club picking up the Award for Excellence by an Operations Line Manager and the HCPTA Rising Star Award respectively. Our sincere congratulations go to all of this year’s winners!

We were delighted to be seated next to our distinguished friends from Four Seasons for the evening, and whiled the hours away catching up with a host of industry colleagues before joining them all on the dance-floor until the wee small hours. The HCPTA certainly know how to put on a good show, and this year they surpassed themselves, with a little help from The Landmark. Our thanks go to The Committee for all their hard work putting the evening together, and we look forward to joining them again in 2008!

Profile Sailing Cup 2007 - 10th and 11th July

Following a terrific day's racing on the Solent in a matched fleet of Benetau First 40.7s, teams from The Dorchester, Mandarin Oriental, The Berkeley, Jumeirah, Small Luxury Hotels, The Eton Collection and Profile raised over £3000 for www.sail4cancer.org and everyone’s generosity is hugely appreciated.

Congratulations go to our own team on Profile with novice helmsman James Hey for stealing 1st place overall and Profile Sailing Cup – a terrific achievement and a great example of superb teamwork which really set the benchmark.

Well done to The Dorchester on “Combat” in hot pursuit with 2nd place overall and to The Berkeley in 3rd.

On day two, the tables turned with a clear win for the Dorchester, 2nd place for Mandarin Oriental on “Big Bamboo” and Profile in 3rd place!

April 2007

Mauritius is well known for its beautiful beaches and stunning resort properties but how is it maintaining its position as one of the world’s top luxury destinations?

Following their recent trip to the island, Mark Norris, Profile’s Chief Executive and Michele Alguacil MD Profile France share their thoughts on the latest developments in Mauritius in 'Journal' at www.profile-marketing.com

To find out more about what to expect from this stunning destination please take a moment to read our article!

In the meantime many congratulations to ANDREW MILTON, pictured above on his recent appointment as General Manager of the One&Only St Geran and sincere best wishes to another long-term Profile friend, VINCENT BERGMANN, also pictured above with Mark and Michele who succeeds Andrew as the new General Manager of Le Prince Maurice.

February 2007

Profile Sailing Skipper: Chris Jackson

Good Sailing! As a further endorsement to our close partnership with Britannia Corporate Events, we are delighted to confirm that Chris “Jacko” Jackson will be Profile’s lead skipper for 2007. The attached CV outlines Chris’s professional background, including over 6 years with Britannia and experience totally over 30,000 nautical miles at sea. For those of you lucky enough to sail with Chris you will find yourselves in the hands of a very talented young man who is not only a great sailor & talented skipper, but delightful company to be with.

[read Chris's profile]

Profile takes to the water…

On Saturday 24th February, a party at Port Hamble to celebrate our new boat’s official naming was enjoyed by a number of friends and family from Profile Sailing’s parent company in London and representatives from Britannia, Sail4Cancer and Ancasta.

Profile Sailing’s founder Mark Norris, thanked everyone involved in the building process and shared his future vision the project, introducing Connie Carroll who talked with passion about Sail4Cancer’s work. Further good news came from Simon Boulding, Marketing Manager of Britannia Corporate Events who announced that Corum Watches had been confirmed at the official timekeeping sponsor for the Profile Sailing Cup together with The Dorchester as our 'Lifestyle Partner'

Before the official naming ceremony was conducted by Mark’s wife Gail, he explained the tradition of Champagne being poured over the bow to appease King Neptune and a branch with green leaves on the deck, was to ensure a safe return each time the boat sails.; also the hope that Profile would be a happy ship, to be cared for by good fortune, to be a proud yet modest winner, and to sail safely at all times. Naming 'PROFILE', Gail added '“May God bless her & all who sail in her'.

January 2007

We were delighted to receive our commendation in Birmingham on Monday 22nd January as “Best Place to Work” in the Hospitality Industry Supplier category.

Profile Chief Executive Mark Norris attended the awards ceremony together with Co-Director Liz Hartstone, Mandy Colley & Kim Dunsmore and comments: "It was highly motivating for us all to have been selected for this award alongside such prestigious client companies as Malmaison, Starwood and The Dorchester and this was a true credit to our fantastic team. We are most grateful to the judges for such encouraging feedback and congratulate all the other award-winners for their achievement".

STOP PRESS: We are also delighted to announce the formation of our new sister-company www.profilesailing.co.uk. For sailing enthusiasts, you will find some great ideas for teambuilding building and motivational events.

June 2006

Annual Conference and Awards for 2006

“Passion for Growth” was the theme for this year’s conference which concluded with a champagne celebration for our award winners at London’s Trafgar Hilton roof-top bar.

Congratulations to this year’s winners, Michele Alguacil & her team in our Paris Office, Eamonn Mallon (food & beverage division), Miles Canning (front office divison) and Naomi Crossley (international chefs).

Jumeirah was named “Client of the Year” and Neil Jacobs, SVP Four Seasons Asia Pacific, “Profile Personality of the Year”.

So what has the year been like for us and what trends can we expect in the near future?

Once again, our recruitment teams have completed just over 250 assignments, across a good balance of management positions from Chefs, F&B Managers, Sales Managers and Spa Appointments, right through to an encouraging number of GMs and Senior Corporate positions.

On more of, if we may call it a “Sociable Sales Activity” front, as always we have been busy out and about catching up with Clients and Candidates with the PROFILE MARKETING team being particularly active in the UK, attending a number of industry conferences and events as well as hosting the much talked about and thoroughly enjoyable Roast Lunches. Also at Roast, this year’s PROFILE Christmas Lunch for London GMs was a great success and more recently the Profile/Preferred Golf Day at Wentworth won by Eddie Dunne of The Heritage at Killenard, was a great opportunity to catch up with some of our good golfing colleagues

Internationally, it has also been a very busy 12 months with destinations visited including Miami, Antigua, Puerto Rico, Turks & Caicos, BVI, Barbados, Dallas, New York, Berlin, Barcelona, Florence, Doha, Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai and more recently St Petersburg and Moscow!

Back to our conference and its theme and our Passion for Growth: For the last few years, Dubai and emerging luxury resorts in the Seychelles & Maldives have been real winners for us in terms of growth of business, and this year we have also seen steady growth in Asia Pacific, particularly developing areas such as Cambodia and parts of Thailand. Naturally, we hope this pattern of development in these regions will continue, however our “tip for the next 5 years” is for opportunities in Moscow and throughout Russia as the dynamic ecconomy of the region gathers momentum. Qatar and even Iran are likely to follow as a result of becoming the world’s energy power-store. Otherwise keep an eye open for new developments in the Caribbean and South America.

Back to Russia for a moment, we thought you would be interested to hear our reflections following the recent trip that Group MD Mark Norris and colleague Eamonn Mallon made to Moscow and St. Pertersburg

Observations: Moscow generates 92% of the GDP of Russia, with 12million of Russia’s 140M population living there makes it a no-brainer for growth in the luxury hotel sector. Although we understand it’s not easy to get in to the market without a pretty hefty financial commitment at the outset, the rewards are huge with excellent week-time occupancies and very high room rates. The current hot project is The Ritz-Carlton off Red Square which may well have a Bvlgari and an apartment project added on to it. Watch out for luxury serviced apartments as a big growth area for the future. Companies currently in negotiation for operating in the 5* hotel sector include Four Seasons, Hilton and Jumeirah and Rocco Forte is also said to have a project on Red Square. All the same, the Baltschug Kempinski, Ararat Park Hyatt, Marriott Grand and Swissotel are pretty impressive properties competing in the luxury sector.

Key Issues: Being able to speak Russian is a huge advantage but is in short supply for foreigners working in the hotel and restaurant sector. Similarly, there are not a lot of people working in Russian hotels who can speak good English. Profile is taking a pro-active approach to this and in the near future we hope to announce details of tailor made language training, designed to address these issues. Getting around is not that easy either! Well, in a hotel limousine it’s not a problem, albeit traffic in Moscow is getting very heavy! Unless you know where you are going it is easy to get lost on the Metro and the taxi system is different to anything else we have ever experienced. No doubt this will change very soon but for the moment in Russia you can use any car as a taxi, most of the private drivers will give you a lift but only for money. Just wave any car like a taxi. It's better to negotiate the price before starting atrip (even cabmen don't like to use counters!). When the driver recognizes you as a foreigner, he will try to make you pay thehighest price possible, so bargain: Not easy if you don’t speak a word of Russian! You will recognize a proper taxi by a typical 'chess' sign on top and yellow colour but they seemedpretty rare to us and again drivers barely speak English and some of the vehicles are historic!

In some ways we found St. Petersburg way ahead, certainly in terms of its tourist appeal. The Grand Hotel Europe, owned and managed by Orient-Express Hotels is fabulous as is Rocco Forte’s stunning property, the Astoria. Watch out for the new Four Seasons, otherwise the Nevski Palace and Kempinski are your best bet!

In conclusion, the tourist revolution, at least for inward tourism to Russia is not immediately imminent, but we definitely foresee a huge growth of business for our business in the long-term and we hope we can capitalise on this. By all accounts, we are the first international recruitment firm to have visited Russia and we are already establishing ourselves as a leading authority in the region, and even since our trip in May, there has been a marked up-turn in the number of assignments we are handling in the region. We are committed to seeing this through and let’s hope that we can do the same with our passion to grow business in the other emerging economies of the world in the next decade and beyond!

Thank you & we would welcome your thoughts. Email us at journal@profile-marketing.com

November 2005

Investors in People

Internationally, our focus on China continues full speed ahead and we delighted that Winnie Chiu, a long tern friend of Profile has joined the team to represent us in Shanghai and South East Asia.

Winnie will act as a key point of contact for our clients in the region and in addition to assisting us with our Executive Search and Recruitment work. She will help to promote the new range of services we now offer through our partnership with Freeman Group working towards our vision of providing our customers a “one stop shop” for Human Resources and Quality Measurement. Prior to profile, Winnie has worked with some of the world’s leading hotel companies including Four Seasons, Peninsula and Mandarin Oriental; a Canadian National, Winnie speaks several languages including Cantonese and Mandarin. For initial enquiries you should contact Winnie by email at winnie.chiu@pmsr.com

Profiled Hotel
Pudong Shangri-La
Shanghai

Following a truly fascinating visit to China in October, Mark Norris Group MD has heaped praise on this truly outstanding five star property which he had the pleasure of staying at! Without doubt this is now one of the most highly regarded deluxe properties in China, following completion of a US$138 million expansion programme, with its 36-floor new glass tower featuring 375 rooms and suites. The structure also incorporates a wide range of trend-setting designer restaurants and bars, a grand ballroom, CHI Spa, a Health Club and glassed-in outdoor swimming pool. With the opening of Tower 2 and a total room inventory of 981, this is now the largest deluxe hotel in China and the largest of Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts’ 48 properties.

Shortly before my visit over 600 guests from around the world, including top government officials from the Shanghai municipal government, gathered in the hotel’s China Ballroom to celebrate this grand occasion on 26 September.

For architectural aficionados among you, the new tower was designed by New York-based architect Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF). The Premier rooms, the largest in Shanghai, offer a minimum floor space of 54 square meters (581 square feet) and views of the historical Bund or Pudong’s cityscape. All rooms offer the full array of Shangri-La amenities, which includes WIFI, broadband, data ports and IDD, satellite TV, in-room facsimile and 24-hour room service.

Making its China debut is CHI, The Spa at Shangri-La, featuring some of the largest and most luxurious private spa suites in the city, which provide a “spa within a spa” atmosphere. A sanctuary of tranquillity inspired by the legend of “Shangri-La,” CHI offers a range of specialized body, water, massage and facial therapies based on the ancient healing traditions, philosophies and rituals of China and the Himalayas.

Adding a new dimension to the Pudong and Shanghai dining and entertainment scene are the Pudong Shangri-La’s eight additional cutting-edge restaurants, bars and lounges, showcasing the design style of international award-winning creative mavericks like Bilkey Llinas Design, Super Potato and Adam D. Tihany.

Making a grand entrance to the Shanghai restaurant scene in mid-October will be the hotel’s signature restaurant and bar - Jade on 36. Guests will appreciate the architecture and design by award-winning Adam D. Tihany and the panoramic views of Shanghai and the famous Bund from Level 36.

Celebrated Chef de Cuisine Paul Pairet will showcase his “cuisine de voyage” – culled from extensive international culinary experience and fuelled with a passion for cutting-edge technique.

Taking pride of place is the hotel’s second ballroom – the China Ballroom – which is Shanghai’s largest, with a capacity of up to 1700 guests for receptions. In addition to the existing Grand Ballroom and 10 meeting rooms of various sizes in Tower 1, the hotel offers a total of 6,500 square meters (70,000 square feet) of versatile indoor and outdoor event space.

Congratulations to Philippe Caretti, Vice President and General Manager for reinforcing their position as one of the leading hotels in Shanghai, if not China and we wish them great success!

World Travel Market

World Travel Market 2005: If you have a moment to drop in and visit us at our London offices in Covent Garden, please let us know. We have also reserved a private room for clients and candidates for a refreshing drink on Monday 14th November at the Star Tavern in Belgravia: Space is limited, however if you would like to join us for a little relaxation away from the pressures of WTM please call us in advance on ++ 44 20 7557 6060 so that we can keep an eye on numbers and we will hope to be able to catch up with you!

October 2005
Building a Winning Team

Profile’s long term friend and associate in New York, Jean Claude Noel who is also the President of Atrium Consulting was a keynote speaker at the BHA’s 3rd Annual Recruitment Conference – “Building a Winning Team”  held on 4th October 2005 at the RSA, a few minutes walk from Profile’s Covent Garden Offices. 

Jean-Claude, an experienced hotelier with Hilton in the Americas and Europe, who subsequently held senior executive roles with TNT & Christie’s Auctioneers in New York; spoke with great passion on the subject of “Leadership Development through Executive Coaching" to an audience of over 80 delegates in a packed auditorium. Drawing on his personal experience since qualifying as a professional life-coach, Jean-Claude explained the role that executive coaching could play in preparing our industry for its future, focusing on the need transfer knowledge between ‘generations’ of employees. He highlighted the main types of coaching available including life coaching, career coaching as well as “skills coaching”. Having talked the audience through the Johari Window model with its four quadrants open, blind, hidden and unknown which help describe the process of human interaction, he left the audience with the words “vision without action is little more than hallucination”. Jean-Claude can be contacted through us to discuss your potential needs by email at office@pmsr.com.     

Other distinguished speakers included Professor Peter Jones from the University of Surrey on "Attracting the Best", David Fairhurst, Vice President, People, McDonald's Restaurants on "Workforce Diversity" and the conference finished with a talk from Charles Wijeratna, Commercial and Legal Director of the London Olympic Games Organising Committee.

October 2005
Visits to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dubai

Ongoing overseas activity includes presentations in Dubai this October by James Hey together with Bill Freeman and a recent trip to Hong Kong and Shanghai by Mark Norris. As regular readers of this column will be aware, Profile is committed to maintaining its regular client visits to Dubai with a permanent presence in the near future and we feel equally confident that a similar level of activity will develop in Shanghai as China’s dynamic vision for the future gathers pace, as captured in the computer generated picture you can see here!

September 2005

This summer, PROFILE has been very busy with lots of activity and success in our London, Paris and New York Offices. Demand has been strong from clients all around the world and there has been a thoroughly good balance of roles that we have been working on across our areas of expertise with Chefs, Food & Beverage, Sales & Marketing, Front Office, Spa Appointments and Senior Management in hospitality.

The biggest area of new demand comes from the fast growing luxury resort sector, in particular in the Maldives which remains an important destination for us. Following Liz Hartstone’s whistle-stop Caribbean tour and attendance at CHIC ’05 in Miami together with our Dallas partners, FreemanGroup, there has also been quite a demand in this region as well.

July 2005

We thought you would be interested to hear some highlights of Liz Hartstone’s visit to the region in June and July. Liz was delighted to catch up with many Caribbean friends at CHIC, held for the 1st time in Miami. Whilst the island magic was missing, access to Miami being so much easier meant a great turn out and a very well organised and orchestrated conference. Liz was somewhat amused to see that many of the issues debated at her first CHIC attendance in 1991 are still going strong! Interested to hear of the Caribbean Single Monetary debate in view of many of the same issues we have faced with the Euro back home!

A short stop in the Turks and Caicos where Liz was fascinated to see how Provo has developed since her last visit in 1995 – when only two flights per week went into Provo and now they have several flights per day from all over the US and Europe! A vast building site with construction in evidence everywhere the eye can see. Highlights included a dinner that Liz hosted at the newly opened Palms Resort for Profile friends, including the Amanyara team as well as making a new friend of Nikheel Advani GM of the Grace Bay Club, recently arrived in the Caribbean from Raffles in Singapore.

A pit stop at Parrot Cay where Liz met a nice guy on the boat heading to Parrot Cay to spend the weekend with his pal Bruce Willis! Her visit also coincided with the much publicised nuptials of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. Liz (bless) was none the wiser and had no idea what all the excitement was about as the island was full of A list Celebrities for the wedding! She understood afterwards why so many faces looked familiar! Wonderful to be back at Peter Island, BVI which has gone from strength to strength and we are delighted to have enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with the resort. Amazing new Spa- sadly no time to make use of but great to meet a real dynamo in General Manager Sandra Grisham – our kind of lady.

The highlight of the trip for Liz was a night at Carlisle Bay in Antigua – which she had heard so much about and having worked with Gordon Campbell Gray and Simon Hirst since the pre-opening days of One Aldwych in 1996 we naturally feel very proud of our relationship developed over 9 years. Liz found that all her expectations, already pretty high, were exceeded by the exquisite taste and simplicity combined with a gorgeous location. She had the best massage ever in their lovely Spa and sampled delicious food during the new Executive Chef Barnaby Jones' menu tastings. A true pleasure to be a guinea pig for this and it was almost impossible to decide what to eat as everything sounded so appetising! Carlisle Bay visit was far too brief and Liz has every intention of going back again very soon!

July 2005
Profile Marketing Appointments

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Lucy Flack, who has joined Profile Marketing Appointments (PMA) as Consultant. Lucy was most recently with Abercrombie & Kent, where she handled Marketing for this luxury tour operator. Immediately prior to joining Profile, Lucy took a few weeks out to organise her wedding, get married and enjoy her honeymoon in Bali!

Prior to A&K, Lucy was Promotions Manager at Condé Nast in London for Vanity Fair and Tatler Magazines. Her earlier career was with a property marketing firm in London.

Mark Norris (co-founder of PMA and Group MD of PROFILE) comments: “Profile Marketing is going from strength to strength, and as the business grows, this is an exciting time for Lucy to be joining a dynamic team who have truly become specialists in handling sales, marketing and PR recruitment.”

May 2005
Profile Annual Conference Dubai

OUR TEAM AWARDS

Profile Marketing Appointments scoops PLATINUM AWARD for Excellence!	Jayne Lintern (UK Chefs division) wins GOLD AWARD as Profile’s top fee earner.

Michele Alguacil (MD Profile France) was awarded Silver	Fiona Tanzi (Leisure & Spa division) gains Bronze!

PROFILE CLIENT AWARDS

International Client of the Year
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group

UK Client of the Year
The Dorchester

Commenting on the awards, which were presented at The Fairmont Hotel Dubai with VP Michael Kaile and his wife as our honoured guests, Profile Group MD, Mark Norris said: “Profile has enjoyed a remarkable year of growth. The whole team has performed extremely well and I am delighted that we have been able to hold our conference (and incentive!) in Dubai this year. Profile has placed 220 management level candidate in the regions over the last 10 years and we are looking forward to continued success as the dynamic development of Dubai gathers pace.” The question begs: Where will Profile be holding their annual conference next year??

BACKGROUND TO THIS YEAR’S CONFERENCE

On achieving a tough set of targets this year, the Profile team was awarded a 3 day / 3 night action packed agenda in Dubai, arriving on Thursday 28th April. Having arrived at 11pm the night before, everyone was up early on Friday morning for a comprehensive site inspection of all the Jumeirah International hotels in Dubai kindly hosted by JI and organised by Antje Guenther, Assistant HR Manager - Recruitment. This is a truly amazing collection of properties that pictures in brochures alone can not capture.

Friday afternoon was devoted to a well orchestrated team exercise. The two teams – “Pinkies” and “Perkies” were briefed as if they were a tour operator (or DMC) to find the most suitable hotel for a conference and incentive based on a set criteria and budget. One team had to research the resort properties (Jumeirah Beach area) whilst the other team handled the city centre hotels. The results, presented at Profile’s conference on Saturday, were enlightening – and of course the teams’ product knowledge of Dubai’s hotels by the end of the exercise was excellent! The Grand Hyatt was the winning venue for the Pinkies!

After an exhausting day, we were driven off into the desert to sample the delights of Jumeirah International’s latest resort – Bab al Shams. A picture postcard setting awaited us, and with a cocktail in hand, we watched the sun set across the desert with camels resting on sand dunes nearby – a wonderful contrast to the hustle and bustle of downtown Dubai. A tranquil, moon-lit camel ride through the desert later in the evening provided an unforgettable end to an action-packed day!

We had an early start on Saturday for our conference which kicked off with an inspiring opening address from Olivier Louis, General Manager for One&Only Royal Mirage and Chairman of the Dubai Hotel Association. We learned from Olivier that in spite of the already extraordinary development of hotels in the region to date, another 60 five star hotels are due to be built and completed in Dubai within the next 6 years. Later in the conference, Michael Kaile (MD of The Fairmont Dubai) and Bill Freeman our conference guest (The Freeman Group are our partners in Dallas offering a complete range of HR & Business solutions including Training and mystery shop) judged the team exercises where constructive feedback was given.

With 30 minutes to scoff a finger buffet lunch and change into shorts and T Shirts, we were hurdled into 4x4 vehicles to head back to the desert – this time for some exhilarating quad biking!! Racing at 60 mph and flying over sand dunes, a fun time was had by all. Unfortunately, poor Fiona Tanzi came off her bike and ended up with a torn ligament. Wheelchair bound for the rest of the trip, she remained in good spirits and thankfully she is now well on the road to recovery.

Saturday night was Awards night, which was a very civilised affair – Black tie of course! With champagne flowing, we were treated to a sumptuous dinner at The Fairmont. Sunday was a day for time out – catching up with old friends / clients / candidates, lounging by the pool or shopping!

Before catching the 12.45am flight back to London, Profile hosted a cocktail party on Sunday evening at the Cigar Lounge, Emirates Towers. Over 100 “Profile friends” attended, including Clients & Candidates and it was great to see so many of these movers and shakers from the Dubai hotel scene, many of whom Profile has worked with for over a decade.

While Mark and Kara stayed over for Arabian Travel Market which followed the next week, the rest of the team headed back to London – and all slept well on the overnight flight!

July 2005

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Cataline Lloyd, who has joined Profile Marketing Appointments (PMA) as Consultant. Cat, as she is known, was most recently with Rosewood Hotels & Resorts where she spent 5 years in Sales, originally based at The Lanesborough Hotel.

Cat spent the last 3 years as European Sales Manager, and she was responsible for setting up a new London based Global Sales Office for Rosewood (when The Lanesborough changed hands to St Regis). Handling the outbound leisure market, predominately to the Caribbean and North America, Cat has travelled extensively and has a real passion for the hospitality industry.

Mark Norris (co-founder of PMA and Group MD of PROFILE) comments: “I am thrilled with the success of PMA over the last few years. With a 200% increase in candidate placements over the last 18 months, Cat is joining the team at an exciting time.”

March 2005

OUR SINCERE CONGRATULATIONS TO JAMES SHERWOOD, Founder and Chairman of Orient Express Hotels Ltd. on his lifetime achievement award, presented at the 8th International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) in Berlin.

Orient Express Hotels is one of Profile’s leading clients and our MD Mark Norris had the honour of shaking hands with James Sherwood, congratulating Mr Sherwood on his receipt of the IHIF lifetime achievement award at the conference gala lunch on 16th March 2005 at the Hotel InterContinental Berlin. Past winners of this award include 2004 recipient Kurt Ritter of Rezidor SAS Hospitality and 2003 honouree P.R.S. Oberoi of Oberoi Hotels.

Under Sherwood’s leadership, the Orient Express organization now owns and manages 45 famous properties such as the Hotel Cipriani in Venice, the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro, the Mount Nelson in Cape Town, Charleston Place in Charleston, S.C. and the Windsor Court in New Orleans. In addition, the company’s assets include the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and Eastern & Oriental Express tourist trains, the “21” Club in New York and the “Road to Mandalay” cruise ship in Burma. Mr Sherwood also is founder, president and chief executive officer of Sea Containers, Ltd., a Bermuda company engaged in marine container asset leasing, ferry, train and port operations.

Commenting on the selection of Mr Sherwood, IHIF host Scott Pierce, Executive Vice President of Advanstar Communications, said “We are honoured that Mr. Sherwood has accepted this award. He is a self-made success story, not only in the maritime and transportation business, but also in the luxury hotel sector. Pierce added, “His approach to the luxury sector has been to offer a very special product in very special locations that can’t be duplicated and that have ‘fizz’. He’s a legend in our industry and truly deserving of this honour.”

During his acceptance speech, Mr Sherwood spoke with passion and with praise for Orient Express Senior Management led by Simon Sherwood and Profile is proud to have played our part having introduced 7 key members to the company which has proved to be a great employer: All these people still there, in many cases have been for quite a few years!!

February 2005 - London Marathon.

Interested in backing Profile's very own potential winner? For more information on Kara Browne's challenge go to www.justgiving.com/BigBapsBrowne or email kara@profile-marketing.co.uk

January 2005 - Fairmont takes over the Savoy in London and the Savoy Group is renamed Maybourne.

London's Savoy Hotel has been sold to the world's fourth richest man, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. Fairmont Hotels will manage the hotel renaming the property "The Savoy, a Fairmont Hotel". For more information see www.fairmont.com.

THE Savoy Group has changed its name to the Maybourne Hotel Group after the sale. Derek Quinlan, the former Dublin tax inspector who controls the group, has revealed plans to invest an estimated £100 million in the three remaining London hotels - The Berkeley Hotel, Claridge's and The Connaught - over the next three to four years. Maybourne has been set up as a separate management company - albeit owned by the same wealthy investors who own the hotel assets - and it is seeking to expand by adding contracts to manage hotels in cities such as Paris and New York.

PROFILE Offers Condolences following the earthquake off the west coast of Northern Sumatra on December 26th 2004

For an update on the current situation in affected areas we would draw your attention to the following websites:

www.pata.org
www.visitmaldives.com.mv
www.tourismthailand.org/home.php
www.ehotelier.com
www.thetimesonline.co.uk
www.bbc.co.uk

Profile has made a donation to the Phuket Tsunami Recovery Fund and we know that any contributions our Clients or Candidates may wish to make will be hugely appreciated and details can be found at www.lagunaphuket.com/tsunamifund

Maldives Update

In view of our close working relationship with the Maldives, we also thought it would be helpful to let you have details of the tourism industry report following the flooding. In the aftermath of this disaster, three tourist fatalities were unfortunately encountered, while some others sustained minor injuries. Maldives being a dive destination is most fortunate that no divers faced any fatal injuries during the incident.

Out of the 87 resorts, 55 are fully operational, 13 are semi-operational and 19 are un-operational at this moment in time. It is hoped that the after-effects of the Tsunami will not be too severe on the tourism industry as each resort has its own infrastructure and in most cases an independent power supply, sewerage system, water supply and other support facilities. Because of this, the risk that may usually be associated with these types of disasters such as electrical accidents, water contamination, and epidemics are hoped to be negligible.

For further information visit: www.visitmaldives.com.mv

November 2004

Welcome and congratulations to two new faces at Profile and to world travel & hospitality expert Mary Gostelow on the launch of WOWtraveler.net

Tas Heptulla, Consultant has recently joined Profile's London Office and is working closely with Mark Norris and Liz Harstone, focusing on our relationships with General Managers all around the world. Tas is a graduate of the University of Luton with a BA Honours degree in Travel & Tourism.

Tas spent a year working for United Airlines before joining Four Seasons Consultants, specialising in recruitment for the luxury retail sector. Tas joins the Profile team fresh from a year in New York, having completed the Mountbatten Internship Programme. Whilst in New York, Tas worked with Herbert Regehly President of the IMC Group, and achieved her Certificate in International Business Practice, recognised by the University of Cambridge.

Kim Dunsmore, Research is now working with Mandy, Miles and Fiona in our London Office, responsible for assisting in the day-to-day running of the HR, Engineering, Housekeeping, Rooms Division and Spa & Leisure desks, as well as carrying out research to ensure that Profile has its finger firmly on the industry pulse!

A graduate of Edinburgh University with an M.A. in American Studies, Kim entered the hospitality industry when she worked part-time in reception for the Paramount Group whilst still a student. After graduation, Kim became Head Receptionist of Garvock House, a small, townhouse hotel in her home town of Dunfermline before moving to London and joining the Profile team in April 2004.

Mary Gostelow launches www.WOWtraveler.net the truly global online magazine for the discerning luxury traveler

This new constantly-changing consumer advocate online magazine is dedicated to work with the luxury sector of hospitality. It targets sophisticated luxury travelers worldwide and guides them to suppliers' own sites. Most importantly, WOWtraveler.net helps travelers find WOW experiences that are tailor-made for them.

Emanuel Berger, managing director of the Grand Hotel Victoria-Jungfrau, Interlaken, and independent hotelier of the year 2003 by HOTELS magazine, says: "There is definitely a need for an authoritative consumer advocate global website that directs affluent travelers to hotels' own websites and booking engines in order to build strong customer relationships leading to personalized luxury experiences. WOWtraveler.net targets sophisticated luxury travelers worldwide and helps them - via WOWtraveler's intuitive search tools - identify perfect experiences based on their individual lifestyles."

July 2004
Hot UK news!

Venture Capitalist Alchemy Partners and close neighbour of Profile in Covent Garden, has sold the Paramount Hotel chain to Dawnay, Day and Shore Capital for £215m. The deal includes the Marine Hotel in Troon, Strathclyde, which is preparing to host the British Open golf tournament, and 12 other properties and is thought to have realised a profit for Alchemy, run by John Moulton, of £65m.

Private investors will be able to take a stake in the deal through the Hotel Corporation, which yesterday raised £22m through a placing by Shore Capital and will be listed on alternative investment market.

Both the Hotel Corporation and Dawnay Shore Hotels (DSH), the acquisition vehicle, are intended to last for five years. DSH will then seek to crystallise any financial gains from the deal. This will be through a trade sale, full flotation or through the transfer of the properties into a property investment fund, being set up to enable retail investors to invest in property through an investment trust.

Guy Naggar, chairman of Dawnay, Day, said the partners intended to use Dawnay Shore as a vehicle for acquisitions during its five-year lifespan. He said: "We feel the four-star hotel sector is relatively unconsolidated. It relies on UK tourists and business people rather than international tourists, which we think is attractive."

The chain's current management will be retained although David Pantin, the former UK managing director of Rocco Forte Hotels, will be made chairman. It is the first time the lightly regulated Aim has been used to enable private investors to take a stake in a private equity deal.

Howard Shore, chairman of Shore Capital, said: "Regional four-star hotels have proven their resilience through economic downturn and provide an excellent opportunity to continue our successful partnership with Dawnay, Day."

We wish David Pantin and his team great success.

The HCPTA Awards for Excellence

This year's worthy winners were: Excellence by an Operations/Line Manager: Diane Stronach, Executive Housekeeper - Four Seasons Hotel, London

Excellence in establishing links with schools, colleges & universities: Mike Stapleton, Corporate Affairs Director UK & Ireland Divisions - Compass Group

Excellence in Training & Development: Service Extraordinaire Project Team - Novotel London West & Hilton's Regional HR Team - London

Excellence in Human Resources: HR Team, Central London - Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Special Achievement Award: Chris Sheppardson - Managing Director - The Chess Partnership Congratulations also go Profile friend and business associate Fiona Rassell, MD of Storm Training for her "Tiffany Star" in acknowledgment of her great success as HCPTA Chair over the last six years. We welcome Judith Owen as Chair elect and wish her well!

Jean-Paul Naquin - Executive Chef
Burj-Al-Arab, Dubai

Our very best wishes and most sincere congratulations go to Jean-Paul Naquin on his recent appointment as Executive Chef at the Burj-Al-Arab, Dubai.

Jean-Paul is originally from France and was brought up in Lyon where he started working in some of the very best Michelin starred restaurants. He then went on to develop his career internationally, working in New York, Beijing, Bali, Jakarta, The Bahamas, Seoul and was most recently Executive Chef at Raffles in Singapore.

His experience has given him the opportunity to work for some of the best hotel companies in the world including Peninsula, Oberoi, Shangri-La, Sun International and Ritz Carlton. Jean-Paul a true professional, constantly striving to achieve the highest possible standards, always forward thinking in his approach as a leader of culinary trends.

With out doubt he will bring his own style and enthusiasm to Burj-Al-Arab, building on the impressive achievements of John Wood and his highly talented team.

Our best wishes also go to John as he takes up his new role with J Sainsbury's back in the UK.

Enquiries regarding International Chefs Appointments should be addressed to our Senior Consultant Naomi Crossley by email on naomi.crossley@pmsr.com or you can telephone Naomi on +44 20 7557 6067

May 2004
Christopher Cowdray
General Manager, Dorchester Hotel, London.

We offer our sincere congratulations to Christopher Cowdray on his appointment as General Manager of The Dorchester in London.

Cowdray is no stranger to London, having been Managing Director of Claridge's for the past six years. He will take up his new position on the 21st June 2004.

He has 23 years of extensive international experience in managing luxury hotels, which spans four continents. He holds a diploma with honors in Hotel Management is a graduate of the Columbia Business School Executive Program and has received many awards including most recently the prestigious Hotel & Catering Personnel & Training Association's Special Achievement Award.

Chris has been invited to speak at major international customer service conferences in the UK and USA. He is a Fellow of the Hotel Catering Institute Management Association, a Master Innholder, past Chairman of the British Hospitality Association (London Division) and has been granted the Freedom of the City of London. He is also Chairman of the Bond Street Association and a Governor of the English National Ballet. He is very happily married with two children.

The Dorchester Group was established in 1996 as an independent UK registered company to manage the evolving international collection of luxury hotels belonging to the Brunei Investment Agency in Europe and the United States.

The Dorchester Group collection of hotels consists of The Dorchester in London, The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, the Hotels Meurice and Plaza Athenee in Paris, and the Hotel Principe di Savoia in Milan, which are all owned and managed by the Group.

Profile Management 25 years on…

Profile was established in 1978 in London to handle management appointments in the Hospitality Industry, and the company rapidly became known for its handling of senior executives in the UK, Europe and Asia. Some notable clients in those early years include Mandarin Oriental, Gleneagles, Shangri-la and The Savoy Group. Although we have always prided ourselves on the quality and longevity of our very senior appointments, a number of people that we were able to help at an earlier stage in their careers have gone on to become industry leaders.

In these early years, the late Jacques Schneider, Profile's founder had a great influence on setting our vision and direction supported by Mark Norris, a Director of the company since 1986 and Liz Hartstone, a long term Profile colleague, who has been a Director since 1993.

As our client base expanded and to meet the needs of key clients in France including Disney, Profile opened an office in Paris, and Michèle Alguacil (michele.alguacil@pmsr.com) and her team have developed an excellent reputation in the French marketplace since 1992.

In 1999, Profile USA was established, providing a gateway to the Americas, with an office in New York, to concentrate on appointments for the North American market.

Back in London, Profile moved its office to the heart of Covent Garden in 2002, having been based in the Hampstead area since its inception.

Liz Hartstone (liz.hartstone@pmsr.com) oversees our London Team, as well as playing an active role handling senior appointments in the UK and overseas.

Specialists for Public Relations, Sales and Marketing Appointments.

Profile is well established in handling sales and marketing appointments in the hospitality sector, and many of today's Area Directors and VPs in this field have been handled by Profile at some point during their career.

Market research has shown us that there is an increasing need to match candidates' skills to the job requirement more closely. The cultural fit to an organisation is also a key factor. World events and economic gloom have battered tourism and business travel, and hoteliers have never had to rely so heavily on their sales and marketing teams to restore business. As the S&M function becomes increasingly technical and sophisticated, 2003 was an opportune time to launch Profile Marketing Appointments.

Heading this new venture is Rupert Sellers (rupert@profile-marketing.co.uk) who has spent more than 20 years in the hotel industry. Following his 5-year Management Training with The Savoy Group and having graduated from Oxford Brookes University, Rupert joined Grosvenor House in 1986 and progressed to Senior Sales Manager responsible for the corporate market.

Rupert originally joined Profile in 1989 in the Sales and Marketing division, but having spent over a year handling assignments for high-profile clients, Rupert could not resist gaining more experience in the hotel world and he joined Ritz-Carlton as Associate Director of Sales for their two hotels in Sydney, Australia. Over the last 10 years, Rupert has directed Sales & Marketing teams for Four Seasons (The Regent London, which is now The Landmark London), Como Hotels (including opening The Metropolitan, London) and Ian Schrager's London Hotels.

Rupert returned to Profile two years ago and with his track record of successful placements and the impact he has made in developing people's careers in sales & marketing, he has sound judgement in matching the right candidates for our clients.