Shamas Sasidharan Gopalan, Doha Marriott's director of engineering accepted the award on behalf of the absent Shamas Shamas Sasidharan Gopalan, Doha Marriott's director of engineering accepted the award on behalf of the absent Shamas

Doha Marriott Hotels' Kazem Shamas secured the highly-coveted award for Food and Beverage Manager of the Year, sponsored by San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, at the Hotelier Middle East Awards 2011.

F&B is the one of the most important areas of the hotel quasi-economy, accounting for as much as 50% of total revenue. The judges were absolutely inundated with entries for this award, but in the end, there could only be one victor. That man was Kazem Shamas, who recorded a perfect score of 100% satisfaction on both brand standard and associate satisfaction audits, as well as managing to deliver a 40% increase in F&B revenue.

Shamas Sasidharan Gopalan, Doha Marriott's director of engineering accepted the award on behalf of the absent Shamas and praised his efforts.

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"He’s a brilliant leader, very pleasant, hard working and very committed," he said. "As an engineer, I work with him a lot and I find him to lead by example. Our F&B business greatly improved since he joined us. In Doha, it’s all about relations. He’s very new to the market but in a couple of weeks, he’s already built strong relations with the government, making us one of their favourite hotels."

The highly-commended nod for this award went to Eman Abela, from the Wyndham Grand Regency Doha.