20 Fadi Mazkour, regional director, founder, MENA Hotels and Resorts Management 20 Fadi Mazkour, regional director, founder, MENA Hotels and Resorts Management

Over the course of this week (having commenced on September 9) Hotelier Middle East will reveal the region's top 50 most influential hoteliers in the annual Hotelier Middle East Power 50, presented by Voglia. This fourth instalment of this five-part series of announcments names those ranking in positions 20 to 11 of the 2012 list.

In this fourth edition of the Hotelier Middle East Power 50, you will notice a few changes. This year for the first time, the list is entirely dedicated to hotel operators. Even those entrants who both own and operate hotels have been judged only on their management merits. This has meant that we have had to omit the specialists in tourism and development as well as owners and investors, but rest assured, the Hotelier team is already hard at work planning a list to recognise these hotel industry partners.

As always, however, the rankings in the Hotelier Middle East Power 50 are subjective and the opinion of the editorial team. Decisions are made based upon portfolio and pipeline, activity over the past 12 months and plans for the coming year, along with the reputation of the individual among their peers and their dedication to developing the Middle East hospitality and tourism industry generally.

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We are confident that each entrant deserves their place in the list and invite you to join with Hotelier in celebrating the achievements and accolades of so many hotel pioneers.

20 Fadi Mazkour, regional director, founder, MENA Hotels and Resorts Management 
Fadi Mazkour has more than 30 years of management experience in hospitality and tourism with companies such as IHG, Golden Tulip, Hilton and Accor.

He was area manager and GM of Golden Tulip Suites & Tulip Inn Hotel in Dubai before founding management company MENA Hotels & Resorts Corporation, part of Al Hokair Group, which aims to set new standards for Saudi Arabian home-grown operators.

In October 2008, Mazkour inaugurated the first MENA Hotel in Riyadh followed by the 400-key MENA Grand Khaldia Hotel in Riyadh and the 115-room MENA Plaza Riyadh, as well as overseeing the pre-opening of the boutique MENA Plaza Al Khobar and MENA Hotel Muscat.

MENA Hotels is currently negotiating to manage other properties in the Middle East and Gulf areas, but already has a busy year ahead with eight properties in the pipeline, six of which will open in 2013. There is a hotel planned for Makkah in 2014 and a property in Muscat scheduled to open in 2015.

BY THE NUMBERS
MENA Hotels open in Middle East: 5 Hotels in confirmed pipeline for Middle East: 8 Middle East hotels opened in past 12 months: 3 Middle East hotels signed in past 12 months: 2 Middle East MENA hotels due to open by September 2013: 6 No of years in hospitality: 33 No of years in region: 26 Nationality: Lebanese

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