These five finalists will compete for the IT Person of the Year 2012 in the Hotelier Middle East Awards to be held on October 31 at The Ritz-Carlton DIFC.
Below you will find extracts and testimonials from the shortlisted nominations for each of the five candidates...
Thomas Huber, corporate director of IT, TIME Oak Hotel & Suites
| Advertisement |
About Thomas
Thomas Huber started his career with Kempinski hotels in Berlin, Germany, in 1986. For his visionaryand practical approach towards hospitality technology, Thomas was awarded the title “IT Manager of the Year” by the Arabian Computer News magazine in 2002. After his starting his professional life in Germany with various hotel assignments and a stint on a cruise ship, Thomas joined Hilton International at the London Hilton on Park Lane in 1989. The following year he transferred with Hilton to Paris as IT-Manager and has been associated with hospitality information technology since that time. After similar IT-Manager posts at Hilton hotels in Munich and Algiers he relocated to Hilton Head Office in the UK in 1994 where he was Regional IT-Manager for the UK hotel portfolio until 1999, responsible for over 20 properties in England, Scotland and Ireland. In 1999, he had the unique responsibility to set-up the IT organization for the newly created Jumeirah group in Dubai. In that capacity he was instrumental for the successful openingof globallandmarks suchas theBurjAlArabHotel,TheEmirates Towers HotelandWildWadiWaterpark,to name a few. The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management was another successful project, applying a range of advanced technologies which were unique to the region at that time. A few years later, in 2004, Thomas joined Shangri-La at their corporate head office in Hong Kong as Director of Information Systems. Here he had corporate responsibilities for all business on property (56 hotels) and enterprise platforms. In 2008, he teamed up with Layia Hospitality now TIME Hotels Management LLC, as Corporate Director of information Technology. In this capacity Thomas is fully responsible for all I.T. related matters of the group. Creating portfolio policy guidelines, networks & systems design, green initiatives, launching the new corporate website and project management for the hotels under construction are Thomas’ major tasks at present.
Above and beyond the call of duty…
Being well known for his innovative approach, Thomas pushed the (unbudgeted) Cloud initiative through all approval channels, making TIME Hotels the first hotel group in the Middle East to fully deploy Microsoft Office365. With guest satisfaction being a key success factor for any hotel organization and the increasing needs of mobile workers, Thomas designed a range of internal training classes for guest facing colleagues. As a direct result of these sessions, front line staff can now provide guest support services better, with competence and without the need to call on IT personnel, especially after hours and on public holidays. In addition, it is an educational benefit for the TIME colleagues who have been trained and the guest comments are reflecting the results in a positive manner. Although Thomas is in charge of IT, due to his experience and leadership skills he is put in charge of a number of hotels when the Area Vice President (Operations) is away. This is not only limited to managing the smooth running of multiple hotels but it also includes managing a recent accommodation move for over 100 employees. Just recently Thomas had to host a TV cooking show on behalf of TIME Hotels including an on-screen appearance. In addition to his duties as a hotel manager, Thomas was asked by the TIME Hotels owning company, GGICO, to spearhead a major new IT initiative on their behalf, replacing most of their current platforms with new technologies. Thomas has added over 1 million Dirhams to hotel revenues, through rooms and meetings business he has personally secured.
Testimonials for Thomas
“Where does one begin to list Thomas Huber’s accolades? With his dedication to the job, attention to detail, loyalty and amazing grasp of any subject matter and insight, Microsoft cloud is just the cherry on top of his astonishing contribution he has made to the technological advancement of the company over the past years. From our department perspective it is great to be able to have instant access to all the information we need, irrespective of which property we are based at.” Olimpia Twiggs, director of sales & marketing.
“Thomas has a great ability to think out of the box and he is always open to new ideas and suggestions. For F/O he has done a great job in setting up the New Registration cards.” Shikha Arora, front office manager.
Article continues on next page...
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
