HOTELIER AWARDS 2012: Meet the judges
The Hotelier Middle East Awards 2012 are once again set to be the highlight on the hotel industry calendar this year.
Not only did Hotelier receive more than 700 individual nominations for this eighth edition, not to mention close to 40 submissions for Team of the Year from some of the region’s most prestigious hotels, but the Awards ceremony itself has a new venue and for the first time ever, a theme for the celebrations.
Expected to be the most glamorous ceremony yet, on October 31 Hotelier is heading back to The Roaring Twenties for the awards ceremony at The Ritz-Carlton DIFC in Dubai presented by sponsor du, as we prepare to celebrate classic hospitality and recognise those hoteliers putting their guests and colleagues first. With a theme inspired by the famous Cotton Club of New York, the evening will bring together jazz music, flapper fashion and 1920s memorabilia.
Unlike other hospitality awards, the Hotelier Middle East Awards do not reward the newest, biggest or trendiest hotel, instead they are designed to celebrate the service stars and management maestros delivering top quality guest experiences and developing successful career paths for themselves and their associates. Nor are the awards decided upon by counting up a tally of votes or seeing how many people have clicked on a link; the finalists are debated and agreed upon by a panel of industry judges.
Following a lengthy short listing process by the hospitality group at ITP Business, where the hundreds of nominations were painstakingly whittled down to a shortlist of five for each of the 19 categories, the judging panel meet at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management to discuss, debate and decide the nominees' fates.
With the identities of the winners being kept a closely-guarded secret until the ceremony, here Hotelier presents the shortlisted candidates. Each of their nominations is backed up by a series of testimonials so to give an insight into the calibre of the competition, we have provided a short sample. To ensure you don’t miss finding out who wins, make sure you are one of the 500 hoteliers attending the celebrations.
Guy Wilkinson, director, Viability
Viability is a hospitality and real estate consultancy based in Dubai. Wilkinson has a successful track record of strategic thinking for major hotel chains, tourism authorities and property owners in the Gulf and Middle East. He has contributed to more than 350 projects throughout the MEA.
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Kathi Everden, editorial consultant and contributor to Hotelier Middle East
A regular reporter for Hotelier Middle East, Everden has been writing about the hospitality sector in the Middle East region for more than 20 years now and in that time has provided editorial consultancy to clients including Arabian Travel Market, The Hotel Show and Arabian Hotel Investment Conference.
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Louise Birchall, editor, HotelierMiddleEast.com.
Birchall is online editor for Hotelier Middle East. She moved to Dubai four years ago to take up the role of assistant editor for ITP’s hospitality group, having graduated from BA (Hons) Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK.
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Louise Oakley, group editor — hospitality, ITP Business
Oakley is group editor of the hospitality and travel titles at ITP Business, along with their online portals. She joined ITP in Dubai five years ago and previously wrote across a portfolio of UK-based hospitality, leisure and spa magazines.
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Lynne Bellinger, managing director, Learnpurple UAE
Learnpurple is a company focused on maximising performance through people. She has a successful career spanning 20 years within the five-star hotel industry. With hands-on experience forged through an initial rooms division career path, Bellinger rapidly built her reputation within the HR, recruitment and training fields.
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Naim Maddad, CEO, Gates Hospitality
Maddad has over 25 years experience in the hospitality industry, working throughout Australia, South East Asia, Japan and the Middle East with international brands such as Six Senses, Anantara, Mandara, Minor International, Jumeirah, Sheraton, Conrad, Hilton and Rixos.
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Ron Hilvert, founder and managing director, The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management
Hilvert has more than 40 years of experience in the hospitality business and is recognised as one of the most experienced HR executives in the industry. He has held the worldwide corporate HR positions for Hyatt International, Hilton and Jumeirah, and was an opening GM with Hyatt.