Atlantis' Serge Zaalof named GM of the Year 2012

Atlantis The Palm Dubai president and managing director Serge Zaalof was awarded the sought-after GM of the Year 2012 title, sponsored by Nexa, at the Hotelier Middle East Awards.

The 2012 event, presented by Du, took place last night (October 31) at Ritz-Carlton DIFC in Dubai and recognised the industry’s finest in 19 different categories.

Judging the GM of the Year 2012 Award put the panel under pressure, with five outstanding general managers on the shortlist.

Hotelier Middle East seeks to reward a GM who has thought out of the box and continued to innovate at their property to drive revenue for owners, career development for staff and a memorable guest experience. They must combine the knowledge from decades of experience with creativity, caring and the confidence to offer something different.

For the highly commended general manager, the judges chose Stephan Schupbach, recognised for his Emiratisation strategies and for the internal promotion of 139 associates, as well as significant increases in operating profits in a short time.

But there could only be one winner and Serge Zaalof was crowned general manager of the Year.

“Serge Zaalof has led Atlantis to win a multitude of industry accolades, helped in raising Dubai and Palm Jumeirah’s status as a must-visit destination and been responsible for millions of dirhams of growth in revenue in the last 18 months,” the judges said.

The judges listed a number of successes: “In the past 12 months alone he’s opened or renovated four food and beverage outlets; achieved four ISO certifications; increased capacity at Nasimi Beach from 2000 to 5000 and formed the Atlantis Environmental Committee. His team describes him as the man with the ‘Midas touch’, and an abundance of testimonials attributed their own success to Serge’s influence”.

Upon receiving the accolade, Zaalof said: "It’s a great honour to win this award, I’m very happy to share this with my 3500 colleagues, 65,000 fishes and 28 dolphins; they’re all part of the payroll. It’s very pleasing."

Asked what makes a successful GM, he said: "It’s very difficult for me to say, my colleagues can tell you what makes a successful GM but I think it takes dedication, innovation, being able to express yourself freely at work, your investment, ideas and creativity which you can apply very fast to stay ahead of the competition and maybe a bit of entrepreneurship which is very important, being able to respond to the customer’s wishes and having fun at the same time.|"