Villa Rotana GM is CSR Champion of the Year

Kinan Al Ghraoui receives the award for CSR Champion of the Year.

Villa, Rihab and Rimal Rotana general manager Kinan Al Ghraoui was crowned CSR Champion of the Year at the Hotelier Middle East Awards.

Ghraoui, who has led more than nine CSR initiatives in the past 12 months was chosen by the judges for his philanthropic efforts and the community initiatives he has implemented at his three hotels. 

Speaking to Hotelier Middle East, Al Ghroui said: “It’s difficult to describe. I’m extremely happy and proud. It goes without saying that the award will give me the right push to give more. And it’s a big responsibility at the same time, because you need to maintain it. You need to take more challenges in order to achieve better hopefully next year.”

Across three Rotana hotels, Villa Rotana, Rimal Rotana and Rihab Rotana, Al Ghroui has initiated a number of initiatives with third party groups such as traffic safety, recycling and staff activities such as visits to local wildlife sanctuaries to help his team learn about the region’s natural heritage. Most impressive of all however, are Al Ghroui's humanitarian efforts. He has launched and implemented a special work training programme for special needs students from Rashid Centre for Disabled across the three properties.

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Commenting on the training programme, he explained: “Rashid Centre was a great opportunity for me and for the hotels and the company to explore and show our care to the children and make them see and feel that they are not isolated; they can be part of society, and they proved it. Every year we have between nine to 11 children in our three hotels. They work hand in hand with our team. And they are very happy and I’ve got reports from the management of Rashid Centre about their improvement.”

The CSR Champion of the Year award, presented by Diversey marketing director Samit Sanyal, was one of the most hotly contested awards of the night, with Ramada Ajman Hotel and Suites general manager Iftikhar Hamdani highly commended by the judges. 

Other shortlisted nominees included: Sofitel The Palm Dubai director of engineering Rohit Salunke; Time Oaks Hotels & Suites, Dubai corporate director of training and development Eddie Ignatius; and Hilton Dead Sea Resort & Spa, Jordan marketing and communications manager Farah Samawi. 

The Hotelier Middle East Awards 2014 was held at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City. The event was supported by Du, A. Ronai, Restonic, MLA, Diversey, Arecont Vision, Canon, MMI, TCL, Horeca, Patchi, Pulsar Foodstuff Trading, Amir, and Julius Meinl.