Hotelier Award winner Kai Schukowski to leave UAE

Kempinski Ajman general manager Kai Schukowski is due to leave Kempinski Hotel Ajman at the end of December 2016 to become GM at Kempinski Hotel Cathedral Square, located in the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius.

Schukowski said in an official statement: "It has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience to spearhead Kempinski Hotel Ajman for the past three-and-a-half years and I am forever thankful for the support and achievements along with our hoteliers.

"Having been transitioned from hotel manager to my first general manager position, I have found it to be a challenging but incredibly rewarding time, as together with the team, we have managed to successfully reposition and 'turn the hotel around', becoming the 'top of mind' talk of the town, as the preferred getaway destination in the UAE."

He added: "We have built an award-winning team around us, which I am very proud of, and I am confident that the legacy of Kempinski Hotel Ajman will continue moving forward. The Middle East will always have a special place in my heart, and I will surely return here in the future.

"I am equally excited about and very much looking forward to the new challenges within the company, as I take up my next GM position in Europe. Running the leading hotel in the Baltic countries, which is stacked with celebrities and heads of state, will be an entirely new experience, considering as well the fact that it will be my first city hotel to work for. In order to further enhance my career and continue the global movement, Europe is currently the logical consequence following the experience from Asia and the Middle East. I want to continue the global movement."

Following Schukowski’s graduation from the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management in Dubai in 2009 he took a position as the corporate operations performance analyst at Kempinski’s head office in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was involved in the strategic planning of the brand and reported directly to the company’s COO.

After two years in this position, he was given the opportunity to become the regional operations manager in charge of all Kempinski hotels in China. In this role, he worked on the development planning of the brand NUO (the first Chinese luxury brand) and was also responsible for the regional strategy for Kempinski and its operational implementation and quality standards validation.

In 2013, at the age of 26, Schukowski was appointed hotel manager at Kempinski Hotel Ajman, the first Kempinski property in the region of India, the Middle East and Africa. In November 2014, Schukowski took on the responsibility of acting general manager due to the resignation of the regional president, who was the general manager for 17 years.

In October 2015, Schukowski won the Hotel Manager/EAM of the Year award at the Hotelier Middle East Awards, and in January 2016 was promoted to the position of general manager at Kempinski Hotel Ajman - the youngest GM in the history of the Kempinski brand.