InterContinental Muscat's Monterde trains for triumph at Hotelier Awards 2017
InterContinental Muscat learning and development manager Evangeline Monterde was heralded as the region's training champion and claimed the HR and Training Person of the Year trophy at the Hotelier Middle East Awards 2017.
Category sponsor Jung Middle East managing director Tarek Zakaria presented Monterde with her award during a festive celebration highlighting the theme, 'Hotelier Ever After', on October 25, 2017 at The Ritz-Carlton Dubai. Highly commended in the HR and Training Person of the Year category was Fairmont Dubai learning and development manager Anuja Ghosh.
Monterde wowed the panel of judges with her selflessness and dedication to establishing and spreading a learning culture, championing the leadership development of general managers, Excom members, supervisors and managers, along with voluntarily supporting all of the operator’s hotels in the country voluntarily. Even with no official cluster role, she wholeheartedly served the six IHG hotels in Oman on her own initiative and developed at least 15 departmental trainers in each hotel. By rolling out six hotels' quality workshops, running training programmes and facilitating the leadership team's strategy meeting and teambuilding herself, without utilising a third-party facilitator, she contributed to generating significant savings while increasing productivity per hotel.
Monterde also played an active role in exercising mentorship within IHG, mentoring and coaching one general manager and ExCom members being groomed to take on more senior roles.
"For me, it's a cliche when they say that you don't need to work if you love what you do but that's exactly what it is. I love what I do," she shared with Hotelier Middle East. "People are my life. What motivates me is seeing my people grow, seeing them move from one position to an even better one and they tell me, 'thank you. You have just changed my life.' This is something that really motivates me to keep going."
Monterde's professionalism reached the African continent when earlier this year, she extended her training services to InterContinental Nairobi. In Oman, her passion for educating expanded to educational institutions where she highlighted IHG's internship programmes, with the aim of encouraging young Omanis to embrace hospitality.
"Basically, my vison is to create a learning culture in the company, that learning is not only one-time. Learning is continuous and something that is always needed," she said. "Then I want to extend that vision to others, for example, to trainees in colleges that we are having partnerships with, to expand beyond the hotel but to have that corporate social responsibility with local partners."
The Hotelier Middle East Awards 2017 was supported by the following companies: silver sponsor SNS Haute Couture Furniture; category sponsors SIAL Middle East, A. Ronai, Diversey, Jung, OSN for Business, Dimara International; supporting sponsor Pulsar Foodstuff; event sponsor Party Social; floral sponsor Forever Rose London; coffee sponsor Dallmayr Coffee; water sponsor Acqua Panna & S.Pellegrino and beverage sponsor MMI.