Allen Thomas Allen Thomas

Centara Hotels & Resorts has appointed Allen Thomas as vice president business development, effective January 1, 2018.

Thomas has 28 years of experience developing hotel and resort businesses, a career that includes positions with HPL and Como Hotels and most recently Resorts Holdings International.

He will report to Centara’s deputy CEO Markland Blaiklock, and will be responsible for executing the company’s plan to grow from 58 to 134 hotels over the next five years. Blaiklock himself was brought on board in October to lead the expansion strategy.

In the weeks since then, Centara has launched its affordable lifestyle hotel brand Cosi; signed a joint venture to take ownership of Centra by Centara Government Complex Hotel & Convention Centre Cheang Watthana; announced a significant upgrade of its technology infrastructure in partnership with Oracle and IDeaS; and finalised an agreement with Nakheel to develop a family lifestyle resort in Dubai.

Centara CEO Thirayuth Chirativat said in a statement: "Allen is a tenured industry expert with an impressive track record of growing the brand footprint of hotel and resort businesses in Asia and beyond. We are confident of meeting our expansion targets with a professional of Allen's calibre leading our business development division."

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