Innovators to be Honored at the Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific

Robert Burns, Chairman of Robert H. Burns Holdings; Georg Rafael, Managing Director of Rafael Group and Adrian Zecha, Chairman of Amanresorts will be awarded the Innovation Award at the upcoming 16th annual Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP), scheduled for 12-14 October 2005 at the InterContinental Hong Kong.

Burns has spent his entire business career in the hotel industry, forming Hong Kong-based Regent International Hotels in 1970. Before that, Burns spent many years in middle management with various hotel chains. He also is the chairman of the Robert H. Burns Foundation, which supports and funds the education of Asian students at American universities.

In 1972, Rafael joined Robert Burns to start Regent International Hotels and served as regional director for the Pacific region, with duties that encompassed the development and opening of luxury resort hotels in Fiji and Sydney, Australia. The Rafael Group, based in Monaco, acts primarily as a holding company for its hotel investments and assists in the development of international deluxe hotel properties.

Zecha is a founder and chairman of Silverlink Holdings Limited, which owns and manages small, exclusive resorts such as Amanresorts in the Asia Pacific region. Zecha also was a partner in Regent International Hotels and a joint venture partner with Rafael in Rafael Hotels Limited, a company that was sold to the Mandarin Oriental Group in May 2000.

According to HICAP co-founder and host Rob Stiles of Sonnenblick Goldman Company, the Innovation Award was voted on by a select group of Asia’s hotel industry leaders who considered the innovations and achievements of a number of top hotel industry executives. About this year’s winners Stiles said, “The big bang in the Asian hotel industry - from three different continents, these gentlemen came together and created a new definition of luxury, style and service in the creation of Regent International. In the greatest complement, this sense of luxury is now visible in many of the region's luxury hotels.” Stiles added, “Amazingly, what they accomplished together was only one act in many for each of the three.”

Last year’s HICAP Innovation Award was presented to Sol Kerzner, founder and chairman of the board of Kerzner International, for his unique contributions to the hotel investment industry.

HICAP is a preeminent hotel investment conference in the Asia Pacific region, which last year drew nearly 500 of Asia’s top hotel industry leaders.

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