Senior Management Changes at Swire Hotels

Swire Hotels has made the following senior management changes:

Toby Smith has replaced Brian Williams as Deputy Chairman, whilst Dean Winter has taken over Toby's previous role as Managing Director.

Brian Williams has been appointed as Senior Advisor to Swire Hotels from his new base in the UK. He has been with Swire Hotels for 14 years.

Swire currently has two hotel brands - East and The House Collective.

In their new assignments, Toby, Dean, and Brian will continue to inspire teams across the brands to act with intuition and spontaneity to create engaging, meaningful connections with guests; a trait that has become synonymous with Swire Hotels.

Toby joined the Swire group as a Management Trainee in 1991, and has since held positions within the group’s shipping and aviation sectors, taking him to far-flung countries across the globe including Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Australia, Turkey, Sri Lanka, France, Singapore and Hong Kong.

As Deputy Chairman, Toby will lead Swire Hotels’ growth strategy for both Swire Properties owned developments and Hotel Management Agreements with third party owners.

Taking over from Toby as Managing Director, Dean has over 25 years of experience as a hotelier and restaurateur across London, Hong Kong and Singapore, and will oversee all aspects of the day to day running of the existing hotel and restaurant businesses.

Dean came onboard with Swire Hotels in October 2006 to concurrently manage operations and pre-opening preparations for The Opposite House in Beijing, The Upper House and EAST in Hong Kong, before opening The Upper House as General Manager in 2009.

Dean said, “I am honoured to be following in the footsteps of Brian and Toby, who have helped Swire Hotels to grow immeasurably over the past decade. In many ways, our culture feels very much like a start-up; we still have a long way to go, but we have built an incredible team of hoteliers and restauranteurs, and I am very excited about the future of the brand.”

Brian originally joined Swire Hotels as Managing Director before becoming Deputy Chairman and will now relocate to the UK as a Senior Advisor to the brand on a part-time basis.

He will continue to support the development plans of the group as well as act as a brand ambassador to raise the profile of EAST and The House Collective globally.

Swire Hotels Chairman, Guy Bradley, said, “I would like to thank Brian for the immeasurable contribution he has made to the growth and success of Swire Hotels during his time in Hong Kong.”

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