New Senior Appointments At Shangri-La

Asia's largest luxury hotel company based in the region, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, has announced a number of new general manager and corporate appointments.

Thierry Douin has been appointed General Manager of the Kowloon Shangri-La in Hong Kong. Currently with the Siam Inter-Continental in Bangkok where he started in January 1998, Mr Douin will start his new role at the beginning of August. He has worked for Inter-Continental Hotels, part of Bass Hotels Plc, for over 18 years in various properties including the Hotel Inter-Continental Seoul (1994-96) as Resident Manager and the Hotel Inter-Continental Phnom Penh, Cambodia as General Manager (1996-1998).

He replaces Mark Heywood, who has been promoted to Area Manager/General Manager based at the Shangri-La Hotel, Bangkok. Mr Heywood has been with Shangri-La since 1990 and has been General Manager at the group's Golden Sands Resort, Penang; Edsa Shangri-La, Manila; Traders Hotel, Singapore; and the Shangri-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. He will assume responsibility for the Traders Hotel, Yangon in Myanmar as part of his promotion.

Marc Hediger has been appointed Corporate Director of Renovation Projects with immediate effect based at Shangri-La's corporate office in Hong Kong. Mr Hediger, who has 16 years experience with Hyatt International in various senior management positions, worked most recently for Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts as Corporate Director of Food & Beverage in Zurich (1999- 2001) and for Hard Rock Hotels & Resorts Management in Singapore as Senior Vice President (1997-1999). Mr Hediger studied at Ecole Hoteliere Lausanne in his native Switzerland.

Jim Wilkinson has also joined Shangri-La's corporate office in the newly created position of Vice President, Procurement. With 24 years of experience in hotel purchasing, Mr Wilkinson has been Executive Director since 1989 with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts (formerly Canadian Pacific Hotels Corporation), where he started the central purchasing concept as Director of Purchasing. In addition, he has worked for Sheraton Corporation in Canada.

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts manages 38 hotels in 10 countries in Asia. It currently has 16 hotels in mainland China including its newest hotel, the Shangri-La Dingshan, Nanjing