ATLANTA— Six Continents Hotels’ de-merger from its parent company, Six Continents plc, will enable it to simplify its focus at the very senior level, according to Stevan Porter, president, The Americas. The recently unveiled move, which effectively removes 6C’s lodging business from its pub enterprise, puts Richard North, finance director, at the head of the global hotel division. It also, upon approval, returns $1.1- billion to shareholders. “Now we become just a hotel company, so organizationally it doesn’t affect us much,” said Porter, who suspects back-office systems may now be consolidated as a result of the business being simplified. North American operations will continue as they have, said Porter, who was promoted to the president’s position of that region this past summer. Over the past few months, Porter has been able to solidify his own management team, making appointments across the board that will affect internal relations as well as franchisee issues. In an exclusive interview with HOTEL BUSINESS®, Porter laid out his new lineup, and his plans for 6C, whose brands include InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and Staybridge Suites by Holiday Inn. “The solid foundation of great franchisees is critical to us,” said Porter. As a result, Porter most recently tapped Kirk Kinsell as senior vp/Americas franchising. Kinsell, who will focus on franchise sales, is a former Holiday Inn executive whose return to the company has been highly heralded by franchisees, said Porter. “Kinsell is the relationship guy. He takes care of our multi-brand, multi-market distribution and development plan, bundles that up and goes to existing or potential franchisees and convinces them to do business with us,” said Porter. Distribution opportunities vary throughout 6C’s brands, said Porter. “We have a lot of opportunities with Staybridge because we are under- distributed. We have less opportunity with Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express because we are so well distributed but we have some replacement and new market opportunities there, especially with a new prototype.” There is also potential for the Crowne Plaza brand, which Porter plans to unveil at the company’s Global Investors Conference this week. Porter said the upper upscale InterContinental brand doesn’t fall as naturally into the franchise category since many of those hotels are owned by 6C. However, if a tried-an-true owner wants to build an InterContinental, 6C would consider that. Meanwhile, Tom Seddon senior vp/Americas brands strategy now has oversight for sales, marketing, reservations, revenue management, Priority Club Rewards, and hotel performance support across all Six Continents Hotels properties. Seddon moved up from senior vp/strategic services. His team is comprised of Steve Sickel, vp/relationship marketing; Mike Fegley, vp/sales; Tim Genovese, vp/performance support; Jim Anhut, vp/Staybridge Suites brand marketing; Jeff Senior, vp/InterContinental brand marketing; Kevin Kowalski, vp/Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts and Jenifer Zeigler, vp/Holiday Inn Express brand marketing. Porter said 6C is currently looking to fill the brand marketing spot for Holiday Inn. Tom Murray, meanwhile, has moved into the COO slot, replacing the role Porter played prior to his promotion. Porter worked with Murray in past positions, including, most recently, at Hilton Hotels Corp. 6C is also moving ahead on initiatives it forged earlier this summer to re-energize the Holiday Inn brand. Plans have been unveiled for the first hotel, to be built under the brand’s latest prototype, located in Gwinnett County, a suburb of Atlanta. The full-service hotel, which will be owned and operated by 6C, will be constructed by Diplomat Hotels. The prototype is designed to fit smaller, 2.5-acre lot sizes. Another new element is a 1,900-square-foot bistro and lounge, meant to cost less to build and operate, according to the company. Initially, 6C had said
