NATIONAL REPORT—Hotel Business is tracking appointments. Several companies have made personnel moves, including Paramount Hotel Group, Duetto, Hapi, COMO Hotels and Resorts, Bluegreen Vacations Corporation and Montage International.
Rich Szymanski Joins Paramount Hotel Group as CFO
Rich Szymanski has joined Paramount Hotel Group’s corporate team to serve as the company’s CFO. He has more than 30 years of experience in executive leadership positions at two public companies within the hospitality industry. This includes time spent as CFO at Morgans Hotel Group and Prime Hospitality Corp.
Bluegreen Vacations Corporation Reveals Retirement of COO
Bluegreen Vacations Corporation has revealed that David Pontius will be retiring as EVP/COO in December. He has been with Bluegreen Vacations for more than 11 years and has held several positions starting as president of Bluegreen’s Resorts Division in 2007, chief strategy officer in 2010 and a promotion to COO in 2017. He currently serves on the executive committee and board of directors of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA).
Montage International Appoints Mandy Holloway as SVP of HR
Montage International has appointed Mandy Holloway to the position of SVP, human resources. Prior to Montage International, Holloway served as VP of human resources & employee engagement at Universal Studios Hollywood, NBCUniversal in Universal City, CA. Prior to that, Holloway held various management and human resources roles in top hospitality companies around the world including Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. and Hard Rock International in Florida, and The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company in Maryland.
Jeff Ma Joins Duetto
Duetto has doubled down on its commitment to innovation by hiring Jeff Ma as SVP of product and analytics. Ma joins Duetto, hospitality’s revenue strategy platform, after serving as VP of data science and analytics at Twitter. He served for two years as ESPN’s first predictive analytics expert and has founded several successful technology companies, including a sports media and analytics start-up Citizen Sports, acquired by Yahoo, and a human capital analytics company called tenXer, which was acquired by Twitter in 2015.
Hapi Names Head of Product Strategy
Hapi has appointed Jonathan Reynolds as head of product strategy for the company. He began his career in hotel technology with Micros in 2000, where he spent seven years as a senior technical product specialist, program lead and consultant for installations at high-profile properties, such as Wynn Las Vegas and Wynn Macau. As a member of the opening team for Opera, he oversaw hundreds of system implementations and integrations, as well as initiating the company’s first foray into the gaming and casino market. He then spent five years on the hotelier side as director of IT for the Viceroy Hotel Group, followed by a stint at The Setai in Miami Beach. Prior to joining Hapi, Reynolds served as a senior member of the product management team for Amadeus.
COMO Hotels and Resorts Appoints Tapa Tibble as Managing Director of the Americas
Singapore-based lifestyle collection the COMO Group has appointed Tapa Tibble as managing director of the Americas. He’s joining COMO Group from his role as regional director of Europe for Aman Resorts. His 25 years of experience has seen him take on a number of very prominent roles, including shipboard management and general management positions in Central Australia and the Philippines with some of the world’s leading luxury hospitality brands.