The winners of the 2017 prestigious annual ‘Inspirational Leader Professionals of the Year Awards’ – for Hospitality Finance, Revenue Management and IT – were announced and honoured last night (2 November) at the HOSPACE2017 Gala Awards Dinner by HOSPA, the UK’s leading educational organization for those involved in hospitality finance, revenue management and IT.
The winners were:
Presentations of engraved crystal trophies were made to each of the award recipients at the Royal Lancaster London by the Chairs of the HOSPA Finance, Revenue Management and IT committees – David Nicolson, Ally Northfield and David Derbyshire respectively. They were assisted by the sponsors of each award: Stuart Collins, Partner, BDO London; Warren Mandelbaum, Sales Director EMEA, IDeaS; and Andrew Evans, Chief Executive, Opendoor by Keystep Solutions. Also taking part in the ceremony were guest speaker: former England and Harlequins rugby union captain Nick Easter; and the host of HOSPACE2017: Pride of Britain Chief Executive Peter Hancock.
Pictured:
Pictured last night (2 November) at the Royal Lancaster London, the 2017 HOSPA winners (from left to right): Anaël Peu, Director of Revenue Management, Kew Green Hotels; Cesco Righetti, Director of Finance, The Bulgari Hotel, London; and Barry Thomas, Area Director of Information Technology, Rosewood London.
The three winners were nominated by HOSPA Fellows and Members, and then put forward to a special HOSPA selection committee. The recipients had to have: an exemplary track record; be willing to train and lead their staff; be totally dedicated to the hospitality industry, with the intention of remaining in the profession; demonstrate strong attention to detail; keep abreast of current codes of practice; and command respect within the hospitality sector and wider business community.
Commenting on the awards, HOSPA Chief Executive Jane Pendlebury said: “Huge congratulations to our three inspirational winners and our commiserations to the seven excellent finalists who made the final decision such a hard choice. They have all demonstrated exceptional leadership ability and professionalism in, and dedication to, their chosen fields of hospitality expertise.”
Comments made by nominators of this year’s deserving recipients included the following:
For HOSPA2017 Finance winner Cesco Righetti: “He is extremely approachable and helpful. He has considerable depth of experience and a particularly strong commercial sense. It is evident that Cesco is very committed to the financial and operational success of the hotel.”
For 2017 HOSPA Revenue Management winner Anaël Peu: “Anaël is an inspirational leader of people. He has implemented new ways of working and driven record breaking revenue performance in our hotels. Anaël created the Kew Green Revenue Academy to ensure new talent is identified and has a pathway to develop. Four new Revenue Executives are in role, who will become Revenue Managers of the future. He has created our ‘Commercial Hub’ structure, bringing all our commercial disciplines together – improving efficiencies and significantly increasing revenue for the business. He has created an analytics team which provides the business with the best trend data to make meaningful decisions.”
For 2017 HOSPA IT winner Barry Thomas: “Barry regularly volunteers to assist with many hotel technology communities of interest. He has proved to be objective and open-minded in his approach to reviewing technology. He is well regarded and deserves to be recognized for his efforts.”
Apart from the winners, the 2017 HOSPA finalists in each of the three categories were as follows:
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