Leela Palaces Appoints President
Onno Poortier
FEBRUARY 11, 2008. The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts is delighted to announce the appointment of Mr. Onno Poortier as President effective February 1, 2008.
Onno Poortier is a stalwart hotelier with extensive international corporate business development, marketing and operational experience. He has a proven success record and recognition with global hotel groups and owners, and independent luxury hotels and resorts.
A Dutch national, fluent in five European languages, O. Poortier graduated from the Hotel School of Lucerne, Switzerland and the MBA Executive Programme at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, then pursued his career with reputed luxury hotels starting with Le Beau Rivage Palace Lausanne and the Palace Hotel Gstaad in Switzerland, and the Waldorf-Astoria in New York.
O. Poortier joined The Peninsula Group in Hong Kong in 1979 and was promoted to Executive Vice President in 1985 and President from 1992 to 2000. He took charge of existing hotels and played a leading role in the group's expansion into the USA and Asia Pacific with the acquisition and development of luxury Peninsula Hotels in New York, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Beijing, and Bangkok, and initiated the negotiations of the recently opened Peninsula Hotel Tokyo. He served as Director to the Board of The Peninsula Group's parent company, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Limited from 1989 to 2000 and as Director to the Board of Peninsula International Limited from 2000 to 2005.
Between 1989 to 2006, O. Poortier served on numerous Boards. He was Chairman of the Board of The Badrutt's Palace Hotel in St. Moritz and Fregate Island Private in the Seychelles, Vice Chairman in Asia Pacific of Preferred Hotels and Resorts Worldwide and Board Director of Indecorp (holding company of PHRW now known as Preferred Hotel Group), an international consortium of over 300 independent luxury hotels and resorts which led to an interim CEO & President role in Chicago USA in 2003 and 2004. He is presently Director to the Board of Le Beau Rivage Palace Lausanne, and Non-Executive Board Member of The Emaar Hospitality Group LLC in Dubai. O. Poortier also formed Rembrandt Management Services Ltd. to provide luxury hotel consultancy management services.
As the recipient of numerous industry awards, O. Poortier was selected 'Corporate Hotelier of the World' by Hotels Magazine in 1994 and was nominated 'Personality of the Year' by the hotel industry in 1996. He was also voted 'Foreign Hotels Person of the Year' in 1995 by Travel Agent Magazine.
Welcoming the appointment of Onno Poortier. Vivek Nair, Vice Chairman and Managing Director said, 'As a veteran hotelier, Mr. Poortier brings to The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts over four decades of extensive international experience and inspires motivation and confidence with his proven success record, strong leadership style and warm personality. He would contribute immensely to our group's standing as the market leader for each location that we operate in. Our Bangalore hotel, The Leela Palace, Kempinski Bangalore was recently voted by Conde Nast Traveller, in a poll of its 30,000 readers as the 'World's No.1 Business Hotel'.
Commenting on his appointment, Onno Poortier said, 'I am delighted to be leading The Leela team. Together with the support of the management and staff, I believe that we will be successful in taking The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts to the highest level of international luxury standards and product offering.'
Hotel Leelaventure Ltd. owns and operates The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts in Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa and in Kovalam (Kerala) and have new developments in Gurgaon and Udaipur (opens 2008), Chennai (opens 2009), New Delhi (opens 2010), Hyderabad and Pune (opens 2011) with a tie up with Kempinski Hotels, established in 1897 and Europe's oldest hotel chain with 58 hotels in 22 Countries. The Leela is also a partner hotel of The Global Hotel Alliance, which is the world's largest alliance of 9 independent hotel brands encompassing 160 upscale and luxury hotels with over 46,000 guestrooms in 41 different countries.
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