The winner of the prestigious British Association of Hospitality Accountants (BAHA) ‘Hospitality Accountant of the Year 2008' award is David Nicolson, Regional Director of Finance, Jumeirah International.

In the presence of 240 guests at the 2008 BAHA Annual Christmas Awards Luncheon - held last month at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London - David was presented with his award by the Association's Chief Executive Carl Weldon and Chairman Paul Dukes.

Nominations for this category, put forward by Members of BAHA to the BAHA Council, 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.

In recognition of outstanding commitment in promoting and developing financial education in the hospitality industry, the BAHA ‘Corporate Employer of the Year 2008' was the De Vere Collection; and the BAHA ‘SME Employer of the Year' was The Vineyard at Stockcross, Newbury, Berkshire. Carl Weldon and Paul Dukes presented Neil Harrison - Finance Director, the De Vere Collection - and Daniel Buck - Financial Manager for the Peter Michael Collection which owns the Vineyard at Stockcross - with cut-glass trophies. Nominees in this category had to actively promote and sponsor education and development; operate a monitoring scheme; have a written education and development policy; and recognise and reward success and achievement.

A special BAHA Lifetime Achievement award for outstanding service to hospitality industry financial management - only ever awarded twice before - was presented by Paul Dukes to David Cook, who has been BAHA's President since 2004. He joined the Association in 1971, becoming a Fellow in 1987 before being elected to the BAHA Council in 1992; and being subsequently elected BAHA chairman in 1994 - a post he held until 2004. He has enjoyed a long and distinguished career (see About article for the Citation) which has included time as Chief Accountant for Commonwealth Holiday Inns of Canada (CHIC) UK; Finance Director of Millennium and Copthorne Hotels; and most recently, prior to his retirement in November 2006, Chief Executive of CHE Hotel Group - a British quoted company which was the master franchisee for Choice Hotel brands in Europe and is now the Real Hotel Company.

The BAHA Education and Training Programme (ETP) is the entry route to Associate membership of BAHA for new and inexperienced finance personnel in the industry. The programme provides learning and skills development for aspiring hospitality accounting professionals wishing to gain the skills and knowledge required to manage hospitality finance divisions, or gain an understanding of the accounting function of a hospitality unit. The 3-stage blended learning programme, studied over three-6-month periods, provides the flexibility for accounts personnel to fit their learning around their busy working day. Stage 1 is an introduction to Financial Accounting; Stage 2 is Operational Management Accounting; and Stage 3 is Strategic Management Accounting.

At the luncheon, BAHA recognised the outstanding student successes in the three stages of the ETP programme. The top student award - the coveted ‘BAHA Overall Student of the Year Award 2008' - went for the second year running to Andrew Ranger, Assistant Financial Controller, the De Vere Carden Park Hotel, near Chester, Cheshire. ETP February 2008 Stage 2 winner in Operational Management Accounting, Andrew was presented by Debra Adams, BAHA Head of Administration and Education, and BAHA Councillor and Education Committee member Cathy Burgess -from Oxford Brookes University - with an ACER ONE 8.9" mini-Notebook PC and a cash prize.

Cash prizes were also given to the top students in each of the BAHA ETP categories studied in both February 2008 and July 2008. The recipients of the 2008 awards, based on the results of the February 2008 ETP examinations, were: for Stage 1 in ‘Introductory Financial Accounting' - Methini Ramasamy, Finance Executive for Jumeirah International; and for Stage 3 in Strategic Management Accounting - Sultan Beisha, Finance and Business Support Manager, Crowne Plaza Amman.

The winners, based on the results of the July 2008 ETP examinations, were: for Stage 1 - Tara Boyd, Accounts Team Leader, the De Vere Carden Park Hotel, near Chester; for Stage 2 - Adeline Roux, Assistant Resort Finance Manager, Jumeirah International; and for Stage 3 - Nicholas O'Keefe, Property Adviser, DTZ Hospitality.

A cheque for £1,000 was formally presented by Carl Weldon to Penny Moore, Chief Executive of the industry charity - Hospitality Action as a result of funds raised in association with iTradeNetwork, the food industry's leading global supply chain network, at the recent BAHA conference.

About Lifetime Achievement Citation for David Cook

It is about someone who has achieved much in his lifetime in Hospitality Finance. Someone who has started at the base-camp of hotel financial control and ended up in senior positions, managing flotations and world-wide businesses, whilst chairing a major industry association (BAHA) - and still had the time to meet, greet and maintain a great sense of humour.

Born in 1946, he started out in the Savoy Accounts Dept in 1963 - he was the first Financial Controller of the first UK Holiday Inn, which was in Plymouth; and subsequently transferred to the HQ in London. He was Chief Accountant for Commonwealth Holiday Inns of Canada (CHIC) UK with10 UK hotels - with offshoots in France and Portugal.

He is quoted as being a fantastic team leader, and someone who readily gave opportunities to new joiners who showed aptitude and positive attitudes to join a growing company, and to work as hard as he did. Always with a sense of humour and - despite often arriving injured on a Monday morning, having spent the weekend grass track racing on his favourite motor cycle - he was renowned for never missing a reporting deadline to local management, as well as to the head- office in Canada

The systems used were innovative. Starting with punched cards and heavy disk packs - which had to be taken to a processing centre operated by NCR to run the management and financial accounts - he introduced, in the mid-1970s, a British invented input system which used handwritten coding information which was read directly onto disk.

He was then a Uniform System of Accounts expert, as this was standard to the company's reporting structure throughout

An ex-colleague then invited him to join Copthorne Hotels as its Finance Director. He continued to hold this position after the Copthorne Group was purchased by the CDL Group, operating out of Singapore, who changed the Group's name to Millennium & Copthorne Hotels and, after putting in some of CDL's own hotel properties, floated the enlarged Group on the London Stock Exchange

His reputation in the City was always very positive, and there is no doubt this contributed much to the way the company was recognised by the analysts and banks. Its operations were across the world, with major divisions in Europe, the USA and Asia Pacific.

A few years ago, he took the opportunity to move to CHE Hotel Group PLC - a British quoted company which was the master franchisee for Choice Hotel brands in Europe - as Financial Director. After being promoted to being the company's Chief Executive, David Cook recruited Paul Mitchell as his Financial Director, and together they achieved a substantial refinancing of the company (which is now The Real Hotel Company) at a time when such restructuring was no mean achievement. His last day there at Real was Tuesday 28th November 2006.

He joined BAHA in 1971 (as member number 54!) and became a fellow in 1987 and was elected to the Council in 1992. He chaired the Meetings committee from 1992-1994. He was elected BAHA Chairman in December 1994 - a post he held until 2004. During this time, BAHA grew in many ways and achieved a number of important landmarks.

The Association became involved with the Uniform System of Accounts 9th Edition; and held two successful conferences in Birmingham. In addition, the development of the concept of an Annual Awards Lunch was initiated. BAHA published the practice guide to FRS15 (which set out the principles of accounting for tangible fixed assets) in April 2000 - this is still used today. The Educational Programme was re-designed and achieved the landmark of exemptions from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) papers.

BAHA Times was revamped and Membership hit 700 - plus the launch of the new BAHA website. The Association started other things that have lasted into today - such as the successful BAHA Patronage programme and initial discussions with the Texas-based Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) ...and some of these things happening when he was in the middle of minor items such as a major flotation!

He has served as BAHA President since 2004 and has always been happy to support and promote the Association - and occasionally tell a decent joke!

He opted to retire a year or so ago - but this left him in a position to take the top executive role in his favourite charity, where he had been a trustee for some years. Far from slowing down, this has involved him in considerable international travel, no doubt now as a critical hotel guest.

BAHA's lifetime Achievement Award has only been given out twice so far.

In the words of one of the previous recipients of this award, BAHA co-founder Howard Field: "David Cook is a great example of someone with ability and a passion for the hospitality industry, someone who was able to work his way up the corporate ladder in financial management and gain the recognition and respect of such a wide range of his colleagues and peers."

So it is with great pleasure BAHA presents this Lifetime Achievement award to Mr David Alan Hancock Cook.