David MacGregor, who has been with the group for seven years, will continue to lead the Rocco Forte Hotels team in the United States and Canada but will now also oversee the Rocco Forte Hotels sales operations in Latin America as Regional Sales Director, the Americas. David has extensive experience in the hotel industry including previous sales responsibility for Latin America whilst with Oberoi ...

Patrizia Di Patrizio is promoted to lead the mainland Europe sales team covering France, Benelux, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany and Russia. Italian-born Patrizia has been with Rocco Forte Hotels since 2007, initially as Conference and Incentive Sales Director for the UK and most recently as Regional Sales Director for UK and Germany. She is based in Rome. Prior to joining Rocco Forte Hotels, ...

The UK and Middle East sales teams will be led by Richard Bousfield, who will also progress plans for increasing our sales capabilities in Asia. Richard has been a consultant to Rocco Forte Hotels since 2010, prior to which he was Director of National Sales UK & Ireland for IHG. He has a wealth of experience in the international hotel sector having spent nine years with the global travel consult...

Prior to taking up his post in Washington, Arnold, who hails from Strasbourg in France, was hotel manager of the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago. Previously, he held several posts at Intercontinental Hotel & Resorts’ in England, Greece, Belgium, Spain and the USA. On appointing his successor in Edinburgh, Ivan Artolli comments: “In Franck, we have a seasoned hotelier who brings with him a blend of lu...

Dittrich joins the Augustine Hotel after spending more than 20 years as General Manager of various leading hotels across the globe, most recently as General Manager at the Corinthia hotel in St. Petersburg. Since the mid ‘90s, Dittrich has held Senior Executive level positions in some of the most prestigious hotels in the Far East, the US, and in particular, South America but he is now, he says...

Ivan, who will be based at the company’s headquarters in London, will join Rocco Forte Hotels’ management board and oversee operations for Brown’s Hotel in London, The Lowry Hotel in Manchester, The Balmoral in Edinburgh, Hotel Amigo in Brussels, the Augustine Hotel in Prague and Hotel Astoria in St Petersburg. Artolli, originally from Padua in Italy, has an impressive 35 years of experience in...

American-born Ryan brings a wealth of culinary experience to the Lowry Hotel and the River Restaurant, having worked in several Michelin-starred restaurants in the US, Sweden and Austria. Ryan began his illustrious career in his hometown of New York where during his studies, he worked at the renowned three-Michelin starred Daniel restaurant. From there, Ryan rose through the ranks and spent tim...

In his new role, German-born Wolf will oversee all aspects of the company’s revenue management including market share growth, optimization of distribution channels and the development of the hotels’ revenue managers. Stefan has more than 15 years of experience in the hospitality industry and joins from the Jumeirah Group where he was responsible for the group’s global revenue management strateg...

With 14 years in the hospitality industry, Dutch-born Leenders brings a wealth of management experience to the new role and joins the hotel from The Rocco Forte Collection’s head office, where as Brand Support Director he oversaw the brand quality and quality measurement, corporate human resources and served as Secretary to the Executive Committee. Fluent in several languages, Leenders joined The...

A 24-year veteran of the hospitality industry, Neumann brings a wealth of management experience to the new role and joins the company from Travel Charme Hotels & Resorts where he was Managing Director, Operations. Commenting on the appointment, Martin Elsner, Rocco Forte Collection’s Director of Operations, said: “We are delighted that Walter will be taking the helm at the Hotel Astoria. He br...

Marcus Verberne has worked alongside Mark Hix for the last 10 years, previously at Le Caprice, J Sheekey and The Ivy, before joining Rocco Forte's Brown's Hotel in February 2008 as Head Chef. Marcus, originally from New Zealand, began his career in Wellington before moving to Melbourne, Australia to work alongside Bill Marchetti at Marchetti's Latin and then Cecconi's. In 2001 he relocated t...

Naffah, 47, has acted as a consultant to the company since July 2009 during which he has assisted with the company’s successful refinancing and helped drive improvements in the performance management and corporate governance of the group of luxury hotels and resorts. The new appointment will enable Sir Rocco Forte, founder and executive chairman of the group, to devote more time to spearheading ...

Melanie Cash joins The Lowry Hotel as Director of Sales and Marketing, managing a team of eight people across sales, PR, conference, revenue, groups and VIPs. Ms Cash has extensive industry knowledge, gained over her 25 years of experience in the hospitality business.Previous roles include Director of Sales at The Marriott Forest of Arden Hotel and Country Club; Training Manager for Marriott H...

German-born Mr Kienast has an impressive 20 years experience in some of the most exclusive five star hotels across the world. Mr Kienast has held many varying roles within the hotel industry, beginning his career with the Kempinski Group with roles in Dallas, Munich, Budapest and Istanbul, focusing mainly on Food and Beverage. Following which he then held several senior roles across Western Eur...

Luciano has an impressive 28 years of experience in the hotel industry, including 21 years with the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG). He most recently held the position of Area Director of Operations based in Madrid where he successfully managed 80 IHG properties in Spain, Portugal and Italy. During this time he supervised the development of two golf resort hotels in La Manga, Spain. Other r...

Jodi has extensive sales and marketing knowledge gained over 17 years of experience in the hospitality industry. She has been with The Rocco Forte Collection for seven years most recently as Director of Sales of Marketing at The Lowry Hotel in Manchester where she oversaw the development of core hotel strategy, sales, conferences, marketing, PR, revenue, groups and VIP’s. As part of her day-to-d...

Friederike brings with her a vast wealth of international experience and market knowledge and joins Brown’s Hotel from the Four Seasons Hotel Prague – where she held the same position since July 2006. Friederike, originally from Berlin, Germany was with Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts for over nine years and during this time held sales positions with their Berlin, New York and Dublin properties an...

Anna Gricini has been appointed Director of Sales and Marketing for both the Hotel De Russie (Rome) and the Hotel Savoy (Florence). Anna has extensive experience in sales and marketing having held senior positions at the Dorchester Collection, Starwood Hotels & Resorts as well as Hilton International. Most recently Anna was Director of Sales & Marketing for the prestigious Principe di Savoia Hote...

Alberto Pirozzini has a wealth of experience in the luxury hotel sector. Most recently he was General Manager for the Lungarno Hotel in Florence and previously spent six years with the Ritz Carlton group in California, Bahamas, Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. He started his career with Four Seasons in the USA. Alberto Pirozzini comments, “I am delighted to have the opportunity to join The ...

Stefano Gegnacorsi has extensive experience in the hotel sector having previously worked with the most exclusive hotels in Italy and abroad. Most recently he was General Manager of Hotel Savoy in Florence, during which he received numerous accolades, including the highest quality rating ever recorded by Leading Hotels of the World. Prior to joining The Rocco Forte Collection he was General Manag...

Martin will sit on the company’s management board and will oversee operations for the group with management responsibility for all hotel General Managers and their teams. German-born Elsner has an impressive 26 years of experience in the hotel industry. He has been with the Rocco Forte Collection for more than six years in total, holding a number of positions including most recently General Manag...

Hagop Doghramadjian has been appointed as General Manager of The Rocco Forte Collection’s new 281-bedroom hotel in Abu Dhabi, opening in 2010. Hagop has extensive knowledge of the hotel market in the Middle East, most recently holding the position of General Manager of the 248-bedroom Raffles, Dubai. Prior to Raffles, he held a number of roles at Hilton International, beginning his career at the...