Born in Luxembourg and educated in France, Mr. Baltes is a graduate of the renowned Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne hotel management school in Switzerland, and possesses over 20 years of top level International hospitality management experience.
Claude began his career with tenures at Shangri-La and Sheraton in Malaysia and Thailand, before deciding to settle in Phuket whilst working at the then-new Banyan Tree Phuket in 1995. Having held several positions at that hotel, Baltes moved to Bintan Island in Indonesia where he successfully opened the first Angsana Resort & Spa for the Banyan Tree Group, first as Rooms Division Manager and then as Operations Manager after opening.
Returning to Phuket in 2002, he was appointed Resident Manager at the freshly rebranded Six Senses Evason Phuket where he remained as Resort Manager until 2008. After joining a mixed use hotel-property development project in the northern part of Phuket, Baltes worked with the international Golden Tulip Hotel group early 2009 for the rebranding of its first property in South East Asia, and later opened another Golden Tulip Hotel in Bangkok. In July 2012, he joined the Kata Group to launch the newest of their six hotels, the luxury ‘Beyond Resort Krabi’ on the shores of the Andaman Sea.