Jaouad SbihiFairmont Raffles Hotels International (FRHI) has promoted Jaouad Sbihi to the position of director of sales and marketing, Qatar, and tasked him with setting up a representation office for the group in Doha. Moroccan native Sbihi started his hospitality career 13 years ago as a front desk agent in Morocco before moving to Dubai in 2001. Sbihi then joined the pre-opening teams of the Shangri-La Hotel and Kempinski Mall of The Emirates, reaching the position of sales manager travel & trade GCC. Sbihi first joined Raffles Dubai in 2007 as part of the pre-opening team as sales manager, before being promoted to senior sales manager in May 2008 and to assistant director of sales in June 2009. He reached his latest position as director of sales in October 2011, looking after the hotel’s corporate segment and heading up consortia and luxury travel in America and Europe, as well as looking after key GCC accounts and VIP delegations. In his new role, Sbihi is based in Raffles Dubai and will be responsible for handling the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and KATARA Hospitality relationship for FRHI, while also looking for opportunities for FRHI to develop new projects in Doha.