Petri Isomaki Petri Isomaki is now in charge of three Sokos Hotels in St. Petersburg as General Director of Sokotel LLC having also taken up the role of General Manager of Solo Sokos Hotel Palace Bridge. Petri, 37, was born in Finland and joined hotel business in 1999 as a bell boy at the Strand InterContinental Hotel in Helsinki (Hilton hotel nowadays). Petri learned the trade in various roles working up the ladder mainly in the front of house operations, reservations and revenue as well as in HR functions. He earned his degree in the Hotel and Congress Service Management program in 2001 at the Laurea Polytechnic in Finland and completed MBA studies at the University of Surrey Business School just last year. Through his career progression Petri has had a chance to work with well-known hotel brands such as Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Marriott. Petri started in his first General Manager role in London during 2010 with one of the Ramada Hotels and Resorts properties. During the years from 2002 to 2012 Petri was a part of the London hotel scene learning the secrets of the international hotel management in a demanding and busy environment. During the early 2013 he returned back to Finland to lead the Radisson Blu Royal hotel and prior to his move to St. Petersburg he was in charge of the Radisson Blu Plaza hotel, also located in the city center of Helsinki. Having now started in his new role as General Director, Petri is really keen to take the Sokos Hotels in St. Petersburg to the next level. As Petri says “The secret for the success formula is really simple – you must diligently and conscientiously work towards the set goals and dream big, have a positive energy with sales attitude, contribute, develop yourself and the team believing in your abilities and you will succeed in most areas in life and business.” As team work is vital, Petri concludes “I surround myself with positive and energetic people, real personalities who know their business, are professional and want to work as part of a team.”