Karim Abdelhamid has been appointed as Vice President of Hotel Operations at The First Group Hospitality
Karim Abdelhamid is the new vice president of hotel operations for The First Group. It is his first VP role after several years in general manager positions.
In 2021, The First Group last year announced a new dedicated division focused solely on hotel management called The First Collection. The First Collection is also its own collection brand. Currently, the brand includes the likes of Wyndham Dubai Marina, Grand Heights Hotel Apartments and TRYP by Wyndham Dubai.
Abdelhamid has almost two decades of hospitality experience. One of his earliest roles was at The Plaza in New York, where he was F&B manager for three years.
In 2005, he served as the GM of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, returning to hospitality with a director of private dining role at The Plaza once more. He left the famous Manhattan hotel as diplomatic sales manager, later joining The Ritz-Carlton New York as F&B manager.
In the Middle East, he has served as cluster hotel manager of IHG Hotels & Resorts' collection of properties in Dubai Festival City. The cluster included InterContinental Dubai Festival City, InterContinental Residence Suites Dubai Festival City, and Crowne Plaza Dubai Festival City - a total of 1,088 keys and 10 F&B venues.
He was most recently GM of the InterContinental Al Jubail Resort in Saudi.