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Appointments

Jeff Henschel has been appointed as Director of Information Technology at Benchmark Hospitality International

Jeff Henschel previously led his own IT consulting firm, serving leading US hospitality management companies. Prior to this he was vice president of technology for Destination Hotels and Resorts. Earlier in his career, Mr. Henschel held senior-level information technology positions for hotel management companies based in the Midwest and southern United States. He began his career working in software services and publishing. Jeff Henschel has been the recipient of several Peak Performance awards, and has been previously named Employee of the Year. He has served on numerous industry and community advisory councils and organizational boards. Mr. Henschel and his wife are relocating to The Woodlands.

Pyramid Global Hospitality
The Woodlands, Texas, United States

Bruce Hoffmeister has been named chief information officer (CIO) at Marriott International, Inc.

Marriott International, Inc. announced that Carl Wilson, executive vice president and chief information officer at the company since 1997, will retire March 31. Bruce Hoffmeister, a 22-year Marriott veteran, will succeed him as Global Chief Information Officer on April 1. With more than two decades at Marriott, Mr. Hoffmeister brings a wide scope and diverse set of experiences to his new role. Currently Senior Vice President, IR Shared and Application Services, he has led the drive for sustainable efficiencies in the computing resources for Marriott’s worldwide operations. He also directs the company’s efforts to modernize key systems involved in sales and marketing, event and revenue management.

Marriott
Bethesda, Maryland, United States

Mukund Mohan has been appointed as vice president, product management at Infor Hospitality

Before joining Infor, Mohan worked at MICROS where he held various positions including the role of director, strategic major accounts. Mohan’s past contributions have spanned three continents and across multiple hotel chains. As project director, Mohan led an enterprise central reservation system project, managed third party interfaces as interface product manager and established global support deployment standards as global support manager while working for MICROS Hotel Systems’ R&D division. Mohan has an engineering degree in computer science technology and holds certifications in information systems management.

Infor
New York, New York, United States

Darrin Pinkham has been named Vice President Information Technology at Pyramid Global Hospitality

A 22-year veteran of the hospitality industry, Darrin Pinkham previously served as president of DP & Associates Hospitality Technology Consultants, a company he founded in 2008 offering technology project management, implementation strategies, in-room technology branding, and application interface expertise for new build projects. Prior to this, Mr. Pinkham was vice president, hospitality technology for Ginn Resorts, responsible for the company's properties in Florida, South Carolina, Vermont, Colorado and the Bahamas. While in this position, Pinkham was recognized for centralized PMS, POS, golf and business intelligence system implementations and award-winning, cutting edge in-room technology standards for the brand. Earlier in his career, Mr. Pinkham served in senior-level information technology positions for leading hotel brands throughout the United States. He is a certified hospitality technology professional with the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals Association, where he has served as a member of the advisory council and of the organization’s global Board of Directors. Pinkham currently serves as an IT advisory board member for the University of Delaware, and is a past member of the Certified Hospitality Technology Professional (CHTP) advisory council. He is relocating to The Woodlands.

Pyramid Global Hospitality
Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Brian Pratt has been appointed as Senior VP for Distribution, Loyalty Programmes, Partnerships and Management Information Systems at Corinthia Hotels Limited

Brian has over 25 years experience in the hospitality business and was most recently vice president for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, where he was responsible for all marketing initiatives, customer-facing technology, business development, strategic planning, online advertising and customer acquisition for the entire brand portfolio of St. Regis, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, W Hotels, Four Points Hotels, The Luxury Collection and Le Meridien Hotels. He was also vice-president e-commerce, e-business and customer technology for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In his earlier career, Brian gained valuable hands-on experience as a software consultant overseeing projects for Bank of Boston and Ford Motor. A US national, Brian Pratt is a Member of the Marketing Board of Directors, the Information Technology Board of Directors and the Internet Marketing Association. He is married, has three boys and in his free time is a rugby coach.

Corinthia
Floriana, Malta

Peter Engel has been appointed as Chief Technology Officer at Marcus Hotels and Resorts

In his new role, he will direct the division’s technology strategy, implementation and operations. Engel joined The Marcus Corporation in 2004 as director of technology. A 30-year veteran of the information technology industry, he comes from a consulting and technology operations background. Prior to joining The Marcus Corporation, he served as president of Aperias Management Services, a consulting firm specializing in information technology and strategic management consulting services. Engel has 15 years of experience in the travel and leisure industry, including serving as chief operating officer for Trisept Solutions, and senior vice president at The Mark Travel Corporation. He is a member of the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals and Hotel Technology Next Generation.

Marcus Hotels and Resorts
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

Dan Kornick has been appointed as Chief Information Officer at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Wyndham Hotel Group announced the appointment of long-time Wyndham executive Dan Kornick as senior vice president and chief information officer. A seasoned information technology executive with over 20 years of experience, Kornick is tasked with overseeing Wyndham Hotel Group’s IT organization and providing the leadership and vision for the company to deliver against its technology objectives. He is responsible for strategic and tactical planning, organizational management, project governance and leading day-to-day IT operations, including systems and server management, network management, end-user support, database administration and support for software development.

Wyndham
Gurugram, Haryana, India
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Nikolaus P. Braun has been appointed as Director of Information Technology at Pyramid Global Hospitality

Nikolaus Braun brings 20 years of experience in hospitality information technology to his new role. He was most recently regional director of technology for Dolce Hotels & Resorts, a position he held since 2004. Before this, he served as director of information technology for the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City. Mr. Braun was employed in the same position for Philips Hotel Group at The Shore Club in Miami, and was part of the opening team for the Bryant Park Hotel, New York. He also served in this role for the Fitzpatrick Hotel Group of New York. Mr. Braun has previously worked for the two leading Hospitality IT software companies, Springer-Miller Systems and Micros Fidelio, serving as network engineer and senior installation specialist. Earlier in his career he worked as front office manager at The Sonnenalp Resort of Vail, Colorado. Prior to this he gained European experience working with Kempinski Hotels in Frankfurt, Germany. Nikolaus Braun earned his degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management from the University of New Haven in Connecticut. He is an active member of the Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals Association and a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator. He is fluent in the German language. Mr. Braun and his family are relocating to The Woodlands.

Pyramid Global Hospitality
Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Joseph Yadvish, Jr. has been appointed as Regional Director of Information Technology at Pyramid Global Hospitality

Joe Yadvish was most recently director of information technology for The Heldrich, Benchmark’s hotel and conference center located in New Brunswick, New Jersey, a position he held since 2007. Previous to this, Mr. Yadvish served as manager of information technology at the North Maple Inn of Basking Ridge, New Jersey. In his first national role with Benchmark Hospitality, Mr. Yadvish served as technology staff support for The Heldrich; The Founders Inn & Spa of Virginia Beach, Virginia; Lansdowne Resort of Leesburg, Virginia; Edith Macy Conference Center of Briarcliff Manor, New York; and Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu, where he previously held a staff position as director of information technology. He held the same position for North Maple Inn. His first position with this property was as information systems manager. Joe Yadvish began his career as director of management information services for Freight Traffic Services of Branchburg, New Jersey. He is an honors graduate of AAS Somerset Community College. He will operate out of Benchmark’s Northeast Regional Office in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Pyramid Global Hospitality
Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Todd Davis has been appointed as Chief Technology Officer at Choice Hotels International, Inc.

Davis will report to Patrick Pacious, senior vice president of corporate strategy and information technology. In this role, Davis, a 14-year Choice associate, will oversee all of the company’s information systems planning and operations, including all phases of systems development, global infrastructure management and data center operations. In addition, he will play a key role in the IT governance process to ensure the information technology operations are aligned with the company’s business and growth strategies and that information system teams are executing on key business priorities. Davis most recently served as vice president of property systems development and administration for Choice Hotels before entering into his current role. His hospitality industry career includes various positions within hotel operations and management. Immediately prior to joining Choice, he served as an advanced systems engineer for Electronic Data Systems (EDS) focusing on hotel industry solutions. Prior to EDS, he designed global reservation solutions for Cendant Corporation (now Wyndham Worldwide) and focused on the consolidation of the company’s multiple data centers. Davis holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Northern Arizona University.

Choice
Rockville, Maryland, United States

David Wong has been appointed as Vice President, Technical Services at Pan Pacific Hotels Group

David’s vast experience in the hospitality industry began with Hyatt International where he spent five years in Brunei as Director of Operations, assisting with the Royal family’s business and investment interests. His last appointment was Director of Projects, Technical Services, with Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts. Based in Hong Kong, David was tasked with the opening of several large-scale hotel projects, the most recent being the flagship Shangri-La Hotel Tokyo. “David’s diverse background in architecture, design, management consultancy and project management will be an asset to the team as we work to realise our growth strategy,” said A. Patrick Imbardelli, President and CEO, Pan Pacific Hotels Group.

Pan Pacific
Singapore, Singapore

Venky Rangachari has been appointed as chief technology officer (CTO) at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Rangachari will oversee the Hotel Group’s information technology department and will lead the overall strategic direction for the Hotel Group’s technology efforts, ensuring alignment of the company’s technology vision with its business strategy. Most recently, Rangachari was chief information officer at StarCite, a global leader in meetings management solutions, where he developed technology strategy, reduced operating expenses by 20 percent and implemented a company-wide learning management system that helped prepare employees for the company’s next generation products. Prior to joining StarCite, Rangachari was vice president of operations at Jacent Technologies, an on-demand solutions provider for the restaurant industry. While there he managed the Web operations order management system for the Pizza Hut® and Quiznos® chains.

Wyndham
Gurugram, Haryana, India

Robert Webb has been appointed as Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Hilton

Webb joins Hilton from Equifax, the Atlanta headquartered global credit information and technology solutions provider, where he held a similar position. Webb has provided leadership for systems strategy, enterprise planning and architecture, information security, technology infrastructure, and outsourcing initiatives across multiple business units since 2004. Prior to joining Equifax, Webb held executive positions at General Electric including CIO of GE Commercial Finance, GE Global Consumer Finance and GE Energy Services. He has extensive international experience and has lived and worked in Europe, Greater China and Japan as a management consultant for Andersen Consulting and Electronic Data Systems. Webb holds a BA degree from the University of Western Ontario and received his MBA from the European School of Management in Paris. He has also been active in the Atlanta community through his support of United Way, Habitat for Humanity and Outward Bound.

Hilton
McLean, Virginia, United States
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Olivier Dombey has been appointed as Chief Information Officer at HotelTravel.com

Mr Dombey has over 20 years experience in hospitality and travel distribution, consulting and marketing, most recently as Board Advisor for Shanghai-based DerbySoft. Prior to this he was Regional Vice President Asia Pacific - Pegasus Solutions for four years based in its Beijing office. He was Managing Director and founder of China-based Ou Yang Business Consulting, a business specializing in electronic distribution marketing for the Chinese market. Before relocating to China he spent seven years as Partner and co-founder of UK-based leading travel distribution and marketing consultancy, Partners in Marketing. Mr Dombey was also Director of Marketing, Seychelles Tourist Board, for two years, based in Mahé, and Business Analyst and Manager Business Development at Galileo International for three years, based in the UK. He formerly was a board member of HEDNA (Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association) to represent Asia Pacific, and was Chairman for the UK’s largest travel industry association (CIMTIG).

HotelTravel.com
Phuket, Thailand

Jeff Edwards has been promoted to Chief Information Officer and VP Revenue Services at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Edwards is responsible for Wyndham Hotel Group’s information technology systems and revenue management services including reservation platforms, property-based systems, enterprise-wide data warehouse, brand web sites and call centers, global distribution systems and sales, third party reservation providers and international systems and services.

Wyndham
Gurugram, Haryana, India

Ingvar Herland has been appointed as General Manager, Research & Technology at The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited (Peninsula)

Mr. Herland joined HSH in 2006 when he took on the position of Manager -- Engineering. He was promoted to be Assistant General Manager, Research & Technology in early 2008, and subsequently further promoted to General Manager in July 2008. In this capacity, he is responsible for the Group's design and development engineering division, which is responsible for the technological innovations for HSH hotels and non-hotel properties. A Norwegian native, Mr. Herland gained his Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Trondheim in Norway.

Peninsula
Kowloon Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong (SAR)