Ritz-Carlton, Amman names opening management team

With the start of 2022, the Guidance Team of The Ritz-Carlton, Amman, Hotel & Residences has begun the countdown to the opening of its new venue in May 2022, with the announcement of a management team led by General Manager Tareq Derbas.

 

Derbas is continuing the legacy of the late Chairman of Al Eqbal Real Estate Development and Hotels, Tawfiq Fakhouri, whose vision brought The Ritz-Carlton to Amman. He said: “The Ritz-Carlton, Amman is eager to begin providing guests with a refined stay in the capital, all the while bringing the cultural riches and natural beauty Jordan has to offer within reach. To realise this, I have assembled a best-in-class management team whose combined experience is unrivalled.”

 

Derbas brings with him more than 27 years of luxury hotel management experience, and a philosophy that is characterised by an insistence on perfecting the finer details and a commitment to doing everything possible to guarantee an extraordinary experience for guests.

 

Director of Residences Behiye Salk arrives to Amman from Dubai, where she served as Hotel Manager during the opening of Caesars Palace, Caesars Resort, and Caesars Residences. She launched her 30-year hospitality career with the Swissôtel chain, where she served as Director of Housekeeping at several properties. 

 

Salk and Derbas joined forces in 2002 as part of the Four Seasons Amman opening team. She previously held several managerial roles at Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts and was the GM of both The House Hotel Collection Istanbul and Wellborn Luxury Hotel, Kocaeli, in Turkey.

 

Meanwhile, with over 20 years of experience in fine dining, German Executive Chef Joergen Sodemann’s arrival at The Ritz-Carlton Amman marks the chef’s return to the Ritz-Carlton brand. It was at The Ritz-Carlton, in Berlin, Germany, that he was first promoted to Executive Chef before broadening his horizons to help open the Al Bustan Palace, a Ritz-Carlton Hotel, in Muscat, Oman. 

 

Sodemann’s career has garnered him international recognition and accolades: in 2012 and 2014, he won The Ritz-Carlton’s Award of Culinary Excellence (ACE) Chef of the Year for the Middle East & Africa, and he was also named The Ritz-Carlton’s ACE Global Chef of the Year in 2014.

 

The hotel’s Director of Food & Beverage, Emmanuel Nelo, has accrued 15 years of service to the Ritz-Carlton brand. An expert sommelier and bartender, he has managed the dining and banquet experiences of some of the chain’s destinations, including Bali, Jakarta, Aruba, Santiago, Cancun, and even Muscat, where he worked with Sodemann at Al Bustan Palace.

 

The property’s Director of Sales & Marketing, Antoine Hobeika, arrives from Paris, France, where he served as Marriott International’s Cluster Director of Sales, overseeing sales and marketing across three luxury hotels in the French capital. Before that, he was at the Dorchester Collection hotel, Le Richemond, in Geneva, and also played a key role in the opening of the Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel & Spa, in the UAE.

 

Abdelaziz Salhab, Director of Finance, has been loyal to Marriott International for two decades, serving as the Levant Area Director of Finances and overseeing finances for the group’s hotels in Jordan and across the Levant region, with experience at the Sheraton Amman Al Nabil Hotel.

 

The most recent recruit, Director of Revenue, Rajvi Damur, is a tech-savvy strategist who is making his way to Amman from his current position at The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain. Damur earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in International Hotel Management from Vatel while working for Marriott International properties in Mauritius.

 

Among the other talents taking up leading roles at the hotel are:

- Majd Haddad, Director of Human Resources, comes from W Amman, where she served as Human Resources Manager during the pre-opening and launch phase, and later as Assistant Director of Human Resources.

- As Director of Engineering, Hazem Albedawi will be keeping everything running smoothly at the property. His experience includes positions at The Boulevard Arjaan by Rotana, Kempinski Hotel Ishtar Dead Sea, and the Grand Hyatt Amman Hotel.-TradeArabia News Service