Corinthia appoints general manager, regional VP

Corinthia Hotels International (CHI) has announced the appointment of German national Stefan Buchs as general manager of the Corinthia Hotel Prague.

Mr Buchs has also been appointed vice-president of western and central Europe for CHI.

In addition to managing the five-star Prague hotel, Mr Buchs will be directly responsible for all of CHI's operations and profitability across the Corinthia, Wyndham and Ramada brands the company operates in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, and Russia. He will be based in Prague, and will be reporting directly to company chief executive officer Tony Potter.

Stefan's background and experience as an international hotelier well equips him for his new role. He joins CHI from London where he was a successful senior general manager at the Millennium Hotel London Mayfair. Previous to that, he was general manager of London's Portman Hotel for three years, and general manager of the Radisson SAS five-Star Deluxe Hotel in Prague for another five.

Besides being an experienced operator, Mr Buchs has extensive sales and marketing experience across Europe with Radisson SAS and with Hilton International. During his long career with Hilton, he held positions of director of sales and marketing at the 800-room Prague Hilton, assistant area director of sales based in Germany, and travel trade area sales manager. He was also director of sales and marketing for the Radisson Prague.

CEO Tony Potter said: "We are fortunate to have Stefan join our team at such an exciting period in our international expansion drive. His recognised management skills and wide multi-market and multi-brand experience fit our newly created regional set up to a tee. His immediate focus will be our Czech operations, and in particular, the Corinthia Hotel Prague. At the same time, he will be taking immediate overall control of the other hotels falling within his regional responsibility, ensuring the development of the Corinthia, Wyndham and Ramada brand cultures and standards within the various CHI properties in that region."

Mr Buchs is a graduate of the Les Roches Crans-Montana hotel school in Switzerland and speaks fluent German, English and French. He will take up his new appointment on April 1.

The Corinthia Hotel Prague is a member of the newly repositioned upper luxury Corinthia Hotels brand and of the Wyndham Grand Collection. It is owned by Malta-based International Hotel Investments plc (IHI) and managed by Corinthia Hotels International (CHI), a hotel operating company that is a joint venture between IHI and the Wyndham Hotel Group.