Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa, Singapore has made Tane Picken its new resident manager. Picken brings over 13 years of hospitality experience across China, Africa, the Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand to his new role. He was last cluster director of business development for a five-star hospitality establishment in Thailand.

Tane Picken
Urs Solenthaler
Edsa Shangri-La, Manila has appointed Urs Solenthaler resident manager. Prior to this appointment, Solanthaler served as senior executive service manager A&G at Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta and also at Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort & Spa.

Brett Jeffery
Australasian Society of Association Executives (AuSAE) has appointed Brett Jeffery general manager, New Zealand. He has served on the AuSAE board for the past five years, and has more than 20 years of industry experience. He was recently sales and marketing manager at Rotorua Events and Venues.
Taro Tan
Taro Tan has joined Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa as hotel manager. Tan, who had started his hospitality career in 1989, was most recently with the Landmark Lancaster Hotel Group in Thailand, where he held dual roles of area director of rooms and hotel manager of Lancaster Bangkok. Meanwhile, the hotel has also welcomed Colin Yeoh as resident manager. He joins from Raffles Hainan where he held the same title.
Yngvar Stray
Yngvar Stray now heads Harbour Grand Kowloon as general manager. He joins from Banyan Tree Shanghai on the Bund where he played the same role.

Alexander Wassermann
Alexander Wassermann is now general manager of InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong. Wassermann returns to the hotel after his departure in 2010 as hotel manager. He was last general manager of the InterContinental Beijing Beichen and area general manager of InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, North China.

Adeline Sang
Dorsett Hospitality International has named Adeline Sang the new general manager of Lushan Resort in Jiangxi Province, China. Sang has over 32 years of extensive operational and management capabilities in the hotel industry and was involved in the successful opening of properties such as Sheraton Towers Singapore and Hotel Mulia Senayan, Jakarta.
Nick Porter
Nick Porter has taken on the role of general manager at Regent Beijing. He has a wealth of experience in sales and marketing leadership and hotel management, including stints at resorts in Langkawi and Bali and city hotels in Shanghai and Beijing.
John Gerrard
Outrigger Hotels & Resorts has appointed John Gerrard its area general manager Australia and general manager of the 409-room Outrigger Surfers Paradise in Queensland. Gerrard comes with extensive work experience in various South-east Asian destinations. He was recently operational consultant for Temple Tree and Bon Ton Resorts in Malaysia.
Indian MICE agents form association for stronger industry ties
AN ASSOCIATION aimed at bringing together various Indian MICE industry players and plugging the market’s information gap was formed this month.
The Network of Indian MICE Agents (NIMA) counts about 50 MICE and business travel suppliers across India as members, and will embark on training sessions, roadshows, advertising, tradeshows and joint promotions.
Jagdeep Bhagat, founder member and coordinator branding, NIMA, said: “NIMA will create a dynamic news stream of worldwide information about MICE-related events to allow access to its members, who can plan their bids and participation well in advance.”
He added: “So far, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Catalunya Convention Bureau, Catalan Tourist Board and Cyprus Convention Bureau have agreed to be destination partners of NIMA.”
NIMA advisor Rajesh Sethi said: “We will bring into play the importance of MICE organisations in Tier Two and Three cities, where rapid growth is evident.”
The new association is expected to help MICE companies bid for events.
Meanwhile, the India Convention Promotion Bureau will organise a roadshow in Chennai on August 1 to promote the city’s MICE infrastructure to potential clients.








