GM Appointments at Oakwood Asia Pacific

Oakwood Asia Pacific has made the following general manager appointments.

The five appointed general managers are Lina Abdullah in Oakwood Residence Garden Towers Bangna, Bangkok; Vignesh Mani in Oakwood Residence Sukhumvit Thonglor (Bangkok); Anil Chavan in Oakwood Premier Mumbai, Yong Soon Park in Oakwood Premier Incheon and Young-Chul Shim in Oakwood Premier Coex Center Seoul.

"We are at an exciting time in the story of Oakwood Asia Pacific Ltd," said Dean Schreiber, managing director, Oakwood Asia Pacific, Ltd.. "As we build on our foundations and consolidate for accelerating growth, I am delighted that these individuals, all with years of experience and having achieved significant results in their previous roles, have decided to join us in these new appointments. I look forward to these talents helping to bring Oakwood and its brands to greater heights."

Lina Abdullah, appointed general manager of Oakwood Residence Garden Towers Bangna, Bangkok, joins from Onyx Hospitality Group where she was general manager at the 5-star business hotel, Amari Dhaka in Bangladesh. Her 14 years’ experience in the hospitality industry included stints in the Marriott group where she spent ten years, and at InterContinental. She has worked in Malaysia and in the U.K. At Oakwood Residence Garden Towers Bangna, she will not only manage the serviced apartments but also the Bangna Convention Center and the Food Camp by Oakwood.

Vignesh Mani, appointed general manager of Oakwood Residence Sukhumvit Thonglor, has returned to the Oakwood fold, where he was previously director of sales and marketing for the two properties in Bangalore. His past experience included working at Marriott. Vignesh holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad and a Bachelors in Hotel Administration from Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration, Manipal, India.

Anil Chavan has been promoted to the position of associate general manager, Oakwood Premier Mumbai, where he was previously director of sales and marketing. Anil has been with Oakwood Premier Mumbai since November 2009 when he started as associate director of sales, before being promoted to director of sales, then director of sales & marketing. With 17 years’ experience in the travel and hospitality business, his hotel career included stints with Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Le Royal Meridien, InterContinental and Marco Polo. Besides India, Anil has worked in Dubai and speaks English, Hindi and Russian. Anil holds a post-graduate Management in Marketing qualification from the Wellinkars Institute of Management, after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, in Philosophy, from the University Of Mumbai.

(Yong Soon) Park has moved from Oakwood Premier Coex Center Seoul to Oakwood Premier Incheon in the same capacity as general manager. YS first joined Oakwood Premier Coex Center Seoul as director of rooms in September 2002, was promoted to executive assistant manager in January 2008, and promoted to general manager in 2009. During his tenure he has maintained average occupancy at above 90 percent and achieved higher average rate each year, even through the financial crisis of 2008 and various economic and political situations. His experience and track record in establishing Oakwood in Seoul will be invaluable as he seeks to establish the same premier position for Oakwood Premier Incheon, which opened in July last year.

Taking over from YS Park as general manager of Oakwood Premier Coex Centre Seoul is Young-Chul Shim. YC has been in the hospitality industry since 1988 spending many years at Hotel Shilla and the last two years in Mayfield Hotel & Resort, where he opened 57 Serviced Suites as part of the hotel. In a distinguished 23-year career with Shilla Hotels in both Seoul and Jeju, YC implemented Six Sigma projects (he holds a Six Sigma black belt), chalked up several sales, revenue and cost-saving accomplishments and won several accolades for revenue and innovation.YS holds a Master of Management in Hospitality from Sejong University, and a Bachelor of Arts in German from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. In addition to Korean, German and English, he also speaks Japanese.