Fadlallah Zayat, a manager with an over 20-year experience with Marriott hotel chain became CEO of the five-star JW Marriott Hotel in Bucharest on April 1. This is his first CEO job, after having served as regional chief financial officer for 54 hotels in 16 countries, the company said.
He replaced Israeli executive Igael Porecki, who had held the position since 2009.
Another hotel that had a change at the top in the last six months is Crowne Plaza, a four-star hotel held and operated by ANA Hotels as a franchise of the Intercontinental group. Crowne Plaza appointed Angelo Zuccala to general manager. He replaced German Franz Rattenstetter, who had run the hotel since 2011 and in 2001-2007. Rattenstetter retired.
Angelo Zuccala has a 19-year experience in the hospitality industry and has spent the last 12 of them working for InterContinental Hotels Group (IHT), where he specialized in sales, food & beverage and operations management.
Four-star Howard Johnson Hotel, too, changed its CEO at the end of last year, after Sonia Nastase, who had run the hotel in the past five years, took the position of country manager of Nespresso Romania, the specialist espresso and coffee machine sales unit of Switzerland’s Nestle.
The new CEO of Howard Johnson, which will switch to Sheraton brand and return to the five-star rating is Daniel Ben-Yehuda, 44, who had previously run Ramada Plaza and Ramada Parc hotels part of the Parc Hotels complex in Bucharest for ten years.
At the end of last year, the Competition Council approved the deal whereby Cyprus-based Tatika Investments, the owner of the Ramada Parc and Ramada Plaza, took over International Business Trading, the owner of Howard Johnson Bucharest.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)