Macao News

Filipe Ramos: ‘I’ve always been mesmerised by hotels’

Sara Santos Silva — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 12:37:41 +0800

When Filipe Ramos entered Macao’s hospitality industry in 1997, he remembers the city as a “sleepy village”. There were just four five-star hotels: Hotel Lisboa, Mandarin Oriental (now Artyzen Grand Lapa), Hotel Regency (now Regency Art Hotel) and The Westin (now Grand Coloane Resort). But over the subsequent decades, Ramos would witness the former Portuguese enclave’s dramatic transformation into an international tourism hub. Born into a Macanese family in 1975, as one of three siblings, the hotelier carries his identity with pride. “As a Macanese, I was lucky enough to experience both Portuguese and Chinese cultures together,” he says. Ramos, who speaks four languages – English, Portuguese, Cantonese and Mandarin – believes his upbringing taught him to respect different ways of life, which has served him well in an international, people-centric career. By the time Ramos finished secondary school in Colégio Yuet Wah’s English section, he was ready to embark on a dynamic career, and hospitality seemed to be a perfect fit. It offered a doorway into a seemingly glamorous life and a chance to meet interesting new people. “I’ve always been mesmerised by hotels,” Ramos says. “As a kid, I was amazed by the glam and glitz of hotels and their lobbies, the beautiful interior design and architecture.”

Passion over practicality

Before casinos and megahotels put Macao on the map, most of Ramos' friends aspired to work as bankers or civil servants. They wanted stable jobs with competitive retirement packages. But Ramos decided to go against the grain and follow his passion. In 1992, Ramos packed his bags for Switzerland, where he studied International Hospitality Management in Brig, a scenic mountain town in southern Switzerland. “I got to learn the true art of hospitality from very passionate people,” Ramos describes. “In Europe you get to see the best in food, wine and service.” During his time in Europe, Ramos honed his cooking skills through internships at various restaurants in Portugal and Geneva, Switzerland. “I cultivated a passion for food when I was there,” he says. This led him to take a job as a cook at Geneva’s Mövenpick Restaurant Cendrier (now closed) after graduating. While most of the time he worked in the cold kitchen, preparing food to serve at the casual dining area, he would occasionally help out in the higher stakes steak and seafood kitchens.

Macao’s hospitality boom

In Switzerland, Ramos’ modest paycheque could not keep up with his expanding taste for gourmet experiences, he admits with a laugh. “When my parents stopped sending me money, I had to survive. And I just couldn’t.” His mother encouraged him to return home. Ramos eventually acquiesced, agreeing to spend Christmas with his family. While in Macao, he sent out a few CVs “just for fun”. It was 1997, roughly 10 years before Macao’s gaming boom. Although only a few luxury hotels existed, he found a job easily. He took a job as a banquet supervisor at what was then The Westin, where he supervised a small but nimble team, responsible for catering all kinds of events, including the Macao Grand Prix. In December 1999, Ramos and his team catered the cocktail reception during the state banquet marking Macao’s handover from Portugal to China. More than 2,000 people attended, all VIPS, including leaders from China, Portugal, and Portuguese-speaking nations around the world. Among the dignitaries, Ramos recalls seeing then-Presidents Jiang Zemin of China and Jorge Sampaio of Portugal. Watching the lowering of the Portuguese flags, he says, was an unforgettable experience. “To me, as a Macanese, it was memorable and bittersweet,” he says. “We were not sure of what would happen to our identity.” Indeed, Macao's days as a small, slow-paced town would soon come to an end. In the early 2000s, when the city’s gaming industry opened to international operators, casinos and megahotels opened in droves. Suddenly, it seemed like everybody wanted to work in hotels, Ramos recalls. Local schools and universities scrambled to develop hospitality courses to keep pace with the rapidly growing industry. The city’s sole hospitality school, the Institute of Tourism Studies (now the Macao Institute for Tourism Studies), was soon joined by hospitality curricula at Macau University of Science and Technology, City University, and the Macao Polytechnic Institute (now the Macao Polytechnic University), he recalls. “It was a huge transformation, from a sleepy village to an international city,” he says, admitting that he sometimes misses those simpler times. “It’s actually truly amazing what they did, and I was lucky enough to witness it.”

A highlight of his career

After a decade with The Westin, during which he married and had a son (who’s now 19 and studying in Singapore), Ramos felt ready for a new challenge. In 2008, he moved to mainland China to work as the Food and Beverage Director at the Sheraton Chengdu Lido Hotel. Three years later, he returned home to work on the pre-opening team of the world’s largest Sheraton hotel – then under the Legacy Starwood group – consisting of a staggering 4,000 guestrooms. “We opened hot, meaning the hotel was full, and on time,” he says, adding that the opening was one of the most remarkable achievements in his career. The Sheraton Grand Macao went on to welcome 10 million guests in its first six years of operation. Ramos served as the hotel’s Director of Food & Beverage for roughly six years, then was promoted to Executive Assistant Manager of Operations in 2017. This new role introduced Ramos to multi-property management, as he had to split time between two Marriott properties: the Sheraton Grand Macao and the neighbouring The St. Regis Macao. In March 2021, the hotel group promoted him to Manager of both hotels, in recognition of his work ethic and leadership skills. After years of dedication, Ramos has been recognised by one of Asia’s renowned hotelier awards platforms. At the Stelliers Greater China 2022 Grand Awards, he won the Hotel Manager/Resident Manager of the Year award.

Managing two of the city’s biggest hotels

[caption id="attachment_57807" align="alignnone" width="2048"] Ramos saw Macao bloom from a quiet small town into an international tourism hub[/caption] While overseeing hotel operations – including the front office, butlers, housekeeping, food and beverage services, facilities and security – for both hotels, Ramos says doing “the rounds”, or roving the property and talking to guests and staff, is an essential part of his daily routine. “Hotels are 99 per cent about people,” Ramos says. “One of the traits I see from good leaders is effective two-way communication. It’s really important that you listen and stay transparent.” You also have to respect people, he says, and encourage staff to share ideas. “It allows creativity, positive changes and improvements.” Like most hotel managers, Ramos experienced unprecedented challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic, when tourist arrivals came to an abrupt stop. But the Marriott team acted quickly and successfully applied for Sheraton Grand Macao to become a medical observation hotel. “We’ve done nine rounds of medical observation, serving 27,000 guests and 260,000 room nights collectively for the past two years,” Ramos says. “It wasn’t easy, but it’s something very meaningful to myself and to a lot of people who have been part of it.”

Embracing his Macanese identity

As an avid traveller, Ramos has found it challenging to be stuck in Macao during the pandemic. But he enjoys exploring and photography the city, which has helped him better appreciate Macao. “[There are] little details you sometimes miss or take for granted, but when you look through your camera you start to see things from a very different angle,” he says. He also loves to cook, which is more than just a hobby for Ramos. He sees cooking the foods he grew up with – tacho (a pork, chicken, cabbage and bean stew), porco bafassá ( braised and roasted pork with turmeric), and his favourite, minchi (minced pork and beef with potato hash topped with a fried egg) – as a way of keeping Macanese culture alive. These two interests – cooking and photography – merged earlier this year, when Ramos helped his mother, Catarina Canavarro Ramos, produce a recipe book, Macanese Homecooking, which was published in English in May 2022. On weekends, he took photos of his mum’s dishes to bring the recipes in the book to life. The project, he says, “gathered all my hobbies: cooking, eating, food photography and my interest in my own identity.” Having witnessed such profound changes in Macao in his 25-year career, Ramos is well aware that the next quarter-century could bring equally dramatic transformation. That’s why it’s all the more important to protect Macao's heritage – “the amalgamation of Chinese, Portuguese and South East Asian cultures into its own Macanese culture,” he says. “There’s still a lot to do in terms of retaining this unique identity, by preserving, understanding and promoting Macanese cuisine and the distinct Patuá language.” Of course, Macao’s ascent from small town to international tourism hub propelled Ramos’ career and helped him cherish his Macanese identity more deeply. Choosing to focus on opportunities rather than struggles, the hotelier looks forward to being part of the city’s evolving story. This article has been last updated on 3 January 2023

Rauf Malik

Macao News — Thu, 06 May 2021 13:50:40 +0800

Rauf Malik has been moving his entire life. Today, as the Vice President of Operations at the JW Marriott Hotel Macau and The Ritz-Carlton, Macau, he is less a man without a country, than a true citizen of the world. When Malik was just a young boy, his father passed away suddenly and his mother was left to raise nine children in Chicago, US. She kept the inevitable chaos at bay by introducing a clear division of labour between siblings, instilling a sense of responsibility and care for one another. Each did their part to keep the family afloat. It was during this era that Malik developed not just his indefatigable work ethic, but his acumen in managing a residence. “My mother basically got everybody around the table and said, ‘Ok, now we’re gonna run the house like a hotel.’ She assigned everybody a job except the three babies, and I was in charge of housekeeping.” It was a defining moment for Malik. “I am what I am today because of my mother,” he says. As a result of this upbringing, he was better prepared than most for his first hotel job as a bellhop in Chicago. The limited duties of a bellboy paled in comparison to his tasks at home, and the young Malik found himself breezing through his duties with time to spare. Not one for idle hands, Malik remembers cheerfully finding extra work for himself, routinely going above and beyond his job description. “I gave myself a new title,” he says. “‘General manager of the lobby.’” He sought to make himself invaluable to as many different departments of the 1,100-room hotel as possible. He learned how to work the hotel’s industrial laundry machines, and even helped prepare meals in the kitchen. Every day, he arrived early at 7 am and never left until after 5 pm. It wasn’t long before his bosses took notice. After he was called in for his first meeting with the hotel’s general manager, Malik demonstrated a confidence that would become his trademark in the business. When asked why he was putting in so much effort despite his low stature as a trainee bellboy, Malik responded: “Because I want to sit where you’re sitting.”

Going places

It’s likely that the young Malik could never have dreamed where that ambition would take him. As he rose through the ranks of his first hotel job, then second and third, he flourished as a natural-born leader who could thrive in diverse settings. For more than 40 years, Malik would again find himself travelling the world, this time on his own accord. He accepted postings in Saudi Arabia, Germany and Malaysia, then across to the nascent market of Greater China, where he worked in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, before he was offered a job in Macao. Along the way, he developed a reputation as a problem solver. In Guangzhou, he oversaw the rebranding of China Hotel by Marriott between 2003 and 2006, while in Beijing, he was assigned to lead the opening of the 1,450-room Beijing Marriott Hotel City Wall, just 45 days before the city’s Summer Olympic Games in 2008. A notoriously transient industry, Malik has distinguished himself less by his openness to moving on, as his willingness to stay put. He’s been with Marriott International for more than 32 years and says he still has the ability to surprise his bosses, often by simply just sticking around. Especially at the higher levels, hotel managers often find themselves moving continents every few years, helming different properties, from family-oriented vacation compounds to golf resorts and casino hotels. Malik is proud of his dedication and loyalty, and says it’s earned him trust and gratitude with employers everywhere that he’s worked – with some expressing their appreciation more ostentatiously than others. Malik made a reputation for himself as an “action man”, someone who takes bold action and doesn’t shy from confronting challenges head-on. Even the managers who were hard on him did so out of a sense of fondness and goodwill. He still remembers his first mentor, John Girard, a hotelier with passion and vision, and his tough approach when it came to the young Malik. “He beat my ass,” laughs Malik, describing Girard as a stickler with a sharp eye for detail, who would routinely hold him to task. That rigour and seriousness when it came to his craft has influenced Malik’s professional life ever since.

Home at last?

Malik’s on-the-go lifestyle – the only lifestyle he’s ever really known – is one that certainly suits him but he feels he’s found his spiritual home in Asia. “Asians – and I call myself Asian – we’re good at putting guests first. The attitude is different here and we serve from the heart,” he says proudly. After seven years in Macao, in one of Asia’s famous touristic hubs, is it possible that this lifelong wanderer has finally found a home? Malik says there’s much to love about the city that he would miss, should he ever leave. “We have sights here, you can go downtown and see beautiful churches. Then we have this beautiful cuisine and I love food,” he says. “Macao also has this incredible history, and a unique mix of cultures, both Chinese and Macanese culture... and I love it.” It’s a devotion that’s only deepened over the last year, with more time on his schedule to explore and appreciate his current home. “During Covid-19, I’ve discovered more of Macao than in the last seven years put together.” Despite the positive spin, Malik admits that the pandemic has been one of the hardest challenges that he – and the whole hospitality industry – have ever had to face. Still, his confidence hasn’t wavered. “Without a doubt, we will prevail,” he says. If a lifetime of catering to other people’s needs – whether they be guests, owners or one of nine siblings in a single-parent home – is taking a toll on Malik, he doesn’t show it. He’s more committed than ever to the structure and order that’s given him the life he has today. “I kick off my mornings with a 10-kilometres run to refresh my mind and body. “Every day I leave my home and I’m ready to take on new challenges – it's just like going to the office for the first time.”

Janet McNab

Charley Lanyon — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 21:49:04 +0800

As multi-property vice president of the Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel and The St. Regis Macao, Janet McNab is responsible for more than 4,000 rooms and 1,500 employees. She has advanced her career in an industry that, until recently, women were overwhelmingly outnumbered in management ranks. And now, as hotels everywhere face unprecedented challenges under the pall of Covid-19, McNab, 56, draws from decades of experience and grit to weather the storm. She owes her experience to Starwood, where she has worked in more than eight postings in as many cities over the past two decades. But she owes that grit to her parents. “My parents grew up in a small village in southern Italy, and emigrated to Australia in the 1950s,” McNab says. In their early twenties, they were part of a wave of migration of Southern Europeans fleeing the devastation of World War II for the promise of a better life in Australia. “They arrived with almost nothing in a faraway land where they didn’t speak the language and knew little of the culture, but they worked extremely hard to give us better opportunities,” says McNab with evident pride. Her father took the only work he could find, cutting sugarcane: “And,” says McNab, “that hard work ethic and determination to succeed has been passed on to me.” McNab not only inherited her parents’ grit, but their pragmatism, too. Describing somebody as practical may not sound like praise. Practical people play it safe. They stay, as stereotypes go, within bounds, enjoy well-worn routines and leave the risk-taking to the foolhardy and frivolous. So, what then to make of Janet McNab? A woman who has parlayed fierce dedication to practicality and strategic thinking into a life of globetrotting, professional success and personal fulfillment. Ask her what she wanted to be growing up, and McNab won’t say astronaut or ballerina, but a courtroom reporter, because: “You could build quite a career on it.” Instead, in 1980 she forwent university to work in a local law office as a paralegal – even that was a challenge for her parents, who would have preferred she get married and get a reliable job in government. She soon found her office job too boring to bear. “I needed to keep pushing that envelope,” she says.

Finding a home in hospitality

Though McNab had ruled out mundane office life, she still wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. She made an asset of her indecision and cast a wide net, ready to go wherever the future took her. “I thought of everything I would like to do, and just applied to about 40 different organisations.” This led to an interview with the Sheraton Brisbane Hotel and Towers where she was hired for a job in administration as the hotel’s convention and service assistant in 1988. Sheraton was quick to realise McNab’s potential and, within six months of starting, the company moved her to sales where she worked in a number of roles in sales and catering operations ultimately ending up as the director of sales and marketing – a role she relishes to this day. The hotel industry was different then, no one discussed the budgets and a hard-sell might mean taking someone out to tea. Looking back, she remembers her first months on the job as mostly a procession of parties. While more fun than being a paralegal, her role as director started giving her the same restless feeling. Except this time, it was Australia itself that felt too confining. “It just wasn’t big enough for me,” McNab remembers. “Australia is a totally domestic market, whereas here,” she says of her new home in Macao, “it’s totally international.” McNab has never been the type to shy away from hard work. While climbing the corporate ladder in Brisbane, she decided it was time to also go back to school. In 2001, she earned an MBA from the Queensland University of Technology with degrees in strategic management and new venture marketing, all while working full-time at the Sheraton Brisbane. Her academic experience, McNab remembers, instilled a new sense of confidence and a clear professional framework. Going forward, she set her sights on two things: getting out of Australia and becoming a hotel general manager.

Setting off and seeing the world

Even then her desire to travel wasn’t driven by a youthful longing for adventure. Instead, she says all along she was “seeking career growth and opportunity.” When a position opened up in 2002 at the Sheraton Nanjing Kingsley Hotel & Towers, she jumped at it, despite having no experience in China. She found herself in a foreign city with a massive job to do. “The role was very broad: I was responsible for developing the strategic direction for the property, building the local profile of the property, lifting the expertise of the sales team’s skills, and directing and managing the hotel advertising strategy.” On top of professional challenges, were the equally daunting personal adjustments. “It was a big culture shock,” says McNab. “I don’t speak Mandarin so communicating was hard, and I lived at the hotel.” Still she thinks mostly of that time as an adventure, and as an important launchpad for her career. “I did learn a lot,” she says, “and these experiences help you grow professionally and personally.” Her ambition made an impression, and her boss in Nanjing enrolled her in an in-house programme called the “General Manager High Potential Track.” She was in the programme’s first class intake, and its only female participant: “First female, first batch,” she likes to say. Whether she knew it at the time, McNab was about to start a long career of globetrotting. Today, she refers to herself as “a nomad,” but unlike many people who join up with the hotel industry, her goal was never just to see the world. “It’s about the job, not the place,” says McNab, with a single-mindedness and commitment to her career that have defined her professional life. “I’ve always taken on jobs for the role itself and the opportunity for growth.” At times, she would even take positions that would seem like a step down, as long as they furthered her longer-term goals and improved her CV. For instance, when she took the job as the pre-opening general manager of Four Points by Sheraton in Bangkok, many of her peers called her in confusion, seeing the Four Points as a step down from the Le Méridien Bali Jimbaran and a 5-star brand where she had worked prior. That’s not how she viewed it. All McNab saw was the chance to put the experience of opening a hotel in a new region on her resume. “Sometimes you move down, sometimes you move sideways. You just need to move.” But her time in Nanjing was certainly a move upwards. Nanjing not only represented the first big step in her career, but also a watershed moment for her personal life. After all, it was in Nanjing that she met her husband. The fast-track general manager programme turned out to be just that, and in less than three years, McNab became the marketing director for Starwood across Indonesia. And in less than a year, she moved to Malaysia, directing sales and marketing for Southeast Asia. The role covered Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei – and she oversaw 22 separate properties. After two stints in Thailand – including the Four Points job – she accepted her current job in Macao in 2015.

McNab faces her biggest challenge yet: Macao

Macao is smaller geographically than McNab’s previous domains, but the job is enormous. As the multi-property vice president, a role she started in 2019, she oversees two distinct properties – Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel and The St. Regis Macao, and in 2018, McNab was on hand to greet the Sheraton Grand Macao’s 10 millionth guest. “No two days are the same,” says McNab. “What I love both about this role is just how dynamic it is.” Still, she knows that many people probably hear stereotypes about what it means to work in hotels. “People are beguiled by the luxury,” she says gesturing around her, “by the fact they see so much marble.” “But what I do is much more financially focused. From where I sit, I have a responsibility for good governance, for compliance, for financial performance. People probably don’t see that so much.” Perhaps, but she has faced challenges in her career that your average compliance officer couldn’t imagine: riots, coups and terrorist attacks. “I was in a regional role in Bali during a series of terrorist bomb blasts in 2005, which was certainly frightening and challenging,” she remembers. “I was scheduled to have dinner with visitors at a restaurant where one of the explosions took place. While I was grateful to be safe, it broke my heart to see the destruction and the impact on those who were affected.” This year has brought the biggest challenge yet, as Covid-19 continues to rock the hospitality industry. Just a year ago, Macao hotels were thriving. But with the outbreak, McNab has watched the impact of the pandemic dramatically reduce visitors to Macao, and ultimately, guests at her hotels. “Last year, we were positioned to blitz out our numbers! But now,” she says shaking her head, “I’ve been sent back to school.” “I’m very grateful I’ve had the level of experience I had before Covid. I think when you don’t have the confidence that experience gives you, it would have been very intimidating to make some of these decisions.” While her years in Macao have posed new professional challenges, they have also been richly fulfilling on a personal level. She has dedicated herself to mentoring women in the field and, in doing so, has earned a reputation as a trailblazer for women in her industry. A dog lover since childhood, McNab also has a pet, a toy poodle named Bella — “the joy of my life,” she says. And she has also discovered long-distance running. Her first marathon run in Cambodia in 2011 at the age of 46, was like “first love”. She is training hard for her second, alternating high-intensity workouts with long distance morning runs. Even on her few days off – as in her professional life – she is a woman who must keep moving.

Vikram Reddy

Tanja Wessels — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 11:31:25 +0800

Vikram Reddy has spent decades building a career at one of the world’s most prestigious hotel groups, yet he’s no stranger to the art of hospitality. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say his career journey started at home with a mother who made everyone feel welcome. Born on 2 January 1958 in Hyderabad, India, Reddy was the youngest of six. “I had a fantastic experience growing up; we were four brothers and two sisters. We had loving parents and grandparents,” he says of his home, always bustling with visiting relatives. While his father worked for the government in the sales tax department, Reddy’s mother was a homemaker. “My mom was very friendly – she enjoyed having people around all the time. If anyone came around an hour before mealtime, she made sure they stayed to eat with us. That had a big influence on me and, even today, all my brothers and sisters follow in her footsteps.” In elementary and secondary school Reddy was an “OK student”. It wasn’t until college that he started to apply himself. “That’s when I realised in life that, if you want to move forward, you need to get educated, you need to do a better job.” In 1978 Reddy earned a degree in accounting from Osmania University in Hyderabad. And in 1980, he packed his bags for California, on a green card sponsored by his brother. He continued his education at California State University, Long Beach, where he pursued a bachelor’s in business. The topic leveraged Reddy’s natural organisational and problem-solving skills, not to mention his penchant for finance. He worked at the Quality Inn Anaheim, near Disneyland Anaheim, as a night audit clerk. Reddy looked after the hotel’s accounting, while also checking guests in and out. This gave him the opportunity to meet new people, chat and connect. “It was supposed to be part-time, just to pay some bills during college,” he recalls. “But I started enjoying the business, so when I graduated from college, I decided to stick around in the industry.” The original plan was to become a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) upon graduation. “However, after deep consideration, I thought I wouldn’t be able to sit in an office and work for 10 hours a day. I like to meet people all the time, and I thought the hotel business is the right one for me.” After graduation, Reddy started working full-time at the hotel and, over the next 10 years, worked in the finance departments of a few hotel management companies that ran international names including Ibis, Days Inn and Ramada Hotels. On top of his day job, Reddy always seized every opportunity to help out with operations – a wide-ranging sector of the industry that encompasses the day-to-day running of a hotel, from customer relations to human resources, housekeeping, food service and sales. During this period, Reddy’s personal life blossomed. In 1988 he married his wife, whom he met through friends and family, in California. And in 1990 they welcomed a son, followed by a daughter in 1992. Reddy continued to stay open to new opportunities at work. “I knew someone working for Four Seasons and they invited me for Sunday brunch at Four Seasons Newport Beach,” he recalls.

“I was very impressed with how they treated me at the door, with the service in the restaurant, and the whole experience. That’s when I said, ‘I should work for a hotel like this."

For the next three years, Reddy regularly sent applications to Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts. Finally, after three years, they had an opening for him in 1993: the newly opened Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay in Bali needed an experienced director of finance. Reddy was delighted and nervous in equal measure. On one hand, his dedication had paid off; however, Four Seasons wanted him on the ground in two weeks, and his children were still very young at the time. Reddy’s wife, Madhura, encouraged him to take the job. “You have been waiting for three years for this – pack your bags and go. We’ll join you later,” he recalls her saying. Arriving in Bali, Reddy was blown away by the atmosphere and the staff. “It was very magical. The hotel was spread over 35 acres and felt like a Balinese village,” he recalls. “The Balinese are fantastic people – very hospitable, with big smiles.” The family joined him a few months later. After four successful years in Bali, the company moved Reddy to Singapore in 1997 where he took up a regional role with more responsibility. As the area director of finance, Reddy oversaw three markets: Singapore, Bali and the Maldives. “Singapore was great, a highly efficient city, and the transition was very smooth,” he says. “More importantly, it was safe for my children. My son was seven, and my daughter was five-and-a-half at the time, and we didn't have to worry about safety issues.” In Singapore, he felt ready to shift gears, and that’s where he made a move into operations – something he had always wanted to do. The customer-first approach and all-encompassing nature of hotel operations appealed to Reddy’s love of interacting with guests and other team members. “Deep in my heart, I always wanted to get into operations – it is very dynamic and every day is exciting”. Two years into his Singapore role, Reddy left finance and became the director of rooms at the Four Seasons Hotel Singapore in 1999. “The first couple of months were tough. In the finance department, you are used to working Monday to Friday. You get public holidays off and don't have to worry outside of office hours,” he explains “But when you are in operations, you work whenever you have to.” For his next position, Four Seasons sent him farther afield – to the US. In 2001, Reddy and his family moved to the East Coast, where he became the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia’s hotel manager. [caption id="attachment_36161" align="alignnone" width="1667"] Photo by António Sanmarful[/caption] “When I first went to Philadelphia the way the hotel was run, the efficiency, the number of people they had, compared to the number of roles – it was very different to what we are used to in Asia. You have to run a very tight ship, and take care of a lot of labour management.” The family spent three years in Philadelphia and loved it. They had never lived in a colder climate and welcomed the new experience. But in 2004 it was time to return to Asia. This time as the general manager at the Four Seasons Hotel Jakarta, where Reddy would spend the next 11 years. “I was active in the local communities, embassies, organisations, and also the local Indian community,” he says. "As the general manager, we hosted a lot of events in the hotel, so we used to deal with all the government agencies – many heads of state would stay with us.” Reddy, who had left India in 1980, had always hoped to return. And in 2014, his wish came true when he accepted the role of general manager at Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai. “After 24 years away from India, the country had changed so much – I wanted to experience that change,” he says. “Mumbai was a challenging and enjoyable experience. Though the team was highly motivated and hardworking, the market was tough.” Reddy encountered several issues, from budgets to efficiency and staff retention. “India has a young, ambitious and dynamic workforce in the hospitality sector. They wanted to get promoted quickly, which led to higher employee turnover. But you learn how to persevere.” In 2016 he was promoted to regional vice president and regional manager, overseeing three resorts in Thailand (Koh Samui, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai), as well as one in Jakarta, Indonesia in addition to the Mumbai property. Three years later, the brand offered Reddy a chance to become the general manager of the largest property in the company’s portfolio: Four Seasons Hotel Macao Cotai, which is home to 649 rooms and suites. He continued to oversee the properties in Thailand, as well as Four Seasons Hotel Bengaluru, while getting up to speed in Macao. “I was always fascinated by the idea of working in a casino environment. Although we don’t run the casino, we are attached to it and shared owners,” says Reddy of his move to Macao. “It’s not the casino business itself [that interests me], but the scale of the business.” The hotel has hundreds of rooms and can host thousands of guests at a time across stays, conferences, weddings, dining and more. Every element of operations and service must be designed for fast-pace, large-scale – an energising challenge for Reddy, who was used to overseeing more boutique properties. The hospitality veteran says he also welcomed the opportunity to flex his management muscles and focus on his local staff, cultivating high-calibre leaders across the team. After decades of building his career, travelling, having a family and growing with the Four Seasons brand, Reddy says much of his success comes back to a few key factors: his supportive family, confidence in his decisions, and professional relationships. “Build relationships and network,” he advises. “It’s always people who help you make the move, who help you make decisions. When you are in doubt, talk to someone you are close to and who you see as a mentor – mentorship is very important.” And finally: “Have confidence. Things will always work out if you work hard.”

Meridith Beaujean

Tanja Wessels — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 11:57:46 +0800

If you had told Meridith Beaujean when she was a young girl that someday she’d grow up to become the Executive Director of Sustainability at one of the world’s largest integrated resorts in a far-off city called Macao, she would have been surprised. After all, she grew up in a small town in Belgium and Asia felt like a world away. But she would have leapt at the challenge, nonetheless – spontaneity, curiosity and tenacity have marked every chapter of Beaujean’s life so far. “I am always surprised by what comes next,” says Beaujean. “I’m always wondering: Am I capable of doing that? It’s a kind of challenge and motivation, and in the end, I love it.” Born in 1976, Beaujean grew up in Ciney, in the French speaking region of Belgium. Her parents ran a third-generation butcher shop. “Because my parents were so busy with the shop, I was lucky to be looked after by my grandparents and I travelled extensively from a young age,” Beaujean recalls of her trips around Europe. “For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to travel more.” As a teenager, Beaujean spent a year in a Dutch boarding school, followed by a gap year before university, where she travelled between Germany and the UK, learning both German and English. Once back in Belgium, Beaujean enrolled in Business Administration at ICHEC Brussels Management School, completing a degree in Developing and Emerging Markets’ Economy between 1995 to 1999. “It was business, but more on an international level – not just accounting and finance – that was interesting to me,” she recalls. While studying, Beaujean took an internship in Cameroon, on the Atlantic coast of central-western Africa, in the summer of 1998. She spent a month working for a small, local NGO, where her role was to educate people on waste management – sorting, reduction and composting – in the suburbs of Douala, the largest city in the country. The environmental work would serve her well later in life, but not before a number of other opportunities shaped her career. In her last year of university, Beaujean spent four months in Turkey conducting textile market research for an American company. After finishing her studies, she took a job with an accounting and consulting firm, like many of her peers. “Out of security, I said yes, and I worked for them for 1.5 years in Brussels,” she recalls. “It was a good experience, but definitely not what I was meant [to do].” Following the advice of a former teacher, she applied for an auditing and administrative role at AEDES, a consulting company specialising in public health in developing countries. The organisation offered her a job in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which the 25-year-old accepted, but not without careful consideration. At the time, Congo was in the midst of the Second Congo War, a five-year conflict that involved nine African countries. Given the turbulence, Beaujean felt uncertain living and working in the country, but decided to seize the opportunity. From 2001 to 2003 Beaujean led the Finance and Administration of the European Union Health and Development Program in the DRC for AEDES. At the time, the programme financed global humanitarian organisations, such as Medicines Sans Frontiers and Action Against Hunger, to develop healthcare centres in Congo. Working alongside doctors, Beaujean managed the administration, logistics and financing of 50 public health development projects financed by the European Union and executed by international or local NGOs. Staying in Kinshasa, in November 2003, Beaujean joined the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS’s Junior Professional Officer Programme. As a Program Officer she spent the next two years heading the office administration and finance department, working with doctors and the government, and raising awareness about HIV/AIDS in Congo. When a family situation provided an opportunity to move to Asia, Beaujean, who had never been to the region asked herself: “Why not? Let’s try Macao!” Pregnant with her first child, Beaujean resigned from her role at the United Nations and went to Belgium in 2004 to deliver her son. In March 2005, she arrived in Macao with a three-month-old, ready to start the next chapter of her life. “Funnily enough, the first thing we saw when we arrived by ferry at night was the red logo of the Sands Hotel,” she recalls. “ I will always remember that.” Though safer than Congo, Macao presented its own challenges, particularly when it came to communication. Beaujean spoke French, English and German but she didn’t know Chinese nor Portuguese, the city’s two official languages. There was also the question of returning to work. With no obvious opportunities related to her previous career in developmental agencies, she researched and cast a wide net – and her tenacity paid off. At the end of 2005, Beaujean sent her CV to the Grand Coloane Resort [then The Westin Resort]. Although the resort didn’t have any job vacancies at the time, the director passed her CV to the pre-opening team at Venetian Macao Resort Hotel. The company was looking for a technical writer, someone to create step-by-step instructions to help workers carry out routine operations. “I joined that [Venetian] team in January 2006, and over the next two years, we wrote over 2,000 standard operating procedures [instructional handbooks], documenting everything from how to clean a room to how to set a table to [company] financial procedures.” In 2007 Beaujean had her second son, just as The Venetian opened its doors. After the opening, Beaujean joined the finance department in 2008, working part-time on “process improvement” – essentially, analysing and streamlining financial processes, then implementing them across departments. In 2011, with the opening of Sands Cotai Central, Conrad Macao and Holiday Inn Macao across the road, they invited Beaujean to take on a full-time role as Quality Assurance Manager for both Conrad and Holiday Inn. Without hesitation Beaujean joined the team, where she managed the training programmes until 2015. That same year, another opportunity came knocking. “When the company started building The Parisian [Macao], they asked if I was interested in joining The Parisian Identity Team,” Beaujean recalls. The role involved developing brand guidelines, quality assurance and guest satisfaction – similar to the work she had been doing for Conrad and Holiday Inn. She accepted the position as the Director Operations Excellence, then set to work building the teams to ensure brand compliance and quality standards in a wide range of areas from service to design, construction, brand safety, and guest satisfaction. “[Our work] was really at the heart of everything,” she recalls. “In the hospitality business, providing unmatched guest experience and satisfaction is key. The Operations Excellence [team] collects, reviews and reports guest feedback to the hotel operations team and management.” After three years, Beaujean was then approached to take the lead on Sands China’s sustainability programme as the Executive Director of Sustainability. It presented new challenges, which excited Beaujean, but at this advanced stage of her career, the stakes were higher. “Professionally, it was a risk because I was already recognised in my previous role,” she recalls. “I would have to restart, build the trust and prove myself.” [caption id="attachment_32804" align="alignnone" width="2500"] Meridith Beaujean is well positioned for her future facing role, as the Executive Director of Sustainability Sands China, her work will have far reaching impacts - Photo by António Sanmarful[/caption] The promise of an exciting new chapter, support from her company, and the opportunity to give back to the community convinced Beaujean it was the right move. “It almost felt like going back to university and learning new things really anchored in the real world,” she says. “Nowadays, you can't ignore sustainability and I was happy to get a chance to contribute.” Set up in 2010, the Sands ECO360 global sustainability strategy is based on six key themes: energy, waste, transportation, food, water and procurement. When Beaujean took over in December 2018, the programme had already hit its stride with recognition across a number of platforms. Las Vegas Sands had been added to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, Sands China ranked ninth on the Greater Bay Area Business Sustainability Index and 10th on the Hong Kong Business Sustainability Index. And in Macao, the Venetian became the first hotel to receive the Macao Green Hotel Award – Platinum (2018). “My predecessors [Syed Mubarak and Rishi Tirupari] did a really good job – they really managed to create a spirit of sustainability in the company,” says Beaujean. “I didn’t have to start everything from scratch.” Her first full year on the job, 2019, was a “ good year in terms of business,” she recalls. “It was easy to get support from everybody, from management, from staff. We took a lot of action on single-use plastic reduction – it was thrilling.” In 2019 alone, the hotel removed 2.2 million plastic straws from its food and beverage operations; 15,400 plastic garment bags from the team’s laundry services; and switched from plastic takeaway packaging to corn starch. This past year, however, has proved more challenging. With Covid-19 and the obligatory face masks and hygiene measures, it’s been harder to curb plastic and waste. “We understand ‘safety first’, so [we are] looking at the best sustainable alternatives.” Beaujean says it’s important to raise awareness about waste, sustainability and other environmental issues in Macao, because even small changes can make a big impact. “I have always identified with the quote [by Mahatma Gandhi]: ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world,’” she says. “Every little step, every behaviour change is important in terms of sustainability. Don't wait for big solutions – you can take actions for yourself, your family, your friends and your community.” Outside of work, Beaujean has an active social and family life, filled with dance classes, fitness activities, gardening, and getting involved in community activities, such as rugby with her children. She’s also actively involved with breast cancer awareness initiatives, a cause that’s close to her heart. “As a woman – and because I had close friends who had to fight the disease – I felt very connected to the cause,” she says. “[Raising] awareness gives [people] more chances to cure the disease, so it’s really important to speak [up] about it.” Reflecting on her diverse and unpredictable career, Beaujean says that having an open mind and diligent work ethic have paid off. “My attitude is: even if you are a bit scared, don't say no. Investigate first, and then try it out.” “I definitely want to continue my work in sustainability – there is still so much to be done and so much to learn. It feels good to have a purpose in your job.”

Rutger Verschuren

Macao News — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 16:00:21 +0800

Rutger Verschuren is Area Vice President, Macao Operations of Artyzen Hospitality Group – a subsidiary of Shun Tak Holdings Ltd, and General Manager at Grand Lapa, Macao. Prior to this, he was Chief Operating Officer of the Hospitality Division at Shun Tak Holdings Ltd. He speaks Dutch, English, German, French and moderate Thai. Born in February 1962 in a little village in North Brabant, a province in the southern region of the Netherlands, Verschuren has always shown an entrepreneurial spirit. When he was 14, he started his own business – a discotheque called Disco Tropical. He DJ-ed at weddings, sports events, private parties and even at Carnaval—a big regional festival in the Netherlands—playing ‘70s and ‘80 hits on his own equipment, complete with lightshows. The business was so successful he seriously considered pursuing it professionally after completing secondary school. By the time he was 18, Verschuren had saved up nicely from his DJing gigs as well as working in restaurants on weekends and holidays, from dishwashing to cooking to serving. He was definitely the “cool guy,” riding a Tomos moped and a sporty Alfa Romeo. Verschuren doesn’t recall the exact moment a career in hotel management occurred to him, but when it came time to choose his university major, he decided to lie low on the DJing gigs and attend the bachelor’s hospitality management programme at the Hotel school The Hague. “At some point in time, I wanted to become a doctor, but I would be studying for so many years, and my required chemistry scores weren’t that great,” says Verschuren. The hotel school allowed students to enter the workforce early as well, which appealed to him. In 1985, Verschuren had his first on-the-job experience as a management trainee at The Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, for six months. “I picked The Oriental Hotel as it was the best hotel in the world at that time. It was a very good start for my career. This was prior to the Internet, so what I knew about Thailand came from a 2,000-page travel index with small pictures, and an encyclopedia,” he recalls. Verschuren’s first impression of Asia was, “Wow! It’s very hot!” He remembers his first meal, too, at the employee restaurant at The Oriental: “A chicken broth with all the intestines. I just remember thinking: ‘Oh my God! This is a bad sign – six months of strange food ahead!’” But as it turned out, he fell in love with Thailand, and though he returned after his training to the Netherlands as a company assistant at The Hague’s Kurhaus Hotel, Thailand had captivated his heart. After a few years, Verschuren began to feel antsy. “I felt that moving up the ranks in Holland was a slow process. We could be ambitious, but we had to wait for decades or be very lucky to move up the career ladder. No one ever leaves his or her job!” he explains. “Those days, we had to handwrite every application letter, so I picked up the old hotel index again and applied in 45 different hotels from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta to Hong Kong.” Not receiving any immediate offers to his liking, he quit his job in 1988 and bought a one-way ticket back to Bangkok. He made a few calls to old contacts established during his time at The Oriental Hotel, and soon one lucky day, the phone rang: the Montien Hotel Bangkok was asking for a meeting. Verschuren became Director of Food and Beverage, and that experience taught him an important lesson:

“When you strongly feel you have to do something, you have to do it and follow your guts. Learn when to trust your feeling!”

In 1990, Verschuren received a proposal to become general manager at Thavorn Palm Beach Resort, a family-owned hotel in Phuket. At the age of 28, he was being offered an opportunity that would not have happened back home in Europe until he was at least 50 years old! “Some people told me not to take it as I was so young, but I decided to go for it, and I stayed there for nearly eight years. The owner was very supportive and expanded my responsibility every now and then. I looked after two gorgeous resorts and had learned a lot when I decided to move on.” In Phuket, Verschuren met his wife. Together, they decided to move to Bali, Indonesia, where he was general manager at the Holiday Inn for two and a half years. There, he also became a father to his first son. Manila in the Philippines was his next step. “It was a grey city but filled with colourful and happy people. It was our home for two years.” There, he was also general manager for Holiday Inn, overseeing a 600-room compound with the biggest casino in the Philippines at the time. Two years later, Verschuren was back in Thailand, having joined the Dusit Hotel Group, a conglomerate comprising 22 hotels in Southeast Asia and Dubai. He became vice-president of operations for the group based in Bangkok, where his daughter was born in 2004. In 2008, another opportunity came along and led him to another new chapter – as the managing director at the Sheraton Grand Macao. “I was very intrigued by the size of the hotel,” he says. “It was a project that I looked forward to.” In 2008, Verschuren arrived in Macao to manage the pre-opening of this 4,000-room mega hotel. When the 2008 financial crisis hit, and the Sheraton project was frozen in 2009, he was given the choice to transfer to the Sheraton in either Chongqing, China, or in Libya. Verschuren and his family opted for the latter to experience “somewhere totally different” and lived in North Africa for a year, which he recalls as being “the best family time ever! I never played so much Monopoly in my life,” he jokes. In 2010, Shun Tak Holdings Ltd. offered him a position in Macao working for Shun Tak Hospitality as chief operating officer for Shun Tak Group, hospitality division. “I was quick to say ‘yes,’ as it would be very easy to come back, especially as my kids would go back to the same school with the same friends. I had only been away for one year,” Verschuren states. “One of my first duties was to look after the businesses in Macau Tower, and to open Mandarin Oriental, Macao, owned by a joint venture with Shun Tak, as well as pushing performance at our SkyCity Marriott Hong Kong. When Shun Tak founded Artyzen, a new hospitality subsidiary, I was asked to join as area vice president for Macao operations with office at Grand Lapa.” Verschuren is currently responsible for Grand Lapa, Macao, Grand Coloane Resort and a hotel that will be opening soon in Hengqin, Macao’s neighbor to the south, as well as scouting to expand Artyzen’s portfolio in the region. He is also Chairman of the France Macau Business Association (FMBA), first introduced to the organisation by a colleague. “Ms. Pansy Ho is one of the founders of FMBA. I was asked to help out for a short time, and before I knew it, I was already the Chairman. It is good to give something back to the community, and FMBA has a very active membership base and hosts lots of activities.” With so much responsibility resting on his shoulders, his FMBA commitments and his family, Verschuren’s motto through it all is to “do what your heart tells you to do and work hard to make everyone happy.” and that goes for all in your circle.

Daniella Tonetto

Macao News — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 11:53:25 +0800

Daniella Tonetto is General Manager of Sales and Marketing at the Sheraton Grand Macao, Cotai Central and St. Regis Macao since January 2015. She speaks fluent English. Born 7 December 1974, in Palmerston North, New Zealand, Tonetto is Italian on her father’s side and a New Zealander on the mother’s. Both her parents worked in hospitality, so at an early age, Tonetto developed a passion for the field. Her father has been her life-long mentor and one of her greatest inspirations. “He didn’t always approve of what I did, but he never stopped me and was always there to support me.” In 1977, the family moved to Great Keppel Island but spent a few years moving up and down the coast of Queensland for her father’s work. “I loved the nomadic life we had, although my brother’s experiences were very different from mine. He didn’t like the constant change of pace and lifestyle. I, on the other hand, thought it was wonderful, and I don’t remember actually settling into a house until I was 12.” Tonetto recalls living in Queensland’s coal-mining cities as her father opened the region’s first bars and taverns. It was an eye-opening experience, witnessing towns grow all around her, and to watch as her father played an important role in helping to shape these towns. Tonetto and her brother often helped their parents during the weekends, working the mini-bar or clearing tables in the pubs. Her first experiences in the hospitality world were so labour-intensive that Tonetto initially contemplated being a lawyer or journalist, but they also instilled in her a strong work ethic and a drive to be employed. In 1992, she pursued a degree in Administration and Commerce at James Cook University, North Queensland. One year later, at just 19 years of age, Tonetto decided to jump right back into hospitality by joining a training programme at the Sheraton Mirage in Port Douglas. “In those days, the Sheraton Mirage was by far the best hotel in Australia, so I was very lucky to have my first experience there.” Tonetto spent five years in Port Douglas, climbing the professional ladder quickly. Starting in the telephone room, she then moved up to the front desk before being promoted to Director of Revenue Management. Tonetto considers her career trajectory quite lucky: in those days, such promotions in Australia’s major cities would have been far less likely, especially for someone so young. In January 1998, Tonetto took an adventurous leap of faith, following her then partner to Beijing with no set plans in place. “I left Port Douglas at the height of summer and arrived in Beijing in the dead of winter.” Three months later, she joined The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel, one of China’s first five-star hotels. She started out as Sales Manager, and just a year later, she was promoted to Director of Sales in 1999. “Those days, we used to work predominantly with global markets, not the domestic tourism like we do now. My job was to secure high-level delegations from international embassies visiting Beijing.” Tonetto recalls conducting business during the “fun” times before technology was ubiquitous: “When I arrived, there were 60 people on the Sales team alone and only one computer for the entire office!” When she left in 2002 to take on the Director of Sales position at the Starwood Sydney Complex, she made sure she left the Beijing office fully equipped technologically. Tonetto’s plan was to stay in Australia at the Starwood Sydney Complex for two years before moving back to Asia, and in 2004, she became Director of Sales and Marketing at The Westin Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Over the next four and a half years, Malaysia would become Tonetto’s second home, where she met her husband and where their first daughter was born. But when an amazing opportunity in Australia came knocking in 2008, Tonetto found herself packing her bags once again. “It was a regional role, so I couldn’t refuse it.” Back in Sydney, she became Regional Director of Sales and Marketing: based out of Sheraton on the Park, she managed 25 hotels across the region. In the midst of managing all of these hotels, she had her second daughter and it wouldn’t be long before she felt the itch to move once again. Whilst there, Tonetto heard about The Venetian Macao and recalls thinking, “Wow! That must be a fascinating place to experience both as a guest and an employee, because it’s not just a hotel but an entire ecosystem!” In January 2015, the hotelier and her family moved to Macao to experience that ecosystem first-hand. Tonetto became General Manager of Sales and Marketing at the Sheraton Grand Macao and The St. Regis Macao. Sheraton Grand is not only the largest hotel in Macao, it is also the largest in the Marriott group with 4,001 guest rooms. The St. Regis Macao is also the largest St. Regis hotel in the world. Outside of work, Tonetto is also pursuing a master’s degree at the Australian Institute of Business, studying Business and Administration with an emphasis in Marketing. As a woman in high-level management, she laments that the field lacks more women in senior roles. She attributes this in part to the demanding hours: “It really is a 24/7 industry: the doors never close, and the lights never switch off.” Tonetto attributes her passion, drive and success in the hospitality industry partly to the inspiration she draws from the beauty and culture of her surroundings. For example, “When I was in Port Douglas, I used to walk around the resort and appreciate the beauty of the lagoons. I could see as a guest why people came.” Tonetto likes to escape to Bali when she has the chance, but she is also interested in exploring her Italy heritage. “The relaxed European lifestyle is really appealing with its siestas, great food and emphasis on family and friends. That’s the way life should be!”

Ada Chio de la Cruz

Macao News — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 20:02:12 +0800

Ada Chio de la Cruz is Vice President of Destination Marketing & Brand Strategy at the Grand Lisboa Macau. She speaks English, Shangainese, Cantonese and Mandarin. Born 13 June 1975, in Shanghai, Ada moved with her parents to Macao when she was four. Her mother was a teacher at English section Santa Rosa de Lima, where Ada also went to school. By the time she was eight years old, she began following her artist father to Macao’s historical locations to paint landscapes alongside him. This fostered her love of art, especially for design, and she dreamed of becoming a fashion designer in Paris. However, the trend for her generation was to study Business Administration (BA) in the United Kingdom, so Ada put her dreams aside and went for bachelor’s degree in BA at De Montfort University in Leicester, England, until 1998. She balanced off her school fees with part-time jobs during her university life, which helped her gain work experience overseas in early days. Even though she chose the more pragmatic path, Ada has always found a way to pursue all the things she loves. “The calendar year has 365 days, but it is up to you to decide to make each day different,” she says, full of energy and with a contagious smile. Over an espresso, she laughingly admits that in the past, a normal day for her consisted of eight espressos fueling the extra energy necessary to pursue her very active life. Born in the Year of the Rabbit, Ada is also a Gemini in Western astrology, and she believes these two horoscopes have influenced her approach to life. “I have two faces: one is very quiet and one very social with endless energy.” Ada worked at Mandarin Oriental for 16 years but rejects characterising herself as a workaholic, preferring to describe herself as “the hyperactive girl around the city”. From 2000 until 2009, she moved her way from a rank and file to Director of Communications. In January 2010, she took on the role of Director of Marketing Communications. In August 2012, she was promoted to Regional Director of Communications, North Asia for Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. In this capacity, she oversaw Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, mainland China and South Korea. In 2017, Ada embarked on a new career path at Grand Lisboa Macau, a hotel owned by Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM). Her “hyperactive” dedication to her work has earned her international recognition. She was “Marketing & Communications Hotelier of the Year” at the 2014 Hotelier Awards China. “After 16 years, I still love my work. I can do routine work, but I still find new ways to do it,” she says with passion and a sense of commitment. “It has been a long journey, but we shouldn’t skip steps to move faster. Going slowly and making mistakes is the way to learn and to create a solid base,” she advises, confessing that she learned how to take one step at a time when she was a Girl Scout leader during her Santa Rosa days. Even then, she remembers setting three-year goals for herself and the troupe. It comes as no surprise, then, that Ada proactively pursues a diverse and impressive range of projects and activities. In 2015, she spearheaded “Hidden Faces”, a digital marketing campaign that reveals Macao’s many hidden and forgotten gems. The campaign launched on WeChat, one of China’s largest social media platforms. Since 2012, she has been a member of Chaine des Rôtisseurs, the international association of gastronomy, and the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne of France, the official fraternity of the Champagne brands of wine. Recently, she and a few partners opened “The Nail Shop”, a nail salon in Macao. Ever a self-learner at the age of 40, Ada taught herself Photoshop, Illustrator and StreamWeaver—relevant graphics softwares for a former fashion design aficionado—not by attending courses or workshops but by reading books on her own. She says her latest field of study is learning to navigate the era of the Millennials and admits to owning accounts on a number of social media platforms as well as possessing a phone full of selfies. Although not born Macanese, Ada is proud to claim Macao as her home and heart. She travels frequently for work and has become familiar with destinations all over the world. “I represent Macao. People visiting Macao want to see and hear what Macanese people do in their daily lives, and working in the hospitality industry gives me the greatest opportunity to showcase and share the best experience in the city to visitors.” Ada believes being involved with the community is very important. She especially loves bringing people with different interests together. In 2016, she became Secretary of the Board of Directors of Skål, the International Association of Travel and Tourism Professionals. A mother of two children, one 14 year-old teenager and one ten-year-old, Ada defies conventional stereotypes and boundaries. “Who says a business-woman cannot also have a family? The secret is to make [your family] understand how much your work means to you. Being able to have a work and personal life balance is all thanks to my family’s support.”

Guy Lesquoy

Leonor Sá Machado — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 17:56:45 +0800

Guy Lesquoy is Director of Entertainment at The Parisian Macao’s Streetmosphere and has been working for Sands China Ltd. for the past decade. Born 9 May 1950, in Marseille, France, Lesquoy’s family moved when he was a baby from Corsica island to Côte d’Ivoire , once a French colony, where his grandfather was governor. His childhood was spent half in Africa and half in France, where he returned at the age of 10. According to Lesquoy, his linguistic knowledge covers “all south European languages” in addition to speaking and writing French, Portuguese, English, Spanish, German and Italian. He also understands Cantonese, Mandarin and Russian. “For someone who has lived in Macao for this long, it is almost impossible to not know Chinese.” The former dancer has been a resident of the MSAR for 37 years. Back in Paris, Lesquoy graduated from Henri IV high school specialising in Literary Studies and completed his bachelor’s degree in 1971 in English, Spanish and German Languages at Faculté de Lettres Carlone in Nice. His parents being from Cannes, Lesquoy stayed in the Côte d’Azur area for three years following university. Ask him his favourite place to live, the Frenchman knows the answer by heart: the French Riviera. “I had a Spitfire and life was easy,” he laughed. Lesquoy came to Asia in the 70s, touring Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia as a performer in his dance troupe. He was later living in Italy when Stanley Ho contacted his agent looking to create an entertainment show for the STDM in Macao. Thus, The Crazy Paris Show came to life. After more than 15 years directing the region’s first “aesthetic nude show”, Lesquoy left STDM due to differences of opinion. “They wanted to bring it closer to the Chinese taste, and it was not what I wanted. I always like something classy.” After directing 120 acts and managing more than 150 girls on stage, the former cancan dancer freelanced until he started working for Sands, shifting from The Venetian to The Parisian. If Macao is Lesquoy’s home, The Parisian may be his playground, where his mastery comes to life. Part of his heart, Lesquoy assures us, forever remains in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire: “I lived there during the 50s and 60s, and life was much like Macao’s when I arrived here in the 80s.” However, the Frenchman says it is difficult to imagine living elsewhere now. “When you are a known person in a village-like place such as Macao, you have some constraints but also a lot of benefits.” The former dancer is a popular figure here, not only because he has represented Macao internationally but also because he is a “people person”. Integrating into the fabric of local culture and society has been of the utmost importance for the entertainer. In addition to playing first-division football for 17 years, Lesquoy is former President of the Rotary, a champion tennis player in Macao and member of the Macao bridge team. He is also Co-founder of the Alliance Francaise and Anima, a local animal shelter, where his dogs are adopted from. Lesquoy still trains every day and can do the splits with astonishing ease. “I may be the oldest cancan dancer ever,” he says playfully. Nowadays, sports play a secondary position in his life due to the energy invested in his profession, but he always tries to find time for family, friends, jet-skiing and good food and wine.

Angela Leong On Kei

Macao News — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 17:50:01 +0800

Angela Leong On Kei has been Managing Director of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, S.A. (SJM), since December 2010 and is a member of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR)’s Legislative Council. She is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin.

Born in Guangzhou in 1961, Leong moved to Macao in 1982. In the early 80s, she found her first job as a dance instructor, working four part-time positions teaching ballroom dance and aerobics. Her passion for dance inspired her to establish the Macau Dance Sport Federation (MDSF), organising international competitions and creating a platform for dancers to exchange talents. Under Leong's leadership, several regional and international dance competitions have been held such as the 2005 East Asian Games and the 2007 Asian Indoor Games. With immense support from the Sport Bureau of Macao SAR Government, MDSF dancers achieved distinction in the 2010 Asian Games (in Guangzhou).

Leong is a member of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Legislative Assemblies of the Macao SAR from 2005 to 2017 and was a voting member of the 2nd and 3rd Macau Chief Executive Elections. She is also a member of the 12th National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China, a standing committee member of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and a standing committee member of the Zhuhai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

In addition to being Managing Director of SJM, she is the Vice Chairman of the Macau Jockey Club since March 2005, Director of Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau, S.A. since June 2005, and the Chairman of L’Arc Macau since 2010. She is also the Director of SJM Holdings Limited, Director of the Macau Regency Group, Duty Chairman and Managing Director of Companhia de Corridas de Galgos Macau (Yat Yuen), S. A., and Chairman of the management board of Macau SLOT Company Limited.

Leong has been awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star, which was conferred to her by the Hong Kong SAR in 2015, as well as the Medalha de Merilo Industrial e Commercial, conferred by the Macao SAR in 2009. As if she didn’t have enough on her plate, she is also involved in local and international charity organisations in Macau, Hong Kong and beyond.

Managing one of Asia’s largest casino companies, Leong hopes to revive SJM with its first Cotai resort. She is confident that this project will bring in more diverse non-gaming elements to Macao.