Management change at Howard Johnson

The last of the five star hotels in Bucharest to still have a Romanian as general manager is ready to following the trend set on the market by competitors and bring a foreigner at the helm. Howard Johnson Grand Plaza will be headed by a British manager as of February 2006. Peter Craig Martin will replace Tinu Sebesanu as general manager of the Howard Johnson Hotel. Sebesanu has already become CEO of consulting and management company Trend Hospitality, which will co-ordinate all general managers that will run the hotels of the Cendant chain in Romania. Martin had previously been the general manager of Hanoi Daewoo Hotel in Vietnam, a position he took in November 2004. He has been employed on similar positions mainly in Asia, at Jakarta Hilton International (India), Grand Formosa Kaohsiung (Taiwan) etc. “We chose a foreigner because we could not find a Romanian to fill this position. It is a bit too soon for general managers in Romania,” Sebesanu says. He added Martin signed a two-year contract and would arrive in Romania in mid January. The new manager will most likely take over early in February. ZF