New GM at Sydney’s Park Hyatt
As announced in TravelMole last month in the interview with departing GM of the Park Hyatt Sydney, Ernesto A’de Lima to the Park Hyatt Seoul, Ms Marlene Poynder has been appointed GM of this key Sydney property in the Hyatt family of luxury hotels.
Marlene commenced her career in Perth with R & I Bank Travel working in Ticketing and Business Development before moving to Jetset Tours in 1985 for a ten year period initially in sales and training roles before transferring to Melbourne to take up the position of Product Manager, which involved contracting ground operators and hotels and setting pricing in the Asia Pacific region.
She moved to Sydney with Jetset as Executive Assistant Manager, responsible for the day to day operations of the Retail Division and then National Sales and Marketing Manager, responsible for the Sales production for retail offices focusing on contracting national corporate accounts.
In 1995, Marlene made her first move to a Hyatt property as Director of Marketing for Hyatt Hotel Canberra, which was followed by five years as Director of Marketing for Park Hyatt Sydney, during which the hotel enjoyed positive growth and in particular in relation to management of the hotel contracts during the Olympic Games.
Marlene accepted an offer to return to travel as General Manager for Swain Australia Tours in Philadelphia in 2001, until being approached by Hyatt International early in 2002 to take up the position of Director of Hotel Sales Asia Pacific based in Hong Kong, remaining in that position for four years, undertaking responsibilities including opening new hotels, developing sales and distribution strategies to maximise revenues as well as implementing defined sales and marketing organisational structures in new and existing hotels.
Hyatt tells The Mole that Marlene is recognised for her natural charm, elegant style and business savvy approach, which is believed will fare well when dealing with the various relationships, including the hotel’s executive team, the Management of the owning trust MFS, the expectations of industry representatives, Sydney society and high profile guests.
We wish Marlene every success in her new role and The Mole looks forward to speaking with her in the near future.
Report by The Mole
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