Hyatt Canada adds Jeff Waters to its team

TORONTO — Five years ago, Hyatt started building its Canadian development team by hiring Scott Richer as regional VP of development. Last year, they added Chrissy Dizon as development manager, Americas development. Now Jeff Waters is joining as regional VP of operations and and sales for Canada and Northeast Region.

Hyatt has been expanding in Canada over the past five years, with eight hotels currently open and a strong pipeline with 24 executed contracts — including 14 Hyatt Place and seven Hyatt House properties — in the next few years. (See related article.)

Waters’ appointment signals Hyatt’s commitment to growing the Hyatt Place and Hyatt House brands and fostering strong relationships with owners, developers and franchisees across Canada.

He comes to Hyatt with a wealth of experience on the operations and sales side at a number of high-end Toronto-area hotels. Most recently, he spent five and a half years as general manager and area managing director for Thompson Toronto. This property was sold and is now being converted into 1 Hotels’ first property in Canada. He has also worked as GM at the Omni King Edward Hotel, Delta Toronto Airport, Toronto Airport Marriott, and Renaissance Toronto Airport Hotel and Conference Centre.

“With Jeff’s extensive knowledge of hospitality industry, as well as his broad range of owner and industry relationships, we’re excited to have him lead this charge as we continue to build out our infrastructure in Canada,” said Scott Richer, regional vice president of development, Canada, for Hyatt (left).

“Over the past five years, we’ve had a lot of success as a global brand with a fresh and new perspective and lots of room to grow compared to the competition.

“We are at a critical juncture of our footprint, where we needed to bolster true leadership in operations and sales regarding our platform in Canada. Jeff will be coming in at the VP level, but we don’t wear defined hats — all of us are part of something bigger. With Jeff’s acumen, we hope to collectively bring together strong national operations and sales that will add enormous value to our offering.”

Chrissy Dizon joined the team in early 2019 from Hyatt’s Chicago office, and she has also been at Hyatt for five years.

Starting March 2, Waters will serve as a resource to ownership to ensure overall revenue success at Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotels across Canada. He will play a lead role during the planning, construction and opening phases of all Canadian Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotel projects, ultimately, operating the hotels optimally.

He will work hand-in-hand with Richer’s real estate and development team in Canada, a team responsible for pursuing development opportunities to grow the Hyatt Place and Hyatt House brands.

“Thompson is a Hyatt brand, and I’m thrilled to be able to stay with Hyatt,” said Waters. “I’m passionate about growth-focused brand management, using our respective networks plus the vast resources of Hyatt to get this done in Canada.”

RELATED ARTICLE:Hyatt House, Hyatt Place dominate Hyatt pipeline.