PEOPLE update as of September 22, 2020

Gregor Resch has been appointed regional vice-president and general manager, Fairmont Banff Springs, effective September 4, 2020. As regional vice-president, he will oversee Fairmont’s Canada’s Western Mountain Region including the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, and Fairmont Chateau Whistler in addition to Fairmont Banff Springs. Resch brings almost 30 years of hospitality experience to this position having worked in Europe, the United States and Canada. He joined Fairmont Hotels & Resorts in 1994 as assistant front office manager, Fairmont Hotel Vancouver and proceeded to hold successive positions within the rooms divisions of Hotel Vancouver. In 1999, he joined the pre-opening team at Fairmont Vancouver Airport as director of rooms at the award-winning hotel before being promoted to director, operations at the Fairmont Waterfront. He then held the same position at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Seattle where he was key to the transition of that hotel from Four Seasons. In 2005, Resch returned to Canada as hotel manager, Fairmont Banff Springs and in 2008 he was appointed to his most recent position as general manager, Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Under his leadership, Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise was voted Company Hotel of the Year in 2018. Resch replaces longtime hotelier David Roberts, who retired on September 4, 2020 following a distinguished 40 year hospitality career, including 31 years with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.

Terry Sanders has joined Aimbridge Hospitality as executive vice-president of development. Sanders comes to Aimbridge from Radisson Hotel Group, where he served as chief development officer, Americas of Radisson Hotel Group for almost three years. Sanders is a 20-year veteran of the hotel industry. Prior to joining Radisson, he was a senior broker at Avison Young in Dallas, Texas. He also held various positions at Wyndham Hotel Group for almost 15 years, including senior vice-president of development for franchised and managed hotels in the U.S. and Western Canada. Before Wyndham, Sanders was a partner at DDS Capital Group. He began his hotel career in 1997 as a franchise sales director with HFS, Inc., which later became Cendant.

Radisson Hotel Group has announced the appointment of Bill Hall and Jason Yarbrough as senior vice presidents of development for the Americas. Hall will lead a team of franchise sales and development directors covering the western U.S., and Yarbrough will lead a team of franchise sales and development directors covering the eastern U.S.

Hall has spent more than 30 years in a variety of leadership roles in the franchising business. He most recently served as senior vice president of franchise operations at Red Roof, where he played a key role in improving operating performance to increase hotel and room count. Prior to that, Hall was the chief business development officer for InnFocus Hospitality Solutions, where he negotiated investment and third-party management contracts and provided oversight of hotel-specific operations, sales and marketing plans. He also spent 17 years with Wyndham Worldwide Corporation in senior leadership roles.

Yarbrough is another veteran of the franchise sales and development industry bringing more than 25 years of experience. Previously, he served as regional vice president of franchise development at Red Roof. In this role, he managed the franchise sales team. Under Yarbrough’s leadership, his team achieved and exceeded sales goals every year. Additionally, he achieved top sales honors as the sales leader of the year three years in a row.

Restaurants Canada, the not-for-profit foodservice association representing over 30,000 members across Canada, today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Todd Barclay as its new president and chief executive officer effective August 31, 2020. “I’m excited and privileged to join an association which has been focused on helping the foodservice industry grow and prosper in Canada for over 75 years,” said Barclay. “Our industry, which employs over one million Canadians, and is a critical part of the national economy, is currently facing significant challenges. As we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, we are actively setting our sights on what we can do today to support our members, how we can help the industry recover and thrive in the short term, and then support the industry into the future.” Barclay has over 20 years of senior leadership experience. His most recent experience was in senior roles in food manufacturing (Cardinal Meats) as well as in leading a major national restaurant brand (Swiss Chalet). Barclay has also owned a small independent restaurant cafe.

Vancouver-based American Hotel Income Properties REIT has appointed Jonathan Korol as its new CEO effective October 7, 2020, according to a news release. Korol currently serves as the president of SilverBirch Hotels & Resorts. “We are excited to announce the appointment of Jonathan as chief executive officer. He is a seasoned real estate professional with significant experience across North America in all aspects of hospitality properties and has an impressive track record of success on both sides of the border,” Michael Murphy, chair of AHIP’s board of directors, said in the release. John O’Neill, a co-founder of the company, has been serving as CEO since October 2018.

Fairmont has announced the appointment of Franck Arnold as managing director and regional vice-president of the Savoy, a Fairmont managed hotel, as of September 21st 2020. His arrival at the iconic hotel precedes the phased reopening of the London property, which will commence on 24th September. Arnold is a figurehead of luxury hospitality with 30 years’ experience with some of the best known hotels and brands in the world, including IHG, Four Seasons, Rocco Forte, Ritz-Carlton and independent hotels in Europe and North America. In 2016 Franck took over The Ritz-Carlton, Toronto. During his time there the hotel was awarded the Forbes 5 Star every year and he received the humanitarian award from the Hotel Association of Canada in 2018.

Curtis Gallagher has been promoted to the position of head of hospitality and principal broker at Cushman & Wakefield Structured Finance. For the past 10 years, Gallagher has led several billion dollars in transaction activity as vice-president, hotel investments, responsible for hotel investment sales and financing for the Canadian market within the real estate investment banking division of Cushman & Wakefield headquartered in New York. Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, he spent four years at CBRE Hotels as vice-president, hotels. There he established a hotel investment practice for CB Richard Ellis Canada and earned Top 10 Broker Recognition in just the third year since creating the business. Gallagher has also held a variety of senior management positions across both the rooms division and the food and beverage division primarily with Four Seasons..

Bernard McEvoy, who was a professor at Ryerson for more than 40 years, has recently retired. He began his career at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in the Fall 1977 semester when he taught night school courses in Introductory Economics for the Department of Economics. He joined the Hospitality & Tourism Department as a full-time Faculty member in the academic year 1979-1980 to teach and be responsible for the Hospitality Accounting and Financial Management courses. As well as working for Ryerson, McEvoy spent more than 30 years as a partner in a small full-service public accounting practice. “I am looking forward in retirement to spending quality time with Kathy and our 6 grandchildren as well as working on developing our Simr Restaurant Simulation into a valuable remote learning tool for Hospitality Education,” Professor McEvoy said.

True Key Hotels & Resorts is pleased to announce the appointment of Samantha Kagan as the new Moutcha Bay resort and sustainability manager for Nootka Marine Adventures in Nootka Sound, B.C., effective October 1, 2020. After graduating with a BSc. in Biology from the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ont., Samantha joined Nootka Marine Adventures in 2014 in a seasonal role at Moutcha Bay Resort, where she also began working for the Nootka Sound Watershed Society developing outreach and education programs, strategic planning, and facilitating relationship development among fisheries stakeholders. In addition to this, Kagan also worked seasonally with Fisheries and Oceans Canada at the Conuma River Hatchery. Throughout the past few years, she continued to hold various positions within Nootka Marine Adventures, learning the ins and outs of operations. Her most recent position was the environmental and education coordinator, where she was responsible for developing educational programs and the wildlife/kayak tour offerings. The year 2020 would have been the most successful year for bookings if it was business as usual.