Welcome to the second issue of LEADER

I was in Hong Kong for Profile’s 30th Anniversary cocktail party at the Mandarin Oriental with my Co-Directors, Liz Hartstone and Winnie Chiu, on the evening that the first issue of LEADER was published, and we witnessed quite a stir!

Since then, we’ve been pleased to hear that our new communiqué has reunited a good few of our friends, and frankly, that’s the point. It’s about you and for you, our loyal supporters, and we hope that there will be something of interest in LEADER for everyone.

To really drive things forward, we are delighted that Gina McAdam, a highly regarded communications expert, writer and certainly no stranger to the hospitality industry, has joined us as our Resident Editor. Gina has worked in Manila, Madrid and New York, and here in London with some of the best known names in the business, including Springboard and World Master Chef Cyrus Todiwala. Should you have a story to share with us or a feature you’d like covered in future issues, Gina will be delighted to liaise with you.

Since the last issue, we held our Annual Conference in France, brilliantly organised by Michele Alguacil and her team from the Paris office. We were thrilled that Winnie Chiu was able to fly over from our Shanghai office to pick up her award as top overseas performer in the company for 2007.

I also wanted to highlight that our new venture, Profile Sailing, has provided a new dimension for the industry with a terrific teambuilding event for Mandarin Oriental in May, which took place in fabulous weather! Still on the sailing theme, do please take a moment to click on to the photographs of our very successful 2008 Profile Sailing Cup this September, which raised over £6,500 for Hospitality Action and Sail4Cancer, and which was won by Derek Picot and his team from Jumeirah

On the business front, I am happy to report that the last two quarters have been exceptionally busy for all of our offices and we are hopeful that this is an indicator that our specialist sector of the hospitality industry will not suffer in the same way as others by virtue of its global nature. Over 60% of the appointments we completed over the last six months involved candidates moving from one country to another, so for those of you seriously pondering relocation for whatever reason, this could be a great time to consider such a move.

Always the optimist, my predictions are that China will remain a hotspot for senior and management opportunities, as well as India, Islands in the Indian Ocean, North Africa, and of course, the UAE, as long as the availability of suitable housing can keep up with the developments taking place! We’re staying upbeat about things holding up elsewhere.

Finally, I wanted to mention that the next issue of JOURNAL, our sister publication for Marketing, Sales and PR professionals, will be broadcast on 14th October.

Thank you for your continued support and do keep in touch. I wish you well in these challenging times.

Warm regards,

Mark Norris, Chief Executive
PROFILE Global Hospitality Recruitment