Brown's manager leaves for Australia

The general manager of Brown's Hotel in London has left after 18 months in the job.

Peter Davies is moving to Australia and has been replaced at the 118-bedroom hotel, which is part of the Raffles group, by Peter Richards.

Richards, who joins from Hyatt Hotels, said: "When I spoke to him last week he didn't have a job to go to. He and his wife have a house in Australia and he is going there to take life a bit easier."

Richards moved to Yugoslavia in November 1998 to open and manage the Hyatt Regency Jelen Crni Vrh. But because of the war the hotel never opened and Richards moved back to England last summer. The Jelen Crni Vrh remains a building site.

Before working in Yugoslavia Richards was general manager of the Hyatt hotel in Azerbaijan.

He has also worked for Hyatt in New Zealand, Fiji and Hong Kong.