Ex-Connaught manager heads for Bangkok

The former manager of the Connaught hotel in London, who resigned earlier this year, is to run one of Bangkok's leading hotels.

Duncan Palmer takes over as general manager of the Sukhothai on 9 September, after taking a five-month break since leaving the Connaught in March.

Although Palmer spent seven years with the Savoy group - three years as general manager at the Savoy itself before moving to the Connaught - he is an old Asia hand and worked for many years with the Mandarin Oriental group in Macau, Manila, Bangkok and Jakarta. He is now 43.

Palmer describes the 224-bedroom Sukhotai, which is named after Thailand's 13th century capital city, as "the One Aldwych of Bangkok".

The Bangkok hotel is owned by Hong Kong Resorts, which also owns the Beaufort Hotel in Singapore. The two-hotel group is known as the Beaufort Group. Hong Kong Resorts is run by businessman Victor Cha.

Palmer resigned from the Connaught shortly after Gordon Ramsay was brought in to run the hotel's restaurant, but has always said that his departure was entirely amicable.

Since then Palmer has taken an extended holiday.

He said: "It's not often that you get the chance to take a mid-life break and I wanted to make the most of this."