Michelin names Jean-Luc Naret as new director
Frenchman Jean-Luc Naret is to replace Briton Derek Brown as director of the Michelin series of Red Guides to European restaurants and hotels in July, when Brown retires.
Brown broke a 100-year tradition of French-only directors at Michelin when he took on the role at the end of 2000 following the retirement of Bernard Naegellen after 16 years at the helm.
Naret, 42, joined Michelin's maps and guides division last October after a career in international hotel management. He is currently working with Brown to ensure a smooth handover. Naret will be responsible for Michelin's 2005 hotel and restaurant guides.
A spokeswoman said Michelin had chosen someone from outside the company because it could not find anybody internally who could satisfy all the demands made on a director in a changing world.
These requirements include experience of the food and hotel accommodation market, the ability to manage people and to work with the communications and marketing divisions.
For the past two years Naret was vice-president of operations for Serena Hotels, where he was responsible for managing 20 hotels in East Africa and Asia. Between 1996 and 2000 he was general manager at the Residence hotel in Mauritius and the Sandy Lane hotel in Barbados.
Brown joined Michelin in 1971 as an inspector in the UK and became editor of the UK and Ireland guides and director of communications in Asia. When accepting his current role, he signalled he would leave the job after four years, when he would be turning 60 - an age at which most Michelin staff retire.