People

Buchanan to manage forte's westbury

Andrew Buchanan, senior assistant to the general manager at Claridge's hotel in London, is to join Forte Grand as general manager of the Westbury hotel in September.

Mr Buchanan's move comes after four years working for the Savoy Group. Prior to that he was general manager of Ettington Park Hotel in Alderminster, near Stratford-upon-Avon.

He will take the reins at the Westbury from deputy manager Andrew Coney, who has been running the hotel since the departure in April of Peter Westbrook to join Sandals Resorts.

Coombs moves up at partnership

Tony Coombs has taken up the new position of general manager of operations at the Leicestershire-based Catering Partnership.

Mr Coombs has worked for the contract caterer for six years, most recently as operations manager for the North and the Midlands.

Directors named at celebrated

Celebrated Hotels, which owns the Chalon Court hotel in St Helens, Merseyside, and the Llyndir Hall hotel near Chester, has appointed two new directors.

Peter Wear, a former senior consultant with Greene Belfield-Smith, has joined the company as commercial and development director.

And in the new role of sales and marketing director is David Hinds, who was involved in Celebrated's recent purchase of Manchester café-bar JW Johnson's.

Both will be involved in developing a chain of pizza and pasta restaurants based on Scusi's in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, which was set up last November.

Venture capital group 3i is providing £350,000 towards funding the project, which envisages six outlets over the next 2-3 years in the South-east, with a potential market for more than 20.

Verhelst joins orient-express

John Verhelst has become sales and marketing director for Orient-Express Hotels, the London-based luxury hotel group.

Mr Verhelst moves from Australia, where he was sales and marketing director at the company's Observatory Hotel in Sydney. He replaces Valerie Le Moignan, who is believed to have moved into the recruitment field.