GM of Carden Park to depart after 20 years

09 September 2016 by Katherine Price

The 196-bedroom Carden Park, near Chester, is bidding farewell to its general manager of over 20 years, Hamish Ferguson, and welcoming Paul Bayliss back to the team to take over the role.

Ferguson will be leaving the hospitality industry for a role as executive director (commercial) with the Professional Golfers' Association. He was part of the original team planning the opening of the hotel in 1996.

Bayliss's introduction to luxury hotels was as deputy general manager to Hamish in 2007 at Carden Park for two years. He joins from his role as regional general manager for the north Wales operations of luxury holiday home company Park Leisure. He previously spent seven years in Manchester as resident manager of the Midland hotel and then general manager of the Macdonald Manchester Hotel & Spa, as well as its sister boutique residence, the Townhouse.

He has also been chair of the Manchester Hoteliers Association, and won a scholarship through the Master Innholders to attend Cornell University in the US.

The resort announced that it was going independent in 2014, and has since been undergoing a planned £5m refurbishment. Significant improvements have been made to the bedrooms, public areas, golf courses and spa as well as conference facilities and hotel suites, and this programme of work will come to fruition over the next few months.

Ferguson said: "This has been an incredibly hard decision for me to make. I feel it is the right time to place this much-loved venue into the very safe hands of Paul Bayliss. Paul and I have worked closely together previously and I am confident that the next phase for Carden Park will be a hugely successful one."

Bayliss added: "I said when I left Carden for my adventure into Manchester that if Hamish ever decided to leave then I'd love to be the one to take it on after him. I got a head start in hotels as deputy general manager at Carden in 2007 as it's a fabulous resort with amazingly loyal and passionate staff. I'm so pleased to be back and ready to take this superb resort forward."

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