GM Mark Ashton announces departure from the Aviator
General manager of the Aviator hotel at Farnborough in Hampshire, Mark Ashton, is step down from the hotel to move into hospitality education.
Ashton, who has previously worked at Tylney Hall, Rotherwick, Hampshire, and the Athenaeum hotel in Mayfair, London, is leaving the four-AA-red star, 169-bedroom hotel after two years to take up a post at the University of Surrey as an associate tutor. He will teach hospitality management to both under- and post-graduates, as well as take on consultancy work.
During his tenure, the Aviator achieved four AA red stars and achieved growth across all departments.
Ashton is to be replaced next week by Dominic Osborne, who until recently was general manager at Hilton at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton. Osborne will focus on further improving the consistency of the service across the operation, and greater integration of the hotel's new gastropub, the Swan. Farnborough International, the hotel's strategic partner which hosts the Farnborough Airshow, is also building a 20,000sq m events and exhibition space adjacent to Aviator, which it will become the show's headquarters hotel.
Osborne moved on from a role as food and beverage manager at the Millennium Mayfair hotel, London, to management positions with Ashdown Park hotel in Forest Row, East Sussex, the Macdonald Portal hotel, near Chester, and the Solent Hotel and Spa in Fareham, Hampshire.
Ashton said: "[I] have enjoyed every minute of transforming the hotel into a high performing, red star hotel over the past two and half years and the success the team has enjoyed across all of our people, guest and business indictors. It has been a privilege working for TAG and in the growing business hub of Farnborough."
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