Acorn winner 2007: Tze-Huei Choo

Tze-Huei
Age: 27
Position: Banqueting operations manager for Starwood Hotels and Resorts at the Park Lane Hotel and Sheraton Park Tower Hotel, London

Career to date…

Tze-Huei's relationship with Starwood began as a steward and F&B attendant at the Sheraton Brisbane in Australia during his second year at college. While at the hotel Tze-Huei displayed a flair for banqueting and was soon promoted to the role of senior banqueting supervisor, before transferring to the Park Lane Hotel in London as assistant banqueting operations manager in 2004. He was promoted to banqueting operations manager the following year with the added responsibility of the Sheraton Park Tower Hotel.

Why is he a winner?

In his current role, Tze-Huei finds himself managing 20 full-time and up to 120 casual staff and overseeing a department that generates annual revenue of up to £5.6m. Since being given full control of the department's financials in 2006, he has cut the payroll by £35,000 and increased business by 2,500 banqueting covers and generated £165,000 above budget on banqueting F&B revenue through creative use of techniques such as upselling.

His passionate commitment to rolling out the company's brand standards has resulted in him being chosen as one of four Sheraton brand trainers. He has also thrown himself behind the group's roll-out of Starwood's process improvement methodology, Six Sigma, and has provided valuable input in projects designed to increase profitability and improve staff productivity - one early success has been a 31% year-on-year increase in kosher revenue.

Throughout his time at Starwood, Tze-Huei has continued to enrol on courses in order to widen his skills base in key areas related to financial planning and banqueting. He has also supported various charities and in London he has created a work experience programme for local children with special needs, in addition to various other training and mentoring initiatives.