People on the move

Knut Wylde, has been promoted from deputy front-of-house manager to front-of-house manager at the Savoy hotel in London.

Red Snapper Events, the catering and events company, has a new head chef - Stefan Ludwig. He has joined from corporate catering company Blue Strawberry Catering, where he held a similar post.

The newly opened Bentley hotel in South Kensington, London, has made a host of appointments to its management team. Patrick Salles has joined as head sommelier, moving from Gordon Ramsay's restaurant at the Connaught hotel, where he held the same position. Conor O'Leary is restaurant manager and joins from the Park restaurant, Mandarin Oriental hotel, London, where he held the same position. Claudie Dussouillez has joined as head concierge from the Radisson Hampshire hotel, where she was head concierge for six years. Sarah Holdsworth, the Bentley's spa manager, previously ran her own natural health company in Totnes, Devon. Davide Guidi is the new head barman of the Malachite bar at the Bentley hotel. He previously kept bar at London's Dorchester hotel, where he won a bartender of the year title in 2000.

Paul Morgan is the new general manager of Combe Grove Manor and Country Club in Bath. He was previously general manager of the City Inn in Bristol, and has held the same position at the Hilton hotel in Bath. He replaces Julian Ebbutt, who has moved on to manage the Lygon Arms hotel in Oxford, which has the same owner, Furlong Hotels.

Kevin Casserly has joined chartered surveyors Fleurets' new hotels division as chartered surveyor. He was principal partner at surveying firm Cooper Casserly, and before that at estate agents and surveyors Pearsons, which both have interests in the hotel market.

SVB Recruitment, based in Leeds, has appointed Mark Tobin as a consultant in its bars division. He joins from bars chain BRB/DevCo and Café Rouge.

Independent contract caterer Holroyd Howe has appointed Leigh Cotterill as operations director-designate. He joins from Avenance, where he was a general manager. Cotterill is also involved with the British culinary team and will attend the forthcoming Frankfurt competition.

Karen Young has joined coffee machine manufacturer Viva Espresso as business development manager, based in Hertfordshire. She worked previously as national account manager for Chevron Foods.

Rob Davidson has been appointed bars manager at the Ashdown Park hotel in Wych Cross, West Sussex. Davidson was a management trainee with the Savoy group and also served as a bar steward aboard the cruise liner QE2. More recently he worked as head barman at Terence Conran's Le Pont de la Tour restaurant, and as bar manager at the Windows bar at the Hilton hotel in Park Lane, London.

Fiona Sinclair is the new banqueting and conference manager at the Holiday Inn Ellesmere Port/Cheshire Oaks hotel, Merseyside. She studied hotel catering at the University of Central Lancashire, where she earned an HND and a degree in hospitality studies, and has worked for both the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotels in Liverpool, latterly as reception shift leader at the Crowne Plaza.

The Schlössle Hotel Group has a new general manager to head up its two Tallinn-based properties, the Schlössle hotel and the St Petersbourg hotel. German-born Peter Knoll comes to the Estonian capital from the Grand Hotel Europe in St Petersburg, Russia, where he was resident manager. Before that, he was general manager of London's Hempel hotel.

Philip Garrod has joined the Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa in Edinburgh as executive chef. He was previously director of kitchens for the Westin Miyako hotel in Kyoto, Japan. Both hotels are part of the Starwood Hotels & Resorts group. Garrod has also worked as executive chef at Australia's Westin Melbourne hotel.

James Dickson has become managing director at dispense monitoring equipment manufacturer Brulines. He has been dispense director at Whitbread and was latterly marketing and sales director at Heineken. Brulines, founded in 1995 by Derrick Collin - now chairman - provides draught beer dispense monitoring equipment from its base in Henley-in-Arden, West Midlands.

Colin Drummond has become operations manager for Scotland at food procurement consultant PSL (Purchasing Systems Limited), based at Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. He joins from the Corinthian hotel, Glasgow, where he was general manager.

King Express, the wholesale catering supplier network that provides owner-operated pubs, hotels and restaurants with a range of non-food products, has made two appointments. John Young has joined as general manager of the company's King Express Edmonton (London) site and Nigel Adams has joined as general manager of the company's King Express High Wycombe distribution site. Young moved from international paper and packaging manufacturer Georgia Pacific, where he was retail and Bunzl group sector manager. Adams was previously general manager of craft kit manufacturer Twilleys of Stamford, Lincolnshire, and has also worked in logistics for Marks & Spencer.

• Please send your On the move stories to chris.druce@rbi.co.uk, giving the start date, details of the appointee's previous job and, if possible, a head-and-shoulders photograph.

Whitbread hotel boss is chair of BHA council

Alan Parker, managing director of the Whitbread Hotel Company, has been elected chairman of the British Hospitality Association's (BHA) council.

He succeeds Paul Dermody, chief executive of the De Vere Hotels group.

The 14-strong BHA council, in its own words, was set up "to articulate even more strongly the industry's views and concerns with government and to take a key role in new initiatives".

The council comprises the chief executives of some of the largest hospitality and catering companies in the country in an attempt to achieve industry-wide consensus on major issues, and to present a consistent case to the government, media and other key audiences.

Parker was chairman of the BHA's national executive from 1998 to 1999. He joined Whitbread in 1992 with responsibility for the Travel Inn and Marriott brands.

He is also on the board of promotional body VisitBritain.

Commercial role at tourist board

The Wales Tourist Board has appointed John Kingsford as commercial director to find new ways of funding the organisation.
He joins from Birmingham-based Maersk Air, part of the worldwide AP Moller Group and a franchise of British Airways. He also has experience with tour operator Thomson Holidays and as a business development director at London Luton Airport.

The role of commercial director is a new one at the Wales Tourist Board and has been created to grow the board's activities through additional commercial, rather than Welsh Assembly or European Union, funding.