Maurice Taylor - DBA KSJ FHCIMA FBIM - Chief Executive

Maurice has been in the hospitality industry for over 40 years.

After completing an engineering apprenticeship, Maurice joined British Transport Hotels where he successfully completed an international management-training scheme at such prestigious hotels as Turnberry and Gleneagles. He was recruited by Thistle Hotels where he gained valuable experience as General Manager of the Lorne Hotel in Glasgow before moving to the West End of London as Food & Beverage Manager of the five-star Royal Garden Hotel. Maurice then joined the private Arfamco group, as Managing Director, where he ran a group of three and four star hotels before forming his own company, Chardon Hotels. This private group was built up from one hotel to a group of eight, before being sold to the Queens Moat House Group. During this period, he was chairman of Best Western Hotels.

Thereafter, Maurice developed residential properties in London, the Parklands Country Club in Glasgow, and a hotel complex in Portugal. He currently owns the Holiday Inn Glasgow, the Express by Holiday Inn Glasgow Theatreland and the Quality Hotel at Edinburgh Airport.

Maurice has been the Managing Director of Bettagrade Ltd since 1997and has been a Director of Hurlingham Properties PLC since 1997.

To contact Maurice Taylor
Email mauricetaylor@chardonmanagement.com

Cesidio Di Ciacca – Chairman (non-exec)

Cesidio graduated from Edinburgh University in 1975 and worked as a solicitor in private practice until 1994, advising on significant corporate and property matters.

Since then he has joined the board of various Groups involving principally in Property Development and Investment and Pharmaceutical wholesaling/ retailing as well as being non-exec Chairman of one of Scotland’s fastest growing Legal firms.

He has been an advisor to the Chardon Group for 20 years.

Ian Graham - Non-Executive Director

Ian Graham is Managing Director of The Hotel Solutions Partnership Ltd, a consultancy that works with international hotel companies to unlock strategic advantage. Ian was formerly a Director in the Travel, Tourism and Leisure practice of Andersen/Deloitte & Touche.

His recent consulting assignments have included providing advice in respect of market entry and exit strategies, process improvement, aspects of asset management and strategic revenue management. On these assignments he has worked throughout Europe, and the Middle East. His consulting clients include Louvre Hotels, Hospitality Europe, Kempinski, Rezidor SAS and Skanska. He has provided market entry strategy work with emerging technology providers such as Amateo, AO International, Quadriga and The Bench.

Ian’s reputation is for objective and focused thinking, supported by original research, articles and public presentations and conference speeches. Ian is a Special Advisor to the industry focused strategy house Otus & Co (www.otusco.co.uk).

Prior to joining Andersen/Deloitte & Touche in 1999, Ian held a variety of executive positions in the hotel industry in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, principally with Bass Hotels & Resorts and prior to that with ITT Sheraton. Within Bass he was a Director of more than 60 legal entities in many jurisdictions holding Chairman and Director positions at more than 10 joint venture entities with external shareholders. He has had responsibility for cross-border financing, treasury and tax compliance, strategy implementation and in-house legal and IT functions. He played a leading role in the due diligence appraisal of the Intercontinental hotel chain, the launch of Priority Club in Europe and the launch of Express by Holiday Inn in Europe. He led several key projects involving cross-border change teams, the effective use of many different types of technology and the balance obtained between the efficiencies of centralised processing and local hotel-level management support, together with radically improving the many core processes.

Ian is a graduate of the University of Surrey’s Department of Hotel and Catering Management. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, a Fellow of the British Association of Hospitality Accountants, and a Member of the International Society of Hospitality. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Oxford Brookes University for eight years and is a non-executive director of the leading hospitality charity Springboard UK Ltd.

To contact Ian Graham
Email iangraham@chardonmanagement.com
Telephone: 0141 333 0545

Robert Crook - MHCIMA - Managing Director

Robert has been in the hospitality industry for over 25 years.

Robert studied at Blackpool & Fylde where he achieved the HCIMA professional qualification. Training with Embassy Hotels in the UK, Robert spent 4 years at their London Embassy Hotel working in Front Office & Human Resources. Robert then moved on to the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington as Assistant Conference & Banqueting Manager and Assistant Food & Beverage Manager. Joining Crest Hotels in 1988, Robert moved to Holiday Inn when Crest’s owning company Bass purchased Holiday Inn World-wide. Robert opened their Daventry property as Deputy General Manager before moving to the Holiday Inn at Heathrow in 1990 as Resident Manager where he supervised its conversion to Crowne Plaza. In 1994 Robert was appointed General Manger of the Crowne Plaza in Leeds.

In 1997 Robert became Franchise Services Manager for Holiday Inn with responsibilities for 50 hotels in the UK, Ireland and BeNeLux, specialising in Revenue Management, Quality Control and Performance Management.

During his time with Holiday Inn Robert undertook additional responsibility for steering their Manager 2000 programme for fast track Deputy Mangers to General Management. He also lectured in Performance Management at the Holiday Inn General Managers University for 2 years. Robert joined Chardon in 1999.

To contact Robert Crook
Email robertcrook@chardonmanagement.com
Telephone: 0141 333 0545

David Chapman CA, BA, DipAcc - Finance Director

David’s involvement in the hotel industry spans back over twenty years. He has a degree in Hotel and Catering Management, and undertook a number of operational roles before deciding to re-train as an accountant. He returned to university and obtained a postgraduate diploma in accountancy.

He then went to work for Ernst & Young, where he qualified as a chartered accountant. Having a passion for it, he quickly made his way back into the hotel business post-qualification, joining Queens Moat Houses plc in 1996. Within that business he successfully undertook a variety of senior finance roles, most of which involved driving and managing change and delivering process improvement. Latterly he was Finance Director for their Dutch Division (Bilderberg Hotels & Restaurants), which operates 22 hotels and in 2004 had a turnover of €95m.

To contact David Chapman
Email davidchapman@chardonmanagement.com
Telephone: 0141 333 0545

James Ford MBA, FHCIMA, FBHA, MBII, MCFA - Commercial and Development Director

James has been in the hospitality industry for over 30 years.

James holds a Masters degree in Business Administration and Hotel Asset Management and is a fellow of the Hotel & Catering International Management Association.

After graduation James joined the Sheraton Management Corporation and worked in a variety of management roles in the UK. In 1986 he was appointed in a joint venture by the Organisation of American States and the Jamaican Government to establish an international hotel school in the Caribbean.

On returning to England in 1989, James joined Holiday Inn, taking several Hotel General Management posts before becoming Group Managing Director of the Telford International Hotel, Exhibition and Conference Centre.

In 1996, James took over responsibility for franchising in Africa for Bass Hotels and Resorts (now known as InterContinental Hotels). He was then made responsible for Operational Development of Express by Holiday Inn Europe, growing the brand from 12 to 81 hotels in six countries hotels over three years.

In 2001, Bass Hotels purchased Post House Hotels, and James took on the integration and rebranding of this £810 million hotel portfolio becoming Vice President of operations development for the U.K, which included Revenue management and Food & Beverage operations on a national basis. Additionally in 2004 James had direct profit responsibility for 36 hotels with assets worth over £300 M, and 6000-employees.

James joined Chardon earlier this year.

To contact James Ford
Email jamesford@chardonmanagement.com
Telephone: 0141 333 0545

Nicola Taylor - Marketing Director

Nicola trained in a private hotel group working in all areas of the hotel, the main focus was front of house. She then moved into conference sales for Moat House before landing her first Sales role for Hilton International based in London. She moved from here to head up a team of 4 selling the various country house hotels owned by Richard Branson along with his other properties, The Roof Gardens in Kensington, 2 riverboats on the Thames and Necker Island, his private island in The British Virgin Islands.

In 1990 she decided to make the move back home to Scotland to open Parklands Country Club, a state of the art health and leisure club with restaurants, bars and function facilities, on the south-side of Glasgow, in the role of Sales and Marketing Director.

In 1995 she decided to have a career change and work in the media, still in sales. Firstly for The Glasgow Herald where she ran their London office, this involved selling to West End Advertising Agencies. She then spent two years working for Capital Radio, the world's most listened to radio station.

And for the 7 years prior to joining Chardon Management, in May 2003, she worked for The Mail On Sunday, heading up the Client and Promotion team managing an annual turn-over in excess of £120 million.

To contact Nicola Taylor
Email nicolataylor@chardonmanagement.com
Telephone: 0141 333 0545

Jan Brown - Director of Sales

Jan’s hotel career started some 21 years ago with a privately owned hotel in Lanarkshire. The main focus of the operation was food and beverage and after 2 years Jan moved to Stakis Hotels as front of house manager in Glasgow city centre to develop her rooms’ management experience. Jan was promoted to their 4 star 140 bedroom property in Bradford and worked there for just over one year.

Jan decided to move into sales and return to Glasgow in 1986 and joined the Copthorne Hotel group at the Copthorne Hotel in Glasgow as Sales Executive. Copthorne had only just taken over the hotel, which at that point was operating at 20% occupancy. The main focus therefore in the first year was to increase occupancy at all costs—this was achieved and the next 2 years were spent in developing accounts and increasing the yield.

During her 8 years at Copthorne her job role changed to Sales Manager and then to Scottish Area Sales Development Manager. The sales office increased to a staff of 3 and reservations and conference & banqueting sales reported to Jan.

Jan joined Stakis in 1994 as Scottish Regional Sales Manager with a team of 3 Sales Managers. The main focus of the job initially was to develop the team, put in place a new structure and focus on the selling strategy. In 1996 Jan was promoted to Regional Director of Sales with a team of 15, and focused her energies on broadening the corporate base of clients for Stakis in Scotland whilst improving account penetration for each corporate client.

Jan joined Chardon in December 1999.

To contact Jan Brown
Email janbrown@chardonmanagement.com
Telephone: 0141 333 0545

Carol Dodds - Director of Revenue Management

Carol has been in the hospitality industry for over 16 years.

Carol started her career in hotels in London, working for a 4 star property focussing in the areas of front desk and reservations. After 2 years of invaluable experience, Carol decided to return home to the North East where she joined Forte Hotels Group at the Forte Crest Newcastle in 1990– working as Front Office Manager.

At Newcastle, Carol’s career progressed rapidly, whilst she managed the rebranding of the hotel into the Posthouse chain. She took up the role of General Manager in 1996, responsible for a yearly revenue contribution of £4m.

Carol began specialising in Revenue Management, and in 2000 accepted the opportunity to join the central Posthouse team to develop and implement the first Area Revenue structure to cover all 72 Posthouse hotels. This resulted in Carol accepting the role of Regional Revenue Manager covering 36 hotels and managing a team of 8 Area Revenue Managers.

Carol successfully managed the integration of Intercontinental Hotels Group business systems into the Posthouse chain through the Rebranding process in 2001. This resulted in Carol managing a portfolio consisting of 4 Intercontinental Brands.

From then, her key focus was driving revenue strategy to improve revenue performance and gain market share growth.

Positive performance results were achieved through Carol implementing a number of fundamental business strategies: including distribution management, strategic and tactical pricing including design and implementation of a new retail pricing strategy and design and delivery of a Revenue Management development programme.

Carol joined Chardon Management in May 2005.

To contact Carol Dodds
Email caroldodds@chardonmanagement.com
Telephone: 0141 333 0545

Jeanette Jones BA, Nebosh - Health & Fitness Director

Jeanette has been in the Health & Fitness Industry for over 15 years.

Jeanette studied at Manchester University where she gained a BA (Hons) degree in Sports studies and theology.

Jeanette started her health and fitness career working for Fitness For Industry (A part of the Forte Hotel chain), determined to get experience at every level of the business she trained as a Fitness Instructor and Trainee Manager. She progressed quickly within the company and took her first General Manager's position at Haydock Posthouse where she took membership figures to the highest level ever recorded. In 1994 Jeanette was promoted to Business Group Manager, where she was responsible for the financial and membership performance of four Health Clubs in the North West region. During this time she won two
Company awards for "Rookie Manager of the year" and "Manager of the year".

In 1999 Jeanette was promoted to Regional Manager of the North / Midlands where she was responsible for 14 Spirit Health Clubs ( A subsidiary of Intercontinental Hotels Group PLC). During this time she gained valuable experience in multi-client management, managing contracts for Millenium Copthorne, Paramount and a number of small in dependant hotel chains.

In 2002 Jeanette was promoted to "Head of Operations" for Spirit Health Clubs where she was fully responsible for the Operation, Health & Safety provision and financial performance of 49 Health Clubs throughout UK and Ireland, managing a team of 400 employees. She managed key projects throughout this time including refurbishment roll out and DDA compliance. During this time she also studied for her Nebosh Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health qualifying in October 2004.

Jeanette joined Chardon in 2005

To contact Jeanette Jones
Email jeanettejones@chardonmanagement.com
Telephone: 0141 333 0545

Moira Gray - MA PGDip ABAHA - Accounts Manager - Chardon Group

After completing her MA in Modern Languages at Glasgow University and a post-graduate diploma in business studies at Strathclyde University, Moira took up a position with a firm of Chartered Accountants and began her career in accounting where she gained considerable experience in auditing and accounts preparation.

After 3 years with the firm she moved on to take up the position of Accounts Manager with a Glasgow advertising agency. She then joined Maurice Taylor at Chardon Hotels where she had the responsibility for purchase ledger, payroll and client services. Moira then moved back into professional practice to gain more comprehensive accounting experience, She then moved to Stakis Hotels plc as a financial accountant where she was deeply involved in the preparation on monthly accounts for 60 units and in the preparation of the published accounts.

After 3 years with Stakis, she returned once again to professional practice where she widened her accounting experience, running the Management Accounts department of a firm of chartered accountants for 10 years before rejoining Maurice Taylor in 1999.

To contact Moira Gray
Email moiragray@chardonmanagement.com
Telephone: 0141 333 0545

Alison Muir - BA PGDip - Human Resources Manager

Alison has been in the hospitality industry for over 23 years.

Alison studied Hospitality Management at the Scottish Hotel School, Strathclyde University and followed with a Postgraduate Diploma in Personnel Administration at Robert Gordon’s University in Aberdeen, giving her accreditation with the IPD (Institute of Personnel & Development).

Her first position was in Hotel Operations as Assistant Food Services Manager with Hilton National in Basingstoke. She then moved to join Lansbury Hotels, part of Whitbread plc as an Assistant Manager at the Edgewarebury Hotel in North London. Having been involved in general operations for 2 years, Alison then moved across to specialise in Personnel and Training by taking up the position of Senior Assistant Manager at a new build property in Ipswich where she was responsible for the recruitment and training of the opening team. Following this she was selected to join a corporate project team to design a customer initiative campaigns for the Company and roll it out to their 46 hotels across the UK.

In 1993 she moved to De Vere Hotels where she took up the post of Personnel and Training Manager at Belton Woods Hotel in Grantham, a newly acquired golfing hotel which was 1 year old. Part of her role involved developing the management team and implementing systems to stabilise and train the 280 staff from the local area and achieve the Investors in People (IIP) award.

3 years later she returned to Scotland when De Vere Hotels purchased Cameron House Hotel on Loch Lomond. She steered the hotel successfully through its transition into a De Vere Hotel and worked with the Management team of 22 and staff of 400, to not only successfully achieve and retain (a year later), IIP but also move from 4 to 5 star recognition with the AA. Her training and development initiatives won her a ‘People Development’ award from the Local Enterprise Company and saw her reach finalist of the Scottish Thistle Awards in 1998.

Alison joined Chardon 2000

To contact Alison Muir
Email alisonmuir@chardonmanagement.com
Telephone: 0141 333 0545

Karen Raw – Training Manager

Karen qualified as a trainer 7 years ago and has worked in the hospitality industry for 22 years. Having worked in various departments, Karen decided to specialise within Food and Beverage and started her career with Swallow Hotels. It was whilst in Karen’s position of Head Chef at the Newbus Arms Hotel, she decided to work to achieve her Trainer qualifications and Teacher Training Certificate, thus starting her training career.

Prior to joining Chardon, Karen worked in the Middle East for the National Hospitality Institute in Oman as Senior Catering Lecturer. Her responsibilities included analysing companies training requirements and delivering courses to meet the companies` business objectives. Over the 5 years, Karen trained both new and existing staff that worked for some of the most prestigious Hotels in the Arabian Gulf. As well as for contract catering companies operating in desert locations, the Omani ministry staffs, and the Royal Army, Navy and Air Force of Oman.

Karen also took on a project supporting the management of the Golden Sands Resort within the Wahiba Desert of Oman. This Resort was specifically built for tourists to Oman who want to experience traditional Omani culture. The project involved marketing the resort, arranging guided tours and training the staff to enable them to efficiently run the resort day to day.

Karen has strong beliefs in people Training and Development and strives to provide essential tailored training to meet people and business needs.

To contact Karen Raw
Email karenraw@chardonmanagement.com
Telephone: 0141 333 0545

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness which frightens us. We ask ourselves: Who are we to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, famous?
ACTUALLY, WHO ARE WE NOT TO BE!
Nelson Mandela