At the recently held AGM, the HOSPA Council ratified the appointment of the Association’s Deputy Chairman Chris Upton as the new Chairman of the Hospitality Professionals Association for Finance, Revenue Management and IT. He succeeds Paul Dukes who has stepped down, due to ill health, after seven years of devoted service at the Association’s helm.
Commenting on the appointment, Chris Upton said: “It is an honour to follow Paul Dukes as Chairman of HOSPA. Under his guidance we have seen HOSPA develop out of the single discipline association of BAHA into a successful association catering for hospitality professionals, not only in finance, but also in the equally important growth areas of revenue management and IT.
“In line with HOSPA’s continuing policy of providing information, education and inspiration, HOSPACE – our annual conference and exhibition – is now recognised as one of the UK’s leading hospitality events. Indeed, it is the largest and most prestigious annual gathering of like-minded hospitality practitioners in the UK. We continue to develop highly successful professional development programmes for all our members – the latest being the HOSPA IT Education Training Programme scheduled to come on stream in 2016.
“I look forward to working with the team at HOSPA led by Carl Weldon, our Chief Executive, to build upon these strong foundations to ensure that HOSPA becomes an integral part of our members’ professional lives.”
It was also confirmed at the HOSPA AGM that Paul Nisbett, Finance & Commercial Director, The Hotel Collection, is to succeed hotel consultant Diana Mountain as Chair of the HOSPA Finance Community; and David Nicolson, Vice President Finance – Europe, Jumeirah Group, has been appointed to the newly created position of Vice-Chairman of the HOSPA Finance Community.
“We are greatly indebted to Diana Mountain for all she has done for the Association over the past years – her tireless work on our behalf has been invaluable and very much appreciated,” said HOSPA Chief Executive Carl Weldon.
Commenting on the new appointments, Weldon added: “We are delighted that Chris Upton, who has been such an excellent deputy to Paul Dukes, is to be the new Chairman of HOSPA; and we welcome David Nicolson and Paul Nisbett to their new roles. We are very fortunate to have such a high calibre and experienced team of professionals leading our Association into the next exciting phase of the Association’s growth and development.
“HOSPA would like to offer a very big ‘thank you’ to Paul Dukes for his immense contribution, dedication and commitment to the Association at such a momentous time in its development.”
Chris Upton is a Chartered Accountant and has worked in senior financial positions in the hospitality sector for over 20 years. He has been finance director of a number of hotel, pub and restaurant groups. Before that, he held senior positions in finance and IT at a number of commodity trading companies. He was Finance Director of Arcadian International plc for seven years – during which time the company developed a group of four-star country house hotels, started the Malmaison group and renovated the Great Eastern Hotel in the City of London. He was a founder and non-executive director of Pod Food; and co-founded Snoozebox Plc, an innovative portable hotel concept. In addition, he is currently non-executive director of a London hotel company and runs a consultancy practice, C U Associates Ltd, specialising in hospitality. He was appointed to the then BAHA Council in 2007 and served as Deputy Chairman until his new appointment as HOSPA Chairman this month.
