Hilton Worldwide has appointed Christian Baudat as General Manager of the new Hilton Tokyo Odaiba, set to become the company’s sixth property in Japan’s Kanto region following the rebranding of the Hotel Nikko Tokyo on October 1, 2015.
Currently General Manager of the Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk, Christian will assume responsibilities for the pre-conversion of the hotel on May 1, 2015. He was credited for the success of steering the 1,050-room Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk, the company’s largest property in the Asia Pacific, through its conversion and rebranding in 2010. Christian’s career with Hilton Worldwide spans almost 30 years, beginning as a management trainee at Hilton Tokyo, and with operational roles since at Hilton properties in Tokyo Bay, Nagoya, Singapore and Zurich. He assumed his first General Manager role in 1998 for the opening of the Hilton Otaru, and has since held successive General Manager roles in Nagoya, Tokyo and Fukuoka.
Replacing Christian as General Manager at the Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk is Josh Roberts, currently serving as Hotel manager at that property. He joined Hilton Worldwide as Director of Sales at Hilton Sydney in 2008 after a hospitality career in Australasia, where he gained experience and held commercial roles at properties in New Zealand, Perth, Canberra and Sydney. Following an appointment as Director of Business Development at Hilton Sydney in 2010, he subsequently relocated to Japan with his family in 2013, playing a key role in Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk’s trading success.
“Christian’s past experience makes him the perfect choice to lead the rebranding of the Odaiba property to become the Hilton Tokyo Odaiba, with its extensive MICE and banqueting space and large scale F&B operation. We are also delighted to have Josh leading the team at the Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk, where he will continue the ongoing evolution of this very successful hotel”, said Timothy Soper, Vice President of Operations for Japan, Korea and Micronesia, Hilton Worldwide.
