Ronald Kooistra, has taken the helm of ACOYA Hotel Suites and Villas, a member of the Ascend Hotel Collection, in Willemstad, Curaçao.
In addition to having served as CEO of the Papagayo group in Curaçao, Kooistra, a Dutch national, also has an impressive pedigree of service in hospitality in the Netherlands, Belgium and France.
With extensive hospitality management and entrepreneurship education at Hotelschool in Groningen, Netherlands, Kooistra moved on to food service management and restaurant development at Cornell University in New York, a leading hospitality institution in the United States.
He moved to France to continue his studies with the International Hotel Management high potential program at the ESSEC Business School in Paris. Part of his specialty involved the study of the heightened efficiency gains made by switching hotels to LED lighting.
Kooistra served as Manager of Commercial Affairs, Hospitality and Events for PSV NV, a leading football club in The Netherlands, where he enhanced the professional hospitality approaches throughout the organization.
After training at Sode Hotel in Brussels, Belgium, he moved to Euro Disney in Paris to continue working in the hotel sector. This experience was followed by a food and beverage position at the Carlton Beach Hotel in The Hague and a banquet sales position at the Carlton Square hotel in Haarlem, both in The Netherlands.
“Ronald brings a thoughtful blend of experience and professionalism to this position and we have already seen the fruits of his leadership since he joined us,” said Mahesh Daswani, Founder of the Dutch Caribbean hotel.
Kooistra, whose hobbies include diving, cooking, golf, reading, fitness, and eating out, feels very much at home in Curaçao, which features captivating beaches and a diverse culinary heritage spanning Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese mixed with Caribbean and Creole influences. The island also offers world-class diving and snorkeling sites favored by divers and adventure travelers from around the globe.
Kooistra’s executive team includes Henry Martijn, Sales Manager; Sudri-Anne Elizabeth, Event Coordinator; Yolanda Nunez, Human Resource Manager; and Najat Karraz, Guest Relations Manager.
