‘‘It’s very exciting,’’ says Sydney-raised Eloise Green, who’s taken over from Stewart Manson, who’s left to run Australia’s InterContinental Hayman Island.
Green started her hotel career almost 14 years ago as an executive lounge attendant at InterContinental Sydney.
She’s worked in six IHG hotels and latterly managed operations for the 432-room Crowne Plaza Melbourne.
Green’s been part of IHG’s ‘journey to GM’ programme — ‘‘as part of that they said ‘would you like to apply’ [for Queens-town’s Crowne Plaza] and here I am’’.
‘‘I’ve got lots of mentors around me, but I can also connect with a lot of the team because we’re at a similar stage of life, which is nice.’’
Announcing her appointment to IHG staff, Australasia/Pacific director of ops Emma Hynes states: ‘‘Her strong leadership style, depth of operational experience and commitment to exceptional guest and colleague experiences position her strongly for success in this role.’’
Green, who’d never been here, says she was fortunate to fly in on a stunning day last week — ‘‘99% of people told me Queenstown is the most stunning place on earth when they found out I was moving here’’.
She’s also moved here with her partner, whose background’s running restaurants and bars — ‘‘maybe I’ll get married in Queenstown, too’’.
As to what activities she’s looking forward to doing, ‘‘we want to learn to snowboard, because we do get a little bit of snow in Australia, but not very good snow’’.
As for running Crowne Plaza, she already knows the 139-room hotel’s ops manager Jess Checkley — they studied together at hotel school in Sydney and the latter’s also on the ‘journey to GM’ programme.
