From top to bottom, left to right: Stuart Houston, Kim Pedlar, and Claire Barrowclough
RBH Hospitality Management has announced a series of internal appointments and promotions within its leadership team, as the British third-party hotel management company continues a period of strong growth and further diversifies its hotel portfolio.
Stuart Houston joins the Executive Committee
Stuart Houston has been promoted to RBH’s Executive Committee, taking up the newly created role of Chief Operational Finance Officer. Having spent eleven years with the company, he previously oversaw operational finance and played a key role in delivering the group’s strategy.
He has led a number of major initiatives, notably technology-driven advances in data analytics and automation that have transformed the company’s forecasting and reporting processes.
Stuart Houston said that after more than a decade with the company, he was honoured to have contributed to its growth trajectory alongside talented teams, and that he was looking forward to taking on his new role and continuing the company’s momentum as a driving force in the sector.
Stuart Houston, Chief Operational Finance Officer.
Internal promotions within the operations leadership
Claire Barrowclough has been named Operations Director. With RBH since 2018, she has held a number of roles across the group’s hotels, spanning different brands and service levels, before bringing that operational experience to the wider business.
Sales and revenue management team reinforced
RBH’s commercial team has also welcomed two new appointments. Kim Pedlar, previously Director of Independent Hotel Sales Performance, takes over the group’s commercial leadership as Group Director of Sales.
Lesley Divers, who brings more than a decade of hospitality industry experience, joins the organisation as Group Director of Revenue Management.
Growth driven by a string of recent signings
These appointments accompany a sustained period of development for RBH, marked this year by several new signings: two Staybridge Suites properties in Liverpool and Newcastle, the Radisson Hotel Liverpool, and the Hyatt Place London City East, the company’s first hotel under the Hyatt brand.
RBH has also recently been appointed to manage Cameron House, the landmark five-star property on the banks of Loch Lomond in Scotland, further strengthening its luxury portfolio.
David Hart, CEO of RBH Hospitality Management, said RBH was going through an exciting period of growth as it consolidated its reputation as the partner of choice for hotel investors in the UK, and that these appointments and promotions reflected the company’s ambition to keep growing by strengthening key functions across the business, so as to remain the best-placed hotel management company to support its owners and brand partners.
He added that these decisions also reflected the group’s belief that its people were its greatest asset. With an average length of service of eight years across the company, and close to seventeen years among Executive Committee members, RBH said it had built a corporate culture in which employee development played a central role.
At a glance by The Hospitality Tribune
RBH Hospitality Management strengthens leadership team
Stuart Houston promoted to the Executive Committee as Chief Operational Finance Officer, after 11 years with the company
Claire Barrowclough named Operations Director; Kim Pedlar becomes Group Director of Sales; Lesley Divers joins as Group Director of Revenue Management
The moves follow a year of strong growth, including the addition of Cameron House on Loch Lomond and RBH’s first Hyatt-branded signing, Hyatt Place London City East
Average length of service across RBH stands at 8 years, rising to nearly 17 years among Executive Committee members
