Steve Terry joins as development director for UK and Ireland, based at IHG’s head office in Buckinghamshire, and Michael Cooper moves to Cape Town to take up a newly created role as vice president of development for Sub-Saharan Africa. Aron Libinson joins as associate vice president of development for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, based in Moscow.
Terry will report to Richard Arman, with responsibility for growing Crowne Plaza, the Holiday Inn brand family, Hotel Indigo and Staybridge Suites in the UK and Ireland. He was most recently senior development director at Wyndham Hotels and previously on the board of BDL Hotels, which owns several hotels from the IHG family of brands. Terry first moved into the hotel sector when he joined IHG, then Holiday Inn Worldwide, in 1995.
IHG has 264 hotels open and 33 hotels in the pipeline in the UK and seven hotels open in Ireland.
Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson, IHG’s head of development for Europe, said: “We have the biggest share of the hotel industry’s pipeline worldwide and we need the best talent in the industry to help us continue to grow our pipeline. Aron, Steve and Michael will help us strengthen our market leading positions across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Around the world, we signed 63 hotels in the first quarter of this year, up on the first quarter of 2010, taking our pipeline to 1,236 hotels and nearly 8,400 rooms.”