Executive & management teams

Executive team

Maurice Taylor - Chief Executive

Maurice V Taylor is Founder and Chief Executive of The Chardon Group.

Renowned and respected both nationally and internationally, Maurice is recognised for dedication to entrepreneurship and innovation, and distinguished by strategic vision.

He directs the strategy, management and development of CML, on a day-to-day basis, with the support of his highly experienced Executive & Management team.

In the recent past, his drive resulted in CML’s successful takeover of the management of seven UK-based Hilton Hotels and their subsequent rebranding.

Maurice owns a number of Scotland’s most successful hotels and restaurants, including Holiday Inn Glasgow Theatreland and Quality Hotel Edinburgh Airport. Back in 1975 he also launched Glasgow’s original French Mediterranean Brasserie, the award winning La Bonne Auberge, and today diners can still enjoy the delights of its tantalising, ‘in-vogue’ menus at Maurice’s Glasgow & Edinburgh hotels.

In addition he created, developed and ran the prestigious Parklands Country Club in the Newton Mearns area of Glasgow – another first in its class at the time.

Throughout his years in the industry Maurice has been the proud recipient of a plethora of awards including Lifetime Achievement and Entrepreneur of the Year from a number of august bodies. He is currently visiting Professor at the Scottish Hotel School and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Strathclyde.

Cesidio Di Ciacca - Non-Executive Chairman

Cesidio graduated from Edinburgh University in 1975 and worked as a solicitor in private practice until 1994, advising on significant corporate and property matters.

Since then he has joined the board of various Groups involving principally in Property Development and Investment and Pharmaceutical wholesaling/ retailing as well as being non-exec Chairman of one of Scotland’s fastest growing Legal firms.

He has been an advisor to the Chardon Group for 20 years.

Robert Crook - Managing Director

Based in Glasgow, Robert joined CML in 1999. He leads the CML executive team and has been instrumental in attracting and retaining many of the executive and operational team members. He also provides operational supervision for all hotels north of Leeds. He led the team that successfully took over management of seven Hilton Hotels, rebranding all of them - five to Holiday Inn, one to Best Western and one which is now trading independently – as well as the Livingwell Health and Fitness Clubs to Triangle Health and Fitness.

He led the team that opened the Express by Holiday Inns in Dunfermline, Glasgow and Perth and took over management of the Quality Hotel Edinburgh Airport. He also led the project management teams that added 25% more rooms to meet market demand to the Express by Holiday Inn Glasgow Theatreland.

Robert has more than 15 years’ experience in hotel management including executive experience with Inter-Continental Hotels Group. He is a member of HCIMA.

David Chapman - Finance Director

David leads the central finance team and has supervisory responsibility over all hotel finance teams. Since joining CML in 2005, he has overhauled and standardised the core accounting and reporting processes, greatly enhanced the quality of management information and accelerated the month-end reporting timetable to five days.

David has been involved in the hotel industry for nearly twenty years. Prior to joining CML, he spent seven years with Queens Moat Houses, undertaking a number of senior finance roles. His last role within QMH was as finance director of their Dutch business (Bilderberg Hotels and Restaurants). Previous roles include head of risk assurance services, group chief accountant and head of UK accounting services.

A chartered accountant, qualifying with Ernst & Young, David also has a degree in hotel and catering management and a post graduate diploma in accountancy.

James Ford - Commercial & Development Director

James joined CML in 2005 and is currently responsible for the asset management and commercial development of CML. He also assists hotel owners leverage the best possible value from their assets and the CML partnership.

Has supervised the integration, rebranding and capital projects of seven Hilton hotels and has delivered savings to CML’s clients of £7m in just one year. This has been achieved through the elimination of wastage and the constant application of cost benefit analysis and value engineering strategies as a route to flexible adaptable value-enhancing solutions.

Prior to joining CML, James had executive experience with Sheraton ITT, the World Bank, and Intercontinental Hotels Group. He opened over 70 hotels in the UK, France, Germany, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia and Spain. He has had responsibility for hotel assets worth more than £400m and 6,000 employees. He also handled the £1billion Posthouse acquisition and integration for the Intercontinental Hotel Group. He later had commercial and revenue responsibilities for the estate of 15,000 bedrooms and 95 restaurants.

He was one of the first Holiday Inn franchisees in the UK and holds a Masters degree in business administration and hotel asset management. He is a fellow of the HCIMA and BAHA, has 30 years’ hotel management experience and is based in the Midlands.

Nicola Taylor - Marketing Director

Nicola covers all aspects of marketing - from actively representing Chardon’s global branded hotels in the UK to guidance on the development of each hotel’s local marketing plan.

Where necessary the hotel’s local marketing plan dovetails with the global brand strategy and includes: internal and external promotions to residents and non-residents in the leisure and corporate markets; advertising; PR; website design; and e-marketing. She is currently exploring where digital media can assist the local marketing plan in the future.

Since joining CML in 1993, she has launched two major brands: Triangle Health & Fitness, which was developed when the seven Hilton hotels and their health and fitness clubs were re-branded, and the web site hoteldeals.co.uk which is exclusive to CML-managed properties, allowing us to market to our own customer base across all the brands we manage.

Nicola began her career in hotel sales and operations, before moving into the media industry where she gained invaluable knowledge of a variety of different categories including the travel and hospitality sectors.

She relocated to Glasgow when she joined CML in May 1993.

Management team

Alison Muir - Director of Human Resources & Training

An industry experienced professional, Alison is responsible for the human resources function across all the hotels and the different companies (currently 1,250 employees). She also manages the Chardon Hospitality Training Academy (CHTA) which provides the training and development needed to support the business development and required standards of operation.

Her achievements at CML include establishing the working policies and practices for the company which can be applied to any size or brand of hotel as well as creating a library of on and off-job training that Chardon Hospitality Training Academy provides to CML properties and other third-party hotel-based executives and staff. Alison also managed the TUPE transfer for 1,000 staff who moved over from Hilton under the Stardon partnership and adopted change management training to assist de-branding/re-branding activities for the staff of the seven additional hotels. In addition she ed the recruitment and training for two new hotel openings and tailoring and implementing an HR software package to integrate the payroll, HR and training functions, making management information accessible at both hotel and company level.

She holds a BA in Hotel and Catering Management from the University of Strathclyde and a PGDip in Human Resources.

Jan Brown - Director of Sales

Jan heads a team of ten hotel-based sales managers. Since joining CML in 2000, Jan has developed and recruited a sales team to match the needs of the portfolio, managed all resources associated with the sales function – people, procedures, place and profit to ensure optimum return, retention and growth of the customer base across all market segments.

During 2005, Jan played a key role in the integration and re-branding of seven Hilton hotels through sales best practice and recruitment of hotel-based sales managers. Working closely with both old and new brands ensured the smooth transition of the key client base to minimise loss of revenue over the transition period.

With over 20 years experience in the UK hotel industry, Jan is extremely well known in Scotland, where she is based. Jan was previously director of sales - Scotland for Hilton International and, before that, she held a similar position in Stakis Hotels.

Jan worked for many years in hotel operations for other major hotel chains, such as Copthorne, where she was involved in areas such as duty management and front office - and it was here that she first discovered her passion for sales.

Carol Dodds - Director of Revenue Management

Based in the North East, she leads the revenue management specialist function across all brands within the portfolio. This is delivered through directing the team of unit-based revenue managers along with the support of two area revenue managers covering multiple properties..

Since joining CML in 2005, Carol has recruited and developed the revenue management team to establish the relevant core disciplines into the business. In 2005, this involved the integration of the Hilton group business systems through rebranding into five properties into the Holiday Inn chain and the implementation of standalone solutions for two properties going unbranded.

Her key focus is driving revenue strategy to improve revenue performance and gain market share growth.

Carol has been working in the industry for 18 years, covering both the London and provincial markets. Prior to joining CML, she spent ten years with Forte Hotels and five years with Intercontinental Hotels. Working through the front-office environment, she held a post of general manager before specialising in the revenue management discipline for the last seven years. Her role immediately before joining CML was as regional revenue manager for Intercontinental Hotels Group covering 36 hotels and playing a key role in the revenue management strategic direction of the group across the EMEA region.

Matt Stray – Director - Health and Fitness

Based in the Midlands, Matt is currently responsible for the strategic direction, operation and profitability of our Triangle Health & Fitness brand.

Matt joined CML in March 2007 coming from an extensive Health and Fitness background. He has worked within the industry for a number of years starting off as a Club Manager then working through the ranks to regionally manage hotel based Leisure Clubs for Thistle Hotels, Choice Hotels Europe, London & Edinburgh Inns and Radisson SAS. During this time he was involved in several new builds right from design and build to pre-sale and the direct management of beauty spas across the brands.

Matt then moved into the private sector and worked within the Livingwell Premier Brand and most recently with Bannatyne Fitness Ltd.

Matt has a BSc (Hons) in Exercise and Health Science.