Centara appoints Chirathivat as CEO

The Board of Directors of Central Plaza Hotel Public Company Limited has named Thirayuth Chirathivat as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Centara Hotels & Resorts, effective from 2 April 2012. Mr Thirayuth holds a bachelor degree from the Faculty of Political Science of Chulalongkorn University and a master degree in Food, Hotel and Tourism Management from the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, USA. He also attended the Program of Management Development and Executive Education at Harvard Business School and has undertaken management programmes at other well-known universities and institutes. Mr Thirayuth has more than 21 years of experience in hotel business management. He started working in 1990 at Hyatt Central Plaza, Bangkok, which is now Centara Grand at Central Plaza Ladprao Bangkok, as F&B Coordinator. He was subsequently promoted to F&B Promotions Manager, and then to Project Development Manager. In this latter role he was directly responsible for supervising the successful completion of two new projects, namely Central Samui Beach Resort and Central Sukhontha Hotel, Hat Yai. These two properties are now named Centara Grand Beach Resort Samui and Centara Hotel Hat Yai respectively. He was appointed Director of Project Management and Procurement in 1999, and subsequently Vice President of Project Management and Procurement in 2011. He was also director of company subsidiaries Central Hua Hin Beach Resort Co Ltd, Central Samui Beach Resort Co Ltd, and Central Sukhontha Hotel Co Ltd. Prior to being appointed CEO of Centara Hotels & Resorts, Mr Thirayuth was Senior Vice President for Project Management, directly responsible for overseeing construction and renovation projects for the entire group of hotels.