Zurich, Switzerland – 8 November 2017 –
Malte Budde who acted as Director of Sales & Marketing for three successful years takes on a new role as Director of Operations with immediate effect. His successor is Katharina Plonka who relocates from the River Spree in Berlin to the Limmat in Zurich to become the new Director of Sales & Marketing.
Malte Budde acted as Director of Sales & Marketing at Park Hyatt Zürich since 2014 but had been a member of the Hyatt family since 2012. When he first joined, he held the position of Director of Sales & Marketing at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Cologne, until he was relocated to the team of the Swiss Park Hyatt two years later.
His previous career steps include various managing positions at premium luxury hotels in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, such as the Steigenberger Hotels in Davos, Zurich and Gstaad Saanen, as well as the Palace Hotel in Lucerne.
Malte Budde promotes within Hyatt and moves from sales to operations, a welcome career step: “I am delighted to have this new opportunity and to be able to continue the successful work with my successor Katharina Plonka. We both share the same objective: to unify and align administrative and operative powers. We want to optimize the cooperation and communication between operations and marketing, starting from the first point of contact with the customer via sales, the actual stay and until their check-out”, explains Malte Budde.
Katharina Plonka who relocates from Berlin to Zürich, becomes the first female Director of Sales & Marketing of the Park Hyatt Zürich. After having graduated in International Business and Management Studies from the University of Amsterdam, Katharina Plonka gained first international experiences at properties such as the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Boston and the Shelbourne Hotel in Ireland. Her sales career at the Ritz-Carlton and the Rocco Forte Hotels – where she was the Head of Sales and Marketing at the Hotel de Rome in Berlin – all make her the ideal candidate for the new position at Park Hyatt, where she can contribute with her expertise gained within the international luxury sector.