Thomas Grundner has joined Rotana Hotels as area director of sales and marketing, Abu Dhabi.

Born in Germany, Grundner lived in South East Africa and graduated from Oxford University in England, before he started his career in 1990.

He brings 12 years of experience in sales and marketing in southeast Africa, Germany and the Middle East.

He initially joined Doreint Property, one of the leading hotel companies in Germany before moving on to Event Hotel which owned six Holidays Inns and other properties as regional sales manager before getting his promotion as regional director of sales and marketing.

Before coming to the UAE, Grundner was the regional director of sales and marketing at Iberotel Hotels in Cairo, in charge of 12 properties.

He will head the Rotana sales and marketing area team in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain with emphasis on implementing new strategies for key accounts relationships. The focus will also be on implementing new strategies particularly in relation to the Beach Rotana Hotel expansion project scheduled to open at the end of September.

Meanwhile, Joseph Abou Yaghi has joined the group as its new human resources manager.

Yaghi brings a wealth of human resources management experience in the hospitality industry, Rotana said.

He was previously with the Six Continents Hotels and Resorts where he started his career in human resources. Quickly advancing to the position of human resource manager, his responsibilities included setting up the human resource function for new properties in the UAE and Africa.

With his local and international exposure, Yaghi will continue the development of Rotana's current workforce and develop strategies to take advantage of the new technologies to ensure well-equipped and developed staff members to fulfill the group's expansion vision.

Rotana currently manages 17 hotels throughout the Middle East with additional hotels and resorts under development.