Mandarin Oriental announced two senior leadership appointments: Amanda Hyndman, who joined the company in 2007, was promoted to chief people officer and Francesco Cefalú, who joined the company in 2016, was promoted to chief development officer.
Hyndman is responsible for establishing, implementing, and evaluating global HR strategies for the group. Her career spans more than 30 years in the luxury hotel industry, and she has held several senior management roles in the U.K., Hong Kong, Bangkok and Washington, D.C. She was named group director of quality and rooms in 2020 at Mandarin Oriental. In her new role, she will oversee the development of human resources strategies that support the growth of the brand and colleague career development.
Cefalú, who joined the company as regional development director for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, has led the development strategy in EMEA, resulting in several successful agreements, including Lake Como, Muscat, Kuwait, Zurich, Tel Aviv, Vienna and Cortina. In his new role, Cefalú will be responsible for overseeing the development of the group's pipeline of hotels and residences worldwide.