Jennifer Fox, who from 2011 to 2016 was president of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, has been hired as CEO of London-based Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, which has more than 120 hotels under four collections, with the Millennium brand being its flagship.
Fox will assume the role beginning in June. She replaces Aloysius Lee, the former CEO of Millennium & Copthorne. Tan Kian Seng, who has served as interim group CEO since February 2017, will remain with the group as chief of staff and assume other executive responsibilities, reports say.
Fox's career spans multiple brands. She started her career with ITT Sheraton, where she had sales and marketing and general manager roles, including the GM of the Sheraton Park Central, now the Park Central Hotel.
From there, Fox moved to IHG, where she ultimately became COO of Europe from 2005 to 2011.
Since leaving Fairmont, she has been a board director with Village Roadshow, an Australian media and entertainment company.
Millennium & Copthorne hotels exist under the Millennium, Grand Millennium, Copthorne and Kingsgate brands. In the U.S., Millennium has 12 locations. The bulk of its hotels are in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Later this month it will open the Millennium Istanbul Golden Horn.
On the appointment of Fox, Kwek Leng Beng, chairman of Millennium & Copthorne, said in a statement: “With her strong leadership and in-depth sales, marketing and branding background, she will play a critical role in repositioning our key hotels, uplifting brand awareness of the group, as well as improving the overall performance of our portfolio.”
Of her hiring, Fox said: "I look forward to working with chairman Kwek and the board, together with my new Millennium & Copthorne Hotels colleagues around the world. The group’s distinctive portfolio of iconic properties gives it a strong edge in tackling the challenges in today’s global hospitality market. I see this as a significant opportunity at a time of great change in our industry."
A majority of Millennium & Copthorne is owned by Singapore's City Developments Limited, and its chair, billionaire Kwek Leng Beng. Earlier this year, in January, CDL was unsuccessful in an attempt to take full control of Millennium & Copthorne. A deal valuing the business at £2 billion was rejected by minority shareholders.