Eric Pere has been appointed general manager of the Corinthia Hotel St Petersburg. Mr Pere, a French national, moves to St Petersburg from Libya, where he was general manager of the Corinthia Hotel Tripoli. Before joining Corinthia Hotels Mr Pere was director of development with Orient Express Hotels and prior to that general manager of the luxurious Bora Bora Lagoon Resort & Spa in the South Pacific.

Mr Pere has travelled extensively throughout his hotel career and has gained invaluable knowledge and experience through senior management positions with leading hotels such as the Hotel Port Palace in Monte Carlo, the Savoy Group’s Berkeley Hotel in London, and the Hotel La Samanna on the island of St Martin in the Caribbean.

Mr Pere graduated in hotel management from the School of Hotel Administration in Paris and has also received accreditation from Cornell University in New York, and the Institute of Hotel Management International in France.

“St Petersburg presents a whole new set of opportunities to Eric. He has been with Corinthia for some time and we now look forward to seeing him lead our team at Corinthia Hotel St Petersburg,” said the company’s chief operating officer Liam Lambert.

Following extensive refurbishment and restructuring work, the 400-room luxury Corinthia Hotel St Petersburg was re-launched with more bedrooms and more facilities under one roof than any other luxury five-star hotel in the City. The hotel, together with grand properties on either side of it on the city’s main boulevard, was acquired as an operating hotel in 2002 by International Hotel Investments plc.

IHI, which is the owner, developer and operator of all Corinthia Hotels, has since invested a further €100 million in the total refurbishment of the original hotel, complete with a new grand foyer, a new restaurant and new bars. The adjoining buildings on either side of the hotel were demolished and carefully reconstructed with ornate facades matching their original splendour, rebuilt using traditional techniques.