E: What are your responsibilities?
M: Overseeing all of the outlets in the hotel, big banquet operations with catering and making sure that our guests are happy – this is the most important part.
E: What makes a typical day?
M: It starts very early, because we’re a business hotel. Around 6.45am or 7am I start my job. Then it’s welcoming the guests at breakfast, seeing our regular guests, checking if all the team is here, checking if everyone’s okay – that’s really important, the guests and the team. Throughout the day it’s a lot of operations, balancing it off with meetings, as well as meeting clients, suppliers, and organising the next day and the year ahead.
E: Your best attribute?
M: Number one is my passion. And because I like to teach and spread my knowledge further, I want to make sure that the next generation can take over my job – I think this is important in Southeast Asia and Indonesia in particular. One of my biggest strengths is my drive to grow people – I lead by example, you can only do what you say, you walk the talk.
E: Team player or team leader?
M: Both. Beyond team player or team leader, in our job where we need front of house-back of house organisation, you wear so many different hats during the day. When you need to step up and be the leader, you be one. Throughout the day you have to be a team player, because you’re nothing without your team.
E: Who has been the most influential figure in your career to date?
M: Denise French, who was my F&B director in a hotel in Sydney and now is a great restaurateur in Bali. She crossed over from a pastry chef to be the F&B director, and she showed me that even in a hotel restaurant, you must run it as a standalone restaurant. In a restaurant, everyone who walks in the door has their own different characters and needs, and I think your personality is also important for them. In five-star hotels, we sometimes get very robotic, especially towards the guests. Denise is the one who taught me that you’re your own personality, so let it shine through. She showed me that you have to be yourself to achieve what you want to achieve. I got my strength from her. She’s my go-to person and mentor.
E: Name one really special thing about your hotel.
M: It’s the team. It takes every single person in the F&B team at every restaurant and bar to make a memorable experience for the guests. Without my managers or the stewards, it wouldn’t have happened. The teamwork here is really special, how we all work together and everyone wants the best.
E: How do you unwind?
M: When it’s already late at night and I don’t feel like fighting the traffic, I will go to the poolside bar at the hotel and just sit there and relax, with a cup of tea or a glass of wine. What I really like to do is go to the gym to do spin class and body pump. I also like surfing and snowboarding, but I have to leave the city for the last two.
E: Dead or alive, who would you like to take out to dinner?
M: Angelina Jolie, with what she’s doing with UNICEF and all, and Bruce Springsteen, who’s such an icon in music. But in the end, considering we in the F&B industry have so little time, sometimes it’s best to go out with friends and family.
Mandarin Oriental Jakarta
Jalan M.H. Thamrin
Jakarta 10310, Indonesia
T: +622129938888
