Craig Coughlin (Chair)

Grad Year: 1995

Current Role: Chief Executive Officer, LUXXE Outsourced Hotel Services, Melbourne

Craig joined LUXXE in 2015 with a clear vision of where he wanted to take LUXXE to; so much so that in 2017 he executed a management buyout and purchased the business from the Beddison Group. He manages all aspects of business development and provides support to the operational leadership team from our Melbourne office.

Having graduated Dux from the Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School, and worked as a hospitality professional since 1990, Craig brings with him a wealth of knowledge from the hotel and outsourcing industries. Some of the leading hotel chains that Craig has worked for include SPHC, ACCOR, Radisson Hotel Group, Rydges Hotels & Resorts and TFE Hotels.

Grad Year: 1994

Current Role: Group General Manager, Accor, Sydney

Having graduated the BMIHMS in 1994 I continued to work in a variety of roles predominantly rooms division based, before heading to Switzerland with fellow BMIHMS graduates to finish my degree in Hotel Management.

Upon completion of my Degree, I returned briefly to Australia for the 2000 Sydney Olympics whilst working with ACCOR before returning to England to undertake and complete a Masters in International Marketing.  Before entering into the Quest Network, I had the benefit of working for Accor, Hilton Hotels UK, Holiday Inn and the Toga Hospitality group. I would say there is not a role or a position that I have not undertaken in a hotel, whether it was cooking breakfast for 100 pax or managing a conference for Princess Anne I could comfortably say I have accomplished all.  This experience has ensured my success with franchising ownership within the Quest Group.

I have now operated and owned Quest Franchises in Sydney for the past 13 years  and also ventured into the NZ marketspace in the past. Apart from the busy hotel environment I enjoy mixing it on the cricket pitch and golf courses when time allows.  With the industry now so greatly affected by Covid 19 it more and more important that we focus on my other passion in supporting worthy charities’ in particular RUOK for we all should be asking this every day.  

Grad Year: 1995

Current Role: Director of Distribution Systems - Pacific, Accor, Sydney

Ben graduated BMIHMS in 1995 and started his career cleaning rooms and waiting tables. 

He has stayed in the industry since graduating working through 15 different hotels and HQ roles.
Resident in Sydney he currently works for Accor as Director of Distribution in the Pacific.

Grad Year: 1993

Current Role: Managing Director, Luscious Affairs Catering, Melbourne. 

Founder and Managing Director of Catering and Café Food Business, Luscious Affairs, I have worked as an Events Manager, Caterer, Culinary Tour Host and Entrepreneur over the last twenty three years.

A key component of Luscious Affairs has been event management, which I have grown from a single client to representing sixty five percent of my overall annual revenue.

Experienced in building and developing a highly respected brand in event management, cafes, cooking school, global culinary tours and hospitality.

In the last 12 months, I have been engaged as a Food & Beverage Consultant for hotels and cafes. This included Identifying marketing channels to pursue potential growth opportunities for the hotel through digital marketing, social media and PR. Also mentoring and coaching the Food & Beverage team to achieve excellence; acting as an advocate for Food & Beverage service; preparing daily and weekly reports for both the General Manager and the Hotel Owner and delivering a final detailed report of all assessments and achievements.

Grad Year: 1993

Current Role: Lecturer, Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School at Torrens University Australia

After graduating in 1993 Tom developed his love of food and beverage by working in a variety of hospitality settings including restaurants, wine shops and yachts in Australia and Europe. After a brief hiatus in the technology industry, Tom returned to the kitchen to work in food media, catering and restaurants.

Over the years, Tom remained in contact with the school and in 2010 he returned to the Blue Mountains to join the team at BMIHMS as a staff member. Tom has been working at the school ever since, initially in the Food and Beverage Department and more recently in academia. Tom completed his MBA at Glion Institute of Higher Education in 2015 and graduated with the accolade of Top Student. He received the THCI Teacher Achievement Award for Hospitality Management in 2018 and remains committed to teaching the next generation of hospitality professionals.

Grad Year: 1999

Current Role: Managing Director Aureus Advisors and Pre-opening General Manager Waldorf-Astoria Doha Lusail, Qatar

After spending several years in the culinary and food & beverage departments, he opted to try out other areas of the hospitality trade. He was keen on expanding his horizon and worked for many smaller luxury hotels and restaurants along the way such as the Hotel La Porte D’Octodure in Martigny and the Hotel Duc Berthold in Fribourg, both in the French speaking part of Switzerland. He brings with him over thirty years of experience having worked in Europe, the US, Australia, Russia and the Middle East before joining in India. He has also worked for other global hotel operators and luxury boutique hotels over the years, including the Gourmet Restaurant Glashof in Zug, the Hilton Hotel in Zurich, Kofler & Kompanie in Germany, the luxury boutique hotel The Inn on Fifth in Naples, Florida, and the Hotel Kurrajong in Canberra, Australia.

He started his Hyatt career as Revenue Manager at the Hyatt Regency Dubai, followed by other appointments at the Grand Hyatt Muscat in Oman, the Park Hyatt Moscow in Russia, the Grand Hyatt Dubai in the UAE, and the Grand Hyatt Doha Hotel & Villas in Qatar, and Area Vice President Western India, Hyatt International Hotels & Resorts plus General Manager, Grand Hyatt Mumbai. 

Chris is enjoying his new role as Managing Director, Aureus Advisors and the pre-opening of the Waldorf-Astoria Doha Lusail in Qatar.

Chris has won several awards and honours over the years that include the Business Excellence Award 2017 and was also one of the candidates for the Jay A. Pritzker Award for Leadership. In the same year his hotel team in Qatar was also a contender for the Donald N. Pritzker Award for Hotel Team of the Year. He is also well versed in three languages: English, French and German.

Grad Year: 2005

Current Role: Director - Customer Experience, Department of the Premier and Cabinet, South Australia

I am passionate about innovation, investment opportunities and commercialising new ventures in with 
start-ups, scale-ups, and corporate innovation hubs.

I started life after BMHMS on a Marriott Traineeship and my first role after 18 months of operations 
was as Director of Digital at Marriott for ANZ. From there I headed up the eCommerce division at 
Mirvac, before leaving hotels to go into Digital Strategy Consulting at DSC and IBM. Here I worked on 
innovation design frameworks: insight, discovery, scoping, business case and feasibility. Working on 
big problems and solutions for some of the world’s largest corporates widened the field of opportunity
and before long I was active in a food tech start up as Country Manager where I lead a team of 90+ 
to bring demand, distribution and booking to customers.

From there I have been busy architecting ventures for boards, HNW individuals, Family Wealth Offices and other investors in retail, cannabis, consumer reviews, franchising, eCommerce, travel, food-tech, prop-tech, SaaS, marketplaces, and mobile apps. 

Most recently I have taken on a Regional General Manager position at a start up in the hospo-tech space. I have been fortunate in my career in that I have launched innovative products, created revenue models, built high performing teams, driven aggressive growth trajectories, and pitched funding opportunities. I am passionate about the work as the next big innovation of tomorrow is waiting to be found today.

Grad Year: 2014

Current Role: Purchasing Manager, QCC Hospitality Supplies

Passionate about creating and refining ‘The Customer Experience.’ This has manifested differently across a range of roles and industries; most recently evolving to focus on supply chain operations and procurement. After graduating and moving back home to Queensland, I quickly realised the high end and luxury sector was lacking when compared with the Sydney landscape; where I had been spoilt working for Park Hyatt Sydney for three years. Put simply, the Brisbane hotel scene didn’t inspire me to continue focusing on the hospitality side of my degree.

Instead, I leveraged my wider capabilities developed during my studies, and was accepted into a two-year Business Graduate Program with the Winson Group (Packaging Sector).  Starting in the call centre, I was promoted through various roles in internal and external sales, team leader roles and at the point of completing the program, I took on the role of managing the Graduate Program. Not long after, I was poached by a smaller rival company; eager to revamp their operational structure in order to scale at pace and service a rapidly growing client base. In this role I developed and implemented a business wide framework; overhauling their HR, Customer Service and Procurement functions. I remained at Azapak for three years and saw the business through an incredible growth period during COVID (thank you e-commerce burst); from which I emerged with a new-found passion for sourcing and procurement. 

During this time, the luxury hospitality landscape in Brisbane had undergone a dramatic transformation; with landmark establishments emerging, such as the W Hotel, Howard Smith Wharves precinct and the Calile Hotel. With COVID a lesser concern in Brisbane; the sector has been revitalised, as had my passion for the hospitality industry. In mid 2020 I was lucky enough to have this passion align with my discipline expertise in the procurement space, and I have since been working with specialist supplier QCC Hospitality Supplies as their Purchasing Manager for Queensland.

Grad Year: 2017

Current Role: General Manager, Mercure Sydney Manly Warringah

“I entered hospitality with the sole purpose of improving the lives of the people I came into contact 
with every day, colleague or guest. My passion for allowing people to enjoy themselves and generate 
value out of money spent exceeds all others and I pride myself on delivering that for everyone who 
enters the property I am working in. I aim to create a learning environment amongst my team where 
everyone feels inspired and appreciated in what they do. Hotel facilities, amenities, brand status and 
location may make a hotel great but it is the people that represent those things and provide that service
 that truly separate the property from good and exceptional." 

After graduating in 2017, Scott continued his employment at Park Hyatt Sydney and was chosen to 
take part in the Corporate Leadership Program where he developed over a 12 month program into 
becoming a Team Leader. Throughout the following two years, Scott moved into Assistant Manager and 
then Assistant Guest Services Manager at the hotel. When COVID struck in 2020, Scott was involved with the skeleton staff that continued on and towards late 2020, stepped in as acting Assistant Front Office Manager. 

In February 2021, Scott moved over to Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour and assumed the role of Front Office Manager. Scott has been a passionate advocate for the school and enjoys coming back to speak with current students and talking about his experiences to prepare them for life after studies. Scott has also spoken previously in the BMIHMS Leadership Speaker Series on the topic of "The Next Generation of Hotel Leaders" to share his insights on the future of the industry. In August 2022, Scott was provided with the opportunity of taking his first General Manager role at the Mercure Sydney Manly Warringah which is a part of the Accor/Salter Brothers Portfolio.

Grad Year: 2012

Current Role: General Manager, Novotel Canberra

Jessica had the privilege of attending both AIHS and BMIHMS and completed her double degree in 2012. For the last decade Jessica has had an exciting and rapid career journey with Accor. Jessica spent a number of years in leadership roles in hotel operations as part of the Accor Executive Leadership Program. Her stellar performance led to her appointment as General Manager of ibis Styles Mount Isa in 2018, making her one of the youngest General Mangers in the history of our Alumni.

Jessica has always embraced the opportunities presented to her and used each experience to further develop her leadership skills.

Majority of Jessica’s career has been spent in regional locations in Australia and in the last decade she has lived in Townsville, Darwin, Brisbane, Mount Isa, Palm Cove and Canberra working across many of Accor’s diverse brands.

Jessica is passionate about developing and mentoring future leaders, inclusion and diversity and giving back to the local community that she is working in.

Grad Year: 2009

Current Role: Director of Food and Beverage Intercontinental Singapore Robertson Quaya

After graduating 2009 Darren undertook his first position food and beverage position with the Park Hyatt Sydney before moving away from the hospitality industry and into banking, taking on various customer experience improvement roles within the branch network system and HQ at the Commonwealth Bank.

After 5 years in the banking industry the hospitality world beckoned again and Darren moved to Singapore to open and operate a series of independent restaurants and bars. These included a pasta restaurant, pizza restaurant, nightclub and evening lounge helping to shape and develop the highly competitive restaurant and nightlife industry in Singapore.

In 2023 Darren made the move back to hotels taking up a role as the Food and Beverage Director at the Intercontinental Singapore Robertson Quay.

Current Role: Regional Sales Manager, Opal Healthcare

From Hospitality to Healthcare

Harrison Mott's journey from a waiter at Hyatt Hotels to healthcare leadership is a testament to the transformative passion and adaptability our alumni network possesses. Initially studying law while working in hospitality, Harrison discovered his true calling within the hotel industry. After graduating from BMIHMS, he held in various roles at Hyatt and later joined Accor's luxury hotel portfolio including The Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai.

The Covid-19 pandemic prompted a pivotal shift for Harrison when he attended a BMIHMS online alumni event featuring Rachel Argaman, CEO of Opal Healthcare, advocating for hospitality leaders to transition to healthcare management. Inspired by Argaman's vision, Harrison transitioned to healthcare, becoming a General Manager at a Gold Coast care community before assuming his current role as regional Sales Manager for Queensland and South Australia at Opal Healthcare.

Harrison’s journey highlights the remarkable possibilities of the BMIHMS alumni network. His appointment to the board underscores the network's capacity to inspire and support professionals across various industries. With his expertise and dedication, Harrison hopes to harness the spirit of innovation and resilience within the alumni community, by showcasing the profound impact that collaboration and shared experiences can have in shaping diverse career paths.