Hospitality veteran Michael Koth has been named the new general manager of InterContinental Bali Resort and director of operations for AMEA Resorts Malaysia, Indonesia & Thailand, responsible for Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn Resorts and Holiday Inn Express throughout the region. 

A German-Swiss national, Michael Koth has had more than three decades of experience within the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG). He began his career by training to be a chef in his home town of Hamburg, serving two apprenticeships – one as a hotel management trainee and the other one as a chef – and winning ‘Young Chef of the Year, Germany’ in 1982. He then requested a move to London because he wanted to brush up on his English, working at the InterContinental at Hyde Park before continuing to work his way up through the ranks to establish a solid background in hotel operations in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. In 1995, he moved to the Middle East to fulfil the position of resident manager at Regency InterContinental in Bahrain.

Known for developing strategies that go beyond the evident service quality and commercial agenda, Koth has since handled top roles as director of operations and general manager at IHG hotels in places such as post-war Serbia, where he succeeded in rebuilding the excellence and turning around the profits of a 1,007-room hotel. This was followed by appointments in Hamburg, Berlin, Athens during the Summer Olympic Games, Budapest, Doha, and Cairo where he had to manage crisis and owner advocacy at the heart of the Egyptian Revolution, before moving to the IHG Dubai Corporate Office as general manager Support. In 2012, he was appointed regional general manager Northern Gulf, and in 2015 he became director of operations Levant, based in Amman, Jordan, where he was managing 13 hotels of three IHG Brands in two countries, including the expansion of the IHG portfolio in the Levant. In 2016, he was named ‘general manager of the Year, Middle East’ by the World Luxury Hotel Awards.

Koth now brings his experience and adaptability, as well as his strength in leading teams and mastering change, to Bali. He believes in making a difference through inspiration, vision, collaboration, creativity and passion. His preferred style of working is therefore collaborative; building consensus through involvement and open communication, the hotel said in a statment. - TradeArabia News Service