Radisson Blu’s Kathrine to leave city
ONE of the best-known figures in the Birmingham business community, Radisson Blu hotel manager Kathrine Ohm Thomas, is leaving the city for a similar role in South Africa.
Kathrine Ohm-Thomas leaves at the end of this month to take up the position of general manager at the five-star Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa, just as the World Cup gets underway.
Kathrine, 42, has headed the team at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Birmingham in Beetham Tower since it opened four-and-a-half years ago.
She will be replaced in Birmingham by the Cape Town hotel’s general manager, Nottingham-born Christopher Pike.
Kathrine said: “I have had the most amazing time since arriving in Birmingham five-and-a-half years ago to launch the Radisson and establish it as one of the city’s leading hotels.”
“I can only hope and dream that I will be as well received in Cape Town as I was when I came to Birmingham. The welcome you get in this city is second to none. Birmingham loves new people coming in who want to invest time, money and commitment.”
Kathrine, whose teenage daughter, Hannah, will complete her education at a Cape Town school, said her time in Birmingham would stand her in good stead for her new job.
“I have learned such a lot over the past few years – not least how important it is to work with the local and business community for the good of the city. In Birmingham, everyone pulls together to make the city, rather than simply individual businesses, the best it can be.”
She added: “I am hugely excited about the Cape Town appointment, but very sad to be leaving Birmingham and my wonderful team of colleagues. I have no doubt, though, that Birmingham will welcome Christopher in the generous way it welcomed me.”
Christopher, 43, left the UK 17 years ago to work as a sales manager in Bahrain. He then moved to Moscow as a director of sales and marketing before joining Radisson Blu in Muscat, Oman, where he became general manager, and then moving to Cape Town.
“I’m thrilled to be heading home after such a long ‘walkabout’ and settling back in with my Midlands’ countrymen,” said Christopher, who is married with two children. “I’m very excited to be taking over such a landmark hotel in Birmingham and meeting the local business community.”
