KEY TEAM MEMBERS

After graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia, Darryl worked for two of the leading “Big 4” consulting firms – PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte Touche.

Originally beginning his hospitality operations career in catering and later with hotels and the Regent brand, he relocated to Hong Kong in 2001 where he has been a hospitality consultant ever since.

As an Executive Director of Agon Hotels and Resorts Ltd., he is responsible for the delivery of end-to-end solutions to hospitality clients, spanning each of the group’s practice areas, and has been involved in or the leader in each of the group’s many engagements.

Mr. John Barnes is a Director of Agon Hotels and Resorts Ltd.

John has over 35 years of experience in the hospitality industry having worked for Intercontinental Hotels Group, Maxims Caterers Ltd and The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Group (The Peninsula Group). John was Group Deputy General Manager overseeing all Peninsula Group Clubs and then was appointed General Manager of The Peninsula Group’s flagship residential and commercial property, The Repulse Bay where he was responsible for operating and managing the entire 421- unit residential and commercial property which also featured five dining outlets and a club house.

John, has lived in Hong Kong for over 50 years and is fluent in English and Cantonese. He was educated in Hong Kong and completed his Hospitality Tertiary Education in Australia as well as Cornell University in the United States and Insead Business School in France.

John is a Committee Member on The Hong Kong Solicitors Disciplinary Board and was also a Committee Member of The Hong Kong Transport Department PVRM Committee as well as The Hong Kong Immigration Tribunal sitting on both right of abode and registration of persons tribunals as an Adjudicator. His voluntary work includes being The Hon. Treasurer on The Board of Directors of The Hong Kong Guide Dogs Association.

He brings to AGON vast experience and expertise in project management, club, restaurant and hotel operations.

Ronnie is a consummate hotelier with a decorated career in top five star operations spanning almost forty years. His early career began in Hong Kong in the prestigious Regent Hotel and later the original Ritz Carlton hotel.

He later relocated to China and began his first post as General Manager for the Marriott Group in Wuhan and Shenyang, before joining LNH Hospitality Company to lead the award-winning, “Platinum 5 Star” Garden Hotel Guangzhou, and act as Chief Operating Officer for the entire group which also included LiuFa Hotel, Guangzhou Hotel, and the AiQun Hotel. He also led the group to open the Golden Bridge Hotel and MaoFeng Hotel, both in Guangzhou.

Following the great accomplishments at LNH, he moved to act as General Manager to open the Langham Place Guangzhou which earned multiple awards such as “Best New Hotel” and “Best MICE Hotel” in Guangzhou.

Personally, Ronnie also holds a myriad of awards such as “Best General Manager of China Hotel Industry” and is also a Vice Chairman of the China Hotel Industry Celebrity Club. Ronnie brings his wealth of experience to Agon management assignments as Director.

Scott is a senior leisure industry executive with over 20 years experience with hotels, private clubs and restaurants in Canada, USA and Asia. A graduate of Richard Agon’s BCIT programme, Scott has managed large hotel properties, owned his own restaurants, and established hospitality-related businesses. Today, he is Associate Director and Vice President for Projects at Agon Hotels and Resorts assisting with design consulting, project development, and operations management.

He is a specialist in all aspects of development and management of multi faceted leisure operations. In 1996 he was selected as the CEO of the Paramount Restaurant group to oversee the restructuring of the company, its overall strategic planning, and the establishment of policies and procedures. He was responsible for consulting for The Kowloon Club, one of Hong Kong’s most prestigious private dining clubs where he assumed management control, from Peninsula Hotels and Consultants, who operated the club for 17 years.

Scott has organized State Dinners for royalty including Queen Elizabeth II, managed international celebrity events, developed and implemented policies in start up situations, administered Food and Beverage policies and handled budget planning and all operational aspects of leading hotels in North America and in Asia.

In 1990, as one of Hilton Internationals leading North American Food and Beverage executives, he was selected to spearhead the Hilton’s flagship Food and Beverage property in Hong Kong to handle the US$15 million renovation of the hotel. This followed a successful period as executive-in-charge of Food and Beverage at Hilton Internationals world-renowned Drake Hotel in Chicago (1988-90). At the Drake the emphasis was on luxury catering and specialty banquet and event management. Prior to this time he was assigned by Hilton to oversee the implementation of Hilton policies and direct Food and Beverage operations during the acquisition by Hilton of the Westin Hotel in Toronto in 1987. Earlier he was Director of F&B at Canada’s foremost Hilton at the time the Harbour Castle Hotel. Scott joined the Harbour Castle in 1977 as a Management Trainee and worked his way up to Director of Catering in five years. In 1985 he took on the role of Food and Beverage at the Montreal Airport Hilton 6 months before resuming at the Harbour Castle in the top Food and Beverage role.

David is a senior hospitality executive with over 30 years’ experience with hotels, clubs and convention venues in Hong Kong, Macau, and China.

David began his early years on food & beverage management at Shangri-La Group and Hyatt Group. In 1999, David joined Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center as Director of Food & Beverage and afterwards was appointed as Deputy Managing Director responsible for providing direction, advice, action plans to senior management staff to implement strategic planning especially budgeting and financial controls.

In 2009, David was appointed as Director and General Manager of The Dynasty Club Hong Kong, with 1,800 private members, made up of the most elite and discerning of Hong Kong’s political, business, and social scene.

Afterwards, David was appointed as Director of Corporate F&B at Shangri-La International Hotel Management Limited and overseeing the group’s 73 Chinese restaurants with an annual sales over USD 150 million.

David completed his EMBA from Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, and has professional attainments as Higher Certificate in Wine & Spirit Education Trust, Certified Instructor of Service Plus, Development Dimensions International USA and Certificate of Specialization - Food & Beverage Management, AHMA.

Zeus has 40 years of professional experience in the design and management of construction, property development and investment projects in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Oman. He has been a senior executive of prestigious developer & construction companies of Hong Kong & China (including public listed companies) since 1986. Further to his experience in the management of real estate development and project management, he has been used to handle the construction of Property Assets and their Facilities of value from US$10Mil - 280Mil, since 1992.

Zeus has been responsible for major development projects from the project acquisition, concept design stage to project execution, management, and cost control. The involvement of different kinds of projects since the '80s which including Commercial Complex, Hotels, Residential Complex, and public facilities.

Professionally, he holds Chartered Engineer (CEng-UK), Professional Engineer Int'l Register (IntPE(NZ)), Asian Pacific Engineer Register (APEC Engineer), Chartered Building Engineer, Chartered Construction Manager, Fellow of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CEng FCABE), Chartered Institute of Building (FCIOB), Society of Operations Engineers (CEng FSOE) & Institution of Plant Engineers (FIPlantE), Chartered Member of Engineering New Zealand (CMEngNZ), Senior Member of China Machenical Engineering Society (SrMCMES), Member of China Civil Engineering Society (MCCES).

As Director of Engineering, Technical Services for Agon, Zeus is an interdisciplinary professional for Agon projects brining his working experience and knowledge including Design and Construction Management, Development Project Management, Deep Foundation Technique, Highrise Structures Construction, E&M knowledge and System T&C & Fire and Safety Engineering.

Derrick is a fellow member of The Chartered and Certified Accountants (U.K.) and has been in the hotel industry for the last 29 years having worked in Singapore, China and Myanmar. Most recently, Derrick held the posts of Financial Controller and Financial Controller cum General Manager at The Sentosa Resort and Spa which was, for a time, under AGON’s project portfolio until the asset was sold in 2013. He participated in Revenue Management meetings to improve revenue yield, took part in the development of the acclaimed “Spa Botanica” and “The Cliff Restaurant”, two premium facilities of the resort, and assisted with the closing of the sale.

Meanwhile, Derrick’s early career saw him in China where he was a member of the pre-opening team with the Holiday Inn City Centre Guangzhou as an Assistant Controller and was promoted to a Financial Controller soon thereafter. Derrick then moved on to Shangri-la’s China World Hotel, Beijing as the Assistant Director of Finance supervising the day to day operations of the entire Finance Division including Purchasing and I.T. departments.

He later took on a new challenge as a key team member of the pre-opening team to pioneer the openings of The Summit Parkview Hotel and Sedona Hotel Yangon, fully responsible for the setting up of the hotel logistics, multi-currencies accounting requirement and the computer systems, and Derrick also worked with the Sedona Hotel Mandalay thereafter.

With AGON, Derrick brings his preopening experience and multi-lingual skills (English and Putonghua) to assist with strategic financial planning and hotel openings.

Stanley is a well-seasoned Human Resources professional in the hotel industry. He has held senior positions as Director of Human Resources with different international hotels’ groups such as Marriott International and InterContinental Hotels Group for the past 20 some years. He also possesses pre-and-post-opening experiences for 4 different hotels in Shanghai, Beijing and Sanya.

As a Human Resources professional in all these years, he involved in setting up pre-opening plans, recruitment & talents’ acquisitions systems, benefits and compensations programs, employees’ relations activities and staff development plans.