The Philippines, his second home
Monday, July 5, 2010
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To be more accurate, the Philippines is Bruce Winton’s third home.
Bruce is the new general manager of Cebu City Marriott Hotel. He was born in Scotland and grew up there until he emigrated to the United States when he was 24. And 10 years ago, he married a Filipina, Maria Cristina Diaz, with whom he has two children, Alessandra, age seven and Colin, age five.
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He has been in this country very often since then—which makes the Philippines a kind of third home for him—imbibing its culture and its food (like adobo, bistek Tagalog, tinolang manok and rice). He has been to Cebu only once before, on a vacation, early last January. Little did he know then that his next posting would be here.
Bruce says he has worked in hotels for 24 years, the past 20 of which has been with the Marriott group, starting as culinary intern at the Farrington Marriott in Hartford, Connecticut, and moving up the corporate ladder in various Marriott properties: London Marriott in Grosvenor Square; The Boston Marriott Copley Place; the JW Marriott Washington D.C. (which was where he met his wife, Cristina); the Greenbelt Marriott in Maryland; and the historic Key Bridge Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. His last posting was with the JW Marriott Seoul, in South Korea, where he was resident manager.
At the time of this interview, he was into his new job only for 10 days. He says he is impressed by the facilities of the hotel, which for him poses a challenge to maximize his product, to continue “to raise the bar” so to speak and continue to create value and quality service for the hotel guests. A big plus, he adds, is Filipino hospitality, which his staff has. They’re warm and eager to please. And another plus: communication is no problem as they speak English.
He has had little time to explore, Cebu but did go up to Tops in Busay, and finds the scenery fantastic. He has also seen some of the local furniture and he’s sure to buy a piece or two to add to his collection of mementos of the places he has been to. The way it looks, Bruce Winton already likes what he sees in Marriott and in Cebu. He will surely be comfortable and very much “at home” in this friendly and dynamic city, Cebu.
