Monday, March 24, 2008 Of Marife and Naomi By Jenara Regis Newman
MARIFE Castillo and Lara Naomi Verdan don’t really know each other (though they have met), but they have a lot in common other than just being public relations/communications managers in their respective hotels: Marife in Marco Polo Plaza, and Naomi in Waterfront Airport Hotel in Lapu-Lapu.
Both born in 1977 in Cebu, they studied in different local schools but have the same love for soccer.
To get to where they are now, they took different paths. Marife has always been into media work, starting as a disc jockey in dyNC (now Charlie FM), into movies (her first film was Nag breakfast Ka Na Ba?), into hosting events at the Metro Ayala outlets, in TV host guesting in ABS-CBN, in organizing events, in GMA for four years in Singgit Cebu, and finally into business process outsourcing based in Manila, before she decided to try PR/communications work in a hotel. Her experience, she says, helps her in her current job because she has been in touch with some media personalities she now has to deal with.
In the case of Naomi, who was very active in sports during her school days, being a member of the swimming, softball and volleyball teams and into gymnastics, ballet, aerobics and yoga, her career path started as product manager for CFCO Distribution Management Inc. Then she worked in a bank as teller, before working as marketing and customer care representative in Smart. Then she worked as customer care representative in Convergys, before her first hotel job, as public relations officer in Marco Polo Plaza Hotel Cebu.
Marife, a single mother of two lovely girls, house keeps and takes time to be with the girls especially on Sundays, while Naomi watches movies or goes out to “have coffee with friends, talking about nonsense.”
Both ladies opt for comfort dressing after office hours. Marife in denims and simple linen shirts, and Naomi, in “in loose blouses and in sandals or slippers.”
Marife and Naomi have learned to love their jobs. Marife says it is with a sense of excitement that she comes to work as there’s always something exciting happening in the workplace.
Naomi says in hotel work, there’s always something new every day, some new thing to learn or a person to meet and already, she has decided that hotel work is where she will always be.
With these two in their respective hotels, expect the Cebu hotel scene to be livelier.
