Hospitality food exec O'Shields joins Mandarin Oriental Group

Nation's Restaurant News, May 19, 2003

HONG KONG -- W. Bryan O'Shields has stepped from the man-made international ambience of the Las Vegas Strip into top-drawer global operations as group director, food and beverage worldwide, for the 18-unit Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.

O'Shields spent the past five years at the Bellagio resort in Las Vegas as vice president of food and beverage. He earned the 2002 International Foodservice Manufacturers Association's Gold Plate Award for his hands-on management style with his 3,300-member staff. He directed several award-winning chefs in 14 restaurants, lounges, banquet areas and room-service operations. Those chefs included Julian Serrano of Picasso and the Maccioni family, who installed branches of their famed New York restaurants, Le Cirque and Circo, in Las Vegas.

The Bellagio, which is considered the largest hotel food-and-beverage employer in the world, reportedly serves 20,000 meals daily and produces $200 million in annual revenue.

O'Shields left the Bellagio in September 2002 to open a Las Vegas-based consulting business. Four Seasons veteran Win Person replaced him at the Bellagio. Shortly thereafter the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group recruited O'Shields, who will relocate from San Francisco to Mandarin Oriental's Hong Kong headquarters in June.

O'Shields said in his new position he would work with an equally impressive roster of hotel talent, including chief executive of the American division Wolfgang Hultner, Asia-Europe operations director Nicholas Clayton and Terry Stinson, development director worldwide. Mandarin Oriental is developing several international properties, O'Shields said, as well as domestic hotels in Washington, D.C., Boston and New York, where a branch is slated to open by November.

O'Shields, a 25-year veteran of the foodservice industry, was attracted to Mandarin Oriental because "I felt that my talents would be best challenged by expanding into a global position with a five-star, five-diamond organization."

He added: "I look forward to adding a level of creativity and innovation to the organization while building credibility and quality of operations. It is a chance that most of us in the business dream of, and few get an opportunity to make come true."

Addressing the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus that reportedly has crippled the Asian tourism industry, O'Shields said, "The SARS scare is real, and we are handling it well."