Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has announced the appointment of Catherine Martel as Director of Communications for Europe.

Ms Martel brings more than six years of communications experience to her new role and was most recently working at the Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris, as Director of Public Relations and Assistant Director of Catering Sales and Events. She will be based in the Group's corporate office in London and will be responsible for developing a stronger communications strategy in Europe for the growing luxury hotel brand.

Born in Belgium, Ms Martel lived in the United States for 15 years where she graduated from Vassar College with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She later completed her schooling by earning a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Management from the Ecole H�teli�re de Lausanne in Switzerland. Ms Martel's previous work experience has covered Switzerland, France, and the United States. She is fluent in French, English and Spanish.

"With her strong PR background in the luxury hotel sector plus her knowledge of the European region and her language skills, Catherine has the ideal profile to improve our Group's communications efforts in Europe as we increase our presence in the region," said Jill Kluge, Group Director of Communications for Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is the award-winning owner and operator of some of the world's most prestigious hotels and resorts, currently operating 22 luxury hotels with a further six under development in Tokyo (2005), Prague and Riviera Maya, Mexico (2006), Boston and Grand Cayman (2007) and Chicago (2008). In total, Mandarin Oriental now operates, or has under development, more than 8,000 rooms in 17 countries with 12 hotels in Asia, 11 in the Americas and five in Europe.

Photography of Mandarin Oriental is available to download, in high and low resolution, in the Photo Library of our Media section, at www.mandarinoriental.com.

For further information, please contact: Catherine Martel (cmartel@mohg.com) Group Communications - Europe Tel: 0207 766 3677