The Talent Jungle presents our featured hotelier, our "chosen one". This feature highlights the talented and devoted professionals in the hotel & hospitality industry and brings out their epxeriences, strengths, background and more...in an effort to build a base of knowledge and connect people together.

Name: Mohamed Hussein

Company and Position: Area E-Business Manager - Egypt, Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Tell us a little about your educational background:
I graduated from faculty of Applied Arts, major Advertising in 1997, where I learned principles of advertising, marketing, history of Arts, Arabic fonts science and many more interesting topics that have sculpted my preliminary marketing perception. Then I've completed an Oracle Web Development Certificate in the year 2001, which enhanced my technical knowledge for the online communication channels.
Tell us about your field and work experience:
I've started my career in advertising during my graduation year at the college as a graphic designer. I still remember the first chocolate box that I designed its package, how excited was I, and how academically I tried to be in designing that box. After graduation, I joined different National & International advertising agencies within the Art department for 3 years. Where I had the opportunity to gain practical experience in developing the communication mix for various industries and examine diverse market approaches.

The fast growing multimedia industry at that time have grasped my interest to join the leading multimedia company in Egypt for 1 year. During which I learned the art of mixing video, cartoons, 3D clips, photos and sound within an interactive communication channel like the Compact Disc. This year was short enough to maintain my passion for that new channel, and long enough to allow me accomplish one of the largest projects in my professional life; Cairo International Film Festival multimedia CD.

Afterwards, I was lucky enough to succeed in joining a multinational company operating in the arena that I was obsessed by; e-Business. As a project manager for 2 years, I had the chance to examine various marketing strategies for different industries, analyze these strategies, and tailor our e-marketing solutions to fit the needs of those industries and to be integrated within their strategies.

How about the hotel industry?
What sort of experiences have you had there?
I joined the glorious hotel industry in the beginning of 2003 to be in charge of the e-Business activities for Sheraton Cairo. Through which I've been exposed to the very unique characteristics of the hotel industry, from the fixed supply & the variable demand to the different price products of the same physical product and the various needs to the same service. This position enabled me to strengthen my customer focus orientation and analytical skills, as one of my primary responsibilities was to discover and analyze our target customers' needs, in order to utilize our products to satisfy their demands.

On November 2004, I've got promoted to be in charge of Starwood Hotels & Resorts in Egypt e-marketing and online distribution. From which I gained strong leadership skills by guiding a team of e-marketing managers who are responsible for marketing 10 different products.

What do like about what you do?
What I really like most about the e-business, specially for the hotel industry is its dynamic nature. Which suits mine well, as I'm very passionate not only about implementing change but also about introducing it.

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If you'd like to get in touch with Mohammed, join the Hotel Student, Alumni and Professional community for free. Visit: www.thetalentjungle.com/alumni

Do you know someone who should be featured here? Let us know by email at blog (at) thetalentjungle (dot) com

tags: featured-hotelier, hotel, hotels, hospitality, hotelier, mohamed-hussein, starwood, egypt, e-business, e-marketing, online-marketing