Lars Hansen – A Profile

Lars Hansen returned to the Hotel Savoy, Funchal, Madeira for the third time in his career in January 1998 to take up the position of General Manager for The Savoy Group of Hotels (Hotel Savoy, Hotel Vila Ramos, Hotel Santa Isabel and the Royal Savoy).

First working at The Savoy between 1988 and 1990 as Food and Beverage Manager and from 1993 – 1995 as Resident Manager, Lars himself says, “I just can’t stay away from The Savoy and Madeira”, so it seems natural that he would return to take up position at the management helm of The Savoy Group.

A Danish citizen, married to Eli Hansen, herself a qualified gourmet chef, Lars is the father of two children, Garbriella and Melanie. Speaking English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Portuguese fluently, Lars can also communicate easily in German, Afrikaans, French and Zulu. A keen sportsman, interested in golf, tennis and water polo (Lars regularly turns out for Funchal’s main water polo team), his other interests are good food, the hotel industry as a whole and art and design.

A committed hotelier, Lars has worked at a number of hotels, beginning his career in The Royal Hotel, Durban as Purchasing Manager in 1984, returning home to Denmark a year later to take up a position as Night Auditor at The Sheraton Plaza, Copenhagen. In 1986, he moved to Oslo as Food and Beverage Controller of the Sheraton Oslo Fjord, being promoted in 1987 to Assistant Food and Beverage Manager. In 1988, Lars first joined the Hotel Savoy as Food and Beverage Manager, before moving in 1990 to take up a similar position at the Halcyon Cove Resort, Antigua. In 1991, he moved to the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza in Beijing, again as Food and Beverage Manager, before returning for the second time to the Hotel Savoy, Madeira as Resident Manager. Headhunted by the Royal Hotel in Durban, a member of The Leading Hotels of the World, in 1995, Lars took up his first general managership, a position held for two years, before returning to the Hotel Savoy for the third time in January 1998 as General Manager of The Savoy Group of Hotels.

On June 13^th 2001, Lars was elected onto the Advisory Board for Summit Hotels & Resorts as the Southern European Representative.

September 2002