Bermudian hospitality veteran Shawn Lekki has been promoted to the position of director of food and beverage at Hamilton Princess & Beach Club.

He also becomes a member of the hotel’s executive team.

The hotel said the senior and essential role will see Mr Lekki lead the day-to-day operations and strategic direction of the hotel’s dining outlets, bars and events.

Mr Lekki was most recently assistant director of food and beverage.

Tim Morrison, hotel general manager, said: “I am delighted to be able to share the news that we have promoted Shawn Lekki to this pivotal role in leading our food and beverage team.

“Shawn is a consummate hospitality professional with decades of experience in Bermuda’s bar and restaurant industry.

“His dedication to providing fresh and fun experiences to our diners, whether they are guests or locals, is his hallmark and he has made a tremendous impression on our team and hotel guests.

“We look forward to his next chapter with us and we know he will play an integral part in making it a memorable one.”

Mr Lekki said he was “incredibly pleased” to be appointed to the new role, adding: “I and our food beverage team have dedicated ourselves over the years to ensuring an extremely high calibre of offerings, creating experiences that our guests will treasure, and I am thrilled that this has been recognised.

“Good food and drink is at the heart of hospitality and I believe that the hotel is the pinnacle of Bermuda’s hospitality, with service that is unparalleled, and I am honoured to be leading such a wonderful team.”

The hotel said Mr Lekki has more than 25 years of experience in managing all facets of food and beverage operations.

It said Mr Lekki has been with the hotel since 2014 and with Fairmont since 2002, where he has worked his way steadily up the ranks from assistant banquets maître’ d to beverage manager to maître’ d, making a name for himself in the local hospitality industry.

He was the manager and owner of Sunsets Bar and Restaurant at Ocean View Golf Course from 1996-98 and the manager of Club 40 from 1998 until 2003.

While working at the Princess, Mr Lekki took a cross training course at a sister hotel, the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess – an AAA Five Diamond Fairmont property – in 2019.

The month-long programme saw him experience first-hand the food & beverage operations at the larger hotel and covered budgets, day-to-day culinary and stewarding operations, marketing vision and restaurant sales tactics and much more, the hotel said.

Mr Lekki attended Shippensburg University’s Penn State co-op programme in Pennsylvania from 1990-1993, where he majored in applied physics, before completing his post graduate year at Kent’s Hill in Maine.

In 2012, he received a Cornell University certificate for food service management.