Cook heads Choice Hotels Europe
David Cook, finance director of Choice Hotels Europe, has replaced Michael Finkleman as the company's chief executive. He has been acting chief executive since Finkleman resigned on 1 July. Choice is seeking to recruit another finance director but Cook will continue to handle these duties until an appointment is made. He has worked in the hotel sector for 37 years and joined Choice in August 2001 from Millennium & Copthorne hotels, where he was finance director.
Dawson to take over Scotsman
Jonathan Dawson has been appointed general manager of the Scotsman hotel in Edinburgh. He joins the hotel on 1 September from West Country Hotels, where he is operations director. Dawson replaces Andrew Stembridge, who is leaving the Scotsman to become general manager of Chewton Glen country house hotel in Hampshire.
Death-plunge chef had taken cocaine
The head chef of Gordon Ramsay's flagship restaurant in Chelsea had a mixture of cocaine and alcohol in his body when he fell to his death outside a block of flats in west London on 4 May, an inquest heard last week. Dr Nikolas Lemos, head of toxicology at St George's Hospital, Tooting, south London, told the inquest at Westminster Coroner's Court that cocaine levels in David Dempsey's blood at the time of his death were 1.36mg per litre. Levels of anything above 0.9mg per litre could kill, he said. The inquest into Dempsey's death has been adjourned until 19 August.