The managing director of London's world-famous Ritz hotel, Luc Delafosse, is to step down after eight years at the property.
Delafosse joined the Ritz as general manager in 1995 and became managing director of the hotel in 2001.
He will leave at the end of the year to become general manager of Jumeirah International's 321m-high luxury Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai.
Ritz hotel manager Stephen Boxall has been promoted to the position of general manager. Boxall has been at the 133-bedroom London property for eight years, having started in the food and beverage department as restaurant manager before becoming hotel manager last year in preparation for his new role. Before this he served two years at the Berkeley hotel, London, also as restaurant manager.
"As general manager I now have influence and control over standards and procedures at the hotel," said Boxall. "The Ritz has always had very high standards, so I see my role as one of fine-tuning. There's no need to make any major changes."
Boxall said he would be handling the day-to-day operation of the hotel much as Delafosse had done, and that in the short-term there were no plans to change the senior management of the hotel further or recruit a direct replacement.