IHG Announces Senior Leadership Team Americas Region

Pearson, Brav and Anhut to deliver growth and performance across brands amid changing owner and cust

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. October 10, 2009

OCTOBER 9, 2009 - IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON: IHG, NYSE: IHG] has a new senior leadership team in the Americas as the region's president, Jim Abrahamson, names Eric Pearson as Chief Marketing Officer, the Americas; Angela Brav as Chief Operating Officer, North America; and Jim Anhut as Chief Development Officer, the Americas. This new senior leadership team better aligns IHG in the Americas as an operating company with a focus on driving hotel performance and satisfying the changing needs of today's guests.

'Eric, Angela and Jim bring tremendous expertise, experience and energy to their roles. They each have proven track records of success and their strategic foresight will help ensure we continue to outperform our competition, innovate in the 'new normal' and deliver a memorable guest experience that is second to none,' said Abrahamson. 'With our unified senior leadership structure in place, we have a solid formula for long-term success: great people, well-respected brands and powerful systems to support our owners and our guests.'

Pearson brings 20 years of industry experience to his new role as Chief Marketing Officer, the Americas. He is accountable for sales and marketing activities across IHG brands in the Americas where he directs the day-to-day business of driving top-line revenue into more than 3,300 hotels across the region. This includes brand marketing, global sales and revenue management for the IHG estate.

Most recently, Pearson focused on distribution marketing efforts for IHG overseeing worldwide channels tied to revenue generation. He launched several industry firsts including the Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee, websites that support 12 languages with full booking and loyalty program integration. Pearson also led the launch of the first wireless services products enabling researching and booking capability on hundreds of mobile devices and platforms.

Pearson's background and experience as a non-traditional marketer allows IHG to better target guests as the consumer landscape changes. The company currently spends approximately 80 percent of its marketing budget on non-traditional marketing such as Internet key word searches and mobile advertising.

Brav, a 19-year veteran of the hospitality industry with 11 years of hotel operations experience, is responsible for leading North America mainstream operations for franchised and managed hotels, including Crowne Plaza(R) Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo(R), Holiday Inn(R) Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Express(R), Staybridge Suites(R) and Candlewood Suites(R). This change will allow the region to better integrate and leverage its operations across the IHG estate. She is also responsible for ensuring that hotels are delivering on brand standards.

In addition, Brav will work closely with Alvaro Diago, Chief Operating Officer, Latin America and Caribbean, IHG, and Lew Fader, vice president operations, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, North America, IHG.

Most recently, Brav served as senior vice president, Americas franchise operations & applied technology and was responsible for franchise operations as well as technology management and infrastructure support for all Americas-based corporate, franchised and managed hotels.

Anhut, a third-generation hotelier, leads development for all of IHG's brands in the Americas, as well as an initiative for enhanced strategic market planning. He also leads the development of new business ventures, such as the recent launch of Holiday Inn Club VacationsTM, IHG's timeshare offering. He will work closely with Diago in Latin America to pursue development opportunities in the region. Anhut's appointment will solidify IHG's growth strategy while ensuring the region grows with the right assets, owners and locations across the IHG portfolio of brands.

He most recently served as senior vice president, franchise development, where he was responsible for maximizing the distribution of IHG's franchised hotels in North America and driving enhanced strategic market planning for franchised development. Previous to this role, Anhut served as senior vice president, Brand Management, Hotel Indigo, where he was responsible for overall strategic direction of IHG's branded boutique hotel concept.