Cambodia & Interview: Marc Emmanuel, General Manager of Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra
Our friends from EuroCham sat down with Marc Emmanuel, General Manager of Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, to talk about his return to Cambodia and his vision for one of the country’s most established luxury properties.
They discussed his career across Morocco, France, Switzerland, Jordan and Vietnam, the opportunities and challenges facing Cambodia’s luxury hospitality and tourism sector, and what a long-standing EuroCham Annual Partnership means for the hotel and the wider business community.
Marc tells the story behind his return to Sofitel a decade after first working in Cambodia, the priorities he has brought to the property in his early months back, and his vision for the hotel’s next chapter as it approaches its sixteenth year.
Your career has taken you across Morocco, France, Switzerland, Jordan, Vietnam, and now back to Cambodia. Could you start by telling us a little about yourself, your path to becoming General Manager of Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, and how that international experience shaped the way you lead a property today?
Marc: This is, in many ways, a return to Cambodia for me. I was here exactly ten years ago, transferred for less than a year before returning to Vietnam, where I ended up spending around fifteen years in total. I never expected to come back, but almost ten years to the day, the opportunity arose when Charles-Henri Chevet, the previous General Manager, announced he would be stepping down after fourteen years leading this property. I was in Vietnam at the time and heard the rumors about who might succeed him. A few months later, I received a call from Accor’s HR team in Singapore asking if I’d be interested, and it felt like such an auspicious opportunity that it quickly became a reality.
Comments