Максим Пухов

Overall responsibility for hotel operation. Relationships with Marriott International, Inc., hotel owner, management company and external stakeholders including local administration and Governmental authorities. Operational service standards and guest relations; sales strategy and marketing activities; budgeting and forecasting; operating under cost contingency and increasing net owner returns, capital investments and increasing market value of hotel assets; building strong management team, staff trainings and motivation programs.

Apart from running the function of Cluster Director of Finance of the two leased Marriott hotels in St. Petersburg (Renaissance St. Petersburg Baltic Hotel and Courtyard by Marriott St. Petersburg Vasilievsky Hotel) I supervised Directors of Finance in other leased and Managed Marriott hotels in Russia (overall 7 hotels plus pre-opening phase of 1 hotel).

My main tasks as Market DOF were to align accounting practices and local policies and procedures across all leased and managed Marriott hotels in Russia and communicating special requirements of Russian legislation to related departments in Marriott HQ. Therefore I was involved in all correspondence with different departments in the HQ on behalf of Russian hotels. This included internal audit, legal, tax, statutory and other disciplines. On behalf of the involved hotels I worked directly with hotel owners/lessors regarding hotel performance, financial and operational issues. I assisted and coached the new DOFs to their role, explaining and following up internal processes like operational and capital budgeting, month-end closing and reporting, self-auditing and others.

Responsible for all financial activities and day-to-day relations with hotels owners during pre-opening and operation of the Courtyard by Marriott St. Petersburg Vasilievsky as well as Renaissance St. Petersburg Baltic hotels; including formal general directorship in Russian legal entity, budgeting of pre-opening funds, licensing; setting Shared Services Center for the two hotels (joint finance, sales, marketing and reservations departments); contract negotiating, installation of the PMS and ERP, hiring and training additional personnel for finance and systems; supervising and coaching financial controllers in the two hotels.

Practically participated in openings of all managed Marriott hotels in the capacity of the general director of the legal entity in 2010 – 2011: Courtyard Marriott St. Petersburg Pushkin, Courtyard Marriott Kazan, Courtyard Marriott Irkutsk hotels.

Responsible for all financial activities of the Renaissance St. Petersburg Baltic Hotel, including budgeting, forecasting, reporting (to management, corporate and owners), internal control, financial analysis, cash flow planning, financial training for non-financial managers, representation and co-operation with hotel owners.

Participated as financial taskforce in opening of Renaissance Aktau Hotel (Kazakhstan) and Renaissance Atyrau Hotel (Kazakhstan).