Media Contact:  Lori LaDu
27 March 2005

Fred Tibbitts & Associates Fourth Annual
“A Spring Evening in Singapore with very Special Friends”

INTERCONTINENTAL SINGAPORE  18 MARCH 2005

Singapore – “The Fourth Annual Fred Tibbitts & Associates (FTA) A Spring Evening in Singapore with Very Special Friends” proved to be another memorable event for guests, who included ambassadors, hotel executives, presidents, managing directors, regional vice presidents, GMs, press and wine partners.

The reception was featured sponsored wines from New Zealand, Australia and California.  All guests were formally announced by Kenneth Law, Director of Sales & Marketing, InterContinental Singapore. 

The four-course gala dinner was preceded by a Buddhist prayer; followed by a number of Loyalty Toasts with Champagne Piper Heidseick led by the Ambassador of Chile, His Excellency, The Hon. Angel Flisfisch; the Ambassador of Japan, His Excellency, The Hon. Takaaki Kojima; the Ambassador of Hungary, His Excellency, The Hon. Gyorgy Nanovfszky; the Ambassador of Thailand, His Excellency, The Hon. Chalermpol Thanchitt; and the Ambassador of the Netherlands, His Excellency, The Hon. Hendrik van Pesch.  These were followed by toasts from Ichigo Umehara, President, Pan Pacific Hotels & Resorts; Steven Hicks, Vice President-Asia, InterContinental and Fred Tibbitts.

Dinner was prepared by InterContinental visiting Executive Chef, Joseph Martin from Sydney, Australia and the InterContinental Singapore culinary staff.  Each course was served with wines from Australia, California, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile paired by InterContinental Singapore Director of Food & Beverage, Vanessa Perdriau and personally chosen by Fred Tibbitts.

FTA Senior Vice President of Sales Fred Tibbitts, Jr. announced that the 2005 FTA Hospitality Award for Excellence as a Humanitarian will be presented at the FTA Fall Dinner in Shanghai at the Westin Shanghai in memoriam to Reggie Shiu, the former Senior Vice President of ACCOR, who was a victim of the Tsunami.  The Award will be accepted by Brian Deeson, Senior Vice President of ACCOR.  A scholarship in Reggie’s name will be awarded to an exceptional student at an Asian university to be selected by ACCOR.

The evening closed with InterContinental-Asia Vice President Steven Hicks Summoning the Brigade and the guests responding with a long held, hearty applause.  Executive Chef Joseph Martin and Director of Food & Beverage Vanessa Perdiau spoke on behalf of the staff, responding to the immense gratitude of the guests.

Fred Tibbitts & Associates, headed by President & CEO, Michael Charlton, is the pre-eminent consultant and facilitator on wines and spirits to some of the world’s leading hotel groups.  The company is based in New York State.