Marianne is flying high for homecoming

The Courier, 15 May 2000

Marianne MacKinnon from St Andrews might be a girl who is going places, but the 24-year-old high flier will never forget where she has already been.

Marianne, a former Madras College student, is currently working as event manager at the Chateau Elan resort outside Atlanta in Georgia, fine tuning a learning curve that will turn full circle next year when she comes back to her home town.

"I will be returning to work at the St Andrews Bay development which is to become the jewel in the crown of the Chateau Elan empire that already encompasses luxury hotels, conference centres, spa and sporting facilities in Atlanta, Savannah, California and Florida," said Marianne.

Marianne studied hotel service management at the Napier University in Edinburgh and after graduating in 1997 worked as the conference coordinator at the Golden Lion Hotel in King Street, Stirling, before becoming event and conference coordinator at the Apex International Hotel at Haymarket in Edinburgh.

"Then in December last year I moved to Chateau Elan, initially as the assistant manager of The Lodge Hotel at the resort, moving to my current post a few months ago.

"Being here has provided me with tremendous experience, working with companies from all over the world, and it will provide me with a terrific footing when I come back to work at the new St Andrews Bay development which is a virtual replica of the Chateau Elan here in Atlanta," she added.

The £50 million St Andrews resort, the largest tourism-related investment in Scotland, is expected to open early next year bringing with it the prospect of up to 775 jobs - 500 during construction and 275 on completion.

The 209-bedroom golf hotel will have two golf courses designed by Gene Sarazen and Scotland's own Sam Torrance and is already being heralded as the premier resort destination in the country.

The 520-acre clifftop development, overlooking St Andrews is expected to inject more than £14 million into the Fife economy in salaries and services in the first year of operation.

"St Andrews Bay will be the jewel in the crown for us," added owner Dr Don Panoz, "with home grown talent like Marianne vital in the everyday running of the resort.

"We are determined that as many local people as possible will benefit from the employment prospects at St Andrews Bay which is why we are already taking management members like Marianne to our other premier resorts to train them to the level Chateau Elan company customers are entitled to expect," he added.