Maikel Ras, Director of Information and Technology for the Radisson Aruba Resort Casino & Spa has just recently won the ultimate recognition when he was named recipient of the Shoco Award, as Manager of the Year. The national recognition is bestowed by The Aruba Hotel & Tourism Association, representing the highest island-wide Award of Excellence.
General Manager Rob Smith explains that Ras first won his resort’s Manager of the Year title in 2000 and repeated the achievement in 2009, as the only manager in history to win the title twice.
Smith reiterates that Ras is considered one of the most competent IT directors, within the parent company, Carlson Hotel & Resorts Worldwide, and that from a technological standpoint he runs one of the company’s best set ups, here in Aruba, in full compliance of corporate security advancements and privacy technology, in addition to having excellent resort knowledge and exceptional people skills, combined with the willingness to serve his community.
Ras who has worked at the Radisson Aruba Resort Casino & Spa in different capacities for the past 16 years is very well liked and admired, and his colleagues were pleased to help him celebrate his success, at a roof top reception at sunset.
Lourdes Geerman who compiled the Shoco application on behalf of the resort reports Ras is indeed multi-facetted, a certificated pilot who served in the military for 4 years before becoming an hotelier. The Shoco award incidentally, is not his first decoration, having earned one from the French Military Commandos and from the Red Cross, also from a distressed and then relieved husband and wife, for having helped deliver their baby safely, nowhere near a hospital, when he was stationed as a soldier in St. Martin, mid-Hurricane Hugo.
