Mark Hands has been appointed as venue director at Alea Glasgow, following his role as managing director at Emerald Resort & Casino, South Africa. Alea Glasgow is part of The Metropolitan Gaming Group – one of London’s largest casino-entertainment companies and one of the UK’s most diversified casino-entertainment providers.
Hands joins the group from Emerald Resort & Casino, South Africa, where he was managing director, responsible for all areas of the business from operations through to strategic development and board meetings. His role at Alea Glasgow will involve the strategic development of the casino, overseeing all regulatory processes, team management and also the day-to-day delivery of service standards and customer experiences.
With big plans in the pipeline, his career to date is customer service centric and he’s a strong believer in employing the best people, giving them the tools and training, thereby enabling them to perform to the best of their ability, giving the best customer experiences.
Mark Hands said: “I’m delighted to be joining Alea Glasgow and I’m looking forward to relaunching the venue as a premier destination in entertainment for the city. I urge you all if you haven’t visited for a while, pop in and introduce yourself as it would be amazing to showcase all the new developments we are working on.”
Hands initially came from a hospitality background, where he was Group General Manager for Sanguine Hospitality, directly overseeing DoubleTree by Hilton – Cadbury House Hotel in Bristol. He was originally approached by the then Caesars Entertainment EMEA to join the Metropolitan Gaming family as Venue Director for Alea Nottingham as part of the leadership team in a drive to create an entertainment venue that goes beyond a traditional casino and improve customer service. It was here that Hands was honoured by the Civic Office with the official title of ‘Ambassador of the City of Nottingham’ due to his commitment to community development, and in January 2014, he was again honoured to receive the title ‘International Ambassador for Nottingham’ by Experience Nottinghamshire.
