SEATTLE. (December 20, 2023) – Grand Hyatt Seattle announced today a new leadership team taking the helm of the luxury downtown property. With the addition of Chris Jacoby as the director of sales, Manfred Steuerwald as general manager and Mohammed Khan as director of operations, the hotel enters a new era of elevated offerings and attention to detail. These executives collectively bring decades of experience leading high-end properties across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.
“I am thrilled to be joining the team at Grand Hyatt Seattle,” said Steuerwald. “Together, we are heading into an exciting time of revitalization, creative hospitality and urban luxury. We have a vision for the future that includes partnership with our neighbors and is focused on showcasing all the city has to offer guests from around the world. We are excited to share our ideas and updates in the new year.”
Steuerwald has over 40 years of experience working in the hospitality industry. In 1998, he began his Hyatt career working as a sous chef at Hyatt Regency Grand Cayman. Over the ensuing decades, he worked at the Grand Hyatt Kauai in Hawaii, as the executive chef at Manchester Grand Hyatt in California and Hyatt Regency Denver and then as the director of operations at Grand Hyatt Denver and director of food and beverage at Manchester Grand Hyatt. In 2019, Steuerwald transferred to Canada to be the general manager of Hyatt Regency Calgary, a hotel he served in as executive chef 20 years before. Prior to joining the Grand Hyatt Seattle team, he was the general manager of Resort at Squaw Creek, a Destination by Hyatt property.
Grand Hyatt’s new director of sales, Chris Jacoby, has over 20 years of experience working in hotel sales and marketing management in the luxury and lifestyle sector. He brings a passion for branding and positioning to this new role, in which he will focus on reintroducing the property to meeting and event planners and leisure and business travelers as the luxury hotel of choice in Seattle.
Mohammed Khan, the new director of operations, is a Washingtonian and has worked in hospitality since 2010, starting his career while attending college. He was most recently the assistant director of operations for the Hyatt group, A Seattle Collection, having been promoted to that role from the director of rooms in 2022. Khan is tasked with ensuring the highest levels of guest satisfaction, colleague satisfaction, cleanliness, building functionality, financial success and hospitality, according to the Hyatt tradition.
