Basil Hamouiah is the 2016 hotel security officer of the year, in the Institute of Hotel Security Management’s third annual awards.
Carden Moulds, the head of security at The Berkeley who nominated Bas, paid tribute to him after the award ceremony after the IHSM’s annual general meeting at The Ritz on Piccadilly. Craden described Bas, his superviser, as tireless: “Without his support I couldn’t do my job, and I don’t think the team would work the way it does. He’s a stalwart for me.” Bas won a glass trophy and £250. He is pictured left with the glass trophy he gets to keep, and the shield with names of each winner; and Craden Moulds, right, after the IHSM’s meeting.
Lost phone
The winner, and the two other finalists – Vlad Virag of the Marriott Park Lane, and Vidas Klibavicius of Mondrian London, the two-year-old hotel at Sea Containers House on the South Bank – spoke to Professional Security as they waited outside the IHSM’s meeting to hear who had won. Bas has worked at The Berkeley for the last eight years, and has worked in most if not all of the departments of a hotel. While he was nominated for his all-round work, including when he stepped in as temporary security manager before Craden’s arrival, the stand-out incident that won him the award was the dogged detective work he did to find a member of staff’s phone, that she feared had been stolen but in fact had been mislaid while on a meal break. More in the January 2017 print issue of the magazine.
To nominate for the award, managers had to set out how the nominee had dealt with a challenging situation; what the nominee had done to improve the security department; what qualities made the nominee stand out from the crowd; and what would colleagues say about the nominee. On that last point the nomination for Bas said: “His colleagues rely on his support, guidance and and advice. I have spoken to many of his colleagues both within the department and beyond. All have expressed a view that he is both knowledgeable and helpful and always prepared to put himself out to help others. His colleagues will simply say ‘ask Basil’ or ‘let me contact Basil’ – this is not to say they are not themselves capable, but simply he is the best.”
For more about the 2017 award – deadline for nominating is each autumn – visit the IHSM website: http://www.hotelsecuritymanagement.org/about/hotel-security-officer-of-the-year.
