From ground-zero to execution

A chance phone call led Carmen Chan, now the FCC’s Operations Manager, into the hospitality business. She explains to Hayley Wong how it all came about.

How did you get started in the hospitality industry?

My academic background is totally irrelevant to hospitality – I graduated from the Hong Kong Institute of Education and did a variety of jobs for a few years. en a high school friend reached out, saying they needed help at the Regal Airport Hotel, and the next thing I knew I was a front desk o cer.

I raised my hand after three months to join the food and beverage department, and ended up spending about ve years with the group. After the front desk, I became a sales and marketing project o cer in the F&B department. at’s where I met Didier Saugy, who is now the club’s General Manager. Eventually, I was promoted to headquarters to manage the F&B operations and budgets of ve hotels.

What brought you to the FCC?

Didier was my mentor back in the day at the Regal, and we’ve known each other for over a decade. I remember receiving his call in Montreal when I was taking a career break to travel around the world in 2018. It was summer when he reached out to me for FCC’s Christmas project. I actually wanted to stay in Canada for Christmas but it was really because of him that I travelled back to Hong Kong in August and became the Marketing and Events Manager at the club.

‘Operations’ is a broad term. What do you actually do?

at’s a di cult question: essentially, I do all the odds and ends from ground-zero to execution. Or I’d say I’m a “coordinator” in a more professional way. But I always emphasise that I am nothing without the team – who are just like magicians making my ideas come true after following the committee’s guidance.

I usually start in the morning by checking the previous day’s log, which records internal or business issues that require my attention. I will then host a morning brie ng to go through bookings and events. Lunch hour is usually a business hour, when I meet colleagues, clients, vendors and so on. After that, I will grab something to eat at Bert’s with colleagues, followed by a debrie ng session of the rst half of the day. I’ll then get back to my desk or check out events for the coming evening.

How is working at FCC different from working in hotels?

What I love about the club is that dining here does not only bring pleasure, but re ections and knowledge. Hotels are also very much revenue-driven while at the FCC, we are more concerned about meaningful experiences than simply maximising pro ts.

Last year, we learnt from the Irish Consulate that

Halloween originated in Ireland. So instead of simply just dressing up, we infused some history into our celebration and hosted a lunch talk about Halloween’s origins as well as some of the little known bits of Irish folklore here in Hong Kong – that was de nitely one of my favourite projects.

What is your goal at the FCC?

On top of my operations duties, I spend about 30 per cent of my time on projects that raise the FCC’s brand identity – something I am personally interested in and want to achieve here. I hope to raise public awareness that we are not a regular association, but a unique platform for arts, cultural and knowledge exchanges. Over time, I have developed several social responsibility initiatives like co ee capsule recycling, food donation and vegan meals while every month, we work with consulates to promote their cultures.

Internally, I hope to automate procedures here to make everyone’s life easier.

What do you do after hours?

I’m always with dogs outside of work – I’ve got two black mongrels, named Dolly and Belén, and I also foster dogs regularly. e most I’ve had in my apartment at one time is eight. I love going to the park or hiking with them during my day o .