Hamdhoon Abdul Hameed

Hamdhoon Abdul Hameed was born into a prominent family based in South Ari Atoll Dhigurah of the Maldives. Hamdhoon holds an MBA in Hospitality Business Management from IMI International Management Institute, Switzerland and also has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Banking & Finance. Currently Hamdhoon is the Operations Manager of Paradise Island Resort in the Maldives, which is owned and managed by Villa Hotels. Committed to the highest level of professional excellence, Hamdhoon’s career reflects continued advancements, where he has gleaned through different levels and roles and has achieved numerous professional commendations. Hamdhoon is a leader with a genuine passion for the hospitality industry and ready to challenge himself and his team by constantly delivering immaculate hospitable service to guests and leading the team to success in this endeavor. His career so far is a testament of his drive to build a team that is consistently motivated to go above and beyond to exceed guest expectations in the hospitality services cape. With a solid educational base formed in renowned hospitality schools such as IMI International Management Institute, Switzerland and experience earned by managing all the main key departments of the resort, he brings a well-rounded leadership ability to the local owner-operator in a very challenging and epoch time of the organization and the industry as whole.

Hamdhoon spent his initial days in his island, South Ari Atoll Dhigurah and studied from the island school until he completed secondary studies. In the year 2010 Hamdhoon moved to Male’ city for Higher Secondary studies and joined the largest Higher Secondary school of that time, Center for Higher Secondary Education (CHSE). 

After 2 years of Higher Secondary Education, Hamdhoon was awarded a full government scholarship to go abroad for his higher education in 2013. Hamdhoon decided to go Malaysia for his Higher Studies and chose to have his Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, Banking & Finance from Sunway College, which is also a program of Victoria University, Australia. During his days in Sunway College, Hamdhoon has participated in many activities and has had higher colors in his studies. 

Right after completion of his Bachelor’s degree in the middle of 2016, Hamdhoon got an opportunity to do his Master’s Degree. He chose a Swiss MBA course from KDU University College, Malaysia. His MBA was specialized in Tourism and Hospitality Business Management. During his studies in MBA he has done many researches based on tourism development in both Malaysia and Maldives. Most notable research was his MBA Dissertation, which was based on the emerging guesthouse tourism market of his native island South Ari Atoll Dhigurah. For which he had interviewed almost all the guesthouse owners of the island and got their help to fill the survey forms from the guests. This MBA Dissertation of Hamdhoon was awarded as the best Postgraduate Dissertation from IMI International Management Institute, Switzerland. Moreover, Hamdhoon was awarded the Top Student Award from MBA studies.  

Due to Hamdhoon’s achievement in his MBA studies, the government of Maldives has awarded him “National Prize for Higher Achiever” in the year 2019. Which is an award given by the Maldivian government to recognize and appreciate the achievement made by local students studying abroad. This award was presented by the President of the Maldives Mr. Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the Republic Day ceremony. 

Hamdhoon came back to Maldives in 2018 January after completing the MBA and joined Sunsiyam Olhuveli Maldives, a five-star resort as an Income Auditor. Hamdhoon spent 9 months in Olhuveli Maldives. In his days in Olhuveli he has served as a treasure of the Olhuveli Family Club, the Staff Club of the resort and helped them to organize many activities for the staff.

In 2019 March Hamdhoon Joined Paradise Island Resort, a flagship resort of Villa Hotels as a Management Trainee. As a Management Trainee, Hamdhoon has worked in all the key departments and gained knowledge and experience in managing the departments as a whole. For this, after completion of one year as a Management Trainee, Hamdhoon was offered Food & Beverage Assistant Manager position in March 2020. At this position Hamdhoon managed day to day food and beverage operations of a total 9 outlets in the resort and over 200 employees. Since Food & Beverage is the largest revenue department in the resort, it was Hamdhoon’s responsibility to organize and make a structure to maximize the revenue and give a good and satisfying experience to all the guests. 

After 1 year and 4 months as Assistant Food & Beverage Manager, Hamdhoon was promoted to the current position of the Resort Operations Manager in July 2021. As the Operations manager of a Five-star resort, Hamdhoon is responsible and in-charge of day-to-day operation of the resort in all areas. Since Paradise Island is one of the highly sorted out resorts in terms of arrivals and departures, a smooth process for guests is also facilitated under Hamdhoon’s supervision. Hamdhoon is also involved in handling guest complaints and making sure the guests are happy and satisfied. Moreover, the events and conferences held in the resort are also overseen by Hamdhoon. Paradise Island is one of the leading Conference Resort’s in the Indian Ocean. Hamdhoon believes that one of his core strengths lies in working closely with team members to create and sustain a positive and engaging living environment that fosters a sense of belonging and enables them to build positive relationships.

Hamdhoon is playing a significant role in the rebranding process of the resort. Hamdhoon is the only current member of the Management team in the resort who have been part of the rebranding discussion from the very beginning when it was started in 2020. Villa Hotels and Paradise Island Resort is also going to fully rebrand in November 2022 and now the main focus of Hamdhoon is to arrange everything smoothly while going in full scale rebranding. 

Hamdhoon noted that there are some new and exciting features coming soon to the resort that he is working on with the rebranding team and the team to get them released this year to their guests. These include some new activities for the guests and relaxation facilities and possibly a new hospitality experience as well. He also stated that they will be releasing a brand-new menu for all the food & beverage outlets to showcase the culinary experiences that await the Signature Guests coming to enjoy the experience at the resort. In addition to that, he hopes to get a key unique feature of the resort.

With exciting new features and the new collection at the resort, it’s no doubt that Hamdhoon will set a high-performance standards for himself and his team so that to ensure that they maintain a high level of service to delight their discerning guests and to truly offer hospitable service as expected and beyond in the Maldives.