Bodelle Francis, also SAJC chair, will be GM of new Adelaide Oval Hotel
A prominent South Australian businesswoman has been named general manager of the proposed Adelaide Oval Hotel.
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Well-known South Australian Bodelle Francis, 35, will be the general manager of the proposed Adelaide Oval Hotel.
The Advertiser can also exclusively reveal that Ms Francis’s appointment, which comes into effect in August, will be independent of her commitments to the SA Jockey Club as its chairman.
Ms Francis will continue to work across both organisations at least until the SAJC board election in January next year.
She was appointed the first female chair of the 167-year-old organisation in March 2017, and oversaw the group’s strongest financial results in eight years in the 2018 financial period.
“I think I thrive in situations that have pressure, especially because I like to give everything my 150 per cent,” Ms Francis said.
“I am incredibly lucky to have the flexibility to do what I need to do.”
Ms Francis will resign from her duties as the manager of the Ibis Adelaide hotel to take up the new role.
She will bring to the Adelaide Oval Hotel position more than 15 years of experience working in the event, hospitality and sporting industries. Ms Francis has declined to reveal if she had been approached to take the role or had nominated herself for it.
“I am both incredibly pleased and proud to have been announced as the successful candidate for this position,” she said.
“Adelaide Oval is an iconic venue, known and loved all over the world, and to be part of the team building and enhancing that reputation is certainly something I will take very seriously.”
Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority chief executive Andrew Daniels said Ms Francis was the perfect candidate to manage the 138-room boutique hotel, scheduled to be completed in mid-2020 before opening in September — in time for the ICC T20 World Cup.
“Opportunities like this — where you have the chance to establish everything from the brand to the business operation from day one — don’t come around very often,” he said. “We’re enormously pleased to have secured a passionate South Australian with the skills and experience to take on this exciting challenge.”
The Adelaide Oval Hotel — supported by a $42 million loan from the SA Government Financing Authority — will be built on two elevated pods that follow the external curves of the eastern facade of the stadium. Built Environs has been charged with building the hotel, with construction starting in August, creating 450 jobs on and off-site.
The hotel will create 120 long-term full-time roles when it is completed.