Member Spotlight: Catherine White

Catherine White began working in hotels as a temporary bridge between primary school teaching and travelling the world. And never left.

Catherine’s hotel career began in banquet service and went on to include managing sales and business development teams, as well as implementing and training sales systems.

Raised in Queensland, she moved to Melbourne to diversify her teaching experience and has since lived and worked in every state and territory except Tasmania and the NT.

Catherine was also fortunate to have the opportunity to provide sales system training to colleagues in Indonesia, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and New Zealand.

Catherine arrived in Macau in 2010 and is currently the Executive Director of Sales Operations at Sands China Ltd. Her team is responsible for the non-client facing duties that keep the hotel sales team running smoothly. This covers a myriad of tasks such as creating and reviewing contracts, producing reports, coordinating travel, at the same time staying alert to more efficient methods and processes.

While many of the day to day tasks are quite mundane, Catherine’s other goals are to inspire colleagues with the desire to learn, to share knowledge and insights, and to spread optimism. She has a strong interest in leadership and personal development and is focused on building a team who are confident in their abilities and always striving for improvement.

While the past year or so has curtailed Catherine’s love of travel, she has discovered many alternative activities within the SAR and has enjoyed having more opportunities to get to know colleagues and friends. In her spare time she is learning Mandarin and keeping fit with yoga, Pilates and DanceFit classes. She can also sometimes be found cycling down to Coloane Village for a Lord Stow’s egg tart or a whipped coffee.

Catherine keeps herself inspired with quotes like: “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” (Charles Swindoll) and she believes that it’s never too late to try something new.