The Anguilla Hotel Association Board of Directors is delighted to announce the association’s newly appointed Executive Director, Mrs. Gilda Gumbs-Samuel.  Mrs. Gumbs-Samuel has been acting in the post for the past several months and was officially appointed on April 15^th 2010. 

Gilda is no stranger to Anguilla.  Born in St. Lucia, she was raised for several years by her aunt in North Side, Anguilla.  She resided in the United States for forty years and pursued her tertiary education there, at Georgia State University and Atlanta Technical College.  Her interests include Floral Design, Sewing, Creative Arts, Cooking and Traveling. She has been married to Thomas Samuel for twenty three (23) years.

Her career progression in the hospitality arena is marked by versatility, hard work and sacrifice, poising her in an excellent position to have a meaningful contribution to Anguilla’s tourism industry.  Starting as a cocktail waitress to put herself through college, she moved up the ranks quickly to Restaurant Supervisor and then Restaurant Manager.  Her hotelier career has spanned tenures at the Sheriton Corporation and Hyatt Regency.  Gilda also held critical management responsibility during her stint at the Georgia World Congress Center, one of the country’s largest convention and trade centers, where she was in charge of the Concessions department with a staff of about seventy five (75) persons. Her career progressed with her landing an excellent position at the Atlanta Merchandise Mart, where she had full responsibility of the day-to-day running of their food and beverage department.

After a varied and challenging career background in the United States, she moved back to St. Lucia in 1989 for a period of ten (10) years. Employed as Inside Sales Manager for the Sunswept Resort hotel chain.  She was responsible for educating travel agents, organizing fam trips, conducting travel trade presentations in the US and Canada, conducting in-house site tours, and exercising full responsibility for the visits of travel partners to the island.

Gilda held the position of Resident Manager of Rendezvous Hotel, a 102-bedroom property in St. Lucia, where she worked for five (5) years, before relocating back to the USA.  At this point, she worked for MCI Communications as a Bay Manager, responsible for eighteen (18) employees with the responsibility of growing the sales portfolio, resolving call problems and collections.  She then proceeded to work for GMI, a US College, as the Business Office Manager. Mrs. Gumbs-Samuel relocated home to Anguilla, where she worked for three years as the Membership and Events Manager at the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association.

Mrs Gumbs-Samuel has an excellent work ethic and is passionate about hospitality, people, training, empowerment and community work. Gilda truly enjoys her job.  She says, "I feel privileged to be able to return home and contribute to the tourism industry, which I have worked in about all my life. I have a great love for making a difference in the community and progressing the socio-economic quality of life in Anguilla through Tourism.”