Rosemarie Wee, Hotel PR Queen

General managers come, general managers go. But Rosemarie Wee stays on and on and like the Titanic hit song, she will doubtless go on and on.
“So far I have worked with 10 general managers of Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur!” she laughs. “I think this is a record for a hotel PR manager!”

First a salient conundrum must be resolved; the spelling of her name.

“It is Rosemarie and not Rosemary. I have seen both spellings in one article! It is immaterial,” she shrugs.

What matters is the fact no other hotel public relations manager, communications director, press liaison officer or whatever title you prefer, has contributed so much to the industry or elevated it to a newfound level than Wee.

Then again, she has had a headstart. “I am very proud to have worked for Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur for more than 20 years. Even more incredibly, there are around 125 staff members who have spent their working life here for 25 years. The turnover here is extremely low since we love working for Shangri-La Group!”

There is no mistaking her either. Rosemarie Wee’s business suits tend to be Giorgio Armani (not to be confused with the cheaper lines Emporio Armani, Armani Jeans or Armani Exchange!) and she is partial to Chanel, Dior, Valentino, Escada, John Galliano, Gucci and Prada. Like most people, she buys whatever catches her fancy. Now she is into Amanda Wakeley and Roberto Cavalli.

Occasionally, she gets saddled with outfits she cannot wear. “Once in a while I buy a dress a size smaller thinking, foolishly, that would force me to diet and lose weight to fit the outfit! Of course it never happens! I don’t sell my wardrobe and accessories such as bags and shoes but give them away. But strictly only to friends who ask. I never offer to give to friends if they don’t ask as they may construe it as an insult.”

Naturally, I have put my name down in her list.

To think this Kuala Lumpur born and bred dynamo’s first dream was physiotherapy. “I wanted to be a physiotherapist and went to London to study. I discovered I was not cut out to be one, so I enrolled in a Company Secretarial course.”

Three years later, she returned to Kuala Lumpur as a new bride to Captain Wee, a MAS pilot. “He was transferred to Kota Kinabalu and being the faithful and devoted wife, I followed him and stayed in KK for three years.

“I was employed by Kota Kinabalu International hotel as their assistant public relations manager while the son-in-law of the owner was PR manager. When Hyatt Corporation took over, they installed me as PR manager as they were impressed by my one-woman show since I wrote all the press releases, handled guests’ complaints, liaised with the media and took care of everything. This was my first taste of public relations – I loved it and I knew I would be in this line for the rest of my life!”

When the couple transferred back to KL, Wee met the late Raja Yasmin, founder of Yasmin’s, the first Malay fine dining restaurant. She asked her to help tender for restaurant space at Subang Airport and open a branch restaurant.
After six months, the go-getting Wee realised that after working with Hyatt, she preferred working for big corporations.

It was back to the hotel industry. She quickly found work as PR manager for KL Hilton, now Crowne Plaza Mutiara. Six months later she was head hunted to take over the PR department of the soon-to-be opened Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur. Her resume is barely half a page!
Now, 10 general managers later, Wee is Area Director of Communications in charge of all eight Shangri-La hotels and resorts in Malaysia.
Naturally I ask if she is happy in her current position as she cannot rise any higher.

“In a way, my position is a plateau as to rise higher I will have to move out of public relations. I have no delusions of my abilities. My forte is public relations and it makes sense for me to stick to what I do best.”

Surely she deserves to be General Manager of Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur?

She laughs, “The hotel cannot offer me this post in my present capacity and I have never thought of becoming GM.”

I pressure her. Surely she could run the hotel with her eyes closed after more than a quarter century of working there. She can probably walk around the hotel blindfolded too.

She brushes my bait aside. “Why waste time with such conjunctures when I am quite content with my situation?”

Many hotels and international companies unrelated to hotel-keeping have tried to poach her over the years. The most talked-about was the opening of Mandarin Oriental, the nearest rival to Shangri-La and a stone’s throw away. Rumour was so rife Wee was decamping across the road it was said one of her directors phoned Mandarin Oriental to request they leave her alone!

“I have been offered lucrative jobs in Hong Kong and China but I love working in Shangri-La KL, which has long become like part of my family. And my husband and children are here.”

The highlights of her long and storied career?

“Everyday is a highlight! Everyday is different, which is the beauty of my job. The scope of public relations is huge but it tends to be intangible and difficult to quantify or even see. When public relations is done well, everything works though you may not be aware of the power of public relations. But if there is no public relations, you will certainly see the adverse effects! Public Relations is one of the three main components of marketing, which includes advertising and sales.”
She is a staunch believer of public relations creating a conducive atmosphere for sales and marketing. She explains, “If Shangri-La maintains a high, positive profile, it is much easier for the sales and marketing team to go out into the field and get contracts and extra business.”

Community Services Responsibility (CSR) is now the in-thing for hotels and big transnationals aspiring to be good corporate citizens. She laughs, “Shangri-La initiated this programme called Embrace the Gift of Life on the day it opened back in 1985! We hold one or two main events a year but we are active throughout the year. The latest Embrace the Gift of Life event was the Hari Raya Puasa function when the Queen of Malaysia gave RM122,400 to nine sick children to enable them to be operated on immediately plus duit Raya for the handicapped children from two homes.”

So far and with little fanfare, Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur has donated a staggering RM2 million over the last 26 years! The highest from any hotel.

“We concentrate on children needing urgent operations by giving them cash. We cut red tape and time required for donations as seriously ill kids with cancer and holes in the heart cannot wait. There are no middlemen and we pay the hospital fees directly so the children can be operated on immediately. We have paid the hospital bills for over 200 children and only two died, which affected us a lot.

“I have been offered lucrative jobs in Hong Kong and China but I love working in Shangri-La KL, which has long become like part of my family.”

“We also keep track of their progress and make sure they return to school. Some who are now adults have repaid the favour by becoming social workers and volunteering their time to help the needy as they remembered the time when others helped them! It is so satisfying!’

Indeed it was this sense of duty and commitment to help the less fortunate that prompted her to join the Rotary Club at its Pudu branch in 1993!

“Back then, there were only male members. I was asked to help raise funds for charity and I managed to raise around RM250,000. The members must have realised this woman could work and invited me to be a member. They had to change the club constitution to allow me to be the first female member in 26 years! I was also honoured to be the first lady president in 1999.”

Charity is second nature to Rosemarie Wee. She advocates, “Whatever I do, I cannot save the world but a little goes a long way and if everyone thinks like me, we can certainly go a long way in saving the world!”

She declines to aggrandise herself with anecdotes of going beyond the call of duty. Instead she insists on giving credit to the hotel staff. “Once an American guest lost his wedding band in the pool, which was sucked into the filtration system. He was so heartbroken that one of the supervisors took him to a Petaling Street goldsmith after he finished work. The goldsmith replicated the ring down to the dates and initials. A month later he wrote to thank us and say that his wife never detected the difference!

“Another time, a guest wished to propose to his girlfriend in the sky bridge linking Petronas Twin Towers. One of our staff managed to get the bridge closed for three hours and the guest went on his knees to propose as a 3-man band serenaded the couple!”

Wee has met all the VIPs and celebrities who called Shangri-La home when in KL – Baroness Margaret Thatcher, Nancy Reagan, Prince Andrew, Henry Kissinger, the list is interminably long.