BAGAN, Myanmar — A new face arrives on the scene in Myanmar’s ancient capital this month as Apple Tree Asia welcomes Jon Bourbaud as general manager of Bagan Lodge.
Bourbaud brings almost two decades of hospitality industry expertise to the newly opened upscale resort, located just outside the historic Bagan Archaeological Zone.
The 85-room boutique lodge is the latest destination post for the 46-year-old Aussie native, who has carved out a career at the helm of leading heritage, golf, beach and city properties across Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam.
Bourbaud holds a diploma in Hotel Management and a certificate in Catering from Melbourne’s prestigious William Angliss Institute. He began his career as an executive chef for Novotel hotels in Auckland and Brisbane, and spent a year as executive chef at the Mercure Hotel Sydney before uprooting for Vietnam in 2001.
From 2001 to 2013, Bourbaud scaled the ranks of senior management in leading hotels across Vietnam–from F&B director of the Duxton Hotel Saigon, to executive assistant manager of the Novotel Phan Thiet Ocean Dunes & Golf Resort, to general manager of the five-star Sofitel Dalat Palace Hotel. Bourbaud makes the jump from Vietnam to Myanmar fresh off a three-year stint as general manager of La Veranda Resort in Phu Quoc, an MGallery Collection hotel.
Situated 300 kilometres southwest of Mandalay, Bagan Lodge’s stylized tented guest rooms and landscaped grounds are are only a stone’s throw from more than 2,000 ruins, temples and shrines that formed the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Bagan.
Bourbaud is conversant in English, French and Vietnamese.
