InterContinental Hotels Group Asia Pacific has appointed Maria Nakpil as director of brand management and Birte Sebastian as director of corporate communications and public relations.

Maria joins InterContinental Hotels Group from Raffles International where she was director of brand marketing. Maria has also worked with Sheraton Towers Singapore, Westin Philippine Plaza in Manila as well as McCann Erickson Philippines. She has extensive experience in hotel brand marketing, communications, research, operations and advertising. In her new role, she will be responsible for the development and management of the Crowne Plaza and InterContinental brands.

Birte was most recently head of regional public relations in the Asia Pacific headquarters of luxury carmaker Audi. Prior to that, she was the regional director of corporate communications for Honeywell International. Birte has a wealth of regional corporate and marketing communications experience and will be responsible for developing and implementing corporate, brand and internal communications strategies for the InterContinental Hotels Group.

Based at the Group's regional headquarters in Singapore, Maria and Birte report to Carmen Lam, vice president, sales and marketing, who said: 'In line with our strategic focus towards further strengthening our internationally-recognised hotel brands, Maria and Birte will play a pivotal role in their respective areas of brand management and communications. They will support the significant projected growth of our brands in the Asia Pacific region.'