With over 15 years of industry experience, Roger Marti, the new General Manager of BASKO and Suave is a highly efficient and experienced professional. The quadrilingual expert prides himself on exceeding the expectations he sets himself by maximising his team’s performance and ensuring his team’s responsibilities are well-organized. Roger hopes to bring his passion for culture and cuisine into his new role.
From the beginning, Roger was passionate about food, from an early age he loved cooking at home with his family, inspiring him to obtain a Degree in Gastronomy And Hospitality Management from the Escuela Superior De Hosteleria De Barcelona in 2006. Three years later, he decided to embark on a journey and start his own business, becoming the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Dobaju Group in La Garriga, Spain. This role taught him the tricks of the trade, it involved building the restaurant’s concept from scratch and choosing a strong team to position the restaurant as one of the strongest in the region. By doing so, Rojer learned the right ways and practices of running a successful restaurant and “learned how not to do things”.
After a few successful years, in 2014 Roger moved to Dubai, embarking on a new journey with Cavalli. Working as a bartender, proving his advanced talents, he was then promoted to a host, a more client-facing and sales position. Here, his goal was to develop and refine his English language skills and learn about the consumers in the Dubai market. Following a guest bar shift, Roger was introduced to Jimmy Barrat, which then landed him a position as Assistant Manager and Guest Relations Manager at Zuma Dubai. This was a pivotal point in his career as he was exposed to the experts in the hospitality industry, further developing and polishing his skills. His role involved providing flawless, upscale, professional, and high-class guest service experience. He also closely analyzed customer feedback and provided strategic direction to his team.
After 3 successful years at Zuma, he took the opportunity to work directly under the CEO of Ozco Group in Jeddah, experiencing the corporate and operations side of the industry. This change in career allowed Roger to mature and change his perspective on hospitality. Following this, Roger then returned to Zuma as Guest Relations Manager, which according to him was like “going back home”. In this role, he tracked revenue, analyzed the finance reports, brought new ideas to keep sales up, and found innovative solutions in order to improve the department’s overall performance, a very different experience from his previous jobs.
Two years later, he had the privilege to work as the Assistant General Manager for the pre-opening of Zuma in Madrid. Exporting his talents and qualities to the brand globally, he was responsible for the hiring, and training of new staff with an extensive program carried out over a three-month period. Once again building a restaurant from scratch, Roger was able to seed the talent of his experience in the UAE by upholding the same standards and training as Zuma Dubai.
After working in the GCC and Europe, Roger Martin has now been appointed as the General Manager of BASKO and Suave in September 2022. BASKO is a young fresh home-grown brand for Roger to develop, allowing him to bring the passion and culture of Europe back to Dubai. His goal as the General Manager at BASKO is to create a concept of amazing food and a fun vibe, with his mentor, Florencia Beschtedt, the Operations Director. He aims to implement his learnings and practices from his past experiences, hoping to grow and build the brand and team by hiring the right professionals and grow and build the team for the community of BASKO. As a natural host, he wishes to develop the clientele whilst still maintaining the high standards and quality of the restaurant. By combining his experience and passion for cuisine and bartending, Roger hopes to bring the true European speakeasy experience into Suave by adding the best talent of the UAE to achieve it.
