Richard Cachia Caruana has been appointed to the Board of Directors at International Hotel Investments plc (IHI) following an Annual General Meeting, the Company announced through the Malta Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Mr Cachia Caruana is the only new appointment, replacing current Air Malta Executive Chairman David Curmi on IHI’s Board.

In doing so, Mr Cachia Caruana joins Alfred Pisani, Moussa Atiq Ali, Abdulnaser Ahmida, Hamad Buamim, Joe Pisani, Joseph Fenech, Frank Xerri de Caro and Douraid Zaghouani, who all remained on the Board.

IHI owns, develops, and operates hotels and commercial centres, including Corinthia Hotels.

The Company has operations in several countries, with these including its own hotels along with third-party properties.

Mr Cachia Caruana is currently also Senior Consultant at legal and tax advisory firm EMD Malta, where he has worked for almost ten years.

He is well known in Malta for being the former advisor to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, a position he held for nine years, where his primary emphasis was on European Union (EU) issues.

Additionally, he also served as Permanent Representative of Malta to the European Union for more than eight years, being tasked with coordinating Malta’s negotiations within the EU.

Prior to this, he was also Head of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat under former Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami, leading the team of professionals that supported the Prime Minister in carrying out his functions.

Mr Cachia Caruana came under fire in 2013, when he was granted a large severance pay, which led to Dr Gonzi, who was Opposition Leader at the time, to publicly defend the decision to give him the payment.