Ayub Kato — Executive Profile
Managing Partner and Lead Consultant · Smiling Faces International · Uganda, Africa and international experience.
Hospitality, tourism and hotel operations.
Ayub Kato is a hospitality, tourism and hotel-operations executive with more than 20 years of leadership experience across Uganda, Africa and the United States.
His career began as a Security Guard at Sheraton Kampala Hotel and progressed through front office, housekeeping, rooms division, guest experience and hotel leadership to General Manager-level responsibility in the United States.
As Managing Partner and Lead Consultant of SFI, he brings this operating foundation to hospitality and tourism consulting, training, audits, service improvement and wider institutional assignments.
Experience and professional foundation.
National, African and international career experience and industry roles.
Uganda
Bank of Uganda
Customer Service Excellence training.
National Water & Sewerage Corporation
Customer Excellence training and service-improvement support.
Uganda Private Security Association (TUPSA)
Lead Facilitator for hospitality and customer-service symposium engagements.
UGAFODE
Customer Service training.
AAR Health
Customer Service training.
Finance Trust Bank
Customer Service and call-centre operations training.
State House Uganda
Lead Facilitator for Housekeeping training.
Proheli International
Hospitality and customer-experience training focused on practical service capability.
Victoria University
Customer Service, Front Office and Housekeeping curriculum development and lead facilitation for short courses.
SFI Hospitality & Service Work
Training, audits, mystery shopping, hotel operations, yield/revenue thinking, service standards and capacity building in Uganda.
Mukono Tourism & Hospitality Forum
Chairperson, supporting collaboration and development across the local tourism and hospitality ecosystem.
Hotel General Managers Association (HOGMAU)
Executive Member, contributing hotel-management and service leadership experience.
Africa
Johns Hopkins University / Computer Frontiers
Project Lead for IT managed support services across Africa.
Fleet Management System (FMS)
Human-resource capacity building, headhunting, recruitment and project management across Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia and Nigeria.
Google Fiber
Project leadership in Uganda and Ghana spanning HR, administration, budgeting, training and market expansion.
Kingdom of Lesotho
Led the team that developed and deployed the national e-Visa service and its contact-centre operations, connecting technology delivery with citizen/customer support.
UNDP — South Sudan
Lead facilitator for Sustainable Livelihood Skills Development / SLST covering bakery, tailoring, poultry/chicken rearing and mixology/barista skills.
ARSO / Afreximbank
Service Excellence Standard Training programme across Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Ghana in 2026.
International
General Manager — Baywood Hotels
Comfort Inn / Holiday Inn Express: guest experience, service standards, yield management, sales, e-commerce, HR, budgeting, compliance and property performance.
Hampton Inn BWI
Assistant General Manager / Regional Customer Service Coach: guest recovery, service-performance coaching, training, recruitment, operations and oversight across multiple hotels.
Residence Inn by Marriott
Rooms and front-office leadership covering guest service, housekeeping, quality assurance, training and operating consistency.
CBI / Netherlands Trust Fund / Open Works
Digital Marketing Curriculum & Training Expert and contributor to Ukarim Academy.
International Accounts & Assignments
Career exposure involving the U.S. Department of State, Shell Oil / HP Technical Outsourcing, Jhpiego, United Nations and Computer Frontiers.
Global Service Perspective
Experience applying international hospitality, technology and service standards in environments requiring local adaptation and practical execution.
Professional foundation
Makerere University
Makerere UniversityBachelor of Arts in Catering & Hotel Management · 2003
Kenya Utalii College
Kenya Utalii CollegeManagement Trainee · 2002
American Hospitality Academy, USA
American Hospitality Academy, USACulture & Hospitality Ambassador · 2003
Industry and association roles
Mukono Tourism and Hospitality Forum
Chairperson, supporting collaboration and development across the local tourism and hospitality ecosystem.
Hotel General Managers Association (HOGMAU)
Executive Member, contributing hotel-management and service leadership experience.