Employee Spotlight: Salim Maarouf

If there’s one word to describe Beverage Manager Salim Maarouf, it’s consistency. Since 1985, he’s lived and worked in the Cumberland Galleria area of Atlanta. Twenty-two of those years have been at the Cobb Galleria Centre.

“This is the place where I feel most comfortable,” Maarouf said. “I love coming to work. I don’t think I could have it any better.”

As Beverage Manager, Maarouf is responsible for all beverages served at catered events at the Centre, including ordering, moving and securing beverage product, detailing banquet event orders, preparing bars for setup, securing cash bars, producing consumption reports, managing staffing and supervising events.

After moving to Atlanta from Lebanon by way of Spain, Maarouf worked at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel before joining the Cobb Galleria Centre when it opened in 1994 as an on-call banquet server. He left to pursue other employment for a couple of years, and then came back as a banquet captain. He was promoted to Beverage Manager four years ago.

Maarouf said he enjoys the challenges of his job and the uniqueness of each event. “I’m dealing with two of the most sensitive things in a business, which are money and alcohol,” he said. “So the responsibility is big.”