Sanibel Island’s Casa Ybel Resort Appoints New Resort Manager

Sanibel, FL (February 25, 2008) – Sanibel Island’s Casa Ybel Resort has named Amy Speckman as Resort Manager and Director of Operations.

Speckman’s previous positions have included managerial responsibilities at Boca Raton Resort and Club, and at Sanibel Harbour Resort and Spa. Speckman graduated from the University of Florida with a BA in Business Administration.

Her previous achievements include teaching at the Educational Institute in Boca Raton and winning Manager of the Year twice at Sanibel Harbour Resort and Spa.

She succeeds Froilan Ramirez, Jr., who was recently promoted to Casa Ybel’s General Manager.

About Casa Ybel:

Casa Ybel’s history began with the Reverend George Barnes whose boat ran aground off Sanibel Island in 1889. Grateful to have been stranded on such a lush place, he and his family claimed 480 acres on the Gulf of Mexico and built a home on Sanibel as well as Sanibel’s first church. He also built a cottage for his two daughters, which, eventually evolved into a fashionable 30-room inn and one of Sanibel’s earliest resorts known as “The Sisters”. In 1890, when his daughter Georgia married, he built her a grand Victorian home on the waterfront and christened it “Thistle Lodge”. It evolved into a favorite place where celebrities and statesman like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison escaped the outside world.

In the 1920’s, the Sister’s Inn was renamed the Casa Ybel Hotel and it became a full service resort on Sanibel.

Today, Casa Ybel remains the perfect beachfront location at which to fulfill dreams of a tropical island retreat and the Thistle Lodge has transitioned into an award-winning restaurant offering spectacular food in the grandness of the turn of the century.