Nichola Roche has been appointed group director of spa at luxury hotel group Aman, replacing Greg Payne, who has left the company.

Roche, whose extensive wellness training covers naturopathy, natural therapeutics and anti-ageing, joins Aman with more than 15 years of spa management and therapy experience in the UK, Middle East and Asia.

Recent projects include overseeing the business and revenue strategies and development of the Akasha spas as regional spa director, and a role as spa director for ESPA Life at The Corinthia Hotel in London. Roche also played a key role in the development of the largest medical spa in Asia – Tria Integrated Wellness.

Roche's role at Aman will be to further develop the Aman Wellness initiative, which draws on ancient healing modalities. She will also be responsible for leading the spa business strategy, overseeing the development of new spas at the resorts and will provide management of all existing spas, ensuring the highest quality of service and treatments.

Roche believes in fusing the latest innovations in holistic practices and technology with ancient global indigenous healing philosophies, in line with Aman’s holistic view of wellbeing, the company said.

She said she's excited about working with the Aman spa teams on the ground to take Aman’s spa and wellness concept to the next level, with a number of exciting projects already in the pipeline for 2017.

For more on Aman, see Spa Business Q3 2016.