Lane Resigns As Holiday Inn Prez After Brief Tenure

<H1> Lane Resigns As Holiday Inn Prez After Brief Tenure</H1><I>Atlanta</I> - After just seven months as president of the world's largest hotel chain, Timothy Lane has resigned amid clashes with Bass Plc., Holiday Inn's London-based parent. Required to seek Bass approval for "all kinds of decisions," the former PepsiCo Restaurants executive was at odds with the London camp's tight reins, industry sources said.

"The Bass senior management team, of which the head man of Holiday Inn is an integral member, operates as a team rather than as separate entities," said Bass spokesman Aodh O'Dochartaigh. "We run a tight ship-with very strict controls in place in terms of how we manage the business-while giving freedom to people within well-set perimeters. And some other people are used to working with very little perimeters."

The snag was not about the chains's overall business strategy, O'Dochartaigh said, but rather about how the company should be managed.

"This is really too bad," said Bjorn Hanson, hospitality industry chairman for Coopers & Lybrand. "Tim Lane would have been a terrific leader for the group."

The 47-year-old American had recently sparred with Bass over negotiations for a major acquisition, yet no one deal had spurred his departure, sources said. Details of the still-ongoing deal are under wraps.

Chairman Bryan Langton, who was set to retire in December at age 60, will stay on while Holiday Inn again scouts for a chief executive. Although the chain searched six months before tapping Lane, the next appointment "should happen sooner than that," said Holiday Inn spokesman Craig Smith, adding that all applicants to date hail from America.

"The search will be very interesting, because any new candidate will obviously want to talk to Mr. Lane and would clearly want the same authority that Mr. Lane had wanted," one source said.