07:30 - 08:15
If you wish to participate in the run please meet at the reg desk. Or make your way to Hugos South located on the 14th Floor for morning yoga.
07:30 - 14:30
08:00 - 09:00
Networking
Sponsored by Invest Saudi
09:00 - 09:05
09:10 - 09:30
The hospitality sector is now used to being disrupted. How can it respond to the major trends, concepts and technologies that hospitality investors and brands that are impacting it to stay ahead of the game?
Ankur Randev – Chief Commercial Officer, Highgate
Ankur Randev
Chief Commercial Officer, Highgate
Ankur joined Highgate in January 2003 and was integral in the development of the Revenue Management, Distribution and Electronic Marketing functions for the firm. Ankur’s vision, extensive experience and leadership skills have been integral in Highgate’s continued success. Highgate Hotels is a fully integrated real estate investment firm that has acquired more than $14 billion of real estate assets since its inception in 1988. The firm targets investments in a broad range of real estate assets, portfolios, and companies, and has invested in limited and full-service hotels, resorts, office, multi-family and mixed-used facilities. With a primary focus in the hospitality sector, Highgate has owned over 145 hotel properties, and has a current portfolio that includes 40,000 owned, managed, asset managed or under development rooms in the United States and in Europe. Prior to joining Highgate Hotels, Ankur worked at Taj Hotels, Resorts & Palaces from 1999-2003.
Cyril Ranque – President, Travel Partners Group, Expedia Group
Cyril Ranque
President, Travel Partners Group, Expedia Group
Cyril Ranque is President of Travel Partners Group. In this role, he is responsible for empowering all travel partner segments through the Expedia Group platform’s leading-edge marketing, distribution, data and technology solutions. This includes connecting conventional lodging, vacation rentals, air, cruise, car, activities, destination marketing organizations and other travel and non-travel advertisers with our traveler audiences on our global network of trusted brands.
Prior to joining Expedia Group, Ranque was Vice President of Marketing & Distribution for Louvre Hotels, after having advised the Taittinger Group on the creation of the company in early 2004. Previously, Ranque was head of the French CRM practice for AT Kearney and has also served as a CRM consultant at Accenture, an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in London, and a financial analyst with LVMH in Tokyo.
Ranque holds a master’s degree from the ESSEC Graduate School of Business in Paris, with a specialization in finance and strategy.
09:20 - 09:55
In the chase for yields, resorts are capturing investors and operators' attention. This panel will look at what makes resorts an attractive investment proposition in hospitality right now.
Moderator:
André Gerondeau – Chief Operating Officer, Meliá Hotels International
André Gerondeau
Chief Operating Officer, Meliá Hotels International
André Philippe Gerondeau, as Chief Operating Officer in Meliá Hotels International, is the Global Head of hotel and vacation club operations, as well as overseeing the company´s portfolio of brands.
In his role, he is also responsible for the areas of Global Development, Marketing and Distribution. Mr. Gerondeau is a member of the Senior Executive Team and has the privilege to lead a highly qualified team, one of the top performers in the industry. He has over 30 years of international experience, in Latin America, United States and Europe.
Mr. Gerondeau joined Meliá Hotels in 1997, originally working in Dominican Republic, before assuming the role of Area Director France & Belgium. From this role, he progressed to Senior Vice-President of North America and the Caribbean before transferring to Meliá Hotels International Head Office in Spain in 2007 as Executive Vice President of Hotels. In this role, Mr. Gerondeau directed the Group´s hotel operations until assuming his new position as Chief Operating Officer of Meliá Hotels International early 2017.
In the past decade, Mr. Gerondeau has played a leading role in the creation and execution of the Company´s strategic plans, with the aim of strengthening the Group´s brand strategy, promoting international development and reinforcing Meliá Hotels International´s position amongst the leading international hotel management groups. He has been as well instrumental in the Company´s commercial and cultural transformation in accordance with the new digital paradigm, and the innovation of the hotel products and services.
Gregory Lanter – Chief Development & Construction Officer and Member of Club Med Executive Committee, Club Med
Gregory Lanter
Chief Development & Construction Officer and Member of Club Med Executive Committee, Club Med
Gregory Lanter graduated from the Paris HEC Business School. He joined Club Med Group and its development teams in 2004, especially in charge of Africa and Middle East. He was appointed Vice President Global Development in 2009, which was later extended to Construction matters. His teams are positioned in Miami, Paris, Singapore and Shanghai. Since 2018 he is a member of the Comité de Direction Générale (Executive Committee).
The Development Construction and Property team is a strong contributor to the success of Club Med’s strategy, aiming at being the worldwide leader of multi-cultural family premium all-inclusive holidays.
Club Med is settled on almost 70 of the most extra-ordinary sites on Earth, where Club Med was most of the time the first ever international resort operator (Cancun, Punta Cana, Maldives, Mauritius, Bali…). Its development has strongly accelerated, with projects over the 5 continents. The most recent openings include: Yanqing Beijing, our 7th resort and the 3rd under the Joyview brand, Miches Playa Esmeralda, in the Dominican Republic which is the 1st Club Med Exclusive Collection in the Americas, Alpe d’Huez which has been fully transformed into a 4T resort and La Caravelle in the French West Indies which has undergone a major refurbishment and extension. Over the next 2 years, a dozen new extra-ordinary locations are being delivered amongst which: La Rosière in the French Alps, Club Med Seychelles on Sainte Anne Island, a new ski resort in North America at Quebec Charlevoix, Changbaishan in one of the most popular ski destinations in Northern China, Marbella south of Spain, Kota Kinabalu on the Malaysian side of Borneo island...and many more.
Club Med offers a unique combination of an expert premium resort manager (70 years of experience) and a unique Tour Operating company, recognized and directly physically distributed in 35 different markets in the world.”
Alejandro Reynal – CEO Apple Leisure Group
Alejandro Reynal
CEO Apple Leisure Group
Alejandro Reynal boasts a long-standing international professional career in business services, telecommunications, and consumer goods sectors, having worked in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
Mr. Reynal has a proven track record and thrives on transforming business organizations, leading change to impact performance and culture by defining and aligning a company’s strategy and delivering results through disciplined execution.
Previously he was CEO of Atento, a global customer relationship management and business process outsourcing services company operating in 13 countries and employing over 150,000. When he was appointed Atento´s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in 2011, the company was part of Telefonica. Alejandro led the company’s strategic transition and integration into Bain Capital’s private equity portfolio in 2012, and its initial public listing (IPO) in the New York Stock Exchange in 2014.
During his tenure as CEO, Atento completed a business transformation from being a call center subsidiary of Telefonica to become a leading provider of customer experience solutions. He also led Atento’s cultural transformation, successfully being recognized as one of the “25 World's Best Multinational Workplaces” by Great Place to Work® in five different years.
Prior to his CEO role at Atento, Mr. Reynal held the positions of Corporate Strategy Director at Telefonica and a series of other corporate and business senior leadership positions in Atento. Additionally, he held management positions in The Coca-Cola Company and The Gap, Inc.
Alejandro Reynal holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Pablo Suarez – Chief Executive Officer, Roxa Hospitality
Pablo Suarez
Chief Executive Officer, Roxa Hospitality
Pablo Suarez is the Chief Executive Officer of the hotel management company Roxa Hospitality. The company that Pablo help to grow with the support of the board of the Roxa Group.
Pablo joined the group in 2018 as the Managing Director of Blau Hotels for Holidays with the mission of transforming the company. His vision is materialized today with the birth of Roxa Hospitality, the hotel management startup. In his own words "in 2018 we began a new phase at Roxa Hospitality that we expect to see flourish this year. We didn’t start from zero though, the company has been in the hotel industry for over 30 years. What we did was to take all that experience, all that knowledge, and we embraced it with the spirit of a startup." Indeed, in 2019 the flourishing of the company is palpable. When the year began, Roxa Hospitality had 5 hotels, today it has 7 and 2 more confirmed in the pipeline.
Pablo comes from a strong operational background built in Melia Hotels International. There he started as an Operations Analyst and excelled to become Operation's Director of Croatia and Balearic Islands.
Katharine Le Quesne – Managing Director, HoCoSo
Katharine Le Quesne
Managing Director, HoCoSo
Katharine Le Quesne has spent two decades as a professional advisor to the travel, hospitality and leisure industries. She works all over the world in emerging and mature markets, helping clients to assess opportunities for value creation. She loves what she does and has a particular specialism in: development strategy; destination resorts; luxury and lifestyle brands; and theme parks.
Katharine Le Quesne began her career with Jones Lang LaSalle in China, during China’s first real estate boom. She subsequently worked for global professional services firms Arthur Andersen and Deloitte in Europe and Asia, prior to joining HoCoSo. Katharine is a regular speaker at industry events, a writer on industry issues and has been a professional advisor on the World Economic Forum Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report. She is also a Visiting Lecturer at a number of world-class hotel schools.
Katharine Le Quesne speaks English, Mandarin Chinese and French.
In conversation with:
André Gerondeau – Chief Operating Officer, Meliá Hotels International
André Gerondeau
Chief Operating Officer, Meliá Hotels International
André Philippe Gerondeau, as Chief Operating Officer in Meliá Hotels International, is the Global Head of hotel and vacation club operations, as well as overseeing the company´s portfolio of brands.
In his role, he is also responsible for the areas of Global Development, Marketing and Distribution. Mr. Gerondeau is a member of the Senior Executive Team and has the privilege to lead a highly qualified team, one of the top performers in the industry. He has over 30 years of international experience, in Latin America, United States and Europe.
Mr. Gerondeau joined Meliá Hotels in 1997, originally working in Dominican Republic, before assuming the role of Area Director France & Belgium. From this role, he progressed to Senior Vice-President of North America and the Caribbean before transferring to Meliá Hotels International Head Office in Spain in 2007 as Executive Vice President of Hotels. In this role, Mr. Gerondeau directed the Group´s hotel operations until assuming his new position as Chief Operating Officer of Meliá Hotels International early 2017.
In the past decade, Mr. Gerondeau has played a leading role in the creation and execution of the Company´s strategic plans, with the aim of strengthening the Group´s brand strategy, promoting international development and reinforcing Meliá Hotels International´s position amongst the leading international hotel management groups. He has been as well instrumental in the Company´s commercial and cultural transformation in accordance with the new digital paradigm, and the innovation of the hotel products and services.
Gregory Lanter – Chief Development & Construction Officer and Member of Club Med Executive Committee, Club Med
Gregory Lanter
Chief Development & Construction Officer and Member of Club Med Executive Committee, Club Med
Gregory Lanter graduated from the Paris HEC Business School. He joined Club Med Group and its development teams in 2004, especially in charge of Africa and Middle East. He was appointed Vice President Global Development in 2009, which was later extended to Construction matters. His teams are positioned in Miami, Paris, Singapore and Shanghai. Since 2018 he is a member of the Comité de Direction Générale (Executive Committee).
The Development Construction and Property team is a strong contributor to the success of Club Med’s strategy, aiming at being the worldwide leader of multi-cultural family premium all-inclusive holidays.
Club Med is settled on almost 70 of the most extra-ordinary sites on Earth, where Club Med was most of the time the first ever international resort operator (Cancun, Punta Cana, Maldives, Mauritius, Bali…). Its development has strongly accelerated, with projects over the 5 continents. The most recent openings include: Yanqing Beijing, our 7th resort and the 3rd under the Joyview brand, Miches Playa Esmeralda, in the Dominican Republic which is the 1st Club Med Exclusive Collection in the Americas, Alpe d’Huez which has been fully transformed into a 4T resort and La Caravelle in the French West Indies which has undergone a major refurbishment and extension. Over the next 2 years, a dozen new extra-ordinary locations are being delivered amongst which: La Rosière in the French Alps, Club Med Seychelles on Sainte Anne Island, a new ski resort in North America at Quebec Charlevoix, Changbaishan in one of the most popular ski destinations in Northern China, Marbella south of Spain, Kota Kinabalu on the Malaysian side of Borneo island...and many more.
Club Med offers a unique combination of an expert premium resort manager (70 years of experience) and a unique Tour Operating company, recognized and directly physically distributed in 35 different markets in the world.”
Alejandro Reynal – CEO Apple Leisure Group
Alejandro Reynal
CEO Apple Leisure Group
Alejandro Reynal boasts a long-standing international professional career in business services, telecommunications, and consumer goods sectors, having worked in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
Mr. Reynal has a proven track record and thrives on transforming business organizations, leading change to impact performance and culture by defining and aligning a company’s strategy and delivering results through disciplined execution.
Previously he was CEO of Atento, a global customer relationship management and business process outsourcing services company operating in 13 countries and employing over 150,000. When he was appointed Atento´s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in 2011, the company was part of Telefonica. Alejandro led the company’s strategic transition and integration into Bain Capital’s private equity portfolio in 2012, and its initial public listing (IPO) in the New York Stock Exchange in 2014.
During his tenure as CEO, Atento completed a business transformation from being a call center subsidiary of Telefonica to become a leading provider of customer experience solutions. He also led Atento’s cultural transformation, successfully being recognized as one of the “25 World's Best Multinational Workplaces” by Great Place to Work® in five different years.
Prior to his CEO role at Atento, Mr. Reynal held the positions of Corporate Strategy Director at Telefonica and a series of other corporate and business senior leadership positions in Atento. Additionally, he held management positions in The Coca-Cola Company and The Gap, Inc.
Alejandro Reynal holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Pablo Suarez – Chief Executive Officer, Roxa Hospitality
Pablo Suarez
Chief Executive Officer, Roxa Hospitality
Pablo Suarez is the Chief Executive Officer of the hotel management company Roxa Hospitality. The company that Pablo help to grow with the support of the board of the Roxa Group.
Pablo joined the group in 2018 as the Managing Director of Blau Hotels for Holidays with the mission of transforming the company. His vision is materialized today with the birth of Roxa Hospitality, the hotel management startup. In his own words "in 2018 we began a new phase at Roxa Hospitality that we expect to see flourish this year. We didn’t start from zero though, the company has been in the hotel industry for over 30 years. What we did was to take all that experience, all that knowledge, and we embraced it with the spirit of a startup." Indeed, in 2019 the flourishing of the company is palpable. When the year began, Roxa Hospitality had 5 hotels, today it has 7 and 2 more confirmed in the pipeline.
Pablo comes from a strong operational background built in Melia Hotels International. There he started as an Operations Analyst and excelled to become Operation's Director of Croatia and Balearic Islands.
09:50 - 10:30
Leaders of some of the most innovative hospitality and real estate companies share their views on the changing hotel and real estate sectors and what can be learnt from other asset classes to improve the user experience, as well as cross integration of hospitality into other real estate segments.
Moderator:
Yousef Wahbah – Managing Partner, Global Hospitality Leader - MENA Real Estate, Hospitality and Construction Sector Leader, Ernst & Young
Yousef Wahbah
Managing Partner, Global Hospitality Leader - MENA Real Estate, Hospitality and Construction Sector Leader, Ernst & Young
In conversation with:
Michael Abel – Partner, TPG
Michael Abel
Partner, TPG
Michael is a Partner at TPG, a leading global private investment firm with approximately $120 billion of assets under management. He has helped establish TPG Real Estate’s efforts in Europe and is a member of TPG Real Estate’s Investment Committee and TPG Europe’s Executive Committee. He serves on the Board of Directors of several portfolio companies, including A&O Hostels, the largest hostel platform in Europe; Campo Properties, a residential and student housing venture in Portugal; Campus Living, a student housing platform in Germany; and Deutsche Office, a German office venture. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Tempore Properties SOCIMI, one of the leading public PRS platforms in Spain, and is also a member of the Board at Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, a non-profit organization that supports seriously ill children. He holds a Diplôme de Grande École and a Master of Science in Management from ESCP Europe, and speaks German, Spanish, English, Portuguese and French.
David Kellett – Senior Director, Hotel Transactions, Invesco Real Estate
David Kellett
Senior Director, Hotel Transactions, Invesco Real Estate
David Kellett is a Senior Director of Hotel Transactions for the Hotel Fund Management team at Invesco Real Estate (IRE), a dedicated specialist team who manage IRE’s investment in the hotel real estate sector. Kellett has 19 years of transaction experience, which has focused on real estate, hospitality and leisure for the last 14 years.
Kellett joined IRE in November 2018 from InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) where he worked for 6 years. He held senior roles at IHG including head of investor relations and most recently head of development in Europe, where he led IHG’s involvement in the recently completed Principal transaction. Prior to IHG Kellett worked in investment banking at JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and an independent boutique.
Kellett has a degree in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.
Hubert Viriot – Chief Excutive Officer, Yotel
Hubert Viriot
Chief Excutive Officer, Yotel
Hubert Viriot joined YOTEL in May 2014 to roll out an aggressive growth strategy in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. YOTEL currently operates four airport hotels and three city centre hotels in London, Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Boston and Singapore. More than 3,000 new cabins are scheduled to open across the world by 2020 including Istanbul, San Francisco, Singapore Changi Airport, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Geneva, Amsterdam, Miami, Dubai, Mammoth, Park City and Porto. The company aims to have 50 projects by 2023 across 3 brands, namely YOTEL, YOTELAIR and YOTELPAD.
Prior to his appointment as the CEO of YOTEL, Mr Viriot was CEO of Raimon Land PLC, a leading real estate developer listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
Previously, Mr Viriot spent four years in Dubai as Vice President of Investments & Acquisitions with IFA Hotels & Resorts and five years in Singapore with HVS. Mr Viriot has a BS degree in International Management from the University of Wales and a BS degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management from the Glion Hotel School in Switzerland
10:30 - 11:00
Finnbar Cornwall – Senior Industry Head in Travel, Google
Finnbar Cornwall
Senior Industry Head in Travel, Google
Finnbar is a Senior Industry Head in Travel at Google, where he leads the team working with the largest Hospitality companies in the world helping them get the best from Google. He previously worked as a consultant with McKinsey and at a travel startup that built a booking engine to connect niche lodging suppliers with bespoke tour operators.
Joe Pettigrew – Director of Revenue Maximisation, Starwood Capital Group
Joe Pettigrew
Director of Revenue Maximisation, Starwood Capital Group
Joe is responsible for maximising revenue for all hotels owned by Starwood Capital Group in Europe and Asia by leading the operators to develop and execute cohesive commercial strategies on all guest segments and acquisition channels. Joe also serves as SVP of Commercial Strategy for YOTEL where he leads the global sales, marketing, digital, revenue, and distribution strategies.
Prior to joining Starwood Capital Group, Joe held various leadership positions at some of the most celebrated companies, such as The Principal Hotel Company, The Palms Casino, and Expedia, where he completed some key initiatives, such as the launch of award-winning websites and loyalty schemes.
11:30 - 12:30
Retail and hospitality are evolving towards a better use of space to provide an enhanced customer experience, and improvde profitability.
This interactive session will start with a keynote from a representative of a retail brand, followed by a discussion.
Keynote:
Marco Nijhof – Group Director of Hospitality & Guest Experience, Value Retail Management Ltd
Marco Nijhof
Group Director of Hospitality & Guest Experience, Value Retail Management Ltd
Marco Nijhof is an accomplished multilingual senior executive/director within the international five star luxury hotel and hospitality industry, specialising in start-ups and brand creation for hotels - YOO Hotels & Resorts International (Design and lifestyle brands).
His experience includes Jumeirah Hotels in Dubai, Grand Hyatt's in Asia and Marriott Hotels in Europe, along with an outstanding track record in high-volume, multi-site operations on five continents. Marco is skilled in delivering strategic change and driving innovation/improvement with a strong focus on sales, marketing and revenue management; he has achieved exceptionally high levels of customer satisfaction in 18 countries by real engagement with multi-cultural workforces.
Join the conversation with industry experts:
Wolfgang Gattringer – Managing Director, Solutions dot WG Hospitality Advisory Alliance GmbH
Wolfgang Gattringer
Managing Director, Solutions dot WG Hospitality Advisory Alliance GmbH
Managing Director at Solutions dot WG GmbH, partner for strategic consulting and successful management solutions for the hotel and tourism industry. Certified tourism manager with emphasis of process
optimization, finance and controlling. Many years of experience as a financial director of major international hotel companies. He also has extensive experience in positioning and development of product strategies of
business software providers.
Alexander Trobitz – Head of Hotel Services, BNP Paribas Real Estate
Alexander Trobitz
Head of Hotel Services, BNP Paribas Real Estate
Alexander Trobitz has been Head of Hotel Services at BNPPRE since the unit was founded in 2014. A qualified Hotel Management and Trading specialist and graduate in Business Administration (Dipl.-Kfm.) as well as a Real Estate Economist, Trobitz has been active in various positions in the hotel real estate sector for around 15 years. In addition to providing consulting services and valuations of hotel properties and portfolios, he has focused since 2008 on transaction advisory and the leasing of hotel properties. He is a professional member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and since 2014 has accompanied transactions with a combined volume of around € 1,5bn.
Willy Weiland – Managing Director, Solutions dot WG Hospitality Advisory Alliance GmbH
Willy Weiland
Managing Director, Solutions dot WG Hospitality Advisory Alliance GmbH
Managing Director at Solutions dot WG GmbH, focusing on strategic Consulting and sucessful Management Solutions for the Hotel and tourism industry. He worked as Regional Director for one of the largest Hotel Groups worldwide and is member of various committees of different tourism organizations and advisory boards
of private companies in the hospitality and tourism industry.
11:30 - 12:00
Tech Hub Masterclass
To what extent can AI improve the customer experience in hotels and its impact on staffing, operations and profitability?
12:00 - 12:30
Tech Hub
Understanding the opportunities of blockchain for data management and cryptocurrency i hospitality: how it works, who it is for, what is the regulation etc.
12:30 - 13:00
Tech Hub
Hear from the most innovative start-ups in hoteltech, travel tech, proptech, showcasing their products.
11:30 - 12:15
Stakeholder Alignment
In the rapidly evolving hospitality industry, can brands really maintain their value for owners when it comes to performance, profitability and real estate value?
Moderator:
Tony Ryan – Managing Director - Global Mergers & Acquisitions Hotels & Hospitality, JLL
Tony Ryan
Managing Director - Global Mergers & Acquisitions Hotels & Hospitality, JLL
Tony leads the Global Mergers & Acquisitions team of JLL Hotels & Hospitality. The team services JLL's hospitality industry clients with M&A advice to optimise their regional and international businesses. Tony provides clients with strategic and tactical advice in relation to:
·Corporate and entity level transactions,
·Buy and sell side M&A advisory,
·Advising on growth and business enhancement strategies, ·Cross-border expansion,
·Capital sourcing and joint ventures,
·Company valuations, and
·Business restructuring
Tony and his team work in conjunction with JLL’s Global Corporate Finance team with over 120 staff in 8 offices worldwide.
Tony has over 30 years’ experience providing commercial and legal advice to hotel owners, operators, developers and financiers across the globe. Since joining JLL in 2015, Tony has established a unique business sourcing and advising on transactions of hotel management platforms and portfolios across the globe including Accor’s US$940 million takeover of Mantra Group.
Tony has a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws (Sydney University) and Graduate of Advanced Management Program, School of Hotel Administration (Cornell University)
In conversation with:
Christophe Beauvilain – Managing Partner, Pygmalion Capital Advisers LLP
Christophe Beauvilain
Managing Partner, Pygmalion Capital Advisers LLP
Christophe Beauvilain, CFA is Managing Partner of Pygmalion Capital and heads the Investment Committee. Christophe founded Pygmalion Capital Advisers LLP and was instrumental in raising its first fund focused on special situations Hotel investments in Europe. He was previously partner at Perenne Capital LLP which provided deal sourcing and structuring services in the European Hotel sector. He was before that CEO and founding partner of Alphatran Capital LLP, a global equity hedge fund, and partner at Phylon Investment Advisors, a $500M European equity hedge fund. He spent 7 years at Goldman Sachs International in London in Research and Institutional Asset Management.
John Brennan – CEO, Amaris Hospitality
John Brennan
CEO, Amaris Hospitality
Under John’s leadership, Amaris Hospitality is currently undertaking a £100 million transformational investment programme aimed at leveraging the size and scale of the Group’s portfolio of hotels and brands. Between 2008 and 2014 John held the role of Chief Executive Officer of Jurys Inn Hotel Group. In this time he oversaw the development and implementation of an ambitious growth, develop and investment programme aimed at transforming and growing the Jurys Inn business and repositioning Jurys Inn as a leading mid and upper market hotel brand. This strategy culminated in the successful sale of Jurys Inn to Lone Star in January 2015 for £680 million.
John joined Quinlan Private as Director of Hospitality in 2007, following 23 years with Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, where he held a number of positions including General Manager of the Regent Kuala Lumpur and General Manager of the Four Seasons Dublin. In 2002, John was appointed Regional Vice President with Four Seasons and assumed responsibility for hotel operations, owner relations and overall leadership of its hotels in Dublin, Prague and Budapest.
John earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management (Honours) at the Dublin College of Catering and Dublin University (Trinity). He is ranked by the Caterer as one of the most influential executives in the UK Hospitality industry, is a Fellow of the Irish Hospitality Institute and a frequent speaker at industry events.
Saurabh Chawla – Chief Development Officer, Louvre Hotels Group
Saurabh Chawla
Chief Development Officer, Louvre Hotels Group
Saurabh is the Chief Development Officer at Louvre Hotels Group. In this capacity, Saurabh spearheads numerous development and acquisition opportunities across the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle-East, Asia, and Australia.
Prior to joining Louvre Hotels Group, Saurabh was a partner with HVS’s London office. He joined HVS consulting division in 2006 after several years of operational and managerial experience in the hospitality industry. During his tenure at HVS, he conducted numerous consulting, strategic advisory and asset management assignments across Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Saurabh regularly speaks at various conferences, has published many articles for the hospitality sector, and has served as an expert witness in several high profile litigations at the International Court for Commercial Disputes (ICCD).
Willemijn Geels – Vice President Development, Europe, IHG
Willemijn Geels
Vice President Development, Europe, IHG
Willemijn Geels is Vice President Development Europe at IHG, one of the world’s leading hotel companies. She drives the expansion of the group's brands across Europe, encompassing luxury, upscale and mainstream opportunities through managed and franchised deal structures. In addition to identifying new opportunities, she leads a team which works closely with owners and investors in a support and advisory capacity to drive long-term revenue.
Prior to joining IHG in 2005, Willemijn was Development & Acquisitions Director at Louvre Hotels Group where she delivered strong returns for European owners. She also gained experience in Deloitte's Transport, Hospitality and Leisure team in Paris, where she led multiple hotel valuations, feasibility studies, and transaction and strategic advisory assignments.
Willemijn graduated from IMHI-ESSEC business school with a MBA degree in International Hospitality Management and specialising in Real Estate.
Franck Gervais – CEO HotelServices Europe, Accor
Franck Gervais
CEO HotelServices Europe, Accor
Franck is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and a civil engineer from Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées (France’s national school of bridges and highways). He started his career in 2001 at the Direction Départementale de l’Equipement des Alpes Maritimes (the Alpes Maritimes regional equipment department) where he was in charge of air bases. In 2004, he was appointed Advisor to the French Minister of Equipment, Transport and Tourism. He joined the SNCF in 2006 as Director of the Chairman’s Cabinet, before heading up Line 8 of the Transilien Greater Paris regional railway service. From 2011 to 2014, he led the transformation of Thalys into a full-function railway company, and was appointed CEO of Voyages-SNCF.com from 2014 to 2017 where, in particular, he carried out the key projects of customer experience and internationalization of the Group.
Franck Gervais joined AccorHotels’ Executive Committee in November 2017.
12:30 - 13:30
Stakeholder Alignment
Uncover the major points in negotiating management contracts and franchise agreements in a series of brief presentations and discussions with experts:
Hosted by:
Elias Hayek – Partner, Head of Global Hospitality and Leisure, Squire Patton Boggs
Elias Hayek
Partner, Head of Global Hospitality and Leisure, Squire Patton Boggs
Elias Hayek leads the global Hospitality & Leisure Group at Squire Patton Boggs, a leading international law firm with 1500 lawyers in 46 offices across 21 countries. He is a widely respected hospitality lawyer with over two decades of cross-jurisdictional professional experience in the hospitality sector, including in sector specific corporate and commercial transactions; management, licensing, franchising and service agreements; hospitality M&A and joint ventures; hotel project leasing agreements; mixed use and branded residential developments; sale and lease / manage back transactions; and food and beverage, restaurant and health and wellness management and licensing agreements. His clients include multi asset owner / developers, private equity funds, brand owners and third party operators. He currently represents clients on hospitality projects across Europe, Africa, Middle East and Indian Ocean. Over his career, Elias closed over 350 hospitality and leisure projects across virtually every major city in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Central Asia.
Elias is the current Vice Chair of the Leisure Industries Section of the International Bar Association (IBA) representing more than 80,000 individual lawyers and more than 190 bar associations and law societies spanning over 160 countries; He is charged with leading the hospitality and leisure initiatives for the IBA. Elias also holds two other leadership positions in the IBA: as vice chair of the Corporate Counsel Forum, and as an officer of the Arab Regional Forum (ARF) of the Legal Practice Division, where he is jointly responsible for directing strategy of the IBA in the region. He is the former chair and president of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Middle East chapter, a position he held from its formation and launch until 2017.
Prior to joining the firm, Elias worked for 17 years at a leading Fortune 500 international hotel brands owner and operator, where his last role was as vice president, Legal – Europe, Middle East and Africa Division. During this time, Elias worked in both the Brussels and Dubai offices and was responsible for overseeing all regional legal matters in the Middle East, Africa and Indian Ocean, including advising corporate executives and hotel management on operations, acquisitions, development, HR, sales and marketing, dispute resolution, litigation and arbitration. His extensive in-house experience, multi-jurisdictional exposure, commercial acumen and vast connections in both the hotel operator and owner/developer communities are a substantial asset to clients.
He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of the Pacific, where he was a member of the International Moot Court Honors Board. He also holds a BSc in Business Administration from California State University, where he majored in Finance and Economics.
Elias is also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award awarded by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Global Board, the global association of corporate lawyers representing 40,000 members in over 85 countries.
In conversatin with:
Max Cergneux – Senior Director of International Investments, Choice Hotels International
Max Cergneux
Senior Director of International Investments, Choice Hotels International
Max Cergneux is Head of International Investments and Portfolio Management at Choice Hotels International. He is responsible for the development of the international portfolio with a focus on achieving the company’s ambitious growth goals through investment-led deals, multi-unit transactions and strategic partnerships. His is also responsible in developing and maintaining relationships in the investment community worldwide.
Before joining Choice, Max spent eight years with Marriott International where he joined as Manager, Lodging Finance and was quickly promoted to lead Development Finance in Europe, Middle East and Africa. During this time, he was an active contributor to regional growth strategy and worked towards the development of new brands, joint ventures and unit acquisitions in major gateway cities.
Previously, Max worked with Philip Morris International where he was part of the operations team in Europe, responsible for corporate procurement strategy and execution. He has also worked as a management and strategy consultant in Europe and Asia. Max has an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University.
María Zarraluqui – Global Development Managing Director, Meliá Hotels International
María Zarraluqui
Global Development Managing Director, Meliá Hotels International
María Zarraluqui is Global Development Managing Director for Meliá Hotels International Group, she is heading the worldwide development for the Group and is responsible for executing together with her team of developers the growth strategy of Meliá worldwide, having signed over the last 3 years more than 110 deals worldwide.
María holds a Law degree from the University of Navarra in Spain, as well as a Master’s degree in Enterprises Legal Consultancy for the Deusto University in, Spain, a Postgraduate degree in Urban Development Law from the UIB University and got a Mention of honour as number 1 of the 2008-2009 Executive Tourist MBA, IE Business School, in Spain. She joined Meliá´s legal Department in 1999, on 2008 she joined the Development team as Development Director and was promoted to Global Development Managing Director in 2011.
11:30 - 12:15
F&B
How is the next generation of F&B concepts inspiring hoteliers to change the rulebook and develop offerings that are enhancing the hotel experience as well as its financial performance?
Moderator:
Sophie Perret – Senior Director, HVS London
Sophie Perret
Senior Director, HVS London
Sophie is a senior director at the HVS London office. She joined HVS in 2003, following ten years’ operational experience in the hospitality industry in South America and Europe. Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sophie holds a degree in Hotel Management from Ateneo de Estudios Terciarios, and an MBA from IMHI (Essec Business School, France and Cornell University, USA). Since joining HVS, she has advised on hotel investment projects and related assignments throughout the EMEA region, and is responsible for the development of HVS’s business in France and the French-speaking countries, as well as Africa. Sophie completed an MSc in Real Estate Investment and Finance at Reading University in 2014, and is in the process of becoming a RICS certified surveyor.
In conversation with:
Emma Banks – VP Food & Beverage Strategy & Development EMEA, Hilton
Emma Banks
VP Food & Beverage Strategy & Development EMEA, Hilton
Ronit Copeland – Managing Director, Copeland Hospitality
Ronit Copeland
Managing Director, Copeland Hospitality
Ronit Copeland is a hotel & lifestyle expert with over 25 years of experience in the hospitality & tourism business. Her passion for hotels & lifestyle products along with unparalled expertise led her to establish Copeland Hospitality, a firm specializing in creative tailor-made solutions and bespoke services of uncompromising quality to the hospitality, tourism, hotel & lifestyle industries
Ronit Copeland holds a BA Hons in Business Administration from Clark University (MA, USA) and an MBA postgraduate degree in Marketing & Finance from the Hebrew University (Jerusalem, Israel). Prior to setting up Copeland Hospitality, Ronit held senior positions in global hotel chains such as Hyatt, Starwood, Hilton and Marriott as well as the Vice President of marketing & sales of Tamares Spa Hotels Group.
She is proficient in English, Spanish and Hebrew.
Leslie Johns – Co-Founder, Pitaya Group
Leslie Johns
Co-Founder, Pitaya Group
Leslie Johns co-founded Pitaya Group in 2014 after being introduced to culinary arts by the starred chef Yannick Alleno.
Feeling the need to awaken the hotel industry ti great F&B concepts, she created Pitaya Group with the aim to offer a unique range of services to hotels owners worldwide.
Toda Pitaya Grouppowers great international restaurants, bars & hotel concepts withh great results.
Jump into the future of hospitality.
12:30 - 13:15
F&B
Breaking the boundaries of today's food & beverage world, this pitch & panel talk will dive deep into the future of food – inspired by the latest consumer trends and powered by technology. Learn from internationally renowned local heroes of Berlin‘s colourful and innovative food scene.
Christian Hamerle – Operations Manager, Data Kitchen @ SAP
Christian Hamerle
Operations Manager, Data Kitchen @ SAP
Food tech futurist Christian Hamerle has been working in the hospitality and gastronomy business for more than 20 years, mainly dealing with F&B Management and optimizing service standards and processes.
Three years ago, Christian started collaborating with SAP and managing the DATA KITCHEN, the digital gastronomy prototype of SAP’s DATA SPACE in Berlin. Christian is developing food-tech ideas for smart order systems and digitalized seamless supply chain management by using Machine Learning, IoT and Blockchain technologies.
In addition, Christian works as a Techstars Mentor and as a keynote speaker, sharing inspirational moonshot stories about the digital food journey and his visions of a sustainable future food roadmap.
Andreas Tuffentsammer – CEO, Beets&Roots GmbH
Andreas Tuffentsammer
CEO, Beets&Roots GmbH
13:30 - 15:30
The Annual Hotel Conference (AHC)
7-8 October 2020
Manchester, UK
Mediterranean Resort & Hotel Real Estate Forum (MR&H)
19-21 October 2020
Tivoli Marina Vilamoura, Portugal
