As the Senior Vice President – Marketing for Marina Bay Sands, Maunik leads the marketing organization in developing and delivering a strong brand proposition and alignment to the service culture for Marina Bay Sands. Data, analytics and technology are at the core of the personalized and seamless customer experience he is charged with developing for the brand. Maunik started his career in revenue management for hotels, working with brands such as Taj Hotels, Le Meridien and Starwood, in India, Bahrain and Dubai, before moving to Macau to join the pre-opening team for the Venetian Macau and other Las Vegas Sands properties. With the experience of the casino industry, he moved to Singapore where he is based now, as part of the pre-opening team at Marina Bay Sands with the remit of extending the revenue optimization practice across the casino as well, before transitioning to lead the marketing function at the Integrated Resort.

Maunik holds an MBA in International Hospitality Management from IMHI in Paris, a program jointly administered by Cornell University, USA and ESSEC, France. His personal interests lie in travel and he has always had a desire to live and work in different parts of the world, learning about different cultures. He also serves on the HSMAI Asia Pacific Digital Marketing Advisory Board and has been involved with the organization for several years.

Graham ‘Skroo’ Turner was raised near Stanthorpe, and trained as a veterinary surgeon. In 1973, he and two mates bought a couple of double-decker buses in England and began a holiday travel company, Top Deck Travel. With only a bus load of energy, entrepreneurship and youthful exuberance, they organised bus tours to the continent and parts of North Africa. By 1980 the business had a fleet of seventy to eighty buses. Old Top Deckers still look back on those times with enormous pleasure, celebrated in the book Top Deck Daze.
In 1981, Skroo returned to Australia and established the Flight Centre travel business. It was an opportune moment as the airline ticketing industry had recently been deregulated, allowing the sale of discounted tickets for the first time. Under Skroo’s dynamic leadership Flight Centre took off, providing the cheapest possible pricing, deriving profits from the volume of sales.

Skroo floated the company in 1995, as much to allow employees to become part owners of the business as to raise capital. Fifty percent of the staff bought shares.

Graham Turner – In recognition of creating Australia’s leading domestic and international travel sales business through outstanding entrepreneurship and innovation.

Graham Turner is not your usual corporate leader.  He remains down to earth without the need to surround himself with the trappings of his success. The financial bottom line at Flight Centre is important, but it has been achieved because Skroo also believes in empowering employees, rewarding initiative and fostering the spirit of a large tribe throughout the company. There are no extra perks for senior executives at Flight Centre unless everyone gets them.

Flight Centre has prospered, despite the Global Financial Crisis: in August 2010 its market capitalisation was $1.9 billion. The company is now truly international, operating approximately two thousand agencies and businesses in eleven countries, with 8000 staff. While Flight Centre is the flagship brand, the company has expanded into specialised markets under a range of brand names.

Shareholders will be more than pleased that Graham Turner hopes to continue at the helm of the business for years to come. His nickname, Skroo, acquired as a school boy, derives from the then famous Turner brand of screw drivers. In making an outstanding contribution to business in Queensland and Australia, Skroo has demonstrated great vision, high energy and entrepreneurial spirit.

Jong Yoon Kim is the CEO of Yanolja & Yanolja Cloud, leading all strategic management of businesses regarding domestic/international accommodation and leisure activity platforms and cloud-based hospitality solutions. He also oversees the company’s ongoing expansion efforts with responsibility for investment attraction & corporate acquisition strategies.

As a digital professional and business strategy expert, Kim is leading the company to grow 2X bigger per year while spearheading the digital transformation of travel and leisure industry.

Prior to joining Yanolja in 2015, Kim worked across several innovative brands and sectors including 3M, Google, and McKinsey & Company

Aloke Bajpai is the Co-Founder & Group CEO of ixigo. A travel industry veteran, he has worked in various product and technology roles at Amadeus, France, prior to launching ixigo in 2007. A big supporter of entrepreneurship, Aloke is a key investor and advisor for several startups and accelerators and a charter member of The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE). Aloke is an IIT Kanpur alumnus and an MBA graduate from INSEAD.

Nikita Dedik is the Founder and CEO of Road.Travel. Prior to starting his first company Timescenery in 2015, he had been involved in various high-load projects – media projects, online platforms and social networks, first as a systems programmer and later as a CTO. A passionate traveller and a big believer in technology, he wasn’t satisfied with the state of online trip planning apps, so he decided to take the next step in the evolution of travel tech.

Jared is the founding member of Dream Drive which is bringing vanlife to Japan.

Dream Drive builds premium campervans in Tokyo, the campers can be owned or rented fully equipped with everything you need to travel Japan freely.

Japan has the perfect infrastructure for campervan travel, with great roads, hot spring bathhouses and free parking for vans all through out Japan, Dream Drive believes that supply of great campers will be the key.

Simon Wong is Co-Founder of Singapore Sidecars, a Social Enterprise that gives heritage tours on a fleet of Vespa Sidecars, many of them hand restored vintages made in Singapore in the 1960’s. The company supports any cause that comes knocking, including Children’s Cancer Foundation, National Cancer Centre, Dolma Foundation for Nepal’s earthquake recovery, and recently the Red Cross’ international efforts to overcome the pandemic. This also includes a local Sidecar Food Aid initiative where Sidecars dropped food donations to medical frontliners throughout April-May 2020 and again during the recent soft lockdown.

Simon is also a T’ai Chi practitioner whose training began over 30 years ago. Along the way he has experienced T’ai Chi to be a potent self-transformational medium – and a perfect self-healing and recuperative modality. Simon’s martial arts skills have been applied to stage and screen – while in the UK he did two professional tours with Polka Theatre in Wimbledon Broadway and Soho’s Yellow Earth Theatre, as a lead and supporting physical theatre actor making use of his T’ai Chi skills in live performance. He recently Co-Founded Ji Academy with Sherwin Loh, where he teaches Tienji Method, a style of practise inspired by his late T’ai Chi Grandfather Yang Tienji who lived enjoying perfect health until the age of 94, often seen pulling off 3 fingered push ups all the way into his 80’s.

Current plans include a new motorsport event with STB: the Sidecar Grand Prix, together with Greg Thornton, a 3 time Historic Formula 1 World Champion, TV Personality and Sports Host Nikki Muller and the events veterans of Imagine+.

He believes in living harmoniously, expressing one’s authentic self all along the way.

Mr Ong Wee Min serves as the Vice President of MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Exhibitions) at Marina Bay Sands.

In this role, he is responsible for the overall management of the Sands Expo & Convention Centre to ensure its continued success as the top business events and MICE venue in the region.

Prior to his promotion, Weemin was the Executive Director of Sales at Marina Bay Sands and is responsible for Marina Bay Sands’ sales and marketing processes and activities for the various market segments in Association Meetings, Tradeshows and Events both locally and internationally.

In this role, he is responsible for bringing in various first-to-Asia trade shows and exhibitions to Marina Bay Sands. These include iconic events such as Maison & Objet Asia, Lions Club International Convention, Tax Free World Association Asia Pacific and Milipol Asia.

Veemal founded GSI in 2006, architected and coded the very first software platform of the company. GSI is today a leading event tech company with offices in Singapore, Australia, India, Myanmar and the US. Having graduated from the National University of Singapore with a degree in Computer Science, Veemal remains at the forefront of technology and spearheads the software products being crafted at GSI. GSI’s core SaaS product is GEVME, the award-winning enterprise event ticketing & marketing platform.

Yeoh Siew Hoon is the founder of WIT, launching it in Singapore in 2005 and going on to launch WIT editions across Asia Pacific. In 2016, WIT Europe made its debut in London, days after the Brexit vote.

WIT has won several awards including Most Innovative Marketing Initiative and Trade Conference Of The Year from the Singapore Tourism Board and in 2014, Siew Hoon was recognised Tourism Entrepreneur of The Year. A journalist by profession and passion, she’s also a speaker and facilitator at events around the world.  

She’s also a published author of titles such as “Around Asia In One Hour: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries” and children’s books such as “Adventures of Habibie The Turtle” and “The Story of Baitong and Boon”.

Since joining Resorts World Sentosa close to a decade ago, Xue – as she’s affectionately known to her team members – has played many a role along the resort’s road to becoming Asia Pacific’s Best Integrated Resort. From managing the full spectrum of marketing for Universal Studios Singapore to building the brand equity of Halloween Horror Nights in its crucial formative years. Following the award-winning rise of the attraction and its events during her years in Resort Marketing, Xue joined the Partnerships & Events team, where she was pivotal in the creation of numerous lifestyle events. Today, as Assistant Vice President of Business Innovation, Xue brings the same energy and enthusiasm to the team, focusing on the integrated resort’s next phase growth in a post-COVID world.

Greg Schulze is the Senior Vice President and General Manager for Strategic Travel Partners at Expedia Group, representing some of the best brands in travel, including Expedia, Hotels.com, Travelocity, Orbitz, Hotwire, Wotif, and Expedia Cruises. His team manages leisure and corporate relationships with Expedia Group’s travel partners, covering hotel, air, car rental, rail and cruise. He spent five years in Singapore before recently relocating back to the United States. Greg served as a director for Air Asia Expedia and is currently on the board of directors of Traveloka and the US-ASEAN Business Council. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Northwestern University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of North Carolina.

With over 30 years of experience in the Asian hospitality, travel and tourism industry, Michael was named President of Dream Cruises & Head of International Sales, Genting Cruise Lines in July 2019 to lead Dream Cruises into its next chapter of growth. A Genting Cruise Lines veteran, Michael has been instrumental in developing the company’s three cruise line brands and also the Asia Pacific cruise tourism industry in the last two decades. He first joined the company in 2000 as the Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Star Cruises and as General Manager for the Singapore sales and marketing division, before expanding his portfolio in 2008 as the Senior Vice President of International Sales for Star Cruises and subsequently for Dream Cruises and Crystal Cruises’ sales and marketing in Asia – reflecting the company’s brand expansion over the years.

Mira is the Divisional Director/Head of Marketing & Guest Experience for Sentosa, Singapore’s own State of Fun.
Raised in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia & educated by way of Boston, Mira discovered her true calling as a Marketer in her very first job, where the rush of peddling shampoos for Procter & Gamble, quickly put to bed previous ideas of being a diplomat making better use of her degree in International Relations.

For over a decade at Procter, Mira’s work included the biggest brands in beauty, feminine care & fine fragrances, touching consumers and building businesses from Shanghai to Sydney. Closer to the Red Dot, she has spent stints at NTUC Enterprise overseeing overall corporate branding, and at Loreal Singapore in a general management role for luxury cosmetics.

At Sentosa, Mira immerses herself in driving island visitorship and enhancing experiences on this iconic Singapore destination, for locals & tourists alike. Not to be deterred by a global pandemic, her team has elevated campaigns, reputation building and partnerships to reinvent the island’s brand equity & business growth.

Mathias Hedlund become CEO of Etraveli Group in 2014 but was a board member from 2010. Prior to joining Etraveli, he held executive positions at companies in the financial, gambling and e-commerce sectors.

Parin Mehta is regional director for the Asia-Pacific region. In this role, Mehta leads Airbnb’s Homes and Experiences and is responsible for the long-term growth of the company in APAC.

Mehta was previously director of Airbnb Experiences for APAC and was responsible for launching the Experiences business across the region, including Online Experiences in 2020.

He has been based in Singapore for 10 years, previously serving as head of strategic partnerships for South-east Asia at Google, and also previously lived in Japan.

Hossan Leong is an actor, comedian, director, television and radio host, motivational speaker and entertainer. He is also the co-founder and director of Paul Carr Consultancy, a communications agency. In 2013, he also established Double Confirm Productions, which stages some of his shows and provides entertainment services for clients.

Yeoh Siew Hoon is the founder of WIT, launching it in Singapore in 2005 and going on to launch WIT editions across Asia Pacific. In 2016, WIT Europe made its debut in London, days after the Brexit vote.

WIT has won several awards including Most Innovative Marketing Initiative and Trade Conference Of The Year from the Singapore Tourism Board and in 2014, Siew Hoon was recognised Tourism Entrepreneur of The Year. A journalist by profession and passion, she’s also a speaker and facilitator at events around the world.  

She’s also a published author of titles such as “Around Asia In One Hour: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries” and children’s books such as “Adventures of Habibie The Turtle” and “The Story of Baitong and Boon”.

Kevin May has covered technology, distribution and the digital economy in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry since 2005, in roles prior to PhocusWire as editor of both Travolution and Tnooz.

He began his career as a reporter at the Police Gazette in London, before moving to local newspapers as deputy editor of the Essex Enquirer and then the web editor of business title, Media Week (UK).

Kevin holds a degree in criminology and is also the co-author of a biography about British electronic band, Depeche Mode, due to be published in March 2020.

Mr. Comeau is responsible for overall strategic and operational leadership at Phocuswright. Pete oversees all aspects of Phocuswright’s commercial activities including product, sales and service, and marketing. He also plays a key role in product development and business development strategy for Phocuswright research, events and media businesses globally. Pete is a frequent speaker at industry events and heads Phocuswright’s coverage of startups and innovation.

Mr. Comeau’s travel industry career spans over two decades. Previously, he managed strategic partnerships at Orbitz in Chicago, where he assisted in growing and managing accounts for the Orbitz Partner Network. Prior to Orbitz, Pete was the sales leader at Moguls Mountain Travel, a ski tour wholesaler in Boulder, CO. He helped design, implement and maintain four reservation systems during his tenure and managed and mentored a team of successful sales agents.

Based in the Denver, Colorado area, Pete holds an M.B.A. from Daniels College of Business and graduated magna cum laude from Bowdoin College with a degree in government and economics.

Shin Hui is the Executive Director of the Park Hotel Group (PHG). PHG’s core business is in the development, ownership, and management of hospitality assets in the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to joining PHG in 2009, Shin Hui spent 4 years in finance and private equity.

At PHG, Shin Hui is responsible for general management as well as leading the commercial and brand strategy of the organisation. In this capacity, she drives commercial excellence across PHG’s sales, revenue management, marketing communications and digital infrastructure. She also oversees the development of the brands within PHG’s portfolio which currently comprises of Grand Park, Park Hotel, Destination as well as Park Rewards loyalty programme. Shin Hui is also a key member of the Investment Committee that oversees M&A and asset enhancement strategies.

Shin Hui currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Hospitality Development Council under the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Asia-Pacific as well as a member of the Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) of ULI Singapore.

Shin Hui is passionate about environmental and community issues and is actively driving the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit for PHG through various sustainability and community initiatives.

Stephan Ekbergh married father of 4, lives in Cape Town. Ex professional DJ for 10 years. Entrepreneur in Travel. Started the E-commerce revolution in Scandinavia 1999. Is now doing the same in Africa. Passion for releasing gifts and entrepreneurship with people. Writes and speaks about business, life and taking risks. Investor and active boardmember, also works with and finances non profits organization Thembalitscha foundation.

Kei co-founded Venture Republic in 2001 and has been serving as CEO since the foundation. The company runs a group of online travel websites and services worldwide including LINE TRAVEL jp, Japan’s largest online travel metasearch/media (Over 35 million monthly uesrs. Formerly known as Travel.jp (http://www.travel.co.jp/), Trip101, Singapore based “travel enthusiasts’” generated” global online travel media (https://trip101.com/) and allstay, leading mobile accommodation search services in Korea (http://www.allstay.kr/). In 2018, he led the company to bring in LINE Corporation, the leading global mobile messaging company as a strategic investor.

In 2008, he led the company to IPO (2177. JASDAQ) after 7 years of inception and to LBO by management in 2012. In its history, company had built one of the leading online comparison shopping businesses in Japan through running “coneco.net” which was acquired by Yahoo! Japan.

Frequent speaker at travel & technology events and conferences. Among them are ITB, Google Travel Executive Forum, Phocuswright, TBEX, WiT and Digital Travel.

Angel investor in TravelTech. Serving as a board of director for various startups including BeMyGuest and TravelMassive.

Kei also served as co-founder/organizer of WiT Japan & North Asia, largest international business conference in North Asia focusing on tech & travel, Chairman of Keio University’s alumni association for startup founders/CEOs, Executive Committee Member of Harvard Business School Club of Japan and co-chapter leader of Travel Massive in Singapore and Tokyo.

Lisa is heading Strategy, M&A and Strategic Partnerships for Etraveli Group, one of the leading global flight platforms. The Group is backed by CVC Capital Partners and has offices in Sweden, Greece, Canada and India. The Group operates in 70+ countries through brands such as Gotogate, Mytrip, FlightNetwork, Trip.ae, Trip.ru, and Supersaver and enjoys top positions in Europe and North America with growing presence in LatAm, the Middle East and APAC. It also operates flygresor.se, the #1 metasearcher in Sweden and Tripstack a content aggregator offering LCC/airline direct content and creating complex flight itineraries (virtual interlining). We are a team of more than 1000 professionals.

Lisa has been working in the travel industry since 2011. She joined e-Travel, a leading South East European OTA in 2012. As part of e-Travel’s management team she helped grow revenues 3x and the business from a team of 60 to c.250 employees until the company joined forces with Etraveli in 2017 and was welcomed into the CVC family. Prior to joining e-Travel she was a venture capitalist investing in e-commerce. She started her career in advertising.

Whether it’s being the link between the creative and the customer, software engineers and customer needs, or between investors and entrepreneurs she has been performing “translation” duties for 17 years. She holds a BSc in Economics from LSE and an MBA from INSEAD.

Martha is the Founder and CEO of Singapore based hospitality tech startup, DayAway, a revolutionary B2B2C platform helping the hotel industry to monetise underutilised ancillary space for daytime use by non-hotel guests. Launched in March 2021, DayAway provides inventory management and revenue optimisation tools to hotel partners, and an online destination for prospective guests to browse hotel experiences by the day and book in real time.  DayAway’s goal is to radically disrupt the global hospitality industry by designing its own market category around the optimisation of hotel facility space – and dominating it.

Originally from New York, Martha has over 10 years of experience working with both globally recognized brands as well as regional tech startups in brand marketing and digital strategy with a successful track record in go-to-market execution and international expansion. She has a passion for innovation and brings a unique perspective and skillset to paving a new path forward for hotels in a Covid and post Covid economy.

Hari leads Expedia Group’s Global Account Management business across lodging, vacation rentals and activities. In this role, he works with supply partners to make them successful on the Expedia Group platform and stay ahead of digital innovation.

Hari joined Expedia Group in 2002. In his twenty year tenure with the company, he has built a unique B2B, B2C and media advertising knowledge that can benefit all supply partners as they charter the complexities of the travel ecosystem. Previous to this role, Hari was the Global SVP Expedia Group Media Solutions, the digital advertising arm of Expedia Group where he oversaw all facets of the business including product development and execution, engineering, operations, marketing, media sales and business development for destination marketing organizations. Before this, he focused on two B2C brands as Vice President and General Manager of Orbitz.com and CheapTickets.com, subsidiaries of Expedia Group, and was responsible for overseeing retail operations and profitability of the business, brand strategy, marketing efficiency and customer lifecycle management.

Prior to joining Expedia, Hari worked in corporate training and food and beverage operations at Oberoi Hotels, a leading luxury hotel chain that owns and manages thirty hotels and five luxury cruisers across six countries under the ‘Oberoi’ & ‘Trident’ brands.

Hari holds a master’s degree in Hotel Management from Cornell University. In his spare time, he is an avid runner, not shy of displaying his Bollywood dancing skills and a regular visitor to India, his beloved native country.

Born in Sydney, Australia, Anthony has spent his entire working life at the very highest end of hospitality, from his young trainee days at Sydney’s fabled Wentworth hotel, then as senior front office manager at the opening of the Regent (now Four Seasons) hotel on Sydney Harbour. Personally hired by legendary Amanresorts founder Adrian Zecha, Anthony opened Amanpuri in 1988 as general manager and went on to open and lead three more Aman properties in Indonesia and Myanmar before spearheading the design, masterplan, operations, sales & marketing and residential villa sales for the multi-award-winning Trisara resort on Phuket from 2000 to 2020.

His name synonymous with Asian luxury hospitality, Anthony now brings to clients the benefits, insights and expertise of his three decades at the helm of some of world’s most successful resorts and hotels.

Originally from France, he graduated from Institut Paul Bocuse Hotel School in 2000.

Mr. Jean Hélière began his career at IHG in 2013 at InterContinental Tahiti Resort and Spa as an Executive Assistant Manager. Treading his path at one the world’s largest international chain hotel groups—where he demonstrated his skills in leadership, effectiveness and efficiency in managing all aspects of hotel’s operations—his career quickly rose as he was promoted to a General Manager position at InterContinental Moorea Resort and Spa in 2015. He was awarded as GM of The Year in 2018 by InterContinental Hotels and Resorts Southeast Asia and Korea.

Mr. Hélière also has considerable experience in food and beverage, having undertaken growing roles in the area at 5-star properties across Italy such as Rome Cavalieri Hilton, Hotel Hassler Rome, Hilton Sorrento Palace, Radisson Blu es. Hotel Rome and participate to the Grand Opening of The Rome Marriott Park hotel.

With his long-standing career in the hospitality industry, which spanned over two decades, and extensive knowledge and experience of luxury brand, Mr. Jean Hélière is now General Manager at Hotel Indigo Bali Seminyak Beach and Chairman Bali Hotels Association.

He is married, has one kid, appreciate music, running and rugby.

Anchit is a Manager in McKinsey’s Travel, Logistics and Infrastructure practice, based in Amsterdam.  He currently coordinates McKinsey’s research and partnerships in travel. As a consultant, he advised hotels, hotel investors, airlines and public sector clients on investment, expansion and digital strategies. Prior to joining McKinsey, Anchit worked with Enterprise Singapore in the government, as the Director of the office in Sao Paulo, facilitating Singaporean companies market expansion into South America. As someone who moved to Amsterdam just before the lockdown in 2020, he took refuge in the offerings of Malaysian / Singaporean restaurants near his new home, and is currently eagerly awaiting easing of lockdown restrictions.

Yeoh Siew Hoon is the founder of WIT, launching it in Singapore in 2005 and going on to launch WIT editions across Asia Pacific. In 2016, WIT Europe made its debut in London, days after the Brexit vote.

WIT has won several awards including Most Innovative Marketing Initiative and Trade Conference Of The Year from the Singapore Tourism Board and in 2014, Siew Hoon was recognised Tourism Entrepreneur of The Year. A journalist by profession and passion, she’s also a speaker and facilitator at events around the world.  

She’s also a published author of titles such as “Around Asia In One Hour: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries” and children’s books such as “Adventures of Habibie The Turtle” and “The Story of Baitong and Boon”.

John W. Brown was promoted to CEO of Agoda on June 1, 2018. He was COO since 2014 and prior to that, he held the role of Chief Product Officer.

He had a brief stint as advisor to Minister of Commerce in Afghanistan from June 2009 to May 2008 and prior to that, worked with Boston Consulting Group for nearly six years.

Chee Chong is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of GlobalTix Pte Ltd, a leader in ticketing technology in Southeast Asia’s tourism industry.

As GlobalTix’s lead visionary and architect, Chee Chong drives key relationships and provides the overall strategic direction of the startup-up. He is fully committed to developing a global distribution system (GDS) to enhance the overall experience of travel partners, merchants and end consumers.

Since the inception of GlobalTix in 2014 when the first ticket was sold, Chee Chong and the team have grown the business exponentially. Now, it sells one ticket every 10 seconds and hosts more than 80,000 products in 120 cities on its marketplace. Under his leadership, GlobalTix has won numerous industry accolades, including being named Top Partner in 2017 by Resorts World Sentosa and Wildlife Reserves Singapore. Its roll call of partners include major names such as Singapore Airlines, National Gallery Singapore, TripAdvisor and niche operators such as Boon Teng Kee chicken rice restaurant chain.

Chee Chong holds a Bachelor of Engineering (2nd Upper) degree from the National University of Singapore.

From France and then from Singapore, Khang has 20+ years of tech leadership in digital native companies and more traditional companies going for deep digital transformation. A strong advocate of “Management 3.0 | Agile Leadership Practices” and of “Tech for Good”, what makes him wake up in a good mood every day is to work and share with like-minded leaders on how to:

–        Ideate, Design, Build, Operate products and platforms at scale

–        Architect and turn tech organizations & people into a strategic and high performing contributor to the company,

–        Execute the digital | agile | secdevops agendas and transformation from C-level to operational level,

–        Re-invent large companies by fostering a startup and “intrapreneurial management” mindset.

He also enjoys advising startups which need to scale up in their tech management practices.

He is currently Group Chief Technology Architect at Accor, the world-leading augmented hospitality group. He is also an investor and contributor to Time for the Planet, the first open source and crowdfunded investment company to fight climate change.

Johnny Thorsen is the “VP of Strategy and Innovation” for American Express Digital Labs after they acquired Mezi, in January 2018 where he was the head of strategy and partnerships since May 2017.

Prior to joining Mezi in 2017 Johnny was the co-founder and CEO of conTgo, a UK-based startup founded in 2007 and acquired by Concur in March 2013 – after the acquisition by Concur he remained with the company until they were acquired by SAP in 2015 when he joined SAP Mobile Services.

Prior to founding conTgo in 2007 Johnny held senior positions with companies such as Travelport, Sabre, GetThere, HRG and CWT. Johnny has served as a global board member with ACTE from 2017 until the association was closed in May 2020, and he serves as a strategic advisor and board member for multiple startups within the wider travel industry.

Business Travel News named Johnny Thorsen one of the 25 most influential people in the business travel industry in 2018 and 2010.

Kittisak (Kitt) Pattamasaevi is the Chief Executive Officer for Montara Hospitality Group. Montara owns and manages Phuket’s most exclusive pool villa beach resort TRISARA, Bangkok’s only river mansion boutique hotel PRAYA PALAZZO, and the innovative movie house-turn-hotel PRINCE THEATRE HERITAGE STAY in Bangrak.

In his previous role at Montara, Kitt leveraged his private equity and investment banking experience to facilitate the acquisition of boathouse, a critically acclaimed Phuket beach resort and restaurant, which Montara also currently owns and manages.

Kitt received his MBA from Harvard Business School. At HBS, he served as COO for Hospitality & Travel Industry Club. Prior to that, he graduated Cum Laude from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Science in Operations Research. Outside of his work at Montara, Kitt serves as a director of Niyom Pattamasaevi Foundation, which sponsors scholarships and supports rural elementary schools in Northern Thailand.

Marcus moves over from the Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay, where he has been the General Manager since 2015. Marcus has been with AccorHotels for 13 years and brings with him a wealth of experience, having held various management positions, initially at Sofitel Melbourne, then as the opening General Manager at Pullman at Sydney Olympic Park; this was later followed by General Manager assignments at Sofitel Gold Coast Broadbeach and Sofitel Brisbane Central. He was also Project Manager for AccorHotels’ management of the Qantas First Class Lounges. The RC Hotel complex comprises the Fairmont Singapore, Swissôtel The Stamford Singapore and Raffles City Convention Centre.

As the Senior VP of Accommodation at Traveloka, Nelly is responsible for the growth of the accommodation business at all Traveloka markets. She leads overall strategy formulation to accelerate business growth while improving profitability. Throughout the pandemic period, Nelly has successfully architected numerous innovations that help accelerating the tourism industry recovery, such as a livestream program called Traveloka LIVE, Traveloka CleanAccommodation, Buy Now Stay Later, Pay Upon Check-ln. and Online Check-ln.

Prior to joining Traveloka in 2018, Nelly spent 10 years of her career as a strategic consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where she fostered her innovative thinking.

With a passion for the education field, Nelly is also volunteering in a series of edu-based initiatives such as LaunchX (Young Entrepreneurs Summer Program at Cambridge, US) and Indonesia Mengajar (Indonesia Teaching Movement)

Rohit is currently the CEO for OYO India & South East Asia [INSEA] across businesses which includes key leading markets  – India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. Started in 2013, OYO Hotels & Homes today is the world’s leading technology and revenue growth platform for small hotels and homeowners. He joined the company as CEO of real-estate business and in less than a year he took the charge to lead India & South Asia business and has recently taken on the larger mantle of driving growth in the South-East Asia region. He led OYO India during the once in a lifetime pandemic year transforming the business across financials, partner and customer NPS. He has contributed to the efforts of building OYO as a top talent destination while delivering supply and revenue growth goals. He is also a partner with other leaders on handling brand, PR and communications for the group across OYO global.

Catherine SO is currently Managing Director of Expedia Group’s APAC business, responsible for the region’s overall performance, business strategy and operations, covering major brands including Expedia, Hotels.com. Vrbo/Homeaway and Stayz.

SO has over 20 years of experience in the digital and e-commerce space, working across Asia Pacific, Greater China and the United States, at both large corporations and growth companies; With extensive experience in P&L management, partnership development, sales and operations, SO possesses proven track record in transforming businesses and delivering high performance.

Prior to joining Expedia Group, SO was Managing Director of Groupon, leading the Hong Kong business, covering three verticals- Groupon Local, Groupon Goods and Groupon Travel.  SO also held regional leadership positions at the REA Group, News Corporation and AOL Time Warner prior to Groupon.

During her personal time, SO enjoys playing tennis, biking and paddle boarding. She is also passionate about student initiatives and served as Program Director for the Hong Kong-Shanghai Future Young Leaders Internship Program and Mentor for the Harvard Alumni Association.

SO is currently a Board Director of the Hong Kong Travel Industry Authority (TIA), Committee Member of the Hong Kong Travel Industry Association (TIC), Committee Member of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC), and Honorary Vice President of the Hong Kong-Shanghai Youth Association (HKSHYA).

Based in Hong Kong, SO speaks fluent English, Cantonese and Mandarin, and holds a B.A with honors in economics from Harvard University.

Liu Weichun, co-founder and Executive Vice President of KKday, is in charge of KKday’s marketing and operational strategies in the Southeast Asian region.

Before taking on the role as Executive VP, Liu served as Chief Operating Officer at KKday, where she oversaw KKday’s global product management and customer services. She led groundbreaking achievements, including the build-up of KKday’s SCM (Supply Chain Management) system, the development of QR code redemption, and API (Application Programming Interface) integration with large tour providers, such as Taipei 101 and Hong Kong TurboJET.

Liu joined KKday as one of the founding members and subsequently held the position of Chief Financial Officer before her promotion to COO. Prior to KKday, she held the role of a supply chain manager at Dell and also served as an investment banker upon graduation from New York University.

As the Senior VP of Accommodation at Traveloka, Nelly is responsible for the growth of the accommodation business at all Traveloka markets. She leads overall strategy formulation to accelerate business growth while improving profitability. Throughout the pandemic period, Nelly has successfully architected numerous innovations that help accelerating the tourism industry recovery, such as a livestream program called Traveloka LIVE, Traveloka CleanAccommodation, Buy Now Stay Later, Pay Upon Check-ln. and Online Check-ln.

Prior to joining Traveloka in 2018, Nelly spent 10 years of her career as a strategic consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where she fostered her innovative thinking.

With a passion for the education field, Nelly is also volunteering in a series of edu-based initiatives such as LaunchX (Young Entrepreneurs Summer Program at Cambridge, US) and Indonesia Mengajar (Indonesia Teaching Movement)

Emilie has been engaged in the ACCOR adventure for the past 19 years with different roles in the Sales & Distribution, Guest Experience and more recently as head of the Digital Marketing for Asia Pacific. Her passion for travel has led her from Paris to Asia where she settled 15 years ago. Bangkokian at heart, she now calls Singapore home.

Hermione is a leader with 15 years’ experience in sales, marketing, strategy and business development in the technology & travel sector.

Hermione leads the APAC Travel team for Google’s Large Customer Sales business, working with leading online travel agents, airlines & hotel chains to develop digital business strategy & products for Asian consumers.  Additionally she oversees the APAC Vertical search team, who help clients adopt our more technical solutions such as Hotel Ads, and work with our Product & Engineering team to build products for our region.  Prior to this, Hermione worked in Google’s Sydney office managing major Retail clients.

Before her time at Google, she worked in the TV industry for 4 years, working for 7media West running the Key Accounts team. When she launched her career she started in Creative Advertising working initially for M&C Saatchi and then TBWA in Sydney.

Hermione was educated in Sydney Australia, completing  a degree in Economics & Social Sciences from Sydney University and was awarded the Young Citizen of the Year (2009) by the Woollahra Mulinciptilty.

Hermione now lives in Singapore, and has done so for six & a half years. She is a mum to three young children and a Red Kelpie, and is an incredibly passionate traveler.

Aya Aso is the Founder & CEO of SAVVY Collective Co., Ltd, and co-founder & CEO of PerkUP, Japan.

Prior to her new venture, she was the founder & ex-CEO of AGORA Hospitalities Co., Ltd., founded in 2007 with a strong vision to establish “A Collection of Beautiful Japan”, a collection of boutique hotels and Japanese traditional ryokans throughout Japan. She has been actively expanding it’s portfolio comprises of 13 boutique hotels and traditional Japanese ryokans.　Prior to AGORA, she was a Senior Vice President of Business Development for ISHIN Hotels Group.

Her hospitality career began at the Sheraton Grande Los Angeles, from which she moved to the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel.   Returning to her roots, she later joined Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Japan, and then PricewaterhouseCoopers BPO Japan K.K. as financial accountant, after which she took on the role of Executive Director of Operations at Space Design Inc. to develop and operate 14 serviced apartments in Tokyo.

Aya graduated from the University of Southern California (USA) with a Bachelor of Music from Thornton School of Music, Piano Performance. She is also a Certified Public Accounting (CPA) and holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from University of Wales (UK).

Kittisak (Kitt) Pattamasaevi is the Chief Executive Officer for Montara Hospitality Group. Montara owns and manages Phuket’s most exclusive pool villa beach resort TRISARA, Bangkok’s only river mansion boutique hotel PRAYA PALAZZO, and the innovative movie house-turn-hotel PRINCE THEATRE HERITAGE STAY in Bangrak.

In his previous role at Montara, Kitt leveraged his private equity and investment banking experience to facilitate the acquisition of boathouse, a critically acclaimed Phuket beach resort and restaurant, which Montara also currently owns and manages.

Kitt received his MBA from Harvard Business School. At HBS, he served as COO for Hospitality & Travel Industry Club. Prior to that, he graduated Cum Laude from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Science in Operations Research. Outside of his work at Montara, Kitt serves as a director of Niyom Pattamasaevi Foundation, which sponsors scholarships and supports rural elementary schools in Northern Thailand.

Marcus moves over from the Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay, where he has been the General Manager since 2015. Marcus has been with AccorHotels for 13 years and brings with him a wealth of experience, having held various management positions, initially at Sofitel Melbourne, then as the opening General Manager at Pullman at Sydney Olympic Park; this was later followed by General Manager assignments at Sofitel Gold Coast Broadbeach and Sofitel Brisbane Central. He was also Project Manager for AccorHotels’ management of the Qantas First Class Lounges. The RC Hotel complex comprises the Fairmont Singapore, Swissôtel The Stamford Singapore and Raffles City Convention Centre.

Timothy Hughes is the Vice President Corporate Development of Agoda (a Priceline Company). Timothy is a “retired” blogger and pundit. Previously he was the editor and publisher of one of the top online travel industry blogs (the BOOT: the Business Of Online Travel) and a writer at Tnooz.

Tim is a former lawyer and venture capitalist. As a venture capitalist and consultant he helped a number of start-ups (inside and outside travel) secure funding, set up online media companies, managed investments in public companies and held regular client briefing sessions for a brokerage house. As lawyer he represented technology, new media, Internet, telecommunications and broadcasting clients in Australia, Europe and Hong Kong.

He first joined the online travel industry in 1999 and has worked for top tier online travel companies in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Tim has a Bachelor of Commerce and Hons Law Degree from the Australian National University.