Owner
Tinwald Farm

Adrian Currie

Adrian held numerous senior leadership roles at Booking Holdings for almost 20 years. This included CFO and MD APAC roles at Booking.com, Chair at Agoda and RocketMiles, and SVP Group Strategy. In 2021, he “retired” to dedicate most of his time to Tinwald Farm in New Zealand with his wife, Amanda, and shape its journey to regenerative farming and EOV accreditation from the Savory Institute in the US. In addition, he continues to advise and invest in a few travel and hospitality businesses in NZ and overseas. Prior to BKNG, Adrian spent 12 years with EY Corporate Finance. He has an MBA from London Business School.

Cook, Author, TV Presenter

Audra Morrice

Welcome to my home! I am Audra Morrice, a cook, author, TV presenter and an advocate for the preservation of cultural cuisine. From a finalist on MasterChef Australia 2012 to hosting Tasty Conversations, judging on MasterChef Asia and then becoming the resident judge on MasterChef Singapore, and now, producing my own TV series Eat, Roam, Relish: Sarawak Malaysia, my journey has always been about creating delicious food, sharing my culture and the stories of others.

Every meal I cook for you doesn’t just fill your hungry tum, it feeds your soul, deepens your understanding of culture. It brings people together, bridges gaps and connects you with people around you. Let me share with you the food I cook and the destinations I visit.

I travel, I engage, I eat, I relish.

CEO
Tourplan

Craig Gray

Currently serving as CEO, Craig brings over three decades of expertise in the travel and tourism technology industry, supported by a commerce degree. Since joining Tourplan in 1991, Craig’s in-depth understanding of Tourplan solutions and travel technology has been instrumental in driving our growth.

In his capacity as CEO and a board member, Craig steers Tourplan’s global strategy, emphasising the cultivation of vital client relationships, team ethos and collaboration, and a commitment to pioneering technological advancements within the tourism sector.

Head of Legal Counsel
Airbnb

Darrell Chan

‘Lawyering for a 21st century company looks very different from what we were taught in law school. It requires lawyers being entrenched in the business, standing shoulder to shoulder with the teams, and having a deep understanding of the issues that challenge the company – I call this guerrilla lawyering’. So says deputy general counsel and Asia Pacific legal team lead of Airbnb Darrell Chan, who himself is a prime example of the sort of modern in-house lawyer he is describing. Indeed, after serving as a private practice lawyer at the start of his career with Drew & Napier and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, he took what he called ‘a road less travelled’ by taking on a purely commercial role with fashion retail group F J Benjamin before becoming the general counsel of the company – he thrived in this role for a number of years, eventually leaving in 2012. A senior legal role with BASF was then followed by head of legal positions with Expedia and Discovery Communications before moving on to Airbnb in 2018; clearly Chan has had an extremely varied career with in terms of the roles he has taken on and the sectors in which his companies have operated. Now well established at Airbnb, Chan has been at the centre of some blockbuster transactions, of which he provides some more detail: ‘Airbnb has been closely working with the Japanese government over the past 3 years to implement the new law around short-term rentals, which came into effect in June 2018. The Japanese government has formally introduced this new form of short term rental accommodation to support its growth in tourist arrivals ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics’. He has also been at the forefront of a number of initiatives within the team, including a focus on career and leadership development, work-life balance and enhancing the speed and clarity of advice given. This fits in with his overall philosophy of in-house legal work. ‘Contrary to the flowery legalese taught in law school’, he explains, ‘communication has to be crisp, clear and concise with almost military precision’.

Senior Director, APAC
Expedia Group

Darren Karshagen

As Expedia Group’s Senior Director, Hotel Market Partnerships for APAC, Darren leads a team across the region which help Partners reach their business goals and be successful on Expedia Group’s vast marketplace.

Since joining Expedia Group in 2011, Darren has held various roles in Africa and Oceania, developing extensive experience across emerging and established markets within online distribution and travel categories.

Prior to Expedia Group, he worked in the hospitality industry and, together with his wife, owned and managed a boutique hotel and wedding venue. Darren and his family love travelling and exploring new destinations, with a large passion for wildlife safaris.

Executive Director, CEO, Co-founder
Serko

Darrin Grafton

Sector Lead, Travel and Vertical Search APAC
Google

Hermione Joye

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 & vacation rental companies 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.

President & Chief Growth Officer
Big Red Group (BRG)

John Boris

John Boris is President & Chief Growth Officer for Big Red Group (BRG) which powers Australia and New Zealand’s largest experience network and owns and operates experience marketplaces and platforms including RedBalloon, Adrenaline, Experience OZ, Everything NZ and Local Agent.

John brings over 25 years of global experience in executive roles. He has a proven track record of driving profitable growth, building market-leading brands, fostering strong corporate cultures, and driving shareholder value.

Prior to joining Big Red Group, John was SVP & Chief Growth Officer for TripAdvisor, CEO of IfOnly (acquired by Mastercard), CMO of Shutterfly (acquired by Apollo Global Management), and EVP & Managing Director of Lonely Planet.

John also serves as an Independent NED for Webjet, Executive Chairman of Cranky Health, and an Independent board member of Feastables Inc, founded by Jimmy Donaldson (Mr Beast).

CEO
Webjet

Katrina Barry

Katrina Barry brings over 20 years of leadership experience spanning the travel, fintech, e-commerce, and hospitality sectors. She is currently the Group CEO and Managing Director of Webjet Group.

Prior to this role, Katrina served as a Director of Webjet Limited (prior to its demerger) from 2022. Her previous executive positions include Global CEO of me&u, where she led the company through to its successful merger in late 2023, and Managing Director of Contiki Holidays and Trafalgar Tours Australasia. She also held key roles within the Virgin Group, including co-founding and launching Virgin Active across Australia and Asia. Katrina began her career at McKinsey & Company and has been recognised in the Deloitte FastTech 50 Female Leadership Awards and inclusion on the Women in Travel Power List.

She currently serves on the boards of the Australian Travel Industry Association (ATIA) and PetSure Australia.

Co-founder & CEO
Venture Republic – TRAVEL.jp & Trip101 Travel

Kei Shibata

TravelTech entrepreneur based in Singapore and Tokyo with 20 years of experience who led his company to an IPO, a buyout and two exits.

One of the original investors & advocates of Travel Massive.

Kei co-founded Venture Republic Group (VRG) in 2001 and has been serving as a CEO since foundation. Company runs a group of online travel services worldwide including TRAVEL jp, Japan’s largest online travel metasearch/media, Trip101, Singapore based global online travel media and Allstay, mobile accommodation search app in Korea.

In 2008, he led the company to an IPO and to LBO by the management in 2012. Kei also led to acquire Flocations, a Singapore based travel startup, have it grown to one of the fastest growing online travel media in the world under Trip101 brand that attracts the users from 200 countries.

Harvard MBA. Keio University BA.

Cross country & alpine skier/snowboarder. Love jazz, coffee and working from vacation homes.

Chief Commercial Officer, Premium, Midscale & Economy - Middle East, Africa, Turkey & Asia Pacific
Accor

Kerry Healy

Kerry Healy is the Chief Commercial Officer for Accor’s Premium, Midscale & Economy division in the Middle East, Africa, Turkey & Asia Pacific. Kerry oversees the commercial function for this diverse region which comprises close to 900 hotels under iconic brands such as Pullman, Mövenpick, Swissôtel Novotel, Mercure and ibis. Based in Singapore, Kerry leverages her wealth of business acumen and over 25 years of hospitality experience to ensure all functions of the organisation are aligned to meet the Group’s strategic commercial objectives.

Kerry is an outstanding leader and a skilled negotiator who has a deep understanding of distribution, customer relationship management, partnerships and operations. With strong international experience across four continents, her commercial insight and wide connections play a key role in aligning Accor’s commercial strategy and driving increased revenue in an increasingly complex environment.

Kerry has a long history of managing teams to excellence through change, building trust and designing exciting robust strategies. She fosters a customer centric organisational culture based on quality, respect and trust.

With expertise spanning multiple continents, Kerry has held senior management positions in the UK, Middle East, Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Advisor
ennea Capital Partners

Lisa Katsouraki

Vice President, Global Marketing
Klook

Marcus Yong

As Vice President of Global Marketing at Klook, Marcus has been privileged to contribute to their mission of transforming travel experiences since joining the company as employee #51 in 2016. Working alongside a dedicated team, they’ve navigated the company through 6 successful funding rounds, including a recent $100 million investment led by Vitruvian Partners . These milestones have enabled them to enhance our platform and better serve travelers worldwide.

In 2023, Marcus and his team spearheaded the launch of Klook’s Kreator Program, building a community of over 20,000 content creators across 16 markets within a year. This initiative has positioned Klook at the forefront of social commerce in the travel industry.

Prior to Klook, Marcus led digital marketing efforts at Scoot, enhancing global digital acquisition and managing social media across seven markets. He began his career at the Singapore Economic Development Board, focusing on digital brand and channel management for North America.

CEO
Destination Queenstown

Mat Woods

Mat is currently the Chief Executive at Destination Queenstown (DQ). Prior to joining DQ, he was head of sales & services at Cardrona Alpine Resort (CARL) and Treble Cone and was involved in the acquisition of Treble Cone, securing the rights to develop into the SOHO Basin. Mat moved from CARL to join the parent company RealNZ as GM of Experience Whakatipu to oversee the Queenstown operation of the TSS Earnslaw, Walter Peak, Jet Boating and Water Taxis. He is currently a Director on Regional Tourism NZ.

Partner
Velocity Ventures

Nick Cocks

Nick is an entrepreneur turned professional investor.
Nick started his career in 1985 as an accountant with Arthur Andersen & Co’s Corporate Recovery practice in Sydney, Australia. He left the profession in December 1989 to join his fathers’ concrete business in Adelaide, Australia and assisted with the sale of the company to Adelaide Brighton Cement. Six months later he turned his attention to Southeast Asia and has lived and worked in the region since, firstly building Readymix – a concrete, quarrying and cement manufacturing business spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Singapore and, more latterly, leading Ready Ventures – a family office that has invested in a portfolio of early stage companies and is a partner of Velocity Ventures – Southeast Asia’s leading travel and hospitality focused VC.
Nick is a Partner of Velocity Ventures and sits on the Investment Committee. He is also a Director of portfolio companies CarbonClick and Lumitics. He is a Director of Readymix Brunei and Butra Heidelberg Cement Brunei. He is also the Lead Non-executive Director of SGX listed MTQ Corporation and chairs the Remuneration and Nomination Committee. He is a past Singapore Chairman and regional board member of the Young Presidents Organization and was Chairman of the Australian Chamber of Commerce, Singapore.
Nick holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Australian National University and resides in Singapore. He is married to Stephanie and has 3 adult children.

CEO & Co-founder
Agoda

Omri Morgenshtern

Omri Morgenshtern is the Chief Executive Officer of Agoda, part of Booking Holdings (Nasdaq: BKNG). He was appointed in July 2022. In his former role as COO, Omri was instrumental in driving global operations, Product, Partner Services, and the Customer Experience Group.

Omri joined Agoda in 2014 as Senior Product Owner, Algorithms and Learning Systems, and was later promoted first to Vice President of Product Development, then to Chief Product Officer and Chief Operating Officer in 2018.

He was co-founder & CEO of Qlika, an award-winning UpWest Labs start-up specializing in online marketing optimization, which was acquired by Booking Holdings Inc. in 2014.

Omri received an M.S. Magna Cum Laude in Physics from Tel Aviv University and B.S. Cum Laude in Physics, Computer Science and Mathematics from The Hebrew University.

CEO
Tourism NZ

René de Monchy

René was appointed Chief Executive of Tourism New Zealand in April 2021. He has over 20 years’ global experience in consumer-led businesses, including in local and international marketing roles for Fonterra, Heineken and Asia Pacific Breweries in Singapore.

He was previously Tourism New Zealand’s Director Commercial where he led the team based in our international offices responsible for identifying key markets and audiences for travel to New Zealand. René also led the development of Tourism New Zealand’s aviation strategy to guide partnerships with international airlines. 

He is passionate about the tourism sector and active in tourism industry engagement, undertaking regular speaking engagements and panel discussions. He is currently a Board or panel member for

Tourism Industry Aotearoa, New Zealand Screen Production Grant Significant Economic Benefits Verification Panel, New Zealand Story Board, New Zealand China Council and Qualmark New Zealand Limited. 

Founder, former CEO & Chairman
Viator Inc.

Rod Cuthbert

Chair - Technology Queenstown, North Ridge Partners, Web Travel Group

Roger Sharp BA LLB

Roger is a 30+ year veteran tech Chair, advisor and investor with a focus on travel technology. As an investment banker, he played key roles in the privatisations of Air New Zealand, Qantas and Thai Airways. Roger was previously CEO of ABN AMRO Asia and Global Head of Technology for ABN AMRO Bank. He subsequently chaired, built and sold ASX-listed travel.com.au (owner of last minute.com.au), chaired Webjet until its spin-off in 2024, and was Deputy Chair of Tourism New Zealand. He currently chairs ASX-listed Web Travel Group.

Roger is also the founder of Asia Pacific tech investment bank North Ridge Partners where he leads the firm’s travel tech practise. During COVID-19, he launched Technology Queenstown (TQ), a not-for-profit responsible for building $1bn in annual tech sector GDP to diversify the Queenstown economy.

CEO & Managing Director
SiteMinder

Sankar Narayan

For more than 20 years, Sankar Narayan has delivered change management, operational rigour and business growth across the travel, technology, media and telecommunications sectors, with particular expertise in company transformations and business strategy to achieve strong shareholder outcomes. Following several senior management roles at ​Virgin Australia, ​Fairfax Media and Foxtel, and having also worked at Vodafone Australia, Boston Consulting Group and Schlumberger prior, in 2015 Sankar joined Xero where he went on to serve in the dual capacity of Chief Operating and Financial Officer.

Today, Sankar leads SiteMinder’s internationalised software and multilingual teams across 20 locations globally, and which see more than 80% of revenue sourced from outside the company’s home market of Australasia.

Sankar holds a Masters in Business Administration with Honours from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago and a Masters in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York. He is a Certified Practising Accountant and a Fellow of CPA (Australia), and has been a regular contributor to Forbes.com on the crucial topics of strategy, disruption and managing high growth businesses.

Founder & Principal
GEN8

Tim Sharp

Vice President, Corporate Development
Agoda

Timothy Hughes

Timothy Hughes is the Vice President Corporate Development of Agoda (Booking Holdings 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 Phocuswire.

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.

Regional Manager Partner Services
Booking.com

Todd Lacey

CEO & Founder
ZUZU Hospitality

Vikram Malhi

Vikram Malhi is the CEO & Co-founder of ZUZU Hospitality Solutions, a Singapore based start-up that manages sales and online distribution for independent budget hotels across Asia. Before starting his entrepreneurial journey, Vikram was Managing Director for Expedia Asia and was instrumental in growing Expedia brand across 11 countries in Asia.

He spent a total of 8 years at Expedia, taking on multiple senior level roles including marketing, customer loyalty, operations and general management. In addition to his deep expertise in the online travel and hospitality sectors, he has strong experience in technology and business consulting. He worked at IBM Consulting early in his career and received MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Founder
WiT

Yeoh Siew Hoon

Siew Hoon has been covering the travel industry beat in Asia Pacific for decades, starting off as a rookie reporter and going on to lead and launch the region’s key industry media titles. In 2005, she founded WiT (Web in Travel) to tackle how technology was changing travel in Asia Pacific and created a new space in the fast-growing, dynamic region with a dedicated media and events platform.

Over the years, she took WiT to new places, launching editions in Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Middle East, Europe and Africa to keep the world’s attention focused on the three pillars of travel, technology and Asia.

Following the acquisition by Northstar Travel Group in 2014, she led the launch of Travel Weekly Asia and M&C Asia and formed the editorial team to execute the entry of Northstar Travel Group to Asia.

Her work has been recognised by numerous institutions including the Singapore Tourism Board which recognised her as Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year in 2014. The WiT Singapore conference, which remains its tentpole event, has won several awards including Most Innovative Marketing Initiative and Trade Conference Of The Year.

In 2020, WiT Singapore became the first travel conference to go fully hybrid, paving the way for a new model in events.

Other than writing about travel, Siew Hoon is also a published author of titles such as “Around Asia In One Hour: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries”, children’s books such as “Adventures of Habibie The Turtle” and “The Story of Baitong and Boon” and host of “A Life In Travel” podcast.