Jonathan Worsley

Chairman & CEO, Bench Events

Jonathan Worsley, Chairman & CEO of Bench Events, is one of the founders and organisers of multiple leading international conferences for the hotel investment industry, including the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) now in its 15 year; the 10th annual Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) and the 3rd annual Saudi Arabia Hotel Investment Conference (SHIC). Bench Events entered the Latin America market in 2016 partnering with SAHIC on their South American and Latin Amerian events. Jonathan also branched out into aviation and F&B, through AviaDev inaugurated in 2016, and the Global Restaurant Investment Forum (GRIF) now in its sixth year. Exciting new events are planned for Europe in 2020 which will be revealed soon.

In 1997, Jonathan co-founded the annual International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) in Berlin, a conference he subsequently organised for 19 years, which today attracts over 2,000 delegates. Earlier in his career, he worked for real estate consultants CBRE & Hotel Partners, hotel advisors PKF and hotel operator Forte & Holiday Inns.

Jonathan sits as a board director of STR Global (now STR), a global benchmarking company with over 60,000 participating hotels following the merger of The Bench, STR and Deloitte’s Hotel Benchmark. He sits on the board of Hotel Swaps, which allows participating members to swap empty hotel rooms with other members around the globe and is an investor in TripTease, the tech start-up that enables hotels to increase direct sales and aims to defeat rate disparity.

Jonathan sits on the Advisory Board for RAK TDA and is a Trustee of Future Talent, a charity that provides financial support to gifted young musicians in need of financial assistance to pursue their dreams and talent.

Marina Franolic

Managing Director Central and Eastern Europe, Bench Events

Marina began her hospitality career at the Glion Institute of Higher and the Hotel Savoy, Rocco Forte group, in Florence. After several years outside of the hospitality industry, in 2012 she established her own company with the goal of bringing global trends to the regional industry.

In 2013. Adria Hotel Forum was launched with an idea of showcasing world trends, sparking the creation of new ideas and partnerships and overall development of the hotel industry. Within years, AHF confirmed to be the only internationally recognized hotel investment conference within the South Eastern Europe whose partners are global companies.

In 2017, the company started a unique event with a goal of bringing trends into everyday hotel operations – HOW /Hotel Operations Weekend/ Festival that gathers every year more than 500 participants.

In 2018, the company has been rebranded as HESA Group and served as the connoisseur of the regional market and opportunities.

In addition, Marina is Industry Advisory Board Member at Glion Institute of Higher Education and holds both Croatian and Italian citizenship.

Jonathan Worsley

Chairman & CEO, Bench Events

Jonathan Worsley, Chairman & CEO of Bench Events, is one of the founders and organisers of multiple leading international conferences for the hotel investment industry, including the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) now in its 15 year; the 10th annual Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) and the 3rd annual Saudi Arabia Hotel Investment Conference (SHIC). Bench Events entered the Latin America market in 2016 partnering with SAHIC on their South American and Latin Amerian events. Jonathan also branched out into aviation and F&B, through AviaDev inaugurated in 2016, and the Global Restaurant Investment Forum (GRIF) now in its sixth year. Exciting new events are planned for Europe in 2020 which will be revealed soon.

In 1997, Jonathan co-founded the annual International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) in Berlin, a conference he subsequently organised for 19 years, which today attracts over 2,000 delegates. Earlier in his career, he worked for real estate consultants CBRE & Hotel Partners, hotel advisors PKF and hotel operator Forte & Holiday Inns.

Jonathan sits as a board director of STR Global (now STR), a global benchmarking company with over 60,000 participating hotels following the merger of The Bench, STR and Deloitte’s Hotel Benchmark. He sits on the board of Hotel Swaps, which allows participating members to swap empty hotel rooms with other members around the globe and is an investor in TripTease, the tech start-up that enables hotels to increase direct sales and aims to defeat rate disparity.

Jonathan sits on the Advisory Board for RAK TDA and is a Trustee of Future Talent, a charity that provides financial support to gifted young musicians in need of financial assistance to pursue their dreams and talent.

James Chappell

Global Business Director, Horwath HTL

James Chappell is the Global Business Director of Horwath HTL, the worlds oldest and largest Hospitality Consulting Brand and is responsible for 50 offices in 39 countries around the world.

Horwath HTL is famous for their expertise in the hospitality sector having written the first uniform standard of accounts, and for having the most experienced local experts in the business.

Originally from the world of advertising, James started in the hotel business in the best possible way, by accident, and has never left. James did a three-year management trainee course at the famous boutique hotel, Lydmar, in Stockholm before leaving to join consulting firm Overlook Hospitality Management with a brief to develop new products for the industry.

One of these became The Bench, which revolutionised the way performance data was collected and used in hotels. James was Managing Director of The Bench for five years before becoming Managing Director of STR Global, the company formed by the merger of The Bench, Deloitte’s HotelBenchmark and Smith Travel Research.

A regular speaker at conferences and on television, James has appeared on CNN, The BBC, Bloomberg and others talking about the industry.

Markus Lehnert

Vice President International Hotel Development, Marriott International

Markus Lehnert started his career in hospitality more than 35 years ago, and he has been with Marriott International for the last 20 years. As Regional Vice President of International Hotel Development, Markus is responsible for the development of all limited-service brands across Europe, as well as all brands in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia. Before joining Marriott, Markus was a hospitality consultant with PKF in London for three years, and before that held operational positions for 13 years at various world-class hotels, among them the Breidenbacher Hof in Düsseldorf and the London hotels The Berkeley, Claridge’s and the The Lanesborough. Markus lives in Switzerland.

Frank Reul

Head of Development Eastern Europe, AccorHotels / Orbis

Frank is currently the Head of Development for Orbis – the partner of AccorHotels in Eastern Europe. He has an extensive experience in hotel management and operations. He started his career in 1988 in Brussels and Bruges in Belgium in senior operational roles at AccorHotels. He quickly got promoted to Director of Food and Beverage at the Novotel Sheremetyevo-2 in Moscow, Russia in 1992.

After spending three years in Moscow he moved back to London to and begun his ten years long career in the United Kingdom at AccorHotels. He started at one of the busiest airport’s Novotel, at the Heathrow as an Operations Manager. He then held several General Manager positions across the United Kingdom: Novotel Preston, Novotel Southampton, Novotel Milton Keynes, Novotel Bristol Centre. In 2006, he moved to Turkey, where he directed and managed one of the key hotels in Istanbul, the Novotel Istanbul. He then spent two years as a General Manager at Novotel Trabzon.

After more than 20 years of service at AccorHotels he had been appointed to Area General Manager for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, then from 2014, to the Area General Manager for Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia where he oversaw of operations and development including development in the South Eastern Europe. From September 2017 he has been appointed to Head of Development of Orbis & AccorHotels Eastern Europe.

He is fluent in Dutch, English, French and speaks German as well. He is an avid fan of history, wines and the Arsenal.

The Orbis Hotel Group is the largest network of hotels in Eastern Europe. Orbis comprises more than 130 hotels and is the sole licensor of all AccorHotels brands in 16 countries including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. It offers a total of almost 21,000 rooms. The hotels operate under the brand names Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery by Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure, ibis, ibis Styles and ibis budget. These brands, recognized throughout the world, provide a quality of service to various standards, ranging from luxury 5-star to budget 1-star hotels.

Orbis’ strategic partner is AccorHotels.

Stefan Trienen

Head of Vertical Search Travel DACH/ EasternEurope/ Middle East/ Africa (Head of Sales) at Google

Driving business + partnership opportunities with accommodation partner.

Go-to-market strategies for Google´s Travel products. Market analysis and partner segmentation.

Head of Business Development - Google Travel Products EMEA

Partnerships Development in EMEA for Google´s largest Travel Partners for:
- Google Hotel Search / Google Hotel Ads
- Alternative Lodging + Packages
- Book on Google / Payments
- Google Flight Search incl. B2B
- Google Destinations
- et al.

Negotiating strategic deals for Google in Travel.
Lead new products and features launches and hand them off upon maturity.
Revenue and partner development strategies for top tier partner.
Market + opportunity analysis.
Thought Leadership.
Keynote speaker …

Industry Head, Travel (Sales Lead)

Managing high performance Sales Team.
Driving digital growth for largest Online Travel companies in Germany.
Digital strategic consulting on C-Level.
Team and career development, coaching and recruitment.
Leading business planning, business strategies, account planning, and business processes.
Leading team to outperform challenging sales quotas.
Focus: AdWords, Branding (YouTube + DBM), Vertical Search.
Developing sales and digitalization strategies. …

Industry Sales Manager / Account Manager

Sales lead + partner development for Google largest partners (Travel, Agency and beyond).
Hitting challenging sales targets in a fast paced, international environment.
Digital strategy and transformation consulting.

Athlete in national selections and several teams in top leagues in Germany, Norway and USA.
Team Captain of professional Top 4 team in Germany.
Successes:
- Norwegian Champion and Cup Winner

Thomas Emanuel

Director, STR

Thomas Emanuel is a Director at STR. He is based in London, and leads a team focused on driving business with Industry Partners.

He has spent his entire career in the hotel industry, beginning in 2000 with Miki Travel, before joining Hyatt Hotel & Resorts, where he gained experience in corporate sales at both the worldwide sales office and at property level. Thomas then led the corporate sales function for Hazlitt’s Hotels, a group of independent boutique hotels in London.

In 2006, Thomas joined the Deloitte HotelBenchmark team, where he was responsible for creating and leading the department’s business development function. He held this role until the formation of STR in March 2008, and had since focused on overseeing STR’s rapid expansion outside North America. Throughout his time with STR, Thomas has gained a wealth of experience working with hotels, investors, developers, consultants, banks, governments, destination management companies and many others.

Thomas has been a guest lecturer at Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, and been invited and participated in the OECD's high level meetings on tourism policies.

Travelling extensively, Thomas has worked in over 45 countries across 6 continents and regularly speaks at major hospitality conferences around the world. He is also frequently interviewed for his insights on the hotel industry by news outlets including CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, as well as various tourism and hospitality publications.

Sinisa Topalovic

Managing Partner, Horwath HTL

Siniša Topalović is managing partner at Horwath HTL. He has been involved in more than 150 projects within Horwath HTL network, working with high-profile clients and shaping today’s tourism industry landscape in well-established but also emerging destinations worldwide.

His fields of expertise include strategic and operational advisory in tourism and hospitality sector, including but not limited to strategies and master planning, market expansion strategies, hotel and resort development (highest and best use concepts, feasibility studies, etc.), transactional market advisory, management contracts negotiations, project financing (IFI’s, commercial banks, development banks), tourism marketing and branding planning, product development. Thus, the professional profile of Siniša Topalović is well-rounded and comprehensive in the hospitality, tourism and leisure arena.

Siniša is regularly publishing articles in global tourism media, industry reports and columns relating to tourism and hospitality in domestic and international publications (Hospitality Inside, HNN, Hotels Magazine, etc.) and is invited as speaker or moderator to prominent international conferences (ITB Convention, International Hotel Investment Forum Berlin, Hot.E London, Mediterranean Hotels and Resorts Conference, etc.).

On behalf of Horwath HTL, Siniša is managing cooperation with UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and is Management Board member of Horwath HTL International. Moreover, Siniša is member of International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC), world’s greatest source of hospitality expertise and counsel, represented by just over 200 of the industry’s most respected professionals from across six continents.

James Chappell

Global Business Director, Horwath HTL

James Chappell is the Global Business Director of Horwath HTL, the worlds oldest and largest Hospitality Consulting Brand and is responsible for 50 offices in 39 countries around the world.

Horwath HTL is famous for their expertise in the hospitality sector having written the first uniform standard of accounts, and for having the most experienced local experts in the business.

Originally from the world of advertising, James started in the hotel business in the best possible way, by accident, and has never left. James did a three-year management trainee course at the famous boutique hotel, Lydmar, in Stockholm before leaving to join consulting firm Overlook Hospitality Management with a brief to develop new products for the industry.

One of these became The Bench, which revolutionised the way performance data was collected and used in hotels. James was Managing Director of The Bench for five years before becoming Managing Director of STR Global, the company formed by the merger of The Bench, Deloitte’s HotelBenchmark and Smith Travel Research.

A regular speaker at conferences and on television, James has appeared on CNN, The BBC, Bloomberg and others talking about the industry.

Gari Cappelli

Minister, Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Croatia

Gari Cappelli, Minister of Tourism of the Republic of Croatia since October 2016, graduated from the Faculty of Maritime Studies in Rijeka in 1984. His business career before he became minister of tourism includes his position as a mayor of Mali Lošinj and the President of the Tourist Board of Mali Lošinj, which he held since 2005. He was Chairman of the Management Board of Jadranski luksuzni servisi (Adriatic Luxury Services), Dubrovnik and Consul of Economic Affairs at the Consulate General of the Republic of Croatia in the Italian Republic in Trieste. Besides, he worked as a manager of the RI Adria Bank Branch in Mali Lošinj and as a Director of the Cappelli tourist agency founded by him. He is fluent in English, German and Italian.

During his work as a mayor of Mali Lošinj, he undertook a number of activities that prompted the development of destination management in Lošinj and Croatia and Lošinj archipelago as a year-round destination. Under his leadership, Tourist Board of Mali Lošinj became an associate member of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and a full member of the UNWTO Knowledge Network, and in 2015 Mali Lošinj received the prestigious award from the World Tourism Organization for the project "Fragrances and tastes of Lošinj" in the area of innovations in public politics and government.

In addition, he was a member of the 6th Croatian Parliament during which he was a president of the Tourism Committee and a member of the Committee on Transport and a member of the Island Council. In the period from 2007 to 2011 he was deputy chairman of the Supervisory Board of Jadrolinija. He has been performing the duty of a President of the Tourism Committee of the Croatian Democratic Union since 2012.

Renata Pindzo

Deputy Minister for Tourism, Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of the Republic of Serbia

Renata Pindžo, PhD, is Associate Professor at the FEFA, Belgrade. Also, she holds lectures at the College of Tourism, Belgrade. Since July 2008, she has been in charge of the Tourism sector while working as Assistant Minister in the Government of the Republic of Serbia. Since 2013, she has been a member of the National Council for the Development of Tourism in the Republic of Serbia. Ms. Pindžo graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, where she obtained a Master’s degree in 2003. In May 2011, she obtained her PhD degree.

Her experience includes more than 13 years in management consulting and financial advisory services. She has gained knowledge by providing consulting services to many domestic and international companies, including financial institutions and local municipalities during her employment at Deloitte. Also, as consultant, she was engaged in the World Bank`s projects related to restructuring and improving competitiveness of the Serbian economy. At the Economics Institute, Dr Pindžo participated in research, market analysis and strategy development projects. She has cooperated with many international institutions (USAID, EAR, EBRD, DFID, GIZ and SDC) on complex projects of restructuring the Serbian economy. She is author more than 70 scientific papers.

Ivana Budin Arhanic

Vice President of Business Development and Corporate Affairs, Valamar Riviera

Ivana Budin Arhanić graduated with a degree in Economics from Middleburry College in the USA in 1999. After finishing her studies, she spent three years as a strategy management consultant in Boston and in New York. In 2003, she joined Lura d.d. in Croatia where she led the acquisition and restructuring of Somboled d.d. into the Lura group and held the position of Vice President on Somboled d.d. Supervisory Board.

In 2007 she received her MBA from Harvard Business School and joined Valamar group where she was appointed to the Management Boards of Valamar group d.d., Valamar Adria holding d.d., and Valamar Riviera d.d. as a member.

As of June 2015, Ms Budin Arhanić holds the position of Vice President of Business Development and Corporate Affairs and is in charge of acquisitions and expansion, strategic development through digitalization and innovation, corporate social responsibility, service quality management, corporate communications and relations with industry associations and the public sector.

Ben Godon

Head of Hospitality Asset Management, Colliers International

As Head of the Hospitality Asset Management division, Ben helps to develop the business nationally and internationally based upon his extensive knowledge and experience within the hospitality sector.

Over a career that spans more than 30 years Ben has developed his expertise within the sector from the ground-up, working in a variety of management roles in a diverse range of hotel properties and brands. This has provided him with the experience and hands-on knowledge to provide Collier’s clients with the insightful support and advice they require that helps to make their investments and properties a success.

The invaluable experience and expertise that Ben gained over his time in these management roles has provided him with the knowledge to advise our clients on a broad range of relevant subjects.

Ben and his team have significant experience in the implementation of strategic plans as well as maximising the return on investment for our clients. He has responsibility for the asset management of our expanding portfolio of Central and Eastern European properties, as well as our luxury properties across Western Europe.

His team is tasked with driving improved performance of these properties and investigating opportunities for generating additional cash flow and revenue. Through the identification of operational strengths and weaknesses they have achieved outstanding results for our clients and continue to help grow and support their investments.

Combining strategic thinking with operational expertise, Ben offers the insight that our clients are looking for, whether that be on brand, people, resources, management or operations.

Branko Bogunovic

Partner, Hotel & Destination Consulting

Branko Bogunović is a partner in Hotel & Destination Consulting, consulting company specialized in tourism and hospitality projects.

Over the last 13 years, he has managed more than 60 and participated in over 150 projects in hotel and tourism industry. His project references include managing the conduction of tourism master plans and strategies for the number of countries and tourism regions in SEE and CIS including some of the leading tourism regions and destinations (Istria, Dubrovnik-Neretva, Coastal part of Montenegro, Kopaonik). His expertise also covers regulatory documents in tourism (coastal areas spatial plans, transformation of regulatory framework for regional and local tourism management and tourism related taxation) as well as analytical, strategic and conceptual contributions to numerous hotel and resort projects. His key points of expertise are in tourism economy, strategies, project concepts, and quantitative analytic methods.

Branko has earned his MBA from Staffordshire University (UK) and PhD degree in tourism economy from Faculty of Economics and Business Zagreb. He is an active contributor to international scientific and professional publications on various tourism subjects.

Ivona Meissner

Director Hotel Development, Regional Office Vienna, BWH Hotel Group Central Europe

As of January 2018, Ivona Meissner has been the Director of the Hotel Development of BWH Hotel Group Central Europe in Vienna. In this role, she ensures the growth of the three global brand families with 17 hotel brands including Best Western Hotels & Resorts, WorldHotels Collection and SureStay Hotel Group for the region covering Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia.

She has been working for Best Western Hotels Central Europe since 2007 in various management positions. As Chief Operation Manager and Authorized Officer from 2010 until 2012, Ivona Meissner was in charge of reaching the targets of the business policy as well as the economical organization, strategy, development of concepts and controlling.

In her position as Chief Executive Officer, she was a delegate in all European and International Best Western Hotels & Resorts committees from 2013 until 2015.

From 2016 until 2017, as Director of the Regional Office of Best Western Hotels Central Europe in Vienna, she and her team would support affiliated hotels, customers, cooperation partners, associations and other institutions. At the same time, she was responsible for the hotel development in Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Ivona Meissner not only has more than 30 years of experience in the hotel and tourism sector in Austria and CEE, but she is also an enthusiastic hospitality expert in managing sales/marketing, revenue management, quality assurance, consulting and hotel development related affairs.

She is fluent in German, English, Slovak, Czech and speaks Italian as well.

Owing to her expertise, Ivona Meissner has frequently been a speaker/lecturer at national and international events and in schools.

The BWH Hotel Group^® is an international hotel group headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, and the umbrella brand for the three global brand families including Best Western Hotels & Resorts, WorldHotels Collection and SureStay Hotel Group with a global network of approximately 4,700 independent hotels in over 100 countries and territories worldwide.* BWH Hotel Group offers a total of 17 hotel brands worldwide that suit the needs of hotel developers and guests in every market: Best Western®, Best Western Plus®, Best Western Premier®, Executive Residency by Best Western®, Vīb®, GLō®, Aiden®, Sadie®, BW Premier Collection® and BW Signature Collection® as well as WorldHotels® Luxury, WorldHotels Elite and WorldHotels Distinctive. SureStay®, SureStay Plus®, SureStay Collection® and SureStay Studio^SM complete the group's brand portfolio.** BWH Hotel Group offers hoteliers operational services, sales and marketing support, multiple award-winning online and mobile booking options as well as the customer loyalty programs Best Western Rewards® and WorldHotels Rewards^SM with more than 40 million members.

BWH Hotel Group Central Europe GmbH, formerly Best Western Hotels Central Europe GmbH, based in Eschborn, supports a total of around 300 hotels in ten countries, including Germany, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

* Numbers are approximate, may fluctuate, and include hotels currently in the development pipeline.

** All Best Western, WorldHotels and SureStay branded hotels are independently owned and operated. In Europe, SureStay Hotels are managed with the brand Sure Hotels.

Frank Reul

Head of Development Eastern Europe, AccorHotels / Orbis

Frank is currently the Head of Development for Orbis – the partner of AccorHotels in Eastern Europe. He has an extensive experience in hotel management and operations. He started his career in 1988 in Brussels and Bruges in Belgium in senior operational roles at AccorHotels. He quickly got promoted to Director of Food and Beverage at the Novotel Sheremetyevo-2 in Moscow, Russia in 1992.

After spending three years in Moscow he moved back to London to and begun his ten years long career in the United Kingdom at AccorHotels. He started at one of the busiest airport’s Novotel, at the Heathrow as an Operations Manager. He then held several General Manager positions across the United Kingdom: Novotel Preston, Novotel Southampton, Novotel Milton Keynes, Novotel Bristol Centre. In 2006, he moved to Turkey, where he directed and managed one of the key hotels in Istanbul, the Novotel Istanbul. He then spent two years as a General Manager at Novotel Trabzon.

After more than 20 years of service at AccorHotels he had been appointed to Area General Manager for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, then from 2014, to the Area General Manager for Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia where he oversaw of operations and development including development in the South Eastern Europe. From September 2017 he has been appointed to Head of Development of Orbis & AccorHotels Eastern Europe.

He is fluent in Dutch, English, French and speaks German as well. He is an avid fan of history, wines and the Arsenal.

The Orbis Hotel Group is the largest network of hotels in Eastern Europe. Orbis comprises more than 130 hotels and is the sole licensor of all AccorHotels brands in 16 countries including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. It offers a total of almost 21,000 rooms. The hotels operate under the brand names Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery by Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure, ibis, ibis Styles and ibis budget. These brands, recognized throughout the world, provide a quality of service to various standards, ranging from luxury 5-star to budget 1-star hotels.

Orbis’ strategic partner is AccorHotels.

Jordi Sanchis

Development Director South, East and Central Europe, Melia Hotels International

Jordi Sanchís is Development Director, where he is responsible for growth in South, East and Central Europe. Development include corporate or asset acquisitions, joint venture partnerships and negotiation of Management and Lease contracts. He has significant experience around the Europe in hotels Development. Melia Hotels International is a leading hotel company firm with more than 350 hotels across the world.. Since joining Melia Hotels International in 2016, he has completed various engagements in the Spain, Portugal, Cape Verde, Montenegro, Italy, Malta, Albania and Greece.

Prior to joining Meliá Hotels International, he worked as Development Manager for different Hotel companies under a Spanish Company focused on South Europe region. Formerly, he worked at Horwath HTL where was the manager of advice to different real estate and hotel companies in their management and development of their hotel assets.

Werner Bilgram

Managing Director, Family Select Hotels, Austria

Mr. Werner finished University of applied sciences. He began his career 1984 as junior consultant at Reppel Unternehmensberatung where he was working on Tourism master plan for Baden-Württemberg and several marketing concepts for communities, destinations and regions in Germany. 1985-1999 he was he was at the Touristik Union International, started as a trainee, ended as vice president. 1999-2001 he was managing director at Frosch Touristik International (FTI) with a turnover responsibility over 500 million Euros.

From 2001 to 2010 he has been working for two companies: Horwath i Horwath Consulting Zagreb d.o.o. as managing partner and Kärnten Werbung Marketing & Innovationsmanagement GmbH as managing director. From 2010 untill 2016 he had 100% ownership over Europäischer Reiseservice GmbH. In mean time, from 2013 untill 2015 he was freelance managing director of Haindl Reisen. From 2012 until this very day he is managing director of Family Select Hotels and Kinderhotels Europe GmbH located in Austria.

During his opulent career his field of interest was mainly focused around tourism. Making Strategic marketing plans, operational marketing plans, destination management, tourism master planning, coaching and training in hospitality industry, competitiveness in tourism, tourism master plans, event organization are just some of many Mr. Bilgrams activities and responsibilities.

Ruzica Herceg

Partner, Hotel & Destination Consulting

Ružica Herceg holds a Partner position in Hotel & Destination Consulting - boutique consulting firm specialized for hospitality and tourism projects with long-standing experience and international credentials of its partners and associates.

Ružica has over 25 years of experience in hospitality markets in the region, allowing her to gain broad industry knowledge and to manage and coordinate the most outstanding and complex projects. Working with the leading and largest hospitality companies in the region, global investors and first tier hotel operators, Ružica has gained valuable market recognition.

Prior to joining consulting business, she started her career in banking sector (Zagrebačka banka – Unicredit group), where she obtained significant experience on financing and financial matters. She gained the operational experience working for the Croatian Hotels and Resorts as an operational analyst, and also held a Senior Partner position, for 10 years, in a consulting practice (Horwath HTL).

Given such a background and passionate interests in hospitality, Ružica’s focus is primarily directed towards various hotels and resorts projects– from best use concepts, feasibility studies, valuations, asset management, support in mergers and acquisitions, management contracting

Daniel von Barloewen

Regional Senior Director – Mixed-Use Development Europe, Marriott International

Daniel von Barloewen is the Regional Senior Director, Europe of Mixed-Use Development for Marriott International. He is responsible for the development of branded residences throughout Europe, Russia and the CIS. With 14 out of its 30 brands available for branded residences, Marriott International has a global market share in excess of 27% of all hotel branded residences, more than its next 4 competitors combined.

Before joining Marriott in January 2018, Daniel spent 11 years at Savills, where he set up and ran the International Development Consultancy Department. A development surveyor by background, Daniel has particular expertise in market research, feasibility studies, financial appraisals, valuation, development consultancy, design consultancy, and marketing & sales consultancy.

Daniel is also a Major in the British Army Reserve, and has served in Afghanistan. He speaks 4 languages. He holds a Bachelors Degree from the University of Durham and a Masters Degree from CASS Business School.

Alexander Yakovlev

Head of Real Estate, Allea Group Cyprus

Alexander is responsible for the real estate development sector of the Group in Cyprus with its flagship mixed-use project on the Limassol seafront. Having joined the company in 2017 when the project was acquired, he has since taken on the planning, design and execution of the development. Before joining Allea Group Alexander had been working for 5 years for private Russian investment funds in Moscow and gained experience in the field of real estate development consultancy by working for DTZ and CBRE from 2005 to 2011. He is a member of RICS since 2010.

Goran Kovacevic

Pre-opening General Manager, Viceroy Kopaonik Serbia

Goran Kovacevic is the pre-opening General Manager at Viceroy Kopaonik Serbia, Viceroy’s first hotel to open in Europe.

He started his career in Cyprus in 1998, as a F&B department trainee, and over the next three years on the island was exposed to operations of all hotel departments. He spent the following 11 years in the UK, working as a chef and head chef in some of London’s finest hotels, including Claridge's and the Westbury, as well as in one of the country’s largest contract catering companies, Elior UK. Upon his return to Serbia in 2010, as an executive chef, he was part of the team that open Belgrade’s most renowned hotel, Square Nine, a member of Leading Hotels of the World. In 2013 he was promoted to the managing director position. In 2018 he joined Viceroy Hotel Group, and at the moment is managing the team that will open Serbia’s most luxurious resort, Viceroy Kopaonik Serbia, an investment by Royal Group UAE.

Goran is a guest lecturer at The College of Hotel Management in Belgrade, a college where he graduated in 2000. He also holds an MBA degree from the London School of Commerce since 2012.

Jason Wischhoff

Managing Director EMEA, CEE & Asia, Benihana - part of Minor International

With nearly two decades of experience in executing hotel developments for a number of big hotel chains in Europe, my passion for dining & nightlife was the prime unique selling point in recent years anchored to hotel brands in the upper lifestyle/luxury sector.

Having joined Benihana Q4 2019, am thrilled to be overseeing the growth and operations for a group now in it’s 55^th year of operation globally outside the US, Caribbean & South America. For those new to Benihana, Minor International acquired a 75% stake of the group. To date, Benihana holdings has 19 locations across 12 countries with a solid growth trajectory of additional restaurants opening over the next few years.

David Jenkins

Vice President Business Development, Radisson Hotel Group

In Moscow since 1995, David Jenkins joined the Radisson Hotel Group in 2015 as Vice President Business Development for the region covering Russia, Baltics, CIS, Ukraine, Georgia, Balkans and Israel. This followed on from a 10-year period as one of the most respected hotel consultants in the Russian market with JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, DTZ and Horwath. Prior to consulting, David spent 8 years with Interstate in Moscow working for the Marriott properties. David has a degree in Hospitality Management and now has over 25 years of experience in the industry from operations, consulting and development.

Josipa Jutt Ferlan

CEO Zagreb City Hotels and cluster manager for Hilton hotels in Zagreb

Josipa Jutt Ferlan is a dynamic high-performance hotel executive with a 20-years accomplished career track. She began her career in 2000 at the Zagreb Esplanade hotel. She then moved to the position of Sales and Marketing Director of Jupiter Adria and Director of Hotel Palace Zagreb. In 2015. Josipa became CEO & General Manager of the DoubleTree by Hilton Zagreb. Aside from running the hotel, Josipa also runs the development of new hotel projects under the Hilton brand – Canopy by Hilton and Garden Inn and is CEO of the Zagreb City Hotels company as well as the cluster manager for Hilton hotels in Zagreb.

Josipa holds Masters degree in Hospitality management from University of Rijeka.

Zivorad Vasic

Area General Manager, IHG

Živorad Vasić graduated from Boston University with two degrees, Hospitality Administration and Finance, both finishing with Magna Cum Laude. He got his MSc with the master thesis in the field of economic and financial indicators in hotel business. He is also a visiting lecturer in study groups of the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade and Singidunum University.

In his early age, his profession in the USA took him from Boston to eight other U.S. cities and 11 hotels, with many prestigious positions. After 17 years in the United States, Živorad Vasić returned to Serbia and in 2008 began working for Delta Holding. Within only three months of his return and at the age of 31, he became the youngest General Manager in the history of the Intercontinental Hotel, then Continental, an iconic hotel with the greatest tradition in the region, operating since 1979. Today, he holds two positions. He is Senior Vice President for Delta Holding and Area General Manager for InterContinental Hotels Group, managing Crowne Plaza Belgrade, InterContinental Ljubljana, both owned by Delta Holding, but also InterContinental Bucharest, InterContinental Sofia and Regent Porto Montenegro managed by other owning groups. In addition, in Delta Holding, Mr. Vasić is responsible for DMD and DTS, which is one of the leading distribution and logistics companies. More importantly, Mr. Vasić is in charge of the complex hotel portfolio for Delta Holding managed by IHG, but also one of the decision-makers for Delta’s / IHG further hotel development in the region. Since 2017 he became the youngest AGM in InterContinental Hotels Group for Europe.

In his career, Živorad Vasić received many prestigious awards. He was manager of the year in Hyatt Corporation twice, in 2002 and 2005. He won the Manager of the Year Award for Serbia from the Serbian Association Managers in 2014, and also received Hotel Leader Award in 2018. From opening of Crowne Plaza Belgrade until today, under leadership of Mr. Vasić, Crowne Plaza Belgrade won over 25 awards, one of them is The Out in Front Club- Europe Top Performer for 2015. He is a member of the Serbian Association of Managers, Serbian Business Club “Privrednik” and on the Board of Directors for Junior Achievement Serbia.

Apart from Serbian as his native language, Živorad is also fluent in English and French and Slovenian. He is a passionate music fan, he graduated from the Belgrade music high school playing piano. American football is his hobby and New England Patriots and Red Star is his passion.

He is married to his wife Tamara and their son Petar is 8 years old.

Juraj Toth

Managing Director, AviaDev Europe

Juraj is a passionate avgeek who believes flying is a force of good. He worked for Košice Airport, Slovakia for 7 years. He built the marketing department from scratch and was responsible for creating and implementing marketing strategies that totally re-positioned the airport. Juraj played a leading role within the airport team focused on air service development that managed to bring several new airlines to Košice. Since June 2018 he´s been enjoying his new role with AviaDev. In May 2019 he was appointed as Managing Director for AviaDev Europe which represents a unique networking platform for European regional airports, airlines, tourism authorities and suppliers.

Nikolett Huszak

Senior Retail Marketing Manager, Budapest Airport

She started her career in 2005 at Budapest Airport and since then she gained experience in Retail, Airline and Property marketing. From 2019 she returned to Retail again with this knowledge gives her a wider view on different areas of the airport and within the aviation and travel retail industry.

Nikolett is currently leading the Retail marketing team which is supporting retail partners with marketing activities in order to increase their sales, brand awareness or strenghten their brand amongst the passengers traveling through the airport.

She holds a Bachelors degree in Economics and a Masters degree in Marketing.

Nikolett used to be a professional handball player, which mentality and ’can do’ attitude is reflected in her work. She accomplished several half-marathons and she completed her first full marathon in 2017 .

She believes in life-long-learning and continous self-development so she completed a certified coach course in 2019 which mindset and toolkit is very essential in her leadership.

Enzo Zangrilli

Aviation Development Consultant, Trieste Airport

Enzo Zangrilli was born in Mirano (near Venice, Italy). After graduating from Venice classical lyceum and carrying out commercial law studies at the University of Bologna, he has worked in a number of countries for over a decade contracting and technical tendering management for large multinational companies, such as the Pilkington group, IMERYS and ABB.
In the Aviation Industry, Enzo has covered roles as Senior Executive for easyJet, Alitalia, Menzies Aviation, Aviapartner and private aviation companies in the Middle East, being responsible for contracts, procurement of airport services and addressing the economic regulation in both Airlines and Airports alike.
Currently Enzo works for Trieste Airport as Aviation Development Consultant.

Takuya Aoyama

Vice President Acquisitions & Development, Hyatt International (EAME) LLC

Takuya is responsible for expanding Hyatt’s portfolio of brands in the markets of Russia & CIS, Central & Eastern Europe.

Prior to joining Hyatt in 2008, he worked as Assistant Vice President Acquisitions & Development for Japan, Korea and Micronesia with Starwood Hotels & Resorts based in Tokyo (2002-2007). Takuya’s career in the field of real estate / hotel development dates back to early ‘90’s, and he held positions with companies including Saison Group (1989-1995, Moscow/Tokyo), Holiday Inn Worldwide (1996-1999, London / Vienna) and Andersen (2000-2002, Budapest).

Takuya has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs.

Visar Bytyqi

Advisor to the Board of Directors, HIB Corporation

Visar Bytyqi is a licensed auditor in Kosovo and a Fellow Member of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK). He is the co-founder and CEO of Kosovo’s first private document management company, member of the Board of Directors and chairman of the audit committee of a commercial bank in Kosovo and advisor to the Board of Directors of Kosovo’s largest taxpayer HIB Corporation. He is professional lecturer in a professional accountancy body in Kosovo in subjects of accounting and audit & assurance.

Mr. Bytyqi started his professional career in Deloitte and continued in Grant Thornton where he gained irreplaceable experience of providing financial analysis, process improvements, audit and assurance services to Kosovo’s largest pension funds, international and domestic financial institutions, numerous international organizations, corporations, public institutions, public enterprises and others.

He was a member of the Board of Directors of Kosovo’s oldest Insurance Company and a Member of the Kosovo’s Council for Financial Reporting, the state regulatory body in accounting and auditing in Kosovo.

Ardiana Sokoli

Vice President, Real Estate Business & Board Member, Balfin Group

Responsible for overall Real Estate investments of the Group. Direct supervising RE and hospitality segment; Managing a portfolio of more than Euro 250 Mio investments (being that in residential and hospitality)

Outstanding management and executive experience in Banking, Financial Management and Risk Advisory services and Governance.

Whilst deeply rooted in the banking and financial sector, has worked intensively with both private and the public sector, be that in the form investments, of shares acquisition or privatization or management consulting.

Involved since in the early years with management of foreign aid; donor coordination and projects,

Last but not least marvelous experience as:

• · Board member of Adaptation Fund (project and programme review Committee) which finances projects and programs aimed at helping developing countries to adapt to effects of climate change; and also
• · Board member of REC for the Senior Program focused in assisting civil society organization in their precious role.
• · UNFCC focal point for the country for more than 4 years (2014-2018)

Always trying to keep a position that utilizes her management and financial background, leadership and interpersonal skills in a challenging environment.