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

VP Development, Accor Eastern Europe

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

Hrvoje Dolenec

Chief Economist/ Head - Macroeconomic and market analysis, Zagrebačka banka d.d. UniCredit Group

Hrvoje Dolenec is an economist with extensive experience in economics and banking as well as with expertise in European Union’s development funds, including both pre-accession instruments, and the EU’s cohesion and structural policy.

He started his career in central bank but also served for four years in Croatian civil service in leading management position as a state secretary and head of of the government offices during EU accession negotiations. He spent as well 20 years in the field of economic research, economic consulting and banking, with experience in managerial positions too, as a Chief Economist and Head of Research of the largest Croatian banks. Mr. Dolenec studied Economics in graduate and postgraduate program on Zagreb Faculty of Economics and different international programs of education.

Starting from June 2012, he took over the position of Chief Economist in Zagrebačka banka d.d., member of UniCredit Group.

During whole period, he attended a number of conferences and seminars and he was additionally educated in the field of economy and finance, statistical and econometric analysis, EU funds and EU policies. He was a co-author of various economic and scientific empirical studies and articles, studies with regional focus which included quantitative and qualitative methods. Mr. Dolenec also produced a number of commentaries, articles and expertise on economy and EU policies in the Croatian newspapers and other media. At the same time, he was active as a lecturer, speaker and moderator in numerous conferences, roundtable meetings and lectures focusing on economy, finance and EU development and cohesion policy.

He is married with kids, fan of sports (climbing and skiing), nature and mountains sharing his time among his family, business career and free time activities.

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.

Damir Davidovic

Secretary of State, the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism of the Republic of Montenegro

Damir is a Secretary of State in the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism responsible for implementation and supervision of polices in the field of tourism. Prior to joining the Ministry, Damir worked in private sector in the field of international trade and project implementation in Montenegro. He began his career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Montenegro, later worked as Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, after that also as Chief of Cabinet to Mayor of the Capital City of Montenegro, before being appointed for two terms as Secretary General of the Parliament of Montenegro. Damir holds M.Sc. in European Affairs and B.Sc. in International Management.

Tonci Glavina

State Secretary, Ministry of tourism - Republic of Croatia

Work experience

Board member/director, Eklata, Split, Croatia; 2007. – 2017.

Member of the board/director of tourism destination management company (tour operator and hotelier) specialized for children and youth tourism

Director, Poduzetnički inkubator Klis, Klis, Croatia; 2014. – 2017.

Director of Business Incubator, organization founded and owned by Municipality of Klis responsible for development strategy of the municipality and its implementation with emphasis on tourism and destination management, project management and application of projects for external and non-refundable funds and entrepreneurship development

Assistant area community builder – Project manager, Heritage Building Group, Jamison, Pennsylvania, USA; 2005 – 2007

Regional project manager for the residential development building company with responsibilities for marketing, sales, construction, finance and strategic management

Residence director, Wesley College, Dover, Delaware, USA; 2003 – 2005

Responsible for the management of the student residence hall and team of twenty assistant managers

Marketing and management Intern, Mills Corporation, Dover, Delaware; 2002 – 2003

Intern for the international corporation that manages large shopping centers/malls

Education

Masters of Business Administration, Executive leadership concentration

Wesley College, Dover, Delaware; May 2005

Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, marketing concentration, management minor

Wesley College, Dover, Delaware; May 2003

County councilor for the Split-Dalmatian County (July 2017 – present)

Member of the presidency board of Croatia Democratic Union for Split-Dalmatia County (2016 – present)

President of the Entrepreneurship Association of Croatian Democratic Union for Split-Dalmatian County (2014 – present)

Chairman of the Tourism committee of Croatian Democratic Union for city of Split (2014 - present)

Member of the National Board for Tourism of Croatian Democratic Union (2012 – present)

Member of the board of Croatian Chamber of Commerce for Split-Dalmatian County (2016 – present)

Co-founder and Vice president for National Hospitality Association (2011 – 2016)

Group 100, member of the board – organization that promotes direct investments in Croatian economy (2004)

Croatian American Association (CAA), member of the board – political organization that lobbies for Croatian interests in American Congress and Senate (2004 – 2006)

Political activities and memberships

Renata Pindzo

Deputy Minister for Tourism, Ministry 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.

Eva Stravs Podlogar

State Secretary, MEDT Slovenia

Since May 2015, she has been employed at the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MEDT) and has extensive experience in tourism, on local, regional and national level.

Previously, she was, for almost 15 years, the director of Turizem Bled, Tourism Promotion Institute, where she was responsible for the institute’s management and the strategic development of Bled as an extremely important Slovenian tourist destination. In this position, she headed the Regional Destination Organisation of Gorenjska from 2011 to 2015. During her time working in the economy, she also gained experience as the Assistant Director of Elan Commerce.

In September 2016, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia appointed her as State Secretary at the MEDT, in October 2018 she was reappointed as State Secretary of the MEDT.

Kristian Sustar

Chief Development Officer, Uniline

Director of Development – Chief Development Officer at Uniline Travel Company, one of the leading destination management companies in southeast Europe.

Until May 2018. CEO of Dubrovnik Riviera Hotels Inc. and Member of the Board of HUP Zagreb. HUP Zagreb is a company whose business is to dictate trends in the development of national tourism, and it is positioned in a way that assumes the role of managing the transition model of tourism development by determining the direction of change, initiating and stimulating the development of quality projects, and educating destinations in which it operates through the introduction of new trends. By the 2011 CEO of Maistra d.d., part of the Adris Group, the largest national investor in the tourism industry.

Years of experience, mainly on management positions within the tourism companies in constant expansion (during career, often served multiple functions simultaneously within individual companies). Besides Croatia, experience gained in several international projects.
For many years active in local and national tourism community, as member of the Council for 8 years and presently Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Croatian National Tourist Board. From December 2009 to April 2016 President of the Association of Employers in Croatia, a national association of hoteliers. From 2011 Lecturer at VERN University of Applied Sciences.

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.

Clive Hillier

Consultant, Colliers International

During a career spanning more than 22 years in hospitality Clive has been at the forefront of the sector, managing major international investment and development projects and providing valuable advice to prospective investors and asset owners. Clive is regarded as an authority on hospitality asset management and as such he is a frequent speaker at international conferences.

In 2001 Clive founded Vision, a consultancy formed to offer specialist and independent advice to investors within the hospitality sector. After more than 15 years Vision joined Colliers International in 2017 and continues to lead the market in supporting individuals and businesses in their investment, operational and development decisions.

Nicola Lichtenberg

Senior Manager Hotel Acquisitions & Transactions, Aroundtown SA

With over 10 years of experience in the hospitality industry, Nicola is responsible for Aroundtown’s hotel acquisitions across Europe as Senior Manager Hotel Acquisitions and Transactions. Together with its subsidiaries, Aroundtown currently owns € 17.9 billion of commercial properties and its hotel portfolio is valued at over € 5.8 billion. In the last 24 months, numerous new hotel properties and portfolios were acquired, demonstrating an unrivalled track record.

Having graduated from Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne with a Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management, Nicola started her career in hospitality real estate consulting and before joining Aroundtown, she worked for Aareal Bank, closing hotel financings in excess of € 2.1 billion within Europe.

Reuel Slonim

CEO, Arena Hospitality Group

Reuel Slonim joined Arena Hospitality Group as Executive Director in 2008. His previous role was as Vice President of Operations & Development and board member of Isrotel Hotels and Resorts, one of Israel’s leading hospitality companies. Prior to that, Mr Slonim was Vice President Marketing & Sales after having served for ten years as General Manager of 5-Star resort hotel. Since joining Arena Hospitality Group in 2008, he has led a programme of major transformations which include the renovation, upgrading and rebranding of twelve properties, acquired and successfully integrated the German and Hungarian operations, thus creating the first Croatian international hospitality Group, and led the groups 2017 IPO which raised EUR 100 million in equity proceeds , the proceeds are designated for further development and growth. Moreover, the Group continues to expand in the CEE region through the addition of new properties in Zagreb and Belgrade. Under his tenure, Arena grew from a local company with an EBITDA of €4 million in 2008 to a truly international player with an EBITDA exceeding €30 million in 2019. During these years the group introduced highly professional management procedures, updated all IT systems and refined a training and development culture, all of which has solidified recognition of Arena Hospitality Group as a leading hospitality company in Croatia.

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.

Joep Peeters

Senior Vice President Franchise & Owner Relations EMEA, Radisson Hotel Group

Fluent in German, French, English and Dutch.

November 2014 till today: RadissonHotel Group

Senior Vice President Franchise& Owner Relations EMEA

Over 130franchised hotels under 5brands (84 hotels end 2014) spread over more than 30 countries. Fee based income up by nearly 50% over past 4years.

Role was created to extend the franchise portfolio, whilst installing (change process) a franchise business model at Radisson Hotel Group EMEA.

Setting up of an organisation V2.0 that operates in a different way than our competitors.

Engaging with existing owners to develop new opportunities, achieve more commitment on key brand standard implementations that are guest experience focused and enhance the engagement (Guest Online Satisfaction Scores average 86 %).

New hotel development is now a key element of my job, taking up 50% of my time with full responsibility on existing portfolio and major interaction with the CDO and his team.

Other elements include Contract negotiations, Openings, Exits, Service, Facilitation with Areas, Legal issues.

Took on additional responsibility since2018 on Owner Value Proposition for RHG EMEA for leased, managed and franchised owners together with the CDO.

May 2006 –October2014

Managing Director Westbridge Europe, a division of Westmont Hospitality.

Responsible for all day-to-day activities of the portfolio which consisted of different ownership structures and a variety of brands involving Intercontinental, Hilton, Radisson Blu, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Mercure & Holiday Inn Express; at its peak (2011) I managed 25 hotels under eight different brands, from three to five stars, in nine countries and managing 1500 employees.

• Member of the executive committee that decided on acquisition, exits, brands and strategies with highest ROI outcome for our investors.
• Maintaining relationship with brand owners in order to maximize the value we gained from the fees paid.
• A director in most of the legal entities; involved regular board meetings as well as statutory reporting and strategy setting.
• Westmont representative at the IHG Owners Association (see below details)

Key Achievements:

The setup of Westbridge Europe as an organisation from scratch, ie management team, policies, structures, systems, sales, brand relations, capital investments and re structuring the hotels over 2006 and 2007.

Group profitability improved significantly over the years resulting in a healthy EBITDA and Cashflow which lead to a very profitable exit in April 2014

Turnover 250M and All Portfolios combined value of 1B at peak.

Hotels exited as single units as well as portfolios due to various investment setups with Private Equity and Funds.

During my tenure as Managing Director, I was also highly involved with the IHG Owners Association.

As a major IHG Franchisee I held a senior role in the IHG Owners Association (non-compensated) thus being able to influence at the highest levels on strategies to improve the returns for all stakeholders:

• Chairman IHG Owners Association EMEA 2010-2011 (two-year term)Together with CEO IHG EMEA Ichairedquarterly meetings with key owners of IHG branded hotels, main focus on setting strategies to build stronger brands, gaining market shares and improved profitabilty of hotels
• Global Board Member IHG Owners Association 2010-2012 and member Global Executive Committee Bi-monthly global meetings with Owners Association Board and Executive Committee interacting with IHG Global Executive Committee focusing onstrategies such as Brand Values, Brand Positioning, Engagement, Owner ROI.
• Board Member Europe IHG Owners Association (2007-2014)
• Chairman Owners Association EMEA Sales & Marketing committee(2007-2009)
• First Non-US Committee member IHG Rewards Club Loyalty Program (2008-2010)

January 2005-April 2006

IHG Director of Operations Germany

Main objective was to continue operations of these hotels whilst they went on sale and setting upa new franchise relations structure from an owner perspective in Germany.

Key achievement: A successful transition in April 2006 from IHG owned and managed hotels into a new company Westbridge Europe fully franchised.

October 2003-December 2005

IHG Director of Operations Southern Germany (seven hotels, 4brands)

Key achievement: The re-branding of Forum Hotel Munich City Centre to Holiday Inn within 6 months of my arrival as well as the major refurbishment (€30M) over 2005 in order for IHG to be able to sell the hotel.

Coach and Guide the GM of the Intercontinental Berchtesgaden (now Kempinski) for the opening early 2005 with extreme media attention due to its historical background.

December 2002-November 2003

IHG Area General Manager East Anglia

Appointed to lead this challenging cluster as a free-standing Area General Manager, transformed the areas perception as well as their results.

October 2000 –November 2002

General Manager Holiday Inn London Kensington-Forum

Managed the re-branding of the Forum Hotel into the largest Holiday Inn in the world with a full refurbishment of the hotel (UKP 30M) and achieving budget in 2002 despite ‘Foot & Mouth Crisis’ and 9/11 which impacted business.

May 1992 -October 2000

During this period, I was General Manager at four hotels of growing complexity and revenue in Belgium and Holland.

December 1981 –April 1992

Various operational roles with Holiday Inn in Belgium and France.

Professional development: I am a strong believer in the necessity for continuing professional development and have attended numerous courses, conferences, coaching sessions and workshops covering all aspects of leadership.

Personal Coach over the past 12years to support my continuing development.

Leisure Time: Family, Golf, Ski, Reading, Food, Cigars and Wine.

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

VP Development, Accor Eastern Europe

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.

Milena Brajovic

General Manager, voco™ Podgorica

Milena is currently the General Manager of voco™ Podgorica, she has over 9 years of Hotel Management accross different brands. Her expertise includes Hotel preopening and setting up different levels of organisation. Milena has also been previously been awarded 'The Best Director/Manager of a tourism company in Podgorica' by Tourism Organisation of Podgorica.

Mojca Lozar

Global Brand Director, voco™ hotels, IHG

Originally from Slovenia, Mojca has moved to the UK to join IHG in 2013 and has worked on several brands within IHG, the latest (and her favourite) being voco™. She is now responsible for rolling out the brand globally, ensuring the brand can move quickly and takes into consideration guests’ as well as owners’ needs.

Prior to IHG, she honed her brand management and marketing skills at Procter&Gamble in Budapest.

Clive Hillier

Consultant, Colliers International

During a career spanning more than 22 years in hospitality Clive has been at the forefront of the sector, managing major international investment and development projects and providing valuable advice to prospective investors and asset owners. Clive is regarded as an authority on hospitality asset management and as such he is a frequent speaker at international conferences.

In 2001 Clive founded Vision, a consultancy formed to offer specialist and independent advice to investors within the hospitality sector. After more than 15 years Vision joined Colliers International in 2017 and continues to lead the market in supporting individuals and businesses in their investment, operational and development decisions.

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.

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.

Evgenios Dendrinos

Real Estate Director, TEMES - Costa Navarino

Evgenios Dendrinos holds the position of Real Estate Director in TEMES since 2013, responsible for the development, marketing, sales and construction of the private residential properties in Costa Navarino. Evgenios has led the strategy and implementation of Costa Navarino Residences from the onset of the project.

Prior to joining TEMES Evgenios spent 3 years in renewable energy project development bringing to fruition more than 60 MW of Photovoltaic Projects in Greece. Among those the largest photovoltaic project in Greece with a capacity of 12 MW.

In 2003, Evgenios joined Siemens AG based in Germany for a total of 6 years, 3 of which with the Medical Division as Product Marketing Manager for Interventional Radiology systems worldwide. He then joined Siemens Management Consulting, consulting the top management of Siemens AG, where he worked for a further 3 years as Senior Consultant on several projects. Evgenios has advised on major restructuring projects for the Siemens IT sector, reorganization projects for the Siemens Industry Sector and Merger & Acquisition projects for the Siemens Telecommunication sector.

Evgenios holds an MEng (Mechanical Engineering) and an MSc in Bioengineering from Imperial College, London. He is married with two children.

Igor Kanjuh

Head of RE Department, Erste&Steiermärkische Bank d.d., Croatia

Igor Kanjuh is Head of RE Department in Erste&Steiermärkische Bank d.d. since 2018.

Erste is, alongside with ZABA and PBZ, is a leading financing institution in Croatia.

Erste Group is also a leading financing institution in CEE region, has strong focus on RE industry providing tailor made solutions for the Investors and Developers.

Igor has over 10 years of experience in RE markets in the region, allowing him to gain broad industry knowledge and to manage and coordinate the most outstanding and complex projects. Working with the leading and largest RE developers in the region, global investors and first tier hotel operators, Igor and his Erste Team has gained valuable market recognition.

After collage Igor started his career in Erste where he obtained significant experience on financing and financial matters.

His working experience includes several positions over the last 12 years in Erste:

2007-2008 – Account manager in SME Department

2008 - 2013 – Key account manager in RE Department, Housing financing group

2013 – 2018 – Head of Housing financing group; RE Department

2018 – present – Head of RE Department

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

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.

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.

Urska Binter

Head of Commercial Services, Fraport Slovenija

Urška Binter works at Ljubljana Airport operated by Fraport, one of the leading airport management groups. At the main Slovenian international gateway with the catchment area of +8 million passengers she is responsible for the non-aeronautical segment. The strategic pillar of commercial services comprises parking, retail, advertising and real estate. With big investments in the Airport City and in the airport infrastructure (the new passenger terminal) the real estate gains on its importance. Logistics, MRO and hotel investors are attracted by the investment mechanism on a long-term leasehold basis.

As the Sales Director she gained her experience in a fast-growing software and hardware company that focused on the B2B segment. Prior to that she worked as the Senior Sales Manager for the biggest Slovenian hotel chain SHR mainly covering Benelux and Overseas. The managerial experience also comes from the service sector while working for a small-sized company, as well as an international subsidiary as the Head of General Department.

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

Owner, 1Aviation Consulting Services

Enzo Zangrilli was born in Mirano (near Venice, Italy) on the 7th of May 1970.
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 in the contracting and technical tendering management arena for large multinational companies, such as the Pilkington group, IMERYS and ABB.
In the Aviation Industry, Enzo has covered a multitude of 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.
After working for Trieste Airport as Commercial Director for the Aviation and non Aviation Development, Enzo has opened an International Aviation consultancy company working for Airport, Airlines and Ground Handlers. He is married to Vivien and father of baby girl Valentina.

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.

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.

Marko Gajski

Executive chef, Lesic Dimitri Palace

Born on 12th of April 1984, graduated from college as an IT engineer who developed strong passion for cooking. Within couple of years, made it to the executive Chef position at Restaurant DiVino in Hvar (2011-2014). His next big thing was his second position as an executive chef at Restaurant Perivoj (2015-2016) and in the meantime spent some time staging at Gauthier (London, 2013), Bar Boulud (London, 2013), Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester (London, 2014). Now, executive chef for restaurant Lešić Dimitri (2017).

”My life philosophy is that whatever I do, it has to leave some sort of an impact on people. I am applying the same philosophy on cuisine. Cooking is not work, cooking is a lifestyle. Just as life itself, food needs to have character, it has to be exciting and tell a story. Inspiration is all around us, it's just a matter of surrounding yourself with the environment and focus on what mother nature provides us with each season.

The type of cuisine I am mostly focused on is traditional croatian with modern accent. My main inspiration is croatian gastronomy which is highly influenced with italian, french, turkish, and austrian cuisine. For me gastronomy is a moment, a moment in which we're capable of forgetting everything and let all of our senses enjoy the perfect blend of taste, smell and atmosphere. My mission as a Chef is to make this moment for my guests come true.

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.

Gustaf Pilebjer

Director of Food and Beverage for Europe, Marriott International

Gustaf Pilebjer is the Director of Food and Beverage for Europe at Marriott International overseeing Restaurant & Bar development projects across the Marriott brand portfolio.

Prior to joining Marriott, Gustaf worked as a consultant with Gorgeous Group, specializing in concept development and project management of F&B projects for international hotel brands as well as independent operators.

In 2015, Gustaf co-founded the London-based creative hospitality agency Rebel, acting as Creative and Projects Director.

His expertise spans concept development, brand programming, interior and operational design development, positioning and marketing, service and operational support.

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.

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.

Dejan Knezovic

Partner, Knezovic & Associates

Dejan Knezovic is practicing lawyer in North Macedonia, member of the Macedonian Bar Association. He is founder and managing partner of the Law Firm Knezovic & Associates. The Law firm is specialized in corporate and commercial law and has remarkable records in mergers and acquisitions, project financing as well as real estate development projects. The Law Firm is part of Adriala legal network as a full scale leading practice in South and East Europe covering nine jurisdiction of Adria region.

Mr. Knezovic started his professional career in esteemed corporate related law firm and founded own Law Firm in 2000. For past twenty years he has gained profound experience in providing corporate consultancy to high level management, took part in management of local entities with participation of international companies, as member of Supervisory Boards.

He has been advising the acquisition of five-star hotel facility in Mavrovo Area, acts as local counsel of Marriott Hotels, assigned by international law firm and advises local chain of hotels Alexander in the course of project development and project financing for two out of three locations in Skopje capital.

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.

Elvis Toci

CEO and Founder, ADXA Property

Elvis Toci is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of hands-on experience in construction and real estate development in Albania and Romania. Through his privately-owned real estate company, ADXA Properties, Mr. Toci specializes in medium- to large-scale residential real estate development in Tirana and the rest of Albania, and is experienced with owning and operating leisure properties, including hotels, in both countries.

ADXA Properties specializes in Portfolio Management, Smart Investing, Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Business Development, with clients that range from small businesses to multimillion-dollar multinationals. He is well known as one of the first developers of residential villas in Tirana, continuing to develop other compounds in Tirana. Along with ADXA Architecture and ADXA Manpower, Mr. Toci’s group of companies offers a full-range of additional services, from architecture, engineering and project management services to providing project-specific manpower, from site managers to construction workers.

Mr. Toci received his MBA from the University of Bucharest in Romania. He has also been Honorary Consul of Romania in Korce and the President of the Albanian Ski Federation. He is fluent in Albanian, Romanian, Italian and English, and has a working knowledge of several other European languages.