Hon. Najib Balala, EGH, assumed the position of the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife in the 2015 government reshuffle. He moved from the Ministry of Mining where he was appointed as Kenya’s first Minister in May 2013 and is credited with delivering the Draft Mining Bill in 2014, the first policy and institutional framework review of Kenya’s mining sector since 1940. Having also served as Minister for Tourism from April 2008 to March 2012, Hon. Balala holds the record of being the longest serving Minister in the docket. During that tenure, Hon. Balala delivered the Tourism Bill and gave the sector a policy and legal framework geared towards maintaining sustainability.

Hon. Balala has been elected Chairman of the United Nations World Tourism Organization twice, in 2011 and 2019, where he currently holds the position. In April 2019, he was awarded a World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Champion Award at the 2019 Global Summit in Seville, Spain, for his country’s outstanding work on Social Impact. The annual WTTC Global Champion Awards recognize public officials or countries who, through their leadership, have made a difference through unique public policies and initiatives that have increased the competitiveness of the sector within their countries. In 2009, Hon. Balala was voted Best Tourism Minister in Africa by Africa Investor (AI). He is trained in International Urban Management at the University of Toronto, Canada, and underwent the Executive Program for Leaders in Development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

He is credited with steering Kenya’s tourism sector to recovery following the post-election violence in 2008. He played a significant role in boosting growth and stability in the Kenyan and regional tourism sector, working closely with private and institutional investors, with conservation and regional development agencies to ensure that the economic potential of this vital sector was both prudently and sustainably managed.

Lawal is an International Airport Professional with more than 15years experience in Airport Operations. He is a member of the ACI Airport Think Tank Group (at3). He is married with 3 children and widely travelled

Aborowa started collecting magazines as a teenager, “I discovered community-driven independent publications with strong brand personalities, innovative and inspirational content. Magazines with such diverse content yet not diverse enough.” At some point, searching for a publication where she felt at home became thankless. “Where was the magazine for me, for people like me? It got to a point where I got frustrated with asking whether these magazines existed to wanting to create a space for it to exist. And with that, ìrìn journal was born.”

ìrìn journal is an independent print publication that explores African culture through travel, people and communities. In each issue the journal focuses on a different African city and shines a light on the diverse stories that come together to make up the unique identity of the city.

Award-winning writer and photographer Lola Akinmade Åkerström has photographed and dispatched from 70+ countries for various publications. She is the 2018 Travel Photographer of the Year Bill Muster Award recipient.

Her work has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Travel + Leisure, Slate, Travel Channel, Lonely Planet, Fodor's, National Geographic Channel, several in-flight magazines, amongst others.

She also runs Geotraveler Media - a multimedia and travel consulting firm providing a spectrum of travel media-related services from writing and photography to web design and social media. She is editor-in-chief of Slow Travel Stockholm – an editorial site which encourages travelers to explore Stockholm deeper and slowly. She is also a founder of the NordicTB which provides digital marketing, content creation, and social media collaboration with travel brands and destinations.

Bukky Akomolafe is the Country Manager of Travelstart Nigeria, Africa’s largest online travel agency. She is responsible for setting the strategic direction for the market. Prior to this role, Bukky served as Travelstart’s Commercial Manager for close to three years. She was responsible the local brand strategy, managing the performance of online & offline marketing channels, business development and innovation. Most notably, she managed the sponsorship of the Nigerian Skeleton & Bobsled team at the Winter Olympics in 2018, organized “Based on Logistics” sale where for three days, customers were able to get a 25% discount on all domestic flights because of the elections postponement as well as spearheaded partnership campaigns with Uber, Genesis Cinemas and more.

Bukky has more than a decade of marketing experience; she started her career at Ogilvy & Mather one of the largest marketing communications companies in the world. There, she helped to launch a $2 million growth, strategy and innovation consulting business. Post-MBA, she worked at JP Morgan Chase & Co. in a variety of roles, Credit Card Marketing, a Social Media Manager and Business Development in the Auto Finance department. Prior to joining Travelstart, Bukky worked at Flytime Promotions as the Head of Marketing for Pepsi Rhythm Unplugged.

Bukky attended the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing and Finance and a secondary concentration in Theatre Studies. She later attended the Yale School of Management for her MBA where she graduated in 2014. Bukky has received numerous awards including being named one of Nigeria’s 100 Most Inspiring Women by Leading Ladies Africa in 2019 and Rising Star in Tourism Award at the 2019 Pyne Awards. In November 2019, she won the Future Awards Africa Prize in Professional Service.

Bukky is married and lives with her husband in Lagos. She enjoys playing tennis and pretending to go to the gym.

Joanna has worked in publishing for more than a decade and is fast becoming a go-to source for commercial aviation analysis. Providing commentary for outlets including the BBC, CNBC, and others, she works closely with IATA, AviaDev and various airlines and suppliers to get the inside track on the global marketplace.

Linda Balme has been in the travel industry for 19 years. After 14 years in senior management roles, across 4 countries, leading 6 different brands, Linda returned to Cape Town from New York to join Africa's largest online travel agency, Travelstart, as Senior Commercial Manager.At Travelstart, Linda is responsible for the company's partnerships with international tourism boards, hotels, airlines and corporate partners, to promote African inbound and outbound tourism. Most notably, she partnered with South African Tourism to increase visitors numbers to domestic airports by 37% by coordinating media campaign involving airlines, tour operators, and even a very successful instameet that saw thousands of influencers and visitors gather in 25 selected key tourism locations across SA. She is recognized by industry professionals for her passion as well as her ability to create vision and buy-in.Linda lives in Cape Town has amazing travel stories, enjoys trail running and gin and tonics.

You could say Colin made his own luck – instead of going into the world of finance after completing his economics degree at Wits University, he landed his first job as a safari guide in Botswana in 1977. In those days a cold beer came out of a wet long sock, tied to the side mirror of his Land Rover. That was as good as it got. In 1983 Colin co-founded Wilderness Safaris which went on to become one of the most successful specialist safari companies in Africa. Over the decades it grew to manage camps and lodges across seven countries and employed more than 2,500 people and managed millions of acres of prime wildlife reserves. Many of these lodges gained their “bush cred” through partnerships with local communities: it was through those negotiations and relationships that Colin started to learn what worked sustainably and what did not. One of Colin's great career successes was to initiate the process (and sign the first cheque) that resulted in the successful reintroduction of both black and white rhino back into the wilds of the Okavango Delta. Colin sold his shares in Wilderness in 2005 and went on to co-found Great Plains Conservation and then Natural Selection Safaris. In between he co-authored two books - Africa’s Finest and The Last Elephants?.

Kojo Bentum-Williams is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Africa’s leading travel and tourism magazine, VoyagesAfriq Travel Magazine and media. A communication professional with over 12 years in working in travel and tourism trade. His cross-cutting knowledge in the industry include working as PR official at the Ghana Tourism Authority and Press Secretary to Ghana’s Former Minister of Tourism Arts and Culture.

He is currently the Senior Expert for Communications in AFRICA for the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and aide to the Secretary General. His company VoyagesAfriq Media Limited has transcended the boarders of Africa to be one of the leading voices for tourism news and Information in the world.

Mr. Berthe was the CEO of Air Mali and Air Burkina. He has 28 years’ experience in the airline industry and a total of 16 years as an airline CEO.

Mr. Berthe built his career in various Airlines and multicultural environment both in Europe and Africa at positions such as aircraft performance and dispatch engineering, maintenance and operations quality, ground operations and Chief Executive Officer.

Abdérahmane graduated from:

- French Civil Aviation school in Toulouse (1987 Master Of Science degree).

- French Aeronautical and Space school in Toulouse (1988 Master Of Science degree)

- Business Institute in Toulouse (1989 Master degree)

He also obtained a Private Pilot License in 1985 for Single Engine Aircraft.

Jillian Blackbeard is passionate about tourism in Africa, and believes that sustainable growth can only be achieved through collaboration and understanding across the continent by private sector, governments, associations, international organisations and grass roots communities. She is the CEO of The Victoria Falls Regional Tourism Association and the founder of The Africa’s Eden Digital Destination Solution. The Association is driven by private sector, representational membership that surpasses national boundaries and traditional destination definition. The Association is based on inclusivity and represents all levels of the tourism supply chain. She is collaborating with a unique group of global professionals who have been inspired by the Association to come together in a dynamic and pro bono consortium of digital communication and marketing solution during the survival phase of Covid19.

Jillian has collaborated with the World Tourism Forum Lucerne and the Travel and Tourism Global Resilience Council. Her tourism expertise encompasses destination strategy, branding and marketing, wildlife tourism, circular economy, tourism product development, crisis and risk. She was the former Director for Africa at the World Tourism and Travel Council and the Executive Manager Marketing at Botswana Tourism Organisation.

Moritz joined AIIM in 2010 and is responsible for originating deals, analyzing, assessing, structuring and negotiating investment opportunities as well as the execution, realisation and performance monitoring of investments.

Moritz’s experience spans a range of infrastructure sectors, with a particular focus on airports as well as energy and utilities. In 2018, he was responsible for the successful acquisition of a 50% stake in SEGAP, an airport holding company with interests in 4 airports across West and Central Africa. Moritz was furthermore involved in the due diligence and structuring of the 81MW Renewable Energy Investments SA solar PV power plant and the 67MW Umoya Energy wind farm in South Africa as well as the acquisition, development and sale of the 100MW Kipeto wind farm in Kenya.

Moritz is a non-executive director on the board of SEGAP.

Prior to joining AIIM, Moritz worked at Macquarie Capital in Frankfurt where he formed part of their corporate and project finance advisory team, advising on various infrastructure transactions, primarily in the energy sector.

Moritz holds a B.Sc degree from the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel, Germany (EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht).

Ewan Cameron leads Westmont Hospitality’s Operations and Development in Africa.

Ewan has previously held senior roles with IHG, African Sun and Lonrho Hotels;

- VP Franchise Operations, EMEA, InterContinental Hotels Group
- Head of Development Africa, InterContinental Hotels Group
- Managing Director (Non Zimbabwe) African Sun Hotels
- CEO Lonrho Hotels

Mr. Rahul Chaudhary is the Managing Director of CG Corp | Global & CG Hospitality Holdings which is a multinational conglomerate with an exceptional legacy of 140 years and 4 generations. Spread over 30 countries and with a work force of over 10,000, it is the Himalayan Republic of Nepal's first and only company listed on the Forbes list of Billionaires since 2015 valued in excess US$2.5 Billion comprising over 90 companies that produces world class products and brands.

CG Corp | Global’s notable areas of interests are FMCG, Hospitality, Telecom, Finance, Banking, Electronic and Home appliances, Cement, Real estate, Education, and Energy to name a few. CG is also the brain behind the famous Wai Wai brand of noodles.

Rahul heads CG Hospitality Holdings, the hospitality wing of CG Corp | Global. His forte lies in forging strategic alliances in established as well as emerging markets, which assists in the growth and development of the company. CG Hospitality has a proud history of successful joint ventures in the hospitality sector with esteemed partners and owns some of the most iconic assets globally with some of the leading hospitality brands over two decades such as Taj, Jetwing, Radisson, The Farm and its own brands The Fern, Summit and Zinc. CG Hospitality’s portfolio comprises of over 135 hotels & resorts in 12 countries and 95+ destinations with over 6000 keys. By 2025, the portfolio is expected to grow to over 200 hotels and 10,000 keys.

Kumbi Chiweshe, founder of incentive travel and conference specialist The Victoria Falls DMC, is a seasoned tourism professional whose experience includes an exciting sojourn in the wonderful world of hotels having worked for two of the Leading Hotels of the World in Harare and Washington, DC.

Now making a second return to his first love, conferences and incentive travel, Kumbi and his talented team are leading the charge to restore Victoria Falls as one of the most desired business events (MICE) destinations in the world.

Based in Dubai, Tim is responsible for leading hotel operations and delivering business growth and profit across the group’s largest area, with over 100 hotels in operation and over 80 hotel projects in the development pipeline.

As a young and dynamic hotelier, Tim brings a level of knowledge, skills and experience, which are critical to Radisson Hotel Group’s expansion plans and strategic operations across the Middle East and Africa.

A British national, Tim has been with Radisson Hotel Group (formerly Carlson Rezidor) since 2003 and was recently appointed Area Senior Vice President for the Middle East & Africa in 2017.

He began his progressive career in the UK where his first General Manager's position was at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Manchester Airport which, at the time was Rezidor's largest hotel in the UK and where he successfully positioned the hotel in Rezidor's top 20 performing hotels worldwide. He went onto hold leadership positions in two of the group’s key properties in London, Radisson Blu Portman Hotel and Radisson Blu Hotel Stansted Airport.

He briefly left the group to become General Manager of the Cumberland Hotel in London, before returning as the General Manager of the Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek. In 2015, he was promoted to Regional Director Middle East & Turkey.

Tim holds a degree from Nottingham Trent University in Mechanical Engineering and Design and Technology, including qualified teacher status. In 2006, Cordon entered the British Hospitality Hall of Fame, with the Alpha Forum Prize – “Young manager” award. For two consecutive years, Tim has secured a spot in the top 5 of Hotelier Middle East’s Power 50 list

Nicolas Deviller, working for ADP International, is now the Deputy CEO for RAVINALA Airports (Airports of Madagascar) with his primary duties in the operations of Antananarivo and Nosy Be Airports.

The Malagasy State has delegated since 2017 for 28 years the financing, the development and the operations of these airports to ADP International, Bouygues and Meridiam through a BOT scheme. The IFC, the French Proparco and South African development banks are supporting the 260 million US$ project.

Nicolas Deviller has more than 20 years of experience in the airport industry.

After having held the position of Director of International Development Infrastructures Projects for almost 9 years at the head office of Vinci Airports, he became Managing Director of Vinci Aiports in Cambodia. This position he held for 3 years, notably during the construction and management of PHNOM PENH, SIEM REAP AND SIHANOUKVILLE Airports. Still at Vinci Airports, he then held the position of Director Road Operations of International activities before joining the ADP Group, in its subsidiary ADP Ingéniérie, where he joined the position of Director Business Development and Tenders in Dubai and Paris for 3 years. He is currently Board Member at Liège Airport and CEO Deputy at RAVINALA AIRPORTS, a subsidiary of ADP International.

Kwakye Donkor is the CEO of Africa Tourism Partners. He is a renowned marketing, tourism development, brand management and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition/Events) strategist and expert. He also has demonstrated expertise in corporate strategy formulation and execution, business transactional advisory and leadership development worldwide across education, finance and hotel development.

Kwakye is a recognised and highly respected speaker at global conferences, seminars, and think tank fora. He is also the lead architect of Africa Tourism Leadership Forum, Africa Travel & Tourism CEOs Forum, Africa Tourism Leadership Awards, Africa MICE Academy, Africa Youth in Tourism Innovation Summit and Africa Women Tourism Summit series. His expertise and experience have earned him the privilege to regularly serve on expert panels facilitated by international organizations including UNWTO, AU, SADC, The World Bank Group, GIZ, BBC, CNBC Africa, Channel Africa, ENCA, SABC and more.

Born and raised in Johannesburg, Bheki Dube - who was named Africa’s Best Tourism Entrepreneur in last year’s Tropics Changemakers Awards - founded innovative tour company Main Street Walks at just 16-years old. Dube opened his first hostel at the age of 21, playing a key role in the regeneration of the city’s renowned Maboneng precinct. The CURIOCITY brand was born and CURIOCITY Joburg quickly became one of the city’s most popular hangouts.

Prior to this, Bheki founded MainStreetWalks a thriving inner-city tourism business that has pioneered alternative, authentic travel experiences in Johannesburg. With his energy that developed as he walked the streets of the inner city, a young Bheki started organizing walking tours for those searching for the same diverse and unique energy he had discovered. A natural progression and a whole lot of hard work lent itself to the start of CURIOCITY. Since 2013 Bheki has grown Curiocity, from 1 hostel boosting only 40beds to 3 successful properties with a portfolio 350 beds across Durban, Johannesburg, and Cape Town.

Bheki has his sight set across the African continent and hopes to lead and change the hospitality and travel industry one Curiocity at a time.

As Head of East Africa, Mark oversees JLL’s business operations as well as leading key assignments and projects across the region. Mark is a Kenyan/Swiss national with more than 14 years of experience, initially in hospitality operations and yield management advisory. His broad range of experience includes, owner-operator structuring, brokerage, master planning, development and strategic consulting work across the globe including Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean region.

Previous Positions include; Senior Consultant at a Swiss Advisory firm providing strategic advice on large scale mixed-use and hotel development projects in over 50 countries. Development Director for Singaporean private equity fund KOP’s Spanish based Stein Management Company and Franklyn Hotels & Resorts where he was in charge of heading up the growth of the brand and asset portfolio. With a comprehensive background in real estate, Mark also served in the London offices of Jones Lang LaSalle, where his primary responsibility was working on asset sales and acquisitions.

Mark’s diverse projects have included; chief accommodation advisor to the International Olympic Committee for the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, developing hotels from concept to opening on a single asset and portfolio basis, destination development planning, brand and corporate strategies as well as the creation of learning centres on behalf of governments and private clients across Asia, Europe and Africa. Mark holds a BS & HES-SO in Hospitality Management from École Hôtelière de Lausanne.

Mark Dunnachie is the ATR Head of Region for Europe, Middle East, Africa & Russia, with overall responsibility for commercial, sales and primary customer relationships in the region. Mark Joined ATR in October 2018 from the role of CCO at AerFin, a UK based company involved in aircraft and parts trading. His career to date spans over 28 years of experience in the industry having formerly been with Embraer for 17 years where his responsibilities included new aircraft sales in EMEA, Managing Director of ECC Leasing (Embraer’s Asset Management Company) and as Head of Lessor Sales EMEA. His last role in Embraer was as Vice President Asia Pacific based out of Singapore. Mark has also worked and lived in Rotterdam, Paris, Dublin and London. He is now based in Toulouse.

Prior to joining Embraer he worked at BAE Systems for 10 years in a wide range of executive positions covering Market Planning, Business Development and Sales in an equally varied range of markets from Asia Pacific, through Europe, the CIS, Africa and North America. He was also actively involved in the then JV between ATR and BAE; AIR International. He started his career in 1989 where he was involved in the set up and launch of a small private scheduled Dutch airline. He is a former Trustee of the ISTAT Foundation, he holds a BSc degree in Maritime Commerce from the University of Wales Cardiff and is married with 2 sons.

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 Esseryk, with more than 25 years of experience in digital, technology & hotel marketing, is leading the HD Consulting company.

•Its objective: to support digital & human transformation and support the growth and expansion of hotels, food service and leisure companies .

•A graduate of Paris René Auffray Hotel School and holder of an MBA at Oxford Brookes University, David Esseryk began his career as Director of Operations at Hilton USA.

•He joined the Marriott Hotels & Resorts Europe group in 2000, where he held the position of Information Systems Director.

•In 2007, he joined AccorHotels as Director of Product and Technological Innovation, in charge of product innovation for all brands.

•In 2011, he was appointed Vice-President Digital and Innovation and led digital transformation by developing digital and marketing tools to enrich and facilitate the customer journey.

•In 2017, David Esseryk, is appointed Chief Digital & Marketing Officer within the hotel group The Originals, Human Hotels & Resorts (600 hotels & resorts).Its objective: to support digital transformation and support the growth and expansion of the company.This job creation results from the group’s decision to integrate the digital trades around a refocused management including information systems, e-commerce, marketing and loyalty.

•His knowledge of digital issues and the international dimension of his career in the hotel sector give the teams of The Originals, Human Hotels & Resorts and his network a new impetus oriented towards.

“Ifeoma Ezeokafor is a Principal Investment Officer at IFC, focused on project and corporate finance and is the sector lead for the tourism, retail and property sectors in the Sub-Saharan Africa.

She has been with IFC since 2000 and her investment experience during that period also includes the health, education and manufacturing sectors. Her geographical coverage originating and executing transactions has been in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe.

Prior to IFC, Ifeoma was an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers and before that worked with SecTrust (now Afrinvest West Africa). She has an MBA, from INSEAD, France, a Master of Banking & Finance from University of Lagos, Nigeria and is a Chartered Accountant (CPA equivalent)”.

With more than 20 years of experience in the Information and Communication Technology with specific focus on the Air Traffic Industry.

Working with SITA in various roles since 2006 in helping Airports and Airlines use technology to simplify passengers’ processes, enhance baggage management, and optimize airport operations.

Currently leading the Business Transformation unit for SITA Middle East, India, and Africa focusing on Key internal and external transformation programs, including Innovations in the Aviation Sector that could reshape our industry. Prior to that, was leading the Business Development team across Middle East and Africa.

Holder of an Engineering degree in Computer & Communications, an MBA from Manchester Business School, and an ACI-ICAO AMPAP Diploma.

Jean-François Fontaine-Boullé is part of the EMEA Management Team of Cambium Networks, a Multi Gigabit Wireless Communication Manufacturer publicly listed on Nasdaq (CMBM). As Strategic Verticals Director, he is coordinating Go to Market Strategies and Ecosystem Partnerships in EMEA for Enterprise Wi-Fi and Fixed Wireless Broadband technologies. Before joining Cambium Networks, Jean-François has worked for seven years for a major Hospitality System Integrator, and the previous decade for Service Providers involved in Healthcare, Retail, Transportation and Large Public Venues. Jean-François is a disruptive person by nature and always look for incremental business development opportunities, whatever the verticals in play and the geographies of concern.

Sanjeev launched cargo carrier Astral Aviation in 2000, which has grown to become the largest private cargo airline in Eastern Africa, boasting a fleet of B747–400F, DC9F, B727F, and F27 freighters.

He is also Vice Chairman of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) Cargo Task Force, Africa’s largest airline association and promoting co-operation in operational, commercial, technical, and training fields.

Positions Held

• Executive Chairman of Mantis Group
• Patron of Wilderness Foundation
• Chairman of Stenden University, South Africa
• Founder of CCFA – Community Conservation Fund Africa

Personal Awards

• Terra Nova Award Conservation Award 2001
• Prestige award from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University 2002
• SATSA (South Africa Tourism Services Association) 2004

Recognition of the Development of Alicedale - an idea born of leadership, for sustainable development with integrity in the Tourism Industry

• The Herald Citizen of the Year Award in the Environmental Conservation category 2005
• South Africa’s Tourism Investment Award 2007

• CHN University Netherlands 2007

Degree Master in International Service Management (Honoris Causa)

• South African National Parks - Chief Executive Award 2007
• SAB Environmentalist of the year award 2008 (Nick Steele Memorial Award)
• Tourism Business Leadership Award 2009

African Hospitality Investment Award

• AHIF 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award

Born in Zambia in 1943, Adrian Gardiner’s passion for nature coupled with his strong entrepreneurial skill was forged from an early age. His love of wildlife came from his father who worked for a cattle ranching business and who took his son camping in the bush and hunting from an early age. His entrepreneurial skills were formed when he attended Falcon College in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. As one of the first 60 boys who were the initial intake of the new school, he was instrumental in helping to build the school from the ground up, from literally building their school classrooms to planting the sports fields. He soon understood that success was only possible with a good team, a clear vision and a focused passion.

From Zimbabwe he travelled to Cape Town to further his studies but, like many successful business people, he struggled at college taking 7 years to do a 3-year course. Academia was not for him. Whilst learning the ropes working for various Cape Town firms, it was evident that Adrian was not content working for other people and by the age of 29 he had moved from Cape Town to the Eastern Cape where he embarked on his first venture, to help build the Spar franchise in Port Elizabeth.

And so began a love affair with the city of Port Elizabeth (also referred to as PE, now officially called Nelson Mandla Bay). As a rapidly developing location, PE offered exciting new business opportunities which Adrian relished. For the next 20 years, he embarked on a rollercoaster ride of building companies in a multitude of industries from swimming pool development to garage swing doors, pagers to crane hire. Today, as the home of his major business developments, Adrian’s affection for PE continues and has caused him to keep his company HQ in the city rather than relocating to larger markets such as Johannesburg, Cape Town or London.

Having enjoyed commercial success, Adrian was able to ‘return to the land’ so to speak by developing a new venture into tourism in the early 1990’s. He began with 2,000 hectares of eroded, degraded and abused land. A small insignificant piece of valley bushveld, and from this, he grew Shamwari Game Reserve, which is now 25 000 hectares in size and has seen the re-introduction of all the large game that once thrived in the Eastern Cape. He was the first person to put the Eastern Cape on the tourist map and today the area is a booming tourist destination and home to countless other private game reserves. Shamwari has since become a blueprint internationally for successful sustainable conservation tourism, and its development was instrumental in forming the next phase in Adrian’s life.

On seeing the success of Shamwari, Adrian was able to replicate the model a few years later, by creating Sanbona Wildlife Reserve in the Western Cape (54 000 hectares). With two wildlife reserves flourishing, Adrian then founded the parent company Mantis in 2000. The name Mantis relates to the San people who revere the Praying Mantis and protect it as the most important animal in their ecosystem as ‘if you look after the little things, the big things take care of themselves’. Rather than only securing the inbound business within his game reserves, Adrian recognised the opportunity in providing a consistently high-quality tourism experience from start to finish where properties could join forces under one group, thus providing a one-stop shop for international visitors wishing to travel from West to East along the Garden Route.

The Mantis Group, while maintaining its origins in South Africa, then developed their model worldwide understanding that consumers could use Mantis as a mark of quality, consistency and character with their portfolio of over 85 properties worldwide. Today the Group comprises the finest examples of privately owned boutique hotels, game reserves and eco experiences. Each property is unique and seeks to bring to life the real character and spirit of its location.

As the company has grown, Adrian’s ambitions for Mantis have also grown in two distinct directions; developing Mantis’ global footprint of properties worldwide and using the lessons learnt when developing Shamwari to educate, support and develop major conservation tourism projects worldwide. In this vein, he is also consulting on wildlife regeneration in numerous African countries. Adrian sees this as a tangible way of giving something back to nature and creating a positive legacy where communities can see the financial benefits in conserving their environment and wildlife. Thus fulfilling the philosophy that is entrenched in our name: Man And Nature Together Is Sustainable (MANTIS).

In light of his work in the arena of conservation, in 2000 Adrian was invited to join the highly respected African Wildlife Foundation whose mission is to conserve and protect critically important wildlife and landscapes in Africa. Adrian is looking forward to supporting the Foundation to further protect the land he so loves. In particular, he is keen to highlight the rhino poaching crisis which is currently at catastrophic proportions in Africa. Adrian feels that ’as global populations grow, Africa is set to be the food basket and mineral basket of the world. With such extensive natural resources, exploitation is happening so we need to protect Africa from the global influx. Tourism plays a part in this. However, we need to think of the bigger picture’. Adrian has reiterated his commitment to conserving Africa’s natural heritage through the joint venture with Accor Hotels announced in April 2018 and the resultant formation of the Community Conservation Fund for Africa.

Education is one of the Mantis Pillars, and the first groundbreaking move in this sphere was through the establishment of Stenden University in Port Alfred. Adrian together with colleagues and Stenden University in Holland opened the campus in 2001, and Adrian currently serves as chairman of the Board. Stenden is the only university in Southern Africa where you can qualify with a Bachelor’s degree in Hotel Management and Hospitality and a Bachelor’s degree in Disaster Management.

Adrian has been married to his wife Shirleyanne for 50 years; they have 3 children, Paul, Murray and Angela all of whom have adopted their father’s entrepreneurial ways and run their own businesses. Paul is the CEO of the Mantis Group in the UK, and Murray is a partner in their travel business, Giltedge.

Based in Cape Town, Erwan looks after the Group’s strategic growth across West and Central Africa demonstrating a focus and commitment for Radisson across the African Continent.

Tasked with increasing the Group’s regional hotel portfolio, Erwan is an expert deal-maker, leading transactions from sourcing through to execution. He is proficient in legal contract negotiations, due diligence and financial analysis. He oversees the underwriting, strategic planning, investment analysis and asset management activities for all type of deal structuring, including conversions and take overs, financial commitments, franchise and straight management agreements.

Previously, Erwan’s hospitality experience includes the launch and management of his own consulting firm, Mise en Place, out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He also worked with Hilton Worldwide as a Director Brand Performance Support in London, UK and as General Manager with Accor in San Francisco, USA and French Polynesia, Asia.

French National, Erwan is also fluent in English and Portuguese with good knowledge of Spanish. Erwan has a bachelor’s degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management from Hotel Management School of Paris and an MBA in International Hospitality Management, AACSB-EQUIS accredited majoring in Corporate Finance and Development from Cornell University and ESSEC Group – IMHI.

Dave was born in Zimbabwe and schooled at St George’s College in Harare before completing his CIS in London.

Dave joined the family industrial business in Zimbabwe in 1978, branching out personally into the fledgling safari industry there in 1987. He was an early pioneer of safari tourism marketing with his start up business Wild Africa Safaris, followed by the pioneering of incentive travel to Zimbabwe through the co-founding of the multi award winning DMC Green Route. He then pioneered the international timeshare exchange business in Zimbabwe with his development of Lokuthula Lodges in Victoria Falls, the forerunner to developing other successful products such as The Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, The Victoria Falls Safari Club , and The Boma Dinner & Drum Show. Dave is currently Executive Chairman of Africa Albida Tourism. He is in his 34th year in tourism.

Max Gomera is currently the Director of UN Environment’s Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services Branch. He has over twenty years of national and international experience in natural resources management. A natural resource economist by training, Max was also a Deputy Director of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge. He has sat on many Boards, and most recently on TASAI Inc, the African Seed Access Initiative.

Max is a strong community, nature and social services professional who graduated from The University of Zimbabwe and The University of Western Australia.

Judy is the Founder of Sustainable Travel & Tourism Agenda, an organisation that uses education, research, advocacy, and training to promote sustainable tourism as a quality management system. She has over over 20 years’ experience working with tourism sector, community based tourism, and community conservation. She holds an MA in Rural Sociology & Community Development from University of Nairobi Kenya.

Judy has built her career in tourism around community based tourism and conservation, certification and sustainability assessment, and social impact assessment.

Judy has served as a judge of WTTCl Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, onsite evaluator for Nat Geo Unique Lodges of the World and World Legacy Awards, as judge for IIPT Awards and co-chair of Africa Tourism Leadership Awards.

She previously served in TIES and GSTC boards and is current board member of Fair Trade Tourism.

In 2019, she was awarded the Sustainable Citizen Award by Forbes Woman Africa.

Ronak Gopaldas is a political economist, “pracademic”, writer and speaker. His work focuses on the intersection of politics, economics and business in Africa. He is currently a Director at Signal Risk, a Fellow at the Gordon Institute of Business Science and a Co-Founder of Mindflux Training. He was previously the Head of Country Risk at Rand Merchant Bank. Ronak is a Tutu Fellow, and alumnus of the Asian Forum on Global Governance as well as the young African Leadership Initiative.

A chartered accountant with over 40 years international experience in business, banking, corporate finance and professional practice. Strong involvement in global markets, risk assessment, business recovery, wholesale and retail banking, African expansion, company turnarounds, consultancy, M&A, capital raising, corporate finance, management and training.

Peter has run Crest Capital, a corporate finance and risk business, for the past 16 years. Within Crest he specialises in M&A, capital raising, business turnaround & rescue; he is a senior business rescue practitioner. Peter’s turnaround experience dates back to 1992 when he joined NatWest Bank - London tasked with sorting out financially distressed companies.

More recently he has been involved in business rescues, informal turnarounds, capital raising and business disposals. He advises clients on corporate strategy, restructuring and risk evaluation.

Prior to forming Crest, Peter was an executive member and credit committee member of Absa Corporate & Merchant Bank (now Absa Capital) where he carried executive responsibility for all Absa’s foreign operations. At Absa he enjoyed a credit mandate at executive level. Prior roles at Absa included Head – Mining Finance Division, Head – Africa operations and a member of the Project Finance Team.

Peter qualified as a chartered accountant in 1984. He left the Region in 1987 moving to London where he worked in the financial sector for 9 years before returning to SA. He is current chair of Macquarie Securities South Africa Limited and a board member of Ascon Africa. His pro-bono appointments include past chair of The Thembani International Guarantee Fund, an NGO providing financial assistance to disenfranchised communities, and head of the finance committee at St Johns College – Johannesburg.

Peter is a member of SAICA , a licensed senior business rescue practitioner and a member of the Turnaround Management Association.

Mary Gostelow is President, Owner and Publisher of Gostelow Report, the definitive monthly global market intelligence. She is also Editorial Director of Girlahead and MARY GOSTELOW GIRLAHEAD PODCAST, both part of Almont Global. She is international correspondent for HOTELS Magazine, and global ambassador for International Luxury Travel Market ILTM.

Olivier is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kasada Capital Management, which was formed in 2019 to support and drive the long-term growth and development of the hospitality market in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Olivier Granet has extensive hospitality industry experience gained over 20 years at Accor.
• In his last position as CEO of Accor Hotels Middle East and Africa, he oversaw 30,000 employees and was responsible for a portfolio of over 200 hotels consisting of 50,000 rooms across over 30 countries.
• He joined the Middle East team in 2011 when the Group had 40 hotels in the region. As a senior executive leading Accor’s expansion in the region, Olivier made remarkable strides in growing the network, where he was ultimately acquiring one new property signature every two weeks and opening one hotel a month.
• In 2016 Olivier took on the role of Chief Operating Officer Middle East, and in 2017 added Africa to his remit when he became Chief Operating Officer of Middle East and Africa.
• Before joining Accor, he spent 10 years within Deloitte’s Audit and Corporate Finance practice.
• Olivier has a BA from Grenoble Institute of Political Studies (Science-Po Grenoble) and an executive MBA from ESSEC Business School.
• Olivier is French and speaks English & French.

Chloë Greenbank wrote her first airline magazine article two decades ago and has been immersed in aviation magazines ever since. She is an experienced editor, reporter and moderator with a particular focus on African and European aviation and travel. She joined HMG Aerospace in 2017 as editor of Regional Gateway, which has enabled her to take a deep dive into the global airport community.

Through Carrie’s research and extensive travels, writing safari coffee table books, guide books to Africa, magazine articles, blogs and websites, Carrie has visited more safari lodges and game reserves than anyone else in the world – currently at 250 lodges! Carrie’s wealth of information on the KAZA area comes as author of a 36-page brochure ‘A Journey Through KAZA’ shortly to be published. She says that out of all destinations in KAZA, Victoria Falls epitomises the power of dynamic collaboration that exponentially increases the value of tourism in their area and well beyond their own borders.

André is the founder of Ecolution Consulting, a sustainability and green building consulting firm based in Cape Town. André is an electro-mechanical engineer and qualified Renewable Energy Professional with extensive experience in design, project management, commissioning process implementation and auditing sites for sustainability projects. He was a key player in the success of Africa’s Greenest Hotel, Hotel Verde, being the lead sustainability consultant on the project. Having spent 14 months in Antarctica as mechanical engineer and team leader of the South African National Antarctic overwintering expedition, he has a special interest in efficiency, functionality, serviceability and robustness of systems. With experience in Net Zero, EDGE Green Star SA, LEED project management and the implementation of the ASHRAE Guideline 0 commissioning process, André often performs multiple functions on projects.

David is the Head of Property Services for Hotel Partners Africa (HPA), advising on all aspects of hotel properties, including valuation, operator selection and acquisitions & disposals. HPA is the coming together of some of the most experienced consultants working in sub-Saharan Africa to provide a one-stop-shop for hoteliers and developers, and HPA have unrivalled experience, having worked on various projects in 53 of the 54 sub-Saharan African countries. David’s role in HPA is to provide the property advice, selling completed hotels & hotel sites, valuing hotels (and projects) and selecting the best operator for new developments.

David is a Fellow of the RICS (with over 20 years in property and the hotel industry. He is the author of Hotel Valuation for Investors, the best-selling book providing comprehensive advice on all aspects of hotel ownership. In addition, he published a second, more comprehensive book “Hotels & Resorts; The Investor’s Guide”, that was released in August 2016 and provides advice on the whole cycle of hotel ownership.

He also advises the RICS on hotel valuations and wrote the guidance on ISURV, a subscription service providing best practice advice for Chartered Surveyors the world over. As one of the leading hotel valuers, David is regularly used as an Expert Witness on high profile valuation cases.

Prior to setting up Hotel Partners Africa and before that Leisure Property Services, David was head of hotel valuations and international brokerage for CBRE Hotels and has been involved in some of the largest transactions across the globe. He has worked in over 180 countries and has unrivalled experience across sub-Saharan Africa.

Olivier began his career in Turku, Finland in 1994, at the factory which was integrating Otrum communication cards into CRT Televisions. Marketed by Visea and other entities as the first interactive systems for hotels. He joined Visea in 1996, and occupied various commercial responsibilities. Renamed Quadriga he left the company in 2001.

After 3 years spent within the Telco industry as an integrator, he joined the International department of Locatel to successively open and manage the subsidiaries in England, Italy and Dubai. Position which he will leave at the end of 2008.

In early 2009 he decided to try his luck as an entrepreneur and settled in Morocco with his family. After a first failure, he will create IT Hospitality in 2010 to integrate the solutions referenced by the Hoteliers groups, such as Accor, Louvre Hotels, Marriott and others. After 10 years traveling across Africa, Olivier has solid experience in the region in addition to 25 years spent in the hotel industry.

Olivier lives with his family in Morocco, he holds an Executive MBA from Edhec Business School.

Since 2011 Alexander Herring has been one of the Private Sector Liaison Officers (PSLO) of the World Bank Group. The PSLO is acting as the voice of the private sector in advising the World Bank Group on how to better engage companies on development issues; and disseminating World Bank Group knowledge and research of interest to the private sector.

Alexander Herring is General Manager Africa of ADB Safegate Group and Managing Director of ADB Safegate South Africa. ADB Safegate is specialized in Airport solutions including Airfield Lighting, Gate and ATC Solutions. ADB Safegate offers integrated solutions for increased safety, efficiency and sustainability benefits to airports around the world. ADB Safegate provides the airport industry with efficient solutions for more and safer aircraft movements.

Alexander Herring is also Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce CBL-ACP, a Chamber of Commerce promoting business with ACP countries. A Financing Division has been created in the Chamber of Commerce starting in 2009 to look for project financing possibilities and communicate to different Institutions the problematic of project financing in ACP Countries. He organizes and conducts regular seminars and trade missions to Africa with a focus on International Financial Institutions.

James Hogan is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Knighthood Capital.

James recently served as President and Chief Executive of Etihad Aviation Group, which he built into a US$20 billion enterprise between 2006 and 2017, achieving the mandate from his shareholders to build a world-class diversified aviation and travel group.

During this time, he also held positions as Vice Chairman and Board member of Alitalia, Airberlin, Jet Airways and Air Serbia; Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC); and as a member of the IATA Board of Governors.

Prior to this, James was President and CEO of Gulf Air, and held senior executive positions at BMI, Forte Hotels, and Hertz. He served as a non-executive director and member of the Board’s Audit Committee of Gallaher Group and was also a member of the UBS Industrialisation Advisory Board. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aerospace Society. Under James’ leadership, Etihad Airways was named Air Transport World’s Airline of the Year in 2016, the industry’s most prestigious independent accolade

In 2017, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for ‘distinguished services to the aviation transport industry, to the development of tourism and trade linkages between Australia and the Gulf states, and to international airline associations.

Knighthood Capital Partners offers business advisory, capital structuring and investment services in the following sectors: Aerospace & Aviation, Travel & Tourism, Hospitality, Construction & Real Estate and Information Technology.

Jon Howell founded AviaDev Africa upon joining Bench Events in July 2015.

This event is now firmly established as the leading event in the field of African air service development, attracting over 250 delegates annually.

Additionally, Jon launched AviaDev Europe in 2018, which focuses on Regional European aviation development.

In 2019, Jon launched AviaDev Consult, a boutique consultancy targeted at the European and African markets, plus the AviaDev Air service development training programme began.

Jon regularly speaks at African aviation conferences and has a deep-seated passion for Africa’s development. He co-founded the Aviators Africa Academy which delivers training, mentorship and inspiration for students across Africa addressing the human capital crisis that exists in the industry.

In 2016, Jon was appointed to the position of Global Ambassador for the Gorilla Organization, in recognition of his fundraising efforts.

Jon joined Bench Events in July 2015. He holds a Marketing and Management degree from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is based in Manchester, England. He has over 15 years’ experience in the travel and tourism sector, with particular expertise in the B2B events sector, specifically in the field of aviation. In 2016, Jon was appointed to the position of Global Ambassador for the Gorilla Organization, in recognition of his fundraising efforts.

Hugh Hough is the President and Founder of Green Team Global, a New York-based strategy and communications agency that specializes in travel and sustainability.

Hugh comfortably straddles the worlds of destination marketing, multinational corporations, international Non-Government Organization (NGO’s), and all aspects of the sustainability movement. He has helped develop campaigns for clients that include LATAM Airlines, Estée Lauder Company, Peru, Guyana, Georgia (the country), Victoria Falls, Rainforest Alliance and International Rhino Foundation. Hugh is a sought-after speaker on the topics of sustainable tourism, “green” marketing, corporate social responsibility and global consumer trends.

Mr. Ignatius began his career with Rosewood Hotel & Resorts in 1998, joining Hilton International in 2002. After four years with Hilton, Mr. Ignatius was invited to join the pre-opening team of the landmark Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi, then joining Rotana Hotels in 2007. He later joined TIME Hotels, developing and implementing the Front Office Operations system used in all TIME Hotels, His contributions to the Human Resources Department earned him the role of establishing and managing the Learning & Development in addition to oversees the Quality Assurance, HACCP & Food Safety implementations and Sustainability Project for TIME Hotels. Currently he is managing Quality and Business Excellence for the group.

Kim joined the development team of AccorHotels in Johannesburg in November 2017. As Development Director Kim is responsible for the development of AccorHotels brands from economy to luxury segments in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Previously, Kim spent eight years at Hospitality Property Fund, the only hotel REIT listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. As VP Investments, she played a pivotal role in acquiring and disposing of hotel assets in South Africa.

Kim has a bachelor degree in hospitality management from the Hotelschool The Hague and a master degree in financial management from RSM Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

As of July 23, 2018, the management structure of LAM - Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique, S.A., was changed and will no longer has an Executive Committee. It is now headed by a Director General. Accordingly, Engineer João Carlos Pó Jorge has been appointed as the new Director General of LAM, by the General Assembly.

Engineer João Carlos Pó Jorge is an aviation professional whose career began in 1985 at LAM, where he first held the position of head of the Engineering and Quality Department where he has served in different capacities, including his appointment as the Company's resident Representative to Boeing until 1995.

It was at this stage, that he demonstrated a strong interest to pursue a career in the aerospace industry and joined Pratt & Whitney- United Technologies, where he was appointed Customer Support Manager for Africa and Coordinator of the Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) Programme, a program designed for the optimizing management processes for airlines from until 2013.

This opportunity not only opened new horizons for the Engineer João Carlos Pó Jorge, but it also helped him to amass a wealth of experience by closely working with several African airlines and other aerospace and aviation related companies. Some of the airlines he has worked with in his capacity as Customer support manager for Pratt & Whitney include Air Zimbabwe, TACV, TAAG, Air Afrique, Air Senegal, AeroZambia, and Ethiopian Airlines.

Due to his wide ranging experience and expertise, he was once again called back to serve LAM, and assumed the position of Chief Operating Officer, from 2013 to 2016, following which he was appointed Advisor to the Chief Financial Officer, a position he held until his appointment as Director General of LAM.

Owing to his in-depth business experience and expertise working with airlines in challenging environments across Africa, Engineer João Carlos Pó Jorge is uniquely qualified to lead LAM at this important juncture.

Engineer João Carlos Pó Jorge has a proven track record as a visionary leader and strong defender of ethical principles and good governance.

A next-generation visionary luxury industry leader with a focus on growth and brand equity, based in Dubai. Throughout his career, Kafarov worked on enhancing desirability of brands through stimulating creativity, protecting high-quality of products and curating unique customer experiences.

Having spent 14 years at Jumeirah Group, where Kafarov looked after international development marketing and the Chairman’s public affairs, seeing the number of hotels growing from seven to 23, he joined Emerald Palace Group as Vice President of Marketing & PR. He was instrumental in launching the landmark Emerald Palace Kempinski Dubai which received a number of prestigious awards, including "The Most Anticipated Hotel Opening" by Condé Nast Traveller.

After helping to expand two very successful hospitality brands - Jumeirah and Kempinski - he moved to private aviation and became Director of Portfolio Development & Corporate Communications at Jetex. A world leader in aviation, Jetex handles more than 40,000 flights annually as well as operates 37 private jet terminals around the world. At Jetex, Kafarov also looks after universal brand standards and franchising, working to increase the number of international terminals to 50 in 2023.

His strong track record in strategic brand development, brand partnerships and corporate communications, complemented by in-depth knowledge of luxury and finance help him to stay ahead of market trends and his companies achieve luxury margins.

Results-oriented and highly entrepreneurial, he is a winner of the Forbes Top Marketing & Communications Executive Award 2020. As a passionate traveller and luxury expert, he also writes for Condé Nast Traveller, Forbes and other leading publications.

Abraham Muthogo Kamau is the Chief Executive Officer at Miradi Capital.

He is charged with the responsibility of providing strategic leadership as well as originating viable and profitable business deals for funding by way of debt and/or equity.

He has over 25 years of experience in Credit and Investment Management, Deal Structuring and Capital Raising and has worked for Tourism Finance Corporation where he was the Head of Credit, Jamii Bora Bank as the Head of Credit Risk Management, Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation as the Head of Credit, Co-operative Merchant Bank as Credit Manager, First Link Financial Consultants as the Lead Consultant, Credit Risk Management and Barclays Bank of Kenya as a Corporate Analyst.

Abraham is a graduate of Economics from the University of Nairobi. He has also attended advanced training in Debt Instruments and Risk Management.

He has been a Facilitator/and or Speaker in various international forums around the globe like AHIC in Dubai, AHIF in Nairobi , Addis Ababa and Kigali, AFSIC in London and EAPI Summit in Nairobi.

Facebook Handle: Abrash Muthogo Twitter Handle: @AbrashMuthogo

Gift Kgadima is a product of the Aero Club of South Africa’s Transformation and Development division and was one of Wonders of Aviation’s first Award Winners. In 2018 he founded a company called Nafasi Za Angani Pty Ltd. With 2 of he’s friends. The Company is a startup that aims to impact the African continent through providing innovative solutions to the continent through the use of robotics, automation and unmanned aerial systems.

Gift demonstrated his early leadership skills at the Cornerstone College, Silverton, Pretoria where he learned to RC airplanes. He is a talented RC pilot and participated in the national Fun Fly Masters in 2009 (5th place in Sportsman's Class) and 2010 (3rd place in Sportsman's Class).

Gift's commitment to making a difference in Africa's fight against wildlife poaching, led to him flying drones for Air Shepherd, an organization that was supported by the Lindbergh Foundation that used drones to protect elephants in Africa. He was one of the 1st few RPL pilots to complete their training since the inception of Part 101 and has been very involved in the industry since then.

With over 200 flying hours in BVLOS flying, he has also conducted instruction of BVLOS courses internally for the previous company he worked at. Gift has vast experience having conducted mining, surveillance, anti-poaching, surveying and construction operations with unmanned aerial systems.

Gift is also a 2016 Schenk Family Award Winner and was also elected Secretary of Wonders of Aviation in 2017. He also currently serves as a council member at the Aeronautical Society of South Africa. Besides his RPL he is also the holder of 3 other flying licenses, a PPL, GPL and TMG which are all full manned aviation licenses. He is completing he’s Commercial Pilot License at Wonderboom Airport.

Naledi K. Khabo is a corporate strategy leader with 25 years’ experience within Operations, Marketing & Technology. Having developed and implemented countless of global innovative multimedia brand initiatives, she possesses a rare combination of exceptional business and technology acumen and the ability to translate complex technical concepts for practical business applications.

Naledi currently serves as Chief Executive at the Africa Tourism Association (ATA), a global trade association promoting travel and tourism to Africa and strengthening intra-Africa partnerships. ATA serves both the public and private sectors of the international travel and tourism industry. Naledi is passionate about the intersection of marketing and emerging technologies, and is excited about this intersection and great opportunities within the tourism sector. Her diverse background lends a fresh perspective to ATA’s approach to promoting tourism to and within Africa.

During her tenure at ATA, Naledi has led the organization through significant operational changes including a complete re-branding of the organization and launching several new digital platforms to serve the hospitality and tourism industry, including 'thexchange.africa' which was recently launched in response to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the hospitality, tourism, and meetings industry.

Mrs. Korir joined Credit Bank in June, 2013 and has 20 years Banking Experience spanning across several Banks. She is a holder of Bachelor of Ed. Degree, Bachelor of Laws (Hons) LLB and a Master’s Degree in Finance/ Marketing from University of Nairobi.

On the professional front she is a member of Global Association of Finance and Management (GAFM), Chartered Credit Analyst (CCA) and an associate of Kenya Institute of Bankers being a finalist in Banking Professional Qualifications (AKIB) in addition to holding various Risk Management Certifications.

Betty, equally, has international exposure in project finance and sustainable lending acquired from Triodos Bank in the UK.

Raphael Kuuchi is the IATA Special Envoy to Africa on Aero-Political Affairs. He has many years’ experience in air transport management, operations and consulting. After working with an airline in various senior management positions for over a decade, he joined the Nairobi-based African Airlines Association (AFRAA) in 2005, as Commercial Director and later as Director Commercial, Corporate and Industry Affairs. In this capacity, Mr. Kuuchi initiated and oversaw many projects in airlines business development, commercial operations, IT and communication, liberalization/market access, aero-political/regulatory affairs and training across Africa.

Mr. Raphael Kuuchi effective July 2018, assumed a new role as IATA Special Envoy to Africa on Aero-political Affairs. Prior to that he was IATA Vice President Africa for 4 years. In his new role Raphael is leading IATA engagements with top government, regional and industry leaders in driving key initiatives aimed at unlocking the full potential of African aviation. He is also IATA’s focal point on the implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM).

Mr. Kuuchi holds an MBA from Henley Management College, UK and a B.Sc. degree in Business Administration. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (FCILT) UK.

Mr. Richard Kyereh has been the Head of Commercial since July, 2016, having joined AWA in December 2015 as the Deputy Head of Commercial. He served in various capacities during his 8-year stint with Antrak Air, starting as a Project/Safety Officer in 2007 and exiting as the Head of Commercial in 2015.

Mr. Lavoie began his career with the Novotel Hotels in Canada in 1991 and, over the next nine years oversaw the opening and renovation of properties across North America. In 2002, he took responsibility for the new property Renaissance Hotel in Montreal, overseeing the property’s eventual sale four years later. In 2007, Mr Lavoie joined the SNC Lavalin as Facility Manager, overseeing 97 locations, and in 2014 he joined TIME Hotels as Corporate Director of Technical Services.

As a Senior Airport Consultant and Project Manager in the NACO office in Johannesburg, South Africa, Mr. Langeslag assists airport Clients throughout Africa and beyond. He leads multi-disciplinary and multi-national teams of specialists in delivering bespoke solutions for airports in any stage of their development.

Mr. Langeslag’s expertise ranges from engineering design and project management to feasibility studies and master planning. He has the ability to oversee the relevance and interrelationships of all technical disciplines and the demands of stakeholders involved. His in-depth knowledge of the airport business and development projects enables him deliver outstanding results to airports, both large and small. Mr. Langeslag has been involved with various projects at major international airports around the world including Johannesburg, Cape Town, São Paulo, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Taipei, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, as well as a host of smaller airports and airstrips. He holds a Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering & Design from Brunel University, London and a Master of Management in Finance & Investment from Wits Business School, Johannesburg.

Tony Leca qualified as an electrical engineer (light current) in 1994, when he furthered his studies in computer science, high level electronic diagnostics and networking topologies, as well as technical hardware support and maintenance, before founding three technology companies between 1995 and 2004.

Tony is the founding CEO of Ethnic Technologies (PTY) Ltd , with offices in London and Cape Town which has specialized in the fields of hospitality and leisure resorts and has successfully managed and completed in excess of 230 high level projects over the past 22 years, throughout Africa. Resulting from their innovative approach, coupled with their exceptional subject matter expertise and business acumen, Ethnic Technologies earned a reputation of adding value by finding the latest and most cost effective technical solutions for its clients. Tony Leca is a member of the HFORUM association and consults on their panel as an expert in Electronic Services, IT and technologies.

Refilwe Ledwaba is a social entrepreneur, a qualified Pilot (Fixed wing and Rotor wing), an academic passionate about youth development and the economic empowerment of women in Africa. She is the founder and executive director of Girls fly programme in Africa (GFPA) foundation, a STEM education programme in Africa currently operating in South Africa, Botswana and Cameroon. Through the foundation, Refilwe was named and featured on BBC as one of the innovators in Africa. She is a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society, council member of the Aeronautical Society of South Africa (AeSSA) outreach team and a recipient of The Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship (AEMSF) for flight training.

Refilwe is a recipient of numerous scholarships, international awards and honours for her visionary work with the NPO organizations she founded. The success of the NPO has led to Refilwe being the recipient of multiple social entrepreneurship awards such as the winner in the entrepreneurship category at the inaugural South African Youth Awards in 2012, the winner of the aviation category of CEO Communication’s most influential Women in Business and Government in 2012 and 2015; and she was listed as one of Top 35 Africans Under 35 to watch by the Young people in international affairs (YPIA) in 2014. In 2018 she was named as one of the Inspiring fifty women in STEM.

Refilwe holds a Bachelor of Science degree (Microbiology and Biochemistry) from the University of Cape Town (UCT), A Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from UCT graduate school of business and an MBA from the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of business science. She will be pursuing her PhD in the latter part of 2019. In her free time, she flies all over the country in a C172, landing in remote areas to inspire girls to take up careers in the STEM field. She is a keen photographer and hopes to have her first exhibition of pioneering women Pilots in Africa in 2020.

Nicole started Break the Ice Media in 2009 in response to the evolving needs of small- to medium-sized businesses as the advertising landscape started to change with the advent of social media and other non-traditional advertising outlets.

As CEO, Nicole is responsible for working with clients to understand their marketing needs, developing strategic marketing plans and executing those plans. Her dedication to the tourism industry keeps her team informed on current trends and best practices, regularly attending tourism conferences and travel shows. Nicole also hosts the weekly podcast Destination on the Left, interviewing tourism professionals from around the globe on creativity and collaboration in the industry.

With 22 years experience within the Construction Industry, specializing in the sanitaryware segment, I have a deeply rooted passion for Africa and its development.

Laurinda currently heads up the Global Projects business for Hansgrohe in Africa. The aim is to drive demand generation through specifying Hansgrohe products in hospitality and residential projects. With expertise in the offering of green solutions as well as technical support pre and post installation. The main goal is to illuminate the true value of partnering with Hansgrohe on building projects, to developers and hotel brands that ultimately leads to return on investment.

As a professional Laurinda believe that to be successful in business, one needs to value integrity and offer sustainable long term solutions to projects on our continent, she strives to leave behind a legacy of excellence, through offering a reliable quality brassware product for residential and hospitality projects in Africa. This while traveling Africa extensively o support new and current projects in both residential and hospitality.

Looking forward to building Africa with you.

Sean Mendis returned to Ghana in 2018 as Chief Operations Officer of Africa World Airlines, resuming a role he had previously held from 2010 to 2012 during the airline's startup.

From 2005 to 2010, Sean was part of the launch management team of Ghana International Airlines. In 2013, he moved to Somalia to manage Mogadishu's Aden Abdulle International Airport for SKA International Group under contract from the Somali Federal Government. Between 2014 and 2018, he helped launch multiple aviation business lines for SKA, including a jet-fuel terminal in the UAE, and a cargo airline based in Uganda.

Born in Nigeria from Italian parents, he spent his childhood and lower education in West Africa and later on moved to Milan to complete his university studies.

After working as Creative Director in the communications and advertising industry in Italy he moved to Namibia and started with his family to invest in the Tourism industry.

Wild Waters Group of Lodges is a sustainable tourism orientated umbrella company comprised of 4 award-winning Camps & Lodges located in the Zambezi Region (Caprivi) of Namibia.

Simone’s vision is to ensure that Wild Waters Camps & Lodges natural and cultural environment is ethically managed and profitably operated according to the highest possible international standards, practices and guidelines in sustainable tourism, environmental conservation and cultural heritage preservation.

Dr. Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti is the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa and the first woman to occupy this position. She was recently confirmed by the WHO Executive Board after her resounding re-lection for the second term. Over the past five years, Dr Moeti has led a Transformation Agenda that is widely acknowledged to have improved the performance and effectiveness of the Organization. She made tremendous progress through the Transformation Agenda, which include improved response capacity to health emergences as well as outbreak preparedness in the Region. The Transformation Agenda has since been adopted to inform WHO global reforms.

Dr Moeti is a medical doctor and public health expert, with more than 40 years of national and international experience. She has worked with the WHO Regional Office for Africa, where she has held several senior positions, since 1999. Dr Moeti successfully led WHO’s “3 by 5” Initiative in the African Region, which aimed to expand access to antiretroviral therapy in countries. Prior to joining WHO, Dr Moeti worked with UNAIDS as the Team Leader of the Africa and Middle East Desk in Geneva, with UNICEF as a Regional Advisor, and with Botswana’s Ministry of Health in various capacities.

In recognition of her excellent service to humanity, Dr Moeti has received many accolades including an Honorary Fellowship from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ghana. She is a great champion for women in leadership in global health.

Dexter is recognised as an industry leader in the hospitality sector. He founded architecture and interior design practice Dexter Moren Associates in London in 1992. A graduate of the University of Witwatersrand in his home city of Johannesburg and New York’s Columbia University, his first hotel commission was the Marine Parade Holiday Inn on Durban’s North Beach at the age of 28.

With over 30 years’ experience, Dexter has worked with the majority of leading brands in the UK, Europe, Russia, Africa, Middle East and Asia. He is currently leading the design for The Westin, City of London and Intercontinental Hotel Lusaka. Recently completed projects include Tsogo Sun’s Sunsquare & StayEasy Cape Town City Bowl Hotels and The Curtain Hotel & Members Club, Shoreditch. He is driven by the principles of design excellence and sustainability whilst maintaining the joy of a creative working experience for his team, consultants and clients.

Actuary, Banker, Developer, Could-have-been-bouncer, with an intense desire to give back in tons.

Living in Southern Africa for 12 years, Thomas has 20 years of experience in the Hospitality and Tourism sector while working for brands like TUI and Thomas Cook in 8 countries and cultures. His focus on digital marketing and distribution, the turnaround of Hospitality and Tourism businesses, opening of Hotels has made him a Digital Native Hospitality and Tourism professional. Before that, he started his career with the largest commercial company METRO in Europe and IBM where he evolved on his career in IT, software development, and systems integration. It is this combined commercial, IT, Digital, and Hospitality and Tourism experience that created the holistic approach of rainmaker digital.

Profile rainmaker:

rainmaker digital is a social enterprise with a clear target to keep more tourism spend in destinations through the democratization of technology. That technology is made inclusively available to the 200.000+ emerging, small, medium, and independent hospitality and tourism businesses in Africa for sustainable tourism development. The VISTA Destination Network Open Platform and Ecosystem is the core to enable destinations and their hospitality and tourism businesses to take back control of their visibility, digital presence, reputation, communication, and distribution to reduce dependency on no longer sustainable or market-dominating behemoth controlled digital value chains.

Amanda Mvinjelwa is the Key Account Manager for Airlines and Government Agencies at Cape Town International Airport, working for Airports Company South Africa.

Amanda believes the Travel is the only to transform any economy and will make it sustainable for the future.

Amanda has worked at different part of the travel sector including travel agencies creating innovation ways to service the traveling clients and garnishing unique partnerships for the sector.

Amanda is a trained Tax Practitioner and a Green Belt Six Sigma certified practitioner.

Amanda holds a BCom in Industrial and Organisational Psychology in from the University of South Africa (UNISA).

Anantha is a technologist who sees change as a positive force for innovation and differentiation. Over 20 years of creating solutions and platforms for Digital Media, Mobile, Telecom and Hospitality verticals delivering long-term value. Excited by the challenges change brings to Hospitality industry making it dynamic, fast-paced and insight driven.

Anantha hold a B.Engg. and M.Engg in Computer and Electronic Engineering, and MBA from Henley Management.Anantha currently lives in United Kingdon with his wife and a daughter.After hours, Anantha would be at a badminton or tennis court

Nunurai has been working in the aviation industry for over 10 years. A Public Relations and Communications specialist by trade, he has worked on a number of industry regional events with leading organizations such as ICAO-ESAF.

Recently he founded Just African Aviation a newswire dedicated to the development of African aviation. He has been providing commentary on the status of industry to various outlets including City Press in South Africa.

Nowel is a strong believer of the African renaissance, an experienced senior airline executive and jurist with extensive international exposure and proven commercial and leadership capabilities.

His commercial and leadership shrewdness includes overseeing the elaboration and implementation of the commercial and corporate strategy that has made ASKY airline profitable and the largest and fastest growing airline in West and Central Africa region, currently serving 23 destinations.

He currently holds the position of Group Commercial and Ground Operations Director of ASKY airline and has worked with other top brands such as Deloitte LLP, Diageo, M&S…

A true Pan-Africanist perfectly versed in English and French languages and a holder of an MBA and a post professional certification in Leadership from the Said Business School, University of Oxford, UK.

Keynote message:

ASKY airline embodies the spirit of Africa in everything from our name to our colours. We aspire to share this spirit with the world as an international airline featuring excellent quality service. We also want to support economic activities through the creation of new air transport routes in Africa at competitive rates, while contributing to the development of tourism within Africa and the world over.

Born and raised in the small rural town of Butterworth, South Africa, Linda Ngozwana was brought up in a home that taught her to value the importance of family, faith and education. In 2019, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg South Africa. While she was busy with her studies, she has had the opportunity to do her internships at Denel Aviation, Aerosud and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). She has now set her sights on scaling the heights of the aviation industry.

She is currently stationed at Philips Africa Headquarters in Johannesburg, where she works as a Customer Support Engineer in Training for Health Systems under the Customer Support Africa Team.

Linda believes in breaking boundaries and is determined to inspire other young black girls to do the same by leading in the promotion of gender equality and access to quality education. She feels strongly about pursuing these ideals firstly in her workspace, but ultimately in her community where she invests time and money inspiring and mentoring young girl children.

To this end, she is part of Non Profit Organisations (NPOs) which help expose learners from underdeveloped areas around Africa to careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM). She is currently working with Girls Fly Programme in Africa (GFPA) Foundation, which is an information and educational STEAM programme for primary, high school and post-school learners with a focus on girls. The programme includes the use of design thinking, technology, and innovation to shape, empower, enable and support the next generation of changemakers and problem solvers in the aviation and space industry in Africa.

In recognition of her work, Linda was invited to attend the African Youth Networks Movement, an initiative incubated by the Mandela Institute for Development Studies and Graca Machel Trust for its first regional meeting in Southern Africa (Zambia). The event brought together 80 youth network leads in the SADC region, to interrogate the youth unemployment challenges within education, entrepreneurship, peace and security and political participation. For this event, she led a panel discussion in line with the Education Track, where she explored reforming and strengthening Southern Africa’s education systems to current social and technological developments in order to drive development and competition in the global economy.

As a pinnacle of her work thus far, she has been selected to represent the foundation at the United Nations’ Camp 2030 in New York, September 2021. Camp 2030 is UNITE 2030’s first inaugural hackathon-style “innovation lab” for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Each year UNITE 2030 gathers the world’s most dedicated young leaders with a proven track record of working toward the SDGs to innovate, co-create, and problem solve in order to develop new disruptive solutions to the world’s biggest challenges. During Camp 2030, she will be focusing on the SDG 4 track (Quality Education), and will be innovating alongside fellow SDG 4 advocates from around the world, and meeting experts and professionals who work in the field on this specific SDG track.

Linda dreams of always being actively involved in the development of the knowledge economy and technological advancements in Africa as investing in a knowledge-based economy is the bedrock of innovation, which feeds into the wealth creation and the development of the continent’s economy.

Ngueyap Romuald is an African Francophone renowned aviation journalist and enthusiastic avgeek. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of NewsAero, described as the most insightful francophone aviation media providing comprehensive information about Air Transport industry with focus on promoting Africa to the rest of the World.

For past years, Romuald acts as correspondent for a number of international magazines (African Aerospace, Air News, Mag Airport) and online news services (Journal de l’Aviation, Alertavia Agence Ecofin).

He is regularly featured on Africa24 as Air Transport analyst on aviation matters. Since 2019, he has contributed with his team in editing “Aero Infos”, the francophone magazine of airports in Central and West Africa, owned by UGAACO.

Romuald holds an Air Traffic Control diploma from EAMAC (Niamey) and a BA in journalism from E.S.J Paris.

A seasoned tourism policy analyst with over 20 years' experience in the hotel and tourism industry in Africa and Europe.

Carmen is a dynamic business leader with an International track record of delivering significant results in a variety of difficult, volatile markets. With extensive experience and deep domain expertise in the tourism business (destination management and tourism policy); cross-regional consultancy and most recently tertiary education.

She is driven by her passion to catalyse change, initiate and oversee transformation and a deep desire to serve. She is an expert in pulling together strategic frameworks, building coalitions, fostering innovation and through lobbying, advocacy and communication driving substantial policy changes.

Most of her development work and consultancy has been in emerging destinations and fragile states, Carmen has worked in different capacity as advisor to tourism boards, international and private organizations in East, Central and Western part of Africa.

A passionate champion for building solutions that transcend national borders her interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence have infused her advocacy for inter - and intra-regional travel and tourism in the East African region.

Carmen was awarded the “African Women in Tourism Leadership Award” in 2018 and voted as one of the top 100 influential women in Travel in 2017. She is widely known for her courageous advocacy of quality education and socio-economic empowerment for women.

She is the Chair of the Rwanda Board of Directors of Davis College, an East African higher education institution. She also serves on the advisory board of Inkomoko, a business incubator in East Africa, an outlet for her interest in entrepreneurship.

Currently, based in Kigali, Carmen is serving as a Workplace Learning Tourism Expert at GIZ International on a project funded by MasterCard Foundation. The project focuses on the tourism and hospitality sector in Rwanda in line of its transformation strategy and vision of improving skills, products development, job creation for the youth and women and investment for SMEs.

Mrs. Dupe Olusola is the Managing Director/CEO of Transcorp Hotels Plc. where she oversees the Company's strategic objectives at its properties, Transcorp Hilton Abuja and Transcorp Hotels Calabar.

Dupe Olusola has over 21 years corporate experience spanning various sectors locally and internationally. Prior to joining Transcorp Hotels, Dupe was the Group Head, Marketing for United Bank for Africa Plc., one of Africa's leading financial services providers.

Prior to this, she was the Group Head Embassies, Multilaterals and Development Organizations (EMDOs) and Global Investors Services (GIS). Through her leadership, there was meritorious expansion in the Bank’s stake in the EMDOs & GIS sector across Africa and beyond.

Dupe has a deep knowledge of several corporate and retail market economies. Before joining UBA, Dupe had a distinguished career as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Teragro Commodities Limited (an indigenous agricultural company). She spearheaded a partnership with Coca Cola to produce Five Alive Pulpy Orange Juice, making Teragro the sole local material source for the juice in Nigeria.

Her professional experience spans various sectors in capacities that encompass private equity from African Capital Alliance, investments and SME experience from Growing Business Foundation, Bloomberg Financial Markets UK, SecTrust (now Afriinvest), Transcorp Corporation and Northern Trust Corporation of Chicago, UK.

Dupe studied Economics at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom and obtained her M.Sc. in Development Economics from the University of Kent. She is Prince 2, PMP and Investor Management Certified (all UK). She is passionate about women development and empowerment, economic development of under-developed countries and financial inclusion for the disadvantaged in the society. She was named on Ventures Africa’s 10 Most Influential Nigerian CEOs of 2015.

Jesse-Alex Oparachi Omenazu is a flight Operations Officer and currently an Integrated Airline Transport Pilot Trainee at the Mid-East Aviation Academy, Jordan. He most recently completed a study at the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology focused on Ancillary Revenue as a means to stimulate the Nigerian Airline Market. Jesse-Alex is a Nigerian currently based in Amman, Jordan. He has overtime nurtured his undying passion for the African Aviation Industry, thus inspiring his progressive pursuits in Airport Operations from the Bridgewater Aviation Academy in 2013, Standard Flight Operations from the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology in 2015, Logistics and Transport Management from the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology in 2018 and most recently training as an Airline Pilot. He has written various Articles offering timely and innovative ideas as well as recommendations for a better Airline Business in Nigeria.

Jesse-Alex is a member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Nigeria.

•Masters Degree (Mathematics) – University of Toronto

•Olivetti 1988 – 1992

•Unisys 1992 – 1996

•Racal 1996 – 2003

•NextiraOne 2003 – 2006

•Founded SBL 2006 (Hospitality Reseller UK)

•Mitel 2016 – 2020

•Reformed TigerTMS 2020

Dhruv has since 2006 been the CEO of Fedha Group , a group of real estate development companies in Kenya with significant interests in Residential, Commercial, Retail and Hospitality. Following his graduation from the London School of Economics, was a career banker for 12 years ultimately leading the full acquisition of the family bank by Ecobank Transnational Incorporated. He is also a non-executive Director of Saham Assurance Co. Kenya Ltd. and the Africa Regional Forum Officer 2017/2019 of YPO. Fedha Group owns Executive Residency by Best Western, Nairobi (opened November 2016) which is the first in the world of this new brand of Best Western, and one of the very few internationally branded aparthotels in Sub-Saharan Africa. Fedha Group is also developing Capital M - a marquee high rise residential project in Nairobi which is the first to target investors with a specific Airbnb product.

Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard is the Founder, chairman and 100% owner of APO Group, the leading media relations consultancy firm and press release distribution service in Africa and the Middle East. APO Group is working with more than 300 clients, ranging from governments to international institutions, prominent personalities and companies. Clients include Facebook, Uber, GE, Orange, DHL, Philips, the NBA, Standard Chartered Bank, Siemens, Canon, PwC, EY, McKinsey & Company, flydubai, DP World, just to name a few. While APO Group’s Advisory division also serve clients like Aliko Dangote, the International Criminal Court and many more.

APO Group’s strategic partners include Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters and CNBC Africa. APO Group is the Main Official Sponsor of World Rugby’s African association, Rugby Africa, and the strategic partner of Getty Images in Africa and the Middle East. In December 2018, Nicolas stepped down as CEO of APO Group and appointed Lionel Reina as CEO. Lionel Reina is the former CEO of the EEMEA region (Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) for Orange Business Services, the B2B division of French telecoms company Orange S.A.. Reina has also served as Chairman of the Board of Orange Business Saudi Arabia, and Middle East Director in the Gulf region for Accenture. As Chairman, Pompigne-Mognard is focusing on delivering high-level counsel for the company’s clients and developing his investment fund dedicated to Africa.

Amar Purmessur has more than 30 years of experience in hospitality room division. Originally from Mauritius, Purmessur has previously worked in a number of roles across the housekeeping and laundry departments for hospitality companies including InterContinental Hotels Group, Rotana Hotels Group, Radisson Hotels and Banyan Tree.

In his latest role, Purmessur was executive housekeeper for Angsana Balaclava Resort in Mauritius where he was responsible for the quality and cleanliness of the overall resort, as well as overseeing all laundry operations within the hotel. Prior to that, he was a hospitality operations trainer for cruise ships, providing training to all housekeeping staff on health and safety and service standards

Postgraduate Diploma in Management - Henley Business School, BA (Hons) English and Psychology, Human Resource Development - RAU, Diploma in Airline Operations - IATA, Leadership Development Programme – GIBS

Zuks Ramasia is a CEO of BARSA from May 2020, The Board of Airline Representatives of South Africa (BARSA) represents the interests of its African and International members to government, airport operators and other stakeholders in the airline industry with the aim of facilitating and further developing a safe, efficient and viable aviation industry in South Africa. BARSA provides a single concerted voice on policy and other matters in relation to government and other stakeholders in transport, business and tourism. Formerly Acting CEO of SAA. Her illustrious career in Aviation runs almost three decades of great exposure in the industry.

Zuks serves as a Director on the Board of Aviation Co-ordination Services “ACS”. ACS’ mandate is bestowed by the association’s member airlines on whose behalf it provides common operational support services to international and domestic airlines operating from, into and within South Africa.

She served on the IATA Operations Committee (OPC). This committee serves as an advisory body to IATA’s Board of Governors and Director General.

She served as the Chairperson of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA), the leading representative airline organization within southern Africa, working together with leaders of the aviation industry and senior public and government officials on policy, regulatory, planning, operational, safety, security and financial matters affecting the overall profitability of the airlines and their continued sustainability.

With Johannesburg as her base, Kylie Rankin brings over 15 years of architectural experience to her role as Hilton International’s Senior Manager Architecture for Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean.

Having worked for a select number of well know and international architectural firms, Kylie has had the opportunity to manage and design a variety of projects throughout Africa and the Middle East, which include large-scale commercial, leisure, high-end residential and office developments, Hotel & Apartment Developments, Casino Developments, Royal Palaces and Villas, Health and Wellness Centre’s and Holiday Resorts.

Her passion for architecture has culminated in her current role that allows for an integrated design approach to all elements of the built environment within the Sub-Saharan African region - a region in which architecture has the opportunity to play a critical and transformative role.

Current Role:

• Lead strategy formulation, coordination and implementation of route development plans and activities across nine ACSA owned and operated airports in South Africa

Previous Roles:

• Network Planning Manager at South African Airways Group (SAA)
• Assistant Manager for scheduling and planning at South African Express (SAX)
• Air Traffic Control/Management Officer at Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS)
• Bench Technician at IBM South Africa

Education and Training:

• MSc International Business Administration with University of London, SOAS
• Advance Diploma in Business Management with University of Johannesburg
• Transportation Management Diploma at University of Johannesburg
• Air Traffic Management Primary I & II at ATNS’s Aviation Training Academy
• Electrical Engineering light current diploma University of Johannesburg

Cheraé Robinson is an entrepreneur, DJ, and modern Pan-Africanist who is the founder and CEO of Tastemakers Africa, an experiences marketplace connecting curious travelers to local insiders in African cities.

The winner of the inaugural “She Leads Africa” startup competition, Ms. Robinson has been named one of 10 Emerging Women Entrepreneurs in Africa by forbes.com, one of 20 to watch by leading Silicon Valley trends group Culture Shift Labs, a Woman to Watch by the United Nations Foundation and Innov8tive Magazine; and she was named one of 44 People Changing The Way We Travel by Conde Naste Traveler.

She splits her time between New York and city-hopping the African continent. She is passionate about bringing the benefits of the sharing economy to African youth sustainably, using technology to further “the culture”, and connecting people of African descent all over the world in meaningful ways.

Graduated from Lausanne hotel school, with certifications from Cornell University, and mentored by YSC in South Africa, Arnold is an expert in Hotel Planning and Design, with a double experience in Operations and Hotel Developments.

With now 25 years of an intense career, having lived in 8 countries and developed hotels in 30 African countries, 14 countries in the Middle East, China and Caribbean’s, he is based in Casablanca, where he founded ANKASA Consult.

Headed Technical Divisions for Hyatt international, Radisson, ONOMO hotels, and delivered projects with most renowned brands. His passion and energy characterize his personality and drive.

Founder of the Hospitality Forum earlier this year, with best available expertise from more than 10 collaborators, H Forum orchestrate Hotel projects in Africa and in the Middle East.

Rebecca is a partner at MIDAS Aviation, providing market intelligence, data and strategic advice to the industry. She brings considerable and deep understanding of what drives demand for air travel to the projects she undertakes and has worked on hundreds of projects for clients involving market analysis, air service development and traffic forecasting.

Formerly head of IATA’s forecasting and consultancy team, Rebecca has also been instrumental in the development of a number of industry performance benchmarking tools in the areas of traveller views of airports, on-time performance and connectivity. She has also worked for Vancouver Airport in their business development team and before that for two major US carriers in their business planning areas.

With an MBA in Marketing, Rebecca also works with clients to assist the marketing of aviation products and services, contributing from the development of value propositions through to the regular creation of marketing content. She provides commentary on current developments in the aviation sector and has written numerous white papers and articles for OAG on industry developments, including The Pursuit of Punctuality, From Punctuality to Loyalty, Great Expectations – Lifting the Lid on OTP, The Fight for Global Markets and The Big Five – Disruptive Strategies for African Aviation. She has also written about African connectivity and the state of visa openness in Africa for AviaDev.

From April 2018 to May 2019 Gillian was Special Advisor to the then Tourism Minister; Minister Derek Hanekom. Gillian also works as a consultant to the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) and worked on the TBCSA’s Public Private Growth Initiative (PPGI) Tourism Growth Strategy which projected the potential 21 million tourist arrivals which President Cyril Ramaphosa mentioned in both 2019 SONAs.

Until mid-2018 Gillian was Deputy CEO of Audit Tax and Advisory Firm, Grant Thornton in Johannesburg, and head of their Advisory Services in South Africa. Gillian’s client facing expertise while at Grant Thornton was consulting to the hospitality, tourism and leisure industries and she has a long track record, of more than 30 years in her area of speciality.

In 2012 Gillian was appointed Global Sector Leader, Hotels and Tourism for Grant Thornton and she led a team of experts in various fields related to the industry from over 25 countries. Gillian has consulted extensively in all aspects of these industries for the public and private sector throughout Africa. Her work includes tourism destination and tourism marketing strategies and plans, and working on many aspects of feasibility, market development, economic and social impacts across the industry including for hotel and tourism accommodation, conference and exhibition industry, air-routes, airports, attractions, and more.

Prior to consulting she worked in the industry in Europe and South Africa, with stints with EUREST (a contract catering subsidiary of Nestle and Wagon Lits), in France, and with Sheraton in Germany and Switzerland, before joining the Southern Sun Group in South Africa in 1982.

Gillian has a BSc Hotel Catering and Tourism Administration (Surrey 1981) and an MBA (Wits 1988 cum Laude).

Gillian is the author of a number of articles and a regular commentator in the media on many issues related to Tourism and Hospitality.

She is a member (and previous chairperson) of the board of the University of Johannesburg’s School of Tourism and Hospitality and is passionate about education and education in the Hospitality and Tourism sector.

John is a seasoned leader in the fields of conservation, environment and sustainable development. He has worked across multiple continents, disciplines and organisations and served in senior positions with the private sector, government, the UN, and not-for-profit organizations. This includes senior positions with IUCN in Germany and UNEP in Kenya and John was Secretary General of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) from 2010 to 2018. During his term John significantly increased the level of political attention, public profile, funding, partnerships and outreach of CITES. This included leading global efforts to combat illegal wildlife trade, the creation of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime and actively engaging with the International Air Transport Association and the World Travel and Tourism Council on combating wildlife crime.

Mr. Girma graduated from Ethiopian Aviation Academy in 1981. He has been serving Ethiopian Airlines in various capacities including Aircraft Maintenance, Marketing, Network Planning, Corporate strategy planning, Department Head Commercial Planning, Country Manager in Senegal and in Nigeria, Director Alliances & Network Planning, Regional Director Sales & services Europe, Canada & South America and currently he is serving the company as Manager Business development & Equity Partner Airlines.

He has participated in many aviation symposiums and seminars and he is a holder of a Ba degree in Business Management from Addis Ababa University and MSc degree in Air Transport Management from Cranfield University in the UK.

Mweembe Sikaulu is a Communications and Brand specialist with nearly 15 years’ experience in the industry and whose expertise has seen her work in Media, Banking and Aviation. She has a background in Television Production, Customer Service, Brand Management, Corporate Affairs and Talk Radio. Among the awards Mweembe has received is the Marketing Personality of the Year at the Annual Zambia Institute of Marketing Conference and Awards Gala.

Fundi Sithebe is the Chief Operating officer appointed in December 2017. As the COO, her role is to direct, plan and lead the overall business operations (namely overall airports management, infrastructure asset management, technical services and solutions, enterprise security and information technology), ensuring that the business operations are set to achieve the company’s set performance commitments. She is responsible for the integration and seamless operations across the network of 9 airports. In addition, she is responsible for the Commercial Division – which is mainly responsible for non-aeronautical revenue, a large component of the business revenues.

She started her career as a management consultant, focussing in the areas of strategy and operations in several organisational strategic projects. She was part of the expansion team for a financial services organisation that crafted a strategy and was responsible for the successful establishment of operations in Africa – both greenfield and acquisition.

She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Midrand University, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Business Administration) from Wits Business School. Her passion in the aviation industry was sparked in 2003, when she obtained her Private Pilot’s License (PPL).

She is a member of the Southern African Women in Aviation and Aerospace (SAWIA), Women in Aviation (W&A) as well as the current chair of Akani Aviation Leadership Initiative South Africa, a nonprofit initiative that aims to ensure a larger and a sustainable base of females in the aviation industry.

As the Head of Sustainability, Dirk Singer focuses on helping aviation brands get to grips with the realities of climate change and guiding them to a more sustainable future. As part of the role, he also edits ‘Sustainable Aviation Quarterly’ which is an offshoot of Airline Marketing Monthly that looks at sustainability trends and news within the industry.

Dirk is a seasoned digital marketer with over 20 years of experience. Before SimpliFlying, he has created two agencies from scratch, both of which won agency of the year for the PR and social media industries. In addition to working for brands ranging from Google to Phillips, Dirk’s aviation experience includes airports such as London Gatwick and airlines such as British Midland International.

Stuart + Partners helps conceive, develop and operate independent hotel brands, using a proprietary business model called Brand Centred Management. This places the positioning of the brand at the heart of organisational purpose and culture, and across all guest-facing experiences, based on the principle that perceptions of hotel brands are established by shaping a compelling reality, not marketing fantasy.

Splitting his time between Africa and The Middle East James’ work spans facilities-planning; architectural and interior design briefing and management; staff recruitment, coaching and performance management system design; guest-facing process design - all of which are shaped by a uniquely relevant brand positioning.

James has a long track record of helping to grow new hotel brands which have become leading commercial performers in their respective markets. In 2014 he published the world’s first book focused entirely on hotel brands: called Hotel Brand Bites, the book is available at Amazon.com.

Arpad Szakal is an Executive Recruiter & Career Strategist. An aviation lawyer by background, he provides leadership advisory services, strategic talent assessment and executive search solutions to a broad range of organisations within the air transport and broader industrial sectors.

Prior to his career in search, Arpad worked at the Aviation Departments of two leading international law firms in London where he handled EU regulatory cases including passenger rights. He was also involved with a range of complex aviation liability matters often involving multiple jurisdictions. Arpad earned his LLM (Adv.) degree in Air & Space Law at the Leiden Institute which is one of the leading academic research and teaching institutes in the world specialising in aviation law and regulation.

As a guest lecturer at various executive education programmes, Arpad teaches on a range of career management topics, including executive communication skills (personal branding and interview skills) career planning & transitions, salary negotiation & onboarding.

Arpad is an advocate for gender balance in the aviation & aerospace industries and frequently publishes and speaks on the subject at industry events globally.

Miretab Teklaye is Director Digital at Ethiopian Airlines responsible for definition of strategy and innovation, design and implementation of e-commerce. During this time, Ethiopian Airlines e-commerce penetration increase by 100%. He has executed successfully the mobile first, cloud first strategy and result in more than 10% mobile app contribution to total sales volume.

Miretab has worked on digital transformation of Ethiopian Airlines ranging from operation, service, marketing and sales to back office business functions. He has also successfully led an Enterprise Service bus and Ethiopian Business Intelligence project which facilitate timely and informed decision making of the dynamic aviation business.

Based in Cape Town, Daniel focuses on accelerating and executing the Radisson Hotel Group growth strategy in the English-speaking countries across Sub-Sahara Africa, particularly, South Africa. Another key focus in Daniel’s portfolio is the raising of finance for hotel owners in order to expedite both new developments and conversions across the African continent, working closely with the rest of the African Development team.

Daniel recently joined Radisson Hotel Group after six years at HTI Consulting, focusing on hotel development, acquisition finance raising and hotel brokerage. Having held previous positions at JP Morgan (London), LaSalle Investment Management (London), and JLL (Johannesburg), Daniel will significantly aid Radisson Hotel Group’s owners and their financial requirements with his wealth of knowledge and expertise in debt finance raising requirements of owners, deal-making and financial analysis.

Daniel brings complementary skills to the development team across the continent and is a key member in driving Radisson Hotel Groups new five-year plan for Africa.

A South African national, Daniel holds a Business Science Degree from the University of Cape Town, where he also completed his master’s in financial economics and international trade.

Mr. Udjo is a professional in the commercial aviation sector. He has worked for Comair Limited, previously for South African Airways and Qatar Airways, based in Doha. His roles have formed part of the research, commercial and/ strategy functions of all airlines. In his last capacity in the corporate sector, he developed and headed the Network Planning, Scheduling & Alliances Department of Comair Limited - South Africa's only Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed airline business. Prior to that, he was involved in strategic planning and implementation for the core airline business in the Domestic, Rest of Africa and Intercontinental markets for South African Airways. Most recently, Mr. Udjo has decided to enhance his contribution to the African aviation industry, by focusing fully on building his management consulting practice, ZA Logics, which seeks: “To be the strategic partner of choice for African businesses involved in transport, infrastructure and tourism development”

His professional ethos is the belief that transportation and connectivity (both virtual and physical) are keys to economic inclusion, opportunity and ultimately success for the African continent.

Academically, his foundation is based in Management Sciences - he obtained a bachelor’s degree and postgraduate degree (Honours) from the University of Pretoria, both Cum Laude. Further, he holds a Master of Business Leadership degree from the University of South Africa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership (focusing on Strategic Management & International Business).

Mr. Udjo served as a Director of the Board of Brightest Young Minds (July 2016- July 2018), a 17-year-old non-profit company that exists to create positive social impact across Africa, in partnership with Barclays Africa/ ABSA Capital.

Frederic Van Lennep, is the Business Development Director MEA at IT Hospitality with over 15 years of experience in Hospitality operations and technology supply in Africa.

He comes from a hospitality background having managed and consulted on multiple hotel projects in Kenya, East Africa. Including some of the most prestigious beach properties from Heritage Hotels’ Voyager Beach Resort in Mombasa, Leisure Lodge Beach & Golf Resort In Diani, The Majlis Resort in Lamu and Nyali International Beach resort in Mombasa.

His career path continued as Sales Manager for Assa Abloy Global Solutions distributing VingCard electronic locking solutions and Elsafe in room safe in East, West and Central Africa where he was responsible for the overall sales development, partner contracting and project follow up on over 300 hospitality projects.

He recently joined the team of IT Hospitality in as their Business Development Director for Middle East and Africa.

IT Hospitality is the preferred integrator for International Hotel Chains in Middle East & Africa ensuring the proper deployment of their systems, offering end to end turnkey solutions and providing local support, network design & management, WiFi & High Speed Internet Access, IPTV & In-Room Entertainment and IT Management & Support.

Following a career in professional services spanning nearly 30 years, Nick is currently acting as senior adviser to several hospitality investors. Until recently he was Global Head of Hospitality Advisory Services with Deloitte, where he served as a partner for 20 years and was based in London and the Gulf. In this role, he served a wide spectrum of clients, including private family/HNWI’s; PE, SWF, institutional, RE; and corporates, and encompassing owners, investors, lenders and operators. The range of services provided included commercial strategy and development advice; M&A/transaction services; operational/profit improvement reviews; capital-raising/IPOs; assurance; tax advice and restructuring.

Nick spent the early part of his career in hotel operations in Africa and Europe, working with Holiday Inn, Sun International, Gleneagles and Meridien. He has subsequently consulted in over 80 countries and 250 markets. He is a sought-after speaker and was the organiser and chairman of the highly-regarded European Hotel Investment Conference (EHIC), in London. Nick served on the board of global industry data provider STR from 2011 to 2017, and is a member of the advisory board of Bench Events.

Director IKAM for Philips Professional Business Solutions

Global responsible for Philips professional displays and services in hospitality.

Based in the HQ in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

We develop and manufacture and merchandise professional display solutions and connected services for the professionals.

Our displays and services are tailored to suit to serve in many markets like the hospitality industry.

For me It’s all about connection and partnerships bringing technical functionality into a personalized guest experience.

Roland Vorwerk is the marketing manager of Boundless Southern Africa, a tourism marketing brand for Southern Africa's Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs). Roland has developed close working relationships with tourism and conservation stakeholders across the region while developing innovative and inclusive ways to promote tourism to these Transfrontier destinations. He has worked in a variety of tourism-related fields for more than 20 years - as a tourist guide, developing tourism products in rural communities, and working on a number of destination marketing initiatives. Roland's current focus is on the development of world-class cross-border tourism adventures and market development platforms and ensuring that rural communities living alongside the region's TFCAs are able to participate in these events and platforms, and benefit from them.

Frank has been in the hospitality industry since 37 years, holding director and VP positions with Micros, Oracle, NCR in the past 25 years where he worked with the major hospitality players globally.

Today he is responsible for ACT’s strategic expansion, specializing on global provision of services and solutions for all areas of hospitality technology.

Trevor Ward is a specialist consultant in the hospitality, leisure and real estate industries. He is the Managing Director of the Lagos-based W Hospitality Group, and Chairman of Hotel Partners Africa.

His industry experience spans over 40 years, and includes advising clients on hotel, tourism and leisure development in over 90 countries across the globe, and in 39 in Africa. With a special focus on sub-Saharan Africa, he works with many of the international hotel groups seeking a presence there, and with financial institutions, investors and entrepreneurs across the continent. He is regarded as one of the foremost experts on the hotel industry in sub-Saharan Africa, and is engaged primarily in development consultancy, ranging from investment appraisals to operator selection, asset management, valuations and agency.

Matthew Weihs is Managing Director of Bench Events. Within this role he focuses on the development of new business opportunities and sales for Bench Events and partners, whilst also supporting the direction of the business and providing commercial support for new product launches.

With over 15 years experience in B2B conferencing with Guardian News and Media, IQPC and now Bench Events his main responsibilities have been to manage the sales across the portfolio, deliver the projects to the high standards our customers expect and to find new development opportunities for the business. In 2012 he successfully founded and launched the African Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) and in 2013 he launched the Morocco Tourism Investment Forum (MTIF) - an invitation only event for the industry. 2014 will see the launch of the Global Restaurant Investment Forum (GRIF), the latest addition to the Bench Events hotel investment conference portfolio.

Mark Willis holds an MBA in International Business from Oxford University in the United Kingdom and has completed a number of senior management programs at Cornell University, New York.

Previous to his appointment, he was the President for the Asia region with Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, a very dynamic area with a robust expansion strategy to open 30 properties by 2020.

With a career spanning over 30 years with leading hospitality companies, including IHG and Sun International, a large portion of his professional life was spent with the Radisson Hotel Group (formerly Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group), where he held a number of senior leadership positions, including Senior Vice President Middle East, Africa & Turkey. It was in this role that Mark oversaw all brands within a portfolio of 85 hotels with over 80 hotels in the development pipeline.

Marks brings with him a wealth of operational experience alongside an intuitive knowledge of the Middle East and Africa, a region that he has worked in for over 12 years.

He joined the Group Executive Committee in September 2018, when the Group finalized the acquisition of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts.

With a background in technology sales, Ciaran holds the role of Head of Sales for Middle East and Africa at CellPoint Digital delivering digital solutions to airlines to increase direct sales through online channels. He has gained extensive experience in the African region, servicing carriers such as Ethiopian Airlines by helping them drive additional revenue through their digital channels.

Doris is a Founding Director, Executive Council Member and the Chief Executive Officer of the African Tourism Board (ATB) – the first and only Association based in Africa, that acts as a bridge between the public and private sector. With her vast expertise in tourism development and marketing, Doris, together with her team in the Executive Council, set up this Africa based NGO and Not for Profit Company as a tool for the development and marketing of tourism on the African Continent with the focus on Capacity Building, Leadership and Entrepreneurship Development, and Youth, Women, Community and SMTE Empowerment on the African Continent - with the aim to support the African Tourism Industry by Africans for Africans.

Doris worked as an expert in the Executive Management for the MICE Sector, Sports Tourism Industry and in Destination Management. In partnership with UNESCO, the UN-ILO and other African and International Development Agencies, and a think tank of tourism experts and academics, over the last 20 years, she invented, initiated and implemented tourism development programmes, that make use of Africa’s considerable cultural and natural resources and assets.

One of her key objectives is to concentrate on African previously disadvantaged communities with ownership and access to under-marketed but highly significant tourist attractions and to assist these communities to benefit from the domestic, regional and international source markets.

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.

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.

Until recently, Jonathan was a board director and founder of STR Global, 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 unused 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 Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority 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.

Elie leads Radisson Hotel Group’s expansions across Europe, the Middle East & Africa with an international team of 25 executives based in Brussels, Moscow, Barcelona, Milan, London, Oslo, Dubai, Frankfurt and Cape Town. Under his leadership, the group has launched and delivered an active asset light strategy with a solid pipeline of 120 hotels and opened over 110 hotels across EMEA.

He is focused on driving organic growth but also helps drive the company’s expansion related acquisitions, as well as the growth into new business concepts on alternative lodging.

He has recently re-engineered Radisson Hotel Group’s development strategy to focus on an asset right growth and accordingly adjusted the organization and its corresponding capabilities for execution. He has a clear vision on delivering a compelling value proposition to investment stakeholders and is on a mission to have this executed, globally. Elie’s cultural background and lifestyle accelerates his stamina and ability to be nimble, anticipate and act fast – decisively.

A Lebanese national and English citizen, Elie began his career in managerial roles in his home country, before joining HVS in London in 2001. He progressed quickly to the position of Director (and a Designate MD) with HVS within 5 years. He also authored a number of publications on hotel performance assessments and investments. In 2007, he joined Starwood in London as Senior Director of Acquisitions and Development. His next move took him to Hilton Hotels Worldwide as Vice President Development, based in Dubai, before joining Rezidor in 2010, as Vice President of Business Development for the Middle East and Africa. In January 2013, he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Business Development EMEA, and then to Executive Vice President & Chief Development Officer two years later.

Elie is fluent in English, French and Arabic and loves exploring new cultures around the world. He is educated in Beirut, Paris, New York and London, at universities like Notre Dame, IMHI/Essec, Insead, Cornell University, Johnson Graduate Business School and City University.

He is a keen sportsman practicing martial arts with a competitive flair and an obsession for continuous improvement and self-development. He just loves for his team to win a deal or celebrate a personal achievement.

Elie is a devoted father of a daughter and a son.

Chris Zweigenthal qualified as a Civil Engineer at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1978, obtained his Graduate Diploma in Engineering in 1985 and worked for 10 years in the construction industry. In 1988, he joined South African Airways, where he held senior positions in the Petroleum Affairs, Flight Operations, and Marketing Planning departments, and was thereafter appointed Managing Director of SA Alliance Air based in Kampala, Uganda. Upon his return to South Africa in 2000, he headed up Global Passenger Services until he left South African Airways in November 2001. In February 2002, Chris joined the Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA) as Deputy Chief Executive and was appointed Chief Executive on 1 March 2009. Chris is active in supporting the growth and sustainability of airlines in the Southern African region, and is a regular participant and contributor to SADC, ICAO and IATA initiatives in the region. He is a Director of Aviation Coordination Services Limited, a company responsible for several airport services managed on behalf of all airlines operating in South Africa, and a Director of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa.