Mainstreaming Net Positive Hospitality Members Spring Summit 2024

Dr. Willy Legrand is Professor at the IU International University of Applied Sciences in Germany with a specialization in sustainable management. Over the past two decades, he has established over two dozen undergraduate and graduate courses on sustainable development in business and hospitality management in Europe, South and North America, the Middle East and Asia. He is the lead author of Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry: Principles of Sustainable Operations (4th ed., 2023, Routledge) and of Critical Questions in Sustainability and Hospitality (2023, Routledge ).

Prof Legrand chairs the Hospitality Net World Panel on Sustainability in Hospitality where 100+ industry experts regularly interact with the aim is to get sustainability anchored more than ever into the business conversation and decision-making. He sits on multiple journal and professional boards and is the co-editor of the Journal of Global Responsibility. He is currently working on two new edited books on (1) ESG in Hospitality & Tourism and on (2) Regenerative Tourism and Net Positive Hospitality Business.

Dr. Christopher Jahns is a scientist, entrepreneur and founder and CEO of XU sustainable, provider of a learning experience platform for sustainability in a corporate context. He also acts as Board Member for Sustainability & Development of the professional handball team Füchse Berlin. Christopher is very committed to the advancement of young people, is among others LinkedIn Top Voice for Sustainability and former Young Global Leader of the WEF World Economic Forum, Davos.

Gary Graham oversees and works extensively on all facets of the Green Key Global program since joining in 2013, driving significant growth of the world’s leading sustainability program for hotel and meeting spaces.

Prior to beginning his career in the sustainable lodging industry, Gary was a consultant for both the public and private sectors, including working for the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program and Employment and Social Development Canada. He also worked for several years growing and promoting sustainable green building practices with the Canada Green Building Council.

James leads on deploying Winnow’s technology to hospitality clients across Europe. With a background in management consulting and project management across diverse industries, James helps large hospitality businesses embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI) for good.

Winnow builds AI tools to help chefs run more profitable and sustainable kitchens by cutting food waste in half. Since launching in 2013, Winnow has been deployed in 77 countries and has saved its customers over $50m by reducing food waste. Clients include global brands like Accor, Hilton, Iberostar, IHG, Hilton and many others.

Julie is a skilled sustainability consultant with experience spanning over 20 years. Her focus lies in sustainable development and business transformation.

Julie has advised a diverse range of clients on their sustainability journey, including the Grootbos Foundation, Grootbos Private Nature Reserve, Wolwedans, The Long Run, National Geographic, Tswalu Kalahari, Fireblade Aviation, and Oppenheimer Generations, amongst others. Since 2014, Julie has worked with The Long Run, initially as the representative for Grootbos Private Nature Reserve and then as an independent consultant.

Prior to focusing on the travel and hospitality sectors, Julie worked on transformation and sustainability at well-known institutions such as Standard Bank, Distell, BMGi, the National Australia Bank, and National Geographic. She is also a member of NOW Partners – a global partnership of over 100 senior business leaders united to accelerate the economic evolution of business for good.

After graduation, Young N Nguyen swiftly climbed the ranks at Radisson, assisting high-cost Norwegian hotels in adapting to shifting business conditions in the late ’90s. He later founded d2o, specialising in helping hotels bolster resource efficiency, sustainability and profit using its Performance Management Intelligence (PMI) SaaS platform.

Young’s deep understanding of management complexities led him to develop simple yet impactful concepts like daily live forecasting, RevPOLU and the PMI Index, which have influenced modern hotel management practices.

He is an alumnus of Glion, with additional coursework from Cornell, NHH, and Heriot-Watt University.

Robin Rossmann is Managing Director of STR, a CoStar Group Company, and has led its business across EMEA, APAC and CSA since 2016. Robin is focused on continuing to improve the way STR provides hotel brands, operators, owners, lenders and advisors with robust and insightful data that enables better decision making.

Prior to STR, Robin was a Senior Director in Deloitte’s Global Hospitality Advisory Team in London. During his 13 years with Deloitte, he was a specialist hotel industry advisor – supporting clients on their growth strategy, business planning, investment appraisal, market reviews, financial and commercial due diligence, IPOs, debt advisory, valuation, financial assurance, controls improvement and risk management.

Caroline is a member of the Executive Management team with responsibility for the entire ESG area in Pandox, which involves 159 hotel properties in 12 countries in Europe. Under her leadership Science Based Targets has been approved.

Caroline is a Board Member of Prisma Properties, a real estate company in Sweden. She also previously held various communication management roles including Investor Relations and Communication Manager at listed Nordic companies. She started her career within accounting and corporate finance. Caroline is also a member of the Energy & Environment Alliance’s Capital Committee, European Public Real Estate Association’s Sustainability Committee (EPRA) and part of Fastighetsägarna’s Sustainability Council, which is Sweden’s real estate trade association.

Melanie has worked in the business travel industry for over 20 years. She started her industry career on the TMC side of the business where she held senior global marketing-communications positions. She continues to consult leading suppliers on sales and marketing strategies and manages a portfolio of supplier partners for GBTA that help drive the overall strength and growth of the association. Melanie has co-produced the conference programme for leading business travel conferences and is also co-director in the specialist company: Travel Media Training.

Melanie is a native of Atlanta, Georgia and after a few decades in London, now resides in the south of France.

Sally Davey is the Chief Executive at Travalyst, a pre-competitive alliance founded by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex in partnership with industry leaders Booking.com, Trip.com Group, Tripadvisor, Skyscanner and Visa, and joined recently by Google and Expedia Group.

Together the coalition is working to unify and scale sustainability reporting across the partners’ own platforms, and the industry at large, with the goal of empowering consumers to make better travel choices by providing trusted, open data. Sally’s career spans more than 15 years in tourism and travel tech, with a focus throughout on systems change and bringing sustainability into the mainstream consumer experience.

Christopher Imbsen is the Director of Sustainability at the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), responsible for ensuring that WTTC and its Members work with destinations to promote sustainable and inclusive growth that contributes positively to the communities, natural ecosystems and cultural heritage.

From 2012-2019, Chris was the Deputy Regional Director for Europe at UN Tourism, handling relations with the organization’s European Member States. Prior to joining UN Tourism, Chris worked as a consultant for international, public and private sector clients on tourism master plans, strategies, marketing and business operations. Chris has extensive experience of engagement of government and industry leaders on tourism policy and strategy issues, as well as on-the-ground project management experience from initial planning, development and funding stages through implementation and monitoring.

Dr. Megan Morikawa is the Global Sustainability Office Director at Iberostar where she leads the Wave of Change movement, an initiative based on three action lines: circular economy, responsible seafood consumption and coastal health. The company plans to be waste free by 2025 and to be carbon neutral and to have all ecosystems that surround Iberostar properties are improving in ecological health alongside profitable tourism by 2030.Dr. Morikawa joined Iberostar in 2018 and leads the sustainability team with Gloria Fluxà, fourth generation leadership and ownership of Iberostar, in scientific-driven actions for a sustainable ocean economy and responsible tourism model.

Megan received her PhD at Stanford, where she conducted research on how to prepare coral reefs for climate change. She is passionate about driving much needed scientific research in surprising new settings that provide solutions for the planet that can be scaled by the private sector.

Jackson began his professional career as an attorney at the law firms White & Case and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in the U.S and Asia, and more recently was a senior attorney at IBM handling legal matters for the ASEAN countries and South Asia.

After joining Amadeus in 2006 and serving as General Counsel of its Asia Pacific region for 12 years, Jackson joined the AirAsia Group as Chief Legal Officer, overseeing the legal activities of its nine operating airlines and serving on the group’s Senior Management Committee. He returned to Amadeus in 2020 in charge of commercial and transactional legal matters globally, before being appointed Senior Vice President & General Counsel in 2022.

Agnes has a wealth of experience within the technology sector, with 25 years in Operations Management, Portfolio Management, Business Planning & Strategy. Agnes has proudly been a member of the Amadeus community for more than 18 years, and prior to this, was in IT consultancy.

In terms of academic background, she majored in Marketing at the European School of Management ESCP Europe, which took her across Paris, Oxford, and Berlin. Having lived in many different cities, and coming from an international family, has instilled in her a love for learning from people from diverse backgrounds and cultures, which has in turn shaped her leadership style, emphasizing empathy, cultural understanding, and collaboration.

Glenn Mandziuk is CEO of the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance – the leading global network in responsible hospitality. He is an internationally recognised CEO with over 25 years of leadership experience in advancing sustainable practices in tourism, hospitality and economic development, and establishing strategies and programmes that inspire responsible growth.

Prior to becoming CEO of the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, Glenn was President and Chief Executive Officer of Canada’s Thompson Okanagan Tourism Region (TOTA) with its 4,000 industry stakeholders.

He is also a director on the Board of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and the Responsible Tourism Institute, and Chair of the SMI Hospitality and Tourism Task Force.

Wolfgang has been the Chair of the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance (and our predecessor International Tourism Partnership) since 2014, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience in the hospitality industry.

He spent more than 20 years with Hilton, building his career to President Hilton Europe and Africa. In 2011 he joined joined the Radisson Hotel Group as President & Chief Executive and served until 2017. He was subsequently appointed to the Supervisor Board and functioned as Senior Advisor until 2020.

Today he has a diversified portfolio of different non-executive director and strategic advisory roles in the Travel and Tourism sector and also serves as Chairman of the Board, Hotel School The Hague (NL).

Claire has nearly a decade’s experience driving sustainability progress for Hilton. During this time, Claire worked on a wide range of projects including updating Hilton’s global CR strategy, leading their water stewardship efforts and creating behaviour change campaigns, as well as leading initiatives focused on issues such as energy efficiency, single-use plastic reduction and responsible sourcing.

Patrick O’Meara is the Director of Partnerships and Business Engagement at the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, supporting their members, affiliates and partners to be part of the leading global responsible hospitality network. He previously worked as part of Business in the Community (BITC). Patrick helped establish BITC’s membership team in 2006, and served as its Membership Director from 2006-2017. He also led The Prince’s Seeing is Believing Programme for over a decade, and served on BITC’s Executive Team.

Since 2017, Patrick has enjoyed a portfolio career, leading projects and taking on interim roles with businesses and charities in the UK, Ireland and the USA. Patrick also serves on the board of two charities, on the alumni board of his university and a family-owned property business.