Mainstreaming Net Positive Hospitality Summit | 2023

A globally recognised counter-trafficking expert, Dr. Halleh Seddighzadeh is a forensic traumatologist, with a distinguished career spanning over two decades in the fields of anti-trafficking and human rights in both the public and private sectors.

Dr. Halleh collaborates with the corporate sector crafting in-depth, cross-culturally informed, bespoke anti-trafficking programmes addressing both sex and labour trafficking, with a specialisation in the hospitality and gaming sectors. Among her recent projects is the ongoing development of a ground-breaking counter-trafficking program for Caesars Entertainment.

Julia Simpson President and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). She spent 14 years in the aviation sector on the Board of British Airways and Iberia and as Chief of Staff at International Airlines Group.

Before joining British Airways, Julia was senior adviser to the UK Prime Minister. She held a number of key positions in the UK government and public sector, including Director at the Home Office and Department for Education and Employment; Assistant Chief Executive at the London Borough of Camden; and head of communications at the Communication Workers Union. Julia is on the Board of the London Chamber of Commerce.

Suzanne Neufang was named CEO of GBTA in February 2021, where she leads the association’s mission, strategy, and programs to benefit stakeholders across the global business travel industry. She is a transformation-focused executive who has led product, service and organisational innovation through times of great change – “connecting dots” across geographies, functions, people, and results.

She’s held leadership roles within the travel industry for the past 20 years, including at HRS, GetThere, Travelocity and Sabre. Before travel, she was a leader in tech and telecom industries at Intuit, Verizon, and GTE. She’s been an active volunteer in the travel industry, including serving as board president of the former Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE).

Randy Durband is CEO of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), the UN-created NGO that manages global standards for sustainable tourism. He brings a unique blend of experience from two career paths in tourism spanning 40 years – in senior leadership positions with major U.S. outbound tour operators, including as President of Travcoa, Clipper Cruise Lines, Executive VP of Tauck – and now a second career in sustainable tourism.

He is a frequent advisor and speaker to governments and businesses on sustainable tourism policies and implementation. He has served on many tourism boards and committees and as a judge for leading sustainable tourism awards.

Eric founded Greenview in 2008, the leading consulting and data firm for sustainability within hospitality and tourism. Greenview’s 50+ clients include hotel companies of all sizes and profiles, as well as hotel owners and developers, event organisers, cruise lines, NGOs, DMOs, OTAs and industry organisations including the WTTC, UNWTO, and AHLA.

With over 25 years of hands-on experience in both sustainability and industry, Eric is a frequent speaker, convener, and researcher. His notable industry work includes working as a technical consultant for the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative and launching initiatives including the Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index, Green Lodging Trends Report, Destination Water Risk Index, Hotel Owners for Tomorrow Coalition, Global Hotel Decarbonisation Report and Hotel Net Zero Methodology.

Austin C. Wentworth spearheads STX’s climate solutions efforts across North America. Having started at the firms headquarters in The Netherlands 5 years ago, to helping build out the firm’s presence in the United States, he has worked across most sustainable commodities on a global scale including renewable energy, carbon offsets, renewable natural gas, etc.

Dr Crispian Tarrant is the Chairman and Founder of BVA BDRC, the global insights agency.  He has specialised in market research programs for clients in the hospitality sector since the 1980s, during which time he has worked with virtually all the major hotels groups in addition to many specialist players, notably those in the luxury tier.

Features of his work have included branding, new product development, distribution strategy, market segmentation and sizing, customer experience management, and, in recent years, sustainability.

Ulrike Rabmer-Koller is CEO of Rabmer Group – an Austrian based international operating company active in construction and environmental technology. 

Ulrike was founding member of the Austrian CleanTech Cluster and the Energy Efficiency Network. The European Commission appointed her as Member of the European Industry 2030 Expert Group and Member of the High Level Group for Key Enabling Technologies. In 2016 she took part as business representative of the EU in the G7 Environmental Minister Meeting in Bologna. In 2021 she was appointed as European Climate Pact Ambassador.

Jenny works across a wide range of industry sectors recruiting new members to the global Cool Food program and nurturing existing membership partnerships. She works closely with WRI’s behavioural and environmental scientists helping to nudge consumers towards eating more plant rich foods.

Jenny is a Public Health Nutritionist and Marketer and prior to joining WRI Jenny headed up the Membership and Nutrition areas at Leatherhead Food Research, an international food and beverage consultancy.

Paul’s background is in international leisure real estate working with resorts, hotels and branded residence projects. His experience includes roles with RCI, part of Wyndham Hotels Worldwide (VP, EMEA), as well as running his own development advisory company for 10 years with global clients, from Zanzibar to Grenada.

Paul joined KALDEWEI, a 105 year old German sanitary ware manufacturing company, in 2021 to head up it’s London based International Projects. Focused on the hospitality sector, Paul works with hotels and yacht projects across 80 countries with his colleagues in KALDEWEI’s 12 international offices. KALDEWEI is an independently accredited Sustainable Leader, delivering luxury and sustainability, LUXSTAINABILITY®, with 100% circularity.

Indika is a Sustainability & ESG professional with over 14 years of consulting & auditing experience. He has supported organisations in various industries through their sustainability journey. He is certified and audits for SRA, ESG Certification, ISO 20121, SA8000, ISO14001 Standards. Indika has also contributed to the knowledge development in the sustainability scope with participation in committees, think tanks and through ESG publications as well.

Currently, Indika is part of the pilot project of the UNDP SDG Impact Standards. He comes from a Business administration, financial and marketing educational background and has a professional career spanning 23 years in TIC, Banking, FMCG, Construction, Water & Consultancy Services Industries.

Florian is an experienced transformation specialist who brings old companies into their new Carbon-Zero reality. Over the years he has done this in different roles as consultant, CRO, startup entrepreneur, advisory board member, coach, CDO (Chief Development Officer) of EY in DACH and Quarterback for the EY Parthenon Build Up.

In his current roles as founder of EYCarbon and Leader of EYSpark he turns their B2B model into an H2H (Human to Human) model, which is 100 % client centric, technology enabled, supported by an agile organization and founded on a CEX (customer experience first) culture.

Hemma Varma works as senior consultant with twentyfify, an award-winning human rights consultancy.  She develops and delivers work across sectors such as agriculture, FMCG, industrials, supporting clients to embed human rights due diligence across their operations and value chains in line with international human rights law and best practice.

Previously she worked as Head of Human Rights at the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, leading the development and implementation of the Alliance’s Human Rights strategy, addressing material Human Rights issues for the industry and its members, globally. Her 25-year career with Marriott International included various roles from property-level work to regional positions before leading Marriott’s Sustainability and Social Impact efforts in Europe.

At the age of 13, Ishaan Shah co-founded Stolen Dreams, and more recently, the Youth for Freedom Collective, two international youth-led collectives working with stakeholders to counter modern slavery and human trafficking through education, advocacy, and policy.

Today, Ishaan is 20-years-old and is a Youth Advisor to the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, the first Youth Focal Point for the Review and Implementation of the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), a UN Women National Gender Youth Advocate, the UN MGCY’s Migration Youth and Children’s Platform (MYCP) Trafficking in Persons Specialist, and a Youth Representative on the UN Network on Migration’s Civil Society Action Committee.

Tia Chauhan is a current final year undergraduate student at the University of Birmingham, studying International Development and Politics. She also works part-time for Beyond Bamboo, a sustainable procurement company making waves throughout the hospitality industry. She’s been able to combine her passion for sustainability through both her studies and work, and looks forward to starting a career where she can make a real difference in the world.

Along with her younger sister Ella, Amy launched an award-winning campaign, now charity, called Kids Against Plastic (KAP) back in 2016. KAP has a bold vision – to empower young people to become agents of change on environmental issues close to their hearts, all while building essential skills and confidences for their futures. Kids Against Plastic now has a team of over 280 young people around the world as part of the KAP Club built around empowering kids through environmental issues, and the Plastic Clever scheme has had over 1800 schools and numerous cafes and businesses involved since its launch in early 2019.

Through her work, Amy has spoken to young people around the world, ministers in all three Parliaments in Great Britain, business conferences internationally from Seoul to Barcelona, and diplomats and young people at the UN Headquarters in Geneva, as well as at two TEDx events. She is also advising as part of IKEA’s Young Leaders Forum, and alongside her sister has been recognised with the Prime Minister’s Points of Light Award, the Pride of Britain 2021 Green Champion Award, and even a British Empire Medal (BEM).

Kit is 20 years old and is a third year student at the University of Nottingham, studying Economics and Politics. He was a recent participant at the 2023 International Summer Week in Sardinia, with a focus sustainable tourism. Kit is also a former Secretary General of his school’s Model United Nations Society, and has won awards at international conferences. He has organised and chaired multiple Model UN conferences, including discussions of environmental and social issues. Kit spent this past summer working with the Public Policy team at Voi Technology, an e-scooter rental firm, working to encourage the uptake of e-micro mobility by tourists and commuters, as well as work with stakeholders on the evolving legislation of the sector. Kit is looking to engage in his work more with topics of public policy and ESG, as well as the encouragement of youth voices and participation.

Tiffany is Co-Founder and CEO of Beyond Bamboo Global, a next-generation sustainability platform focused on sustainable procurement and responsible sourcing.

Her first book ‘Shine’ was published in 2020 and she is an inspirational speaker leading women’s empowerment workshops, leadership summits and innovation think tanks towards social change. Tiffany has worked with the First Lady of Japan to create empowerment for women in Tokyo, has created and run summits at the House of Commons in London and delivered Ted Talks in Delhi and Tokyo. Most recently Tiffany Co-founded, curated and moderated the House of Balance in Davos during the World Economic Forum.

Claire manages our environmental sustainability strategy, including our work on climate action and water stewardship.

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.

Anjana is responsible for the strategic development and implementation of our programme strategy and leads our programmes team to deliver quality and consistency, ensuring maximum impact.

Anjana has over 20 years of experience in the development sector, across Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, leveraging partnerships with not-for-profits, governments and the private sector to establish and grow high impact programmes. She has held many senior roles, including Executive Director at Developments In Literacy (DIL) in Pakistan, and, prior to joining ITP, Head of Pakistan Programme at HRH The Prince of Wales’ British Asian Trust.

Tim Rogmans is founder and Managing Director of Sim Institute, a company specialized in the development and distribution of simulations for learning and decision-making. He has developed award winning simulations in the fields of Sustainability, Management and Economics, that are distributed by Harvard Business Publishing and other leading global organizations.

Tim was previously an Associate Professor and Director of Executive Education at the College of Business at Zayed University, Director at Atradius Credit Insurance and a strategy consultant with Gemini Consulting and LEK Consulting. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the London School of Economics, a MBA from INSEAD and a Phd from Nyenrode University.

Dr Stroma Cole is co-director of the charity Equality in Tourism , transforming gender relations in destinations and tourism organisations. She is also a part-time Reader at the University of Westminster.

Stroma is a leading authority on tourism and gender relations She has authored over 60 publications, including her edited book Gender Equality and Tourism: Beyond Empowerment (2018), her seminal articles: No Sustainability without Gender Equality, and Gender, Water and Tourism. Stroma is an Associate Editor for Annals of Tourism Research and on the editorial board at Journal of Sustainable Tourism and Tourism Geographies.

Paul is the Designer and Producer of the Sustainable Hospitality Challenge together with Stella van Toor. Currently this Student Challenge is the biggest one in the world in the area of Hospitality. This Challenge is an Internationally renowned Student Challenge focusing on delivering innovative solutions that make impact on our Industry. The challenge brings the best students of various top schools and universities in the world in contact with CEOs and Presidents of our Industry.

Paul is also the Director of Industry & Alumni Relations as well as a Lecturer in Revenue Management, Sales & Marketing and Business Acumen for Bachelor and MBA  for Hotelschool the Hague based in The Netherlands. Paul is responsible to facilitate the alignment between Industry practices with the world- renowned curriculum of Hotelschool the Hague. Hotelschool the Hague belongs to the top Hotelschools in the world and has won various International awards.

Tanith Harding is Director of International Development for RoundTable Global, a facilitator, family & career coach and TEDx speaker. She facilitates empowerment and employability programs and delivers 1:1 and group coaching for youth and also for senior leaders in some of the largest organisations in the world.

As Director of International Development she also leads on The Legacy Project, a registered charity which supports youth development and helps foster strong communities. In addition to Legacy she runs the Global Youth Awards which currently celebrates young people in over fifty different countries that are creating projects for change under the categories of environment, education, empowerment and creativity.

After his start at the Renaissance in Amsterdam in 1979, Ron worked as General Manager in Brussels , London and Heidelberg. At the Marriott Heidelberg he achieved to be the first European Hotel to be accredited ISO 14001, environmental management. Ron is now the General Manager at the London Heathrow Marriott Hotel.

Ron has been Marriott Business council leader on sustainability for many years and is inspiring other GM’s.

He has won many awards throughout his career with Marriott, including Green Hotelier Europe, Sustainable Tourism Award (London and Partners), Waste 2 Zero Food Service Waste Management, and is excited to be shortlisted to the 2023 Cateys Awards for Most Sustainable Hotel of the year.

Jen is Country Director at Tent, responsible for its operations in the U.K. Prior to joining the organization, she worked within the international development sector for 15 years, focusing on partnership management, and leading the implementation of strategic transformation initiatives.

Jen has worked at several global organizations, including Save the Children, Amref Health Africa, and Accenture. She has also volunteered for non-profits that provide direct services and support to refugees.

Wolfgang has been the Chair of the 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).

Glenn Mandziuk is CEO of the 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 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.

Anna supports the Head of Environment on the delivery of the Planet programme, including projects across climate action, water stewardship, waste and circular economy, and biodiversity.

Anna brings extensive practical experience in charity management and operational roles across a variety of causes. Whilst at University, Anna led Edinburgh Global Partnerships, a student-run charity partnering with local communities on sustainable grassroots projects across Africa and East Asia. Before joining the Alliance, Anna worked at various organisations including Shout UK, Business in the Community, and the Chartered Institute of Fundraising.

Shiksha has six years’ experience in education and community development, previously working for the Kherwadi Social Welfare Association – an Indian national non-profit where she managed the organisation’s activities in the Delhi NCR region.

Prior to joining Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, Shiksha worked on the Headmaster Leadership development programme with the Mumbai municipal government, for Gandhi Fellowship.

Shiksha holds a Post Graduate Degree in Development Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia Mass Communication and Research Centre in Delhi, India.

Dr. Stowe Shoemaker (Ph.D., Cornell University) served as Dean of the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality from 2013 – 2023.  While dean he held the Andrew and Peggy Dean’s Chair at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). He is an acknowledged expert in pricing, revenue management, consumer behavior and customer loyalty programs.

Dr. Shoemaker has served as an advisor to numerous hospitality service providers over the course of his career including British Airways, Accor, Hilton, Landry’s and Hyatt.  He has helped game developers test market new casino games (both slots and table games), developed pricing strategies, developed programs to measure customer satisfaction, modeled the success and failure of marketing programs, and developed segmentation strategies based on consumer motivations in the gaming, lodging and restaurant industries.