Speakers 2023 at a Glance

Tim Davis established PACE Dimensions in 2010 as a new breed of advisory and research consultancy for the travel, leisure and hospitality sectors. In an age of changing patterns of demand, digital revolution and need for businesses and humanity to become more sustainable, he saw an opportunity to guide businesses through intense change and develop the resilience to overcome future disruption. Today, PACE Dimensions’ investment in research supports clients in addressing the new challenges and opportunities facing the travel and hospitality industry, which have only become compounded by the impact of the COVID crisis creating a more dynamic and less predictable world.

At PACE Dimensions, Davis helps global companies improve their performance and competitive edge by developing winning insight-based strategies and transforming business processes in order to build distinctive and valuable brands.

An expert in strategic change management, business architecture, strategy and brand development, Davis also leads comprehensive research programmes using proprietary studies exclusive to PACE Dimensions. The consultancy also boasts partnerships with several of the travel and hospitality industry’s leading data specialists to further inform advisory work.

Key achievements of the PACE Dimensions business under Davis’ leadership include the development of a corporate growth strategy to create a top five global hotel group; redesigning global distribution and property management systems to boost profitability to record levels; and operating as a lead advisor on multiple successful mergers and acquisitions.

With over 20 years of international management experience, Davis has worked with a number of high-profile brands including spending 12 years as senior executive and member of the management board at Hilton. He was responsible for the creation and delivery of Hilton’s eCommerce capabilities across their major markets, taking online sales to US$3.5bn worldwide in five years. Prior to Hilton, Davis has held senior management roles with Hughes Olivetti Telecom and Galileo.

Davis has a wealth of experience as a keynote speaker and moderator at global industry events such as ITB Berlin, HITT, Hotelschool The Hague Research Symposium, The Hotel Revenue Forum and Eye for Travel.

Sophie Herrmann is a Partner at Systemiq, focusing on Circular Materials & Tourism. Her work has involved the development of Systemiq’s tourism advisory services, including with multinational hospitality companies and industry bodies, as well as working on Systemiq’s flagship tourism report, Better Travel & Tourism, Better World (2022), which was launched at the G20 in Bali.
Beyond tourism, Sophie´s work included advisory services on Circular Economy (CE) with FMCGs, retailers, and the Fashion Pact, on digital product passports, particularly for batteries, as well as analytic reports on CE “as a service” business models, CE for plastic packaging in Germany, and a global report on planet positive Chemicals system. She brings experience as a management consultant in the consumer goods industry, in strategy development both in supply and demand management.
Before joining Systemiq, she worked as a Director at Integration Management Consulting, advising multinational companies on strategy, organization, and management. She led the Center of Excellence for Sustainability, advising on innovation through sustainability management, sustainable supply chains, and circular economy.Previously, Sophie worked as a Natural Resources Management Specialist and Task Team Leader at the World Bank and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where her projects included work on the microeconomics of water, resources management for agriculture, and adaptation to climate change among others. She holds a MSc in Political Science and Economics and studied at the Free University of Berlin and the Université de Montreal.

Dr Crispian Tarrant is a highly experienced customer insight professional with a well-established reputation for pinpointing the business implications of research findings. An advocate of evidence-based decision-making, he provides advice that is sought at CEO and Board level by many leading organisations, especially those operating in travel, hotels and hospitality.

Cris founded BDRC, a specialist market research consultancy, in 1991 and the firm has grown to become a highly respected insights provider with a deep level of specialisation in several service industry verticals.

Since 2018 the business has been part of the Paris-based BVA Group, a worldwide top 20 research group, which has over 700 staff across more than a dozen global offices.

The BVA-BDRC hotels and hospitality practice produces the Hotel Guest Survey, regarded as the industry bible for the monitoring of hotel brand perceptions in multiple global markets, the Venue Verdict suite of operational performance tools for the MICE sector, and Brand Margin® the unique methodology for determining the perceived added value that a hotel brand delivers.

Consumer demand – or expectation – is one of the key drivers of the ESG agenda. Cris and his team are actively engaged in understanding the nature of this demand in the travel sector, how the market segments and how consumer behaviours can be ‘nudged’ to achieve better ESG outcomes.

Cris qualified as a social scientist, with a BSc from Durham University and a PhD from Manchester University. He is a Fellow of the UK Market Research Society and twice a winner of MRS national awards for research effectiveness. He is also a Fellow of the UK Tourism Society and the UK Institute of Directors.

An accomplished speaker and panel chairman, Cris has spoken at international conferences in Europe, USA, Asia, Middle East and Africa and he has lectured on service performance measurement at the Warwick University MBA course and been an invited speaker at the School of Hotel Management at Oxford Brookes University.

Eric is passionate about making travelers’ lives easier and more sustainable.

As an accomplished travel manager, he has extensive experience in both project and procurement management. Since 2018, Eric has been responsible for the management of global lodging procurement at Siemens AG, including supplier negotiation and management, sustainability, data analytics, innovation, and end-user communication.

Prior to his current role, Eric worked as a Senior Consultant at Siemens AG in Munich from 2012 to 2018. During this time, he focused on global project management in the M&A and travel industries. Before that, he worked for four years at the consulting firm Campana & Schott, where he focused on global project management in the outsourcing and M&A industries.

Eric is also a member of the Global Development Program at Siemens Supply Chain Management.
Apart from his professional work, Eric is also socially engaged in the community and serves as honorary CFO of Karl & Liesl e.V. in Munich since September 2022. This organization runs three day care centers for children.

Fabio Fornari is a Product Manager at HRS responsible for the Green Stay Initiative, a proprietary solution that provides transparent information on the sustainability of hotel partners, helping corporates measure, report, reduce and remove emissions of their hotel program.

He joined HRS after completing his research as a German Chancellor Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation on sustainable tourism and how the travel industry interacts with the global climate agenda.

Zaneta Sedilekova is a Director of climate and biodiversity risk at the consultancy firm Climate Law Lab.

She has also been appointed as a Biodiversity Risk Advisor for a global think tank Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative, where she carries out research and provides strategic advice on how biodiversity loss can pose a material risk to financial institutions and corporations across multiple sectors. In addition, she is a practising lawyer with a strong focus on climate and biodiversity liability risk in corporate sector.

Zaneta has co-authored several reports on biodiversity risks, including “Addressing biodiversity loss – revolution or evolution of English law?” and “Biodiversity Risk: Legal Implications for Companies and their Directors” for CCLI. She regularly speaks about climate and biodiversity risk and litigation at conferences, webinars and other events.

Florian is an experienced transformation professional who helps bring OLD companies into their NEW reality. Over the years, he has done this successfully in various roles as a consultant, CRO, startup entrepreneur, coach and currently Chief Development Officer and quarterback for the EY Parthenon.

He believes in a H2H (human to human) model when working with clients, not a B2B one (business to business). He works to create a culture that is customer-centric, technology-enabled, agile, and based on putting customer-experience first.

Florian is the Co-Founder of EYCarbon and currently driving the European Roll Out with his team. His sector focus is Retail and Consumer Goods, where he is also part of the global sector team. Before EYCarbon he was founding partner of EY-Parthenon Practice in the DACH region. Besides his client facing roles Florian is part of the DACH Leadership Team as CDO. He also has his own corporate experience having launched several EY startups or leading EY’s own Alternative Business Model activities.

He joined EY from Roland Berger in 2006 (Restructuring and Corporate Finance Practice) and is working in the EY Munich Office. Florian is a Lawyer and has also a Bachelor in Business Administration.

Felix is based in Berlin and has been advising national and international clients on all aspects of hotel and real estate law for more than 20 years. His transaction and financing track record includes hundreds of hotels, commercial and residential properties – both through cross-border portfolio transactions as well as through acquisitions of single prominent core properties.

When he puts on the operator hat, he is a trusted advisor for all sorts of lease, management, and other operating agreements as well as for any asset management issues.

In all these fields, ESG aspects, taxonomy and regulatory requirements are essential components of the legal big picture and support.

Malin Lindfors Speace is the founder and CEO of Ethos – Nordic’s leading management consultancy specialising in sustainability. As a senior advisor in sustainability, she holds more than 25 years of experience in the field with expertise in sustainable business development and sustainable finance. Since founding Ethos in 2007, Malin and her team of +35 experts have worked closely with some of the largest listed companies and financial market participants on the market. Malin holds a deep and profound understanding of the necessary interplay between sustainability and long-term business success. She has conducted over 200 inspections in all ranges of businesses, sectors and countries to ensure companies respect human rights, labour rights, and environmental matters.

At age 21, she founded Situation Sthlm, a street paper and social project with a circulation of 30,000 issues per month employing 300 homeless vendors. Recognised for her advocacy of social sustainability and human rights, she has been awarded the UN Chapter’s Rights Award, the Respect Foundation’s Grass Roots Work Award and the Non-violence Foundation’s Work against Violence.

Malin is an experienced lecturer, keynote speaker and trainer of sustainability-related topics and has been awarded several prices for her accomplishments.

Skilled in established and new EU regulations and reporting standards, Malin is a member of the GRI stakeholder council and advises the board on strategic issues relevant to global reporting standards.

Anthony Tuffour is an expert Geospatial Data Science and Digital Twins professional, with over 20 years of experience. Working with Architects, Engineering, Infrastructure and Construction sectors he has vast experience in working at district, urban, and city- level planning, governance, Asset Management, Smart City resilience and Disaster Risk reduction.

Anthony is the Discipline Director at BuroHappold Ltd, leading its Global GIS and Digital Twins consulting, advisory, and solutions delivery services to clients across the globe. His expertise translates to providing data-driven and technology services, focussing on digital Master-planning, Net zero pathways, advanced analytics, automation, and computation. He has integrated immersive visualisation and real-time 3D, enabling decision-making at every level of the built environment, from rooms to buildings, to campuses, cities, regions, and countries.

Anthony’s expertise also extends to design thinking, digital maturity assessments, digital twins business cases and corporate strategy development, development of data standards, methods, and procedures, information modelling and management, visualisation, communication, and data sharing.

Xenia zu Hohenlohe is a Founding Partner/Director with the Considerate Group, a change-making company that helps hospitality businesses operate responsibly.
Xenia began her career in the hotel industry 24 years ago, speaks 6 languages and worked for international hotel groups such as Mandarin Oriental Hotels, Oberoi Hotels and spent various years within sales as well as operations with Aman across the globe.

She joined forces with her business partner Benedetta Cassinelli to create Considerate Hoteliers Ltd in 2012 in order to offer the hospitality sector a platform with hands-on services and innovative technologies for responsible business solutions.

Now in 2021 Considerate Group is at the forefront of creating tailor-made methodologies for the successful integration of sustainability strategies for hotels and tourism companies around the world with their highly skilled team of 12 experts. Their focus is very much on driving companies to perform better financially, have a solid ESG strategy, data transparency and achieving a positive impact for the sector of a whole.

An ecologist by profession, and passionate conservationist and educator, Anthony (Tony) has developed tourism destinations and commercially successful luxury resorts and lodges across Southern Africa, Australia, UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

He has been recognised for his conservation-based and sustainable approach, receiving National Geographics’ World Legacy Award, the Aga Khan Award, and was recognised by the World Travel & Tourism Council for contributions to Conservation and Sustainable Development Goals. He has worked with the UNWTO, IUCN, UNESCO and The World Bank in developing tourism destinations.

An advocate of Sustainability and ESG principles, he has led the formation of two major Wildlife Reserves in the ME, each successfully balancing tourism development and Protected Area management.

Recently joining Buro Happold Engineering in Riyadh, he is focussing on Sustainable and ESG-based destination development strategy, currently working with the Saudi Ministry of Tourism as Program Director.

As founder of sustainable development consultancy Destination-360, he conducts pro-bono advisory services to destinations on tourism development, conservation and biodiversity protection.

Glenn Mandziuk is an award-winning and internationally recognised chief executive with 25+ years of leadership experience in advancing sustainable practices in tourism, hospitality and economic development. This experience includes engaging with all levels of industry and government on social, environmental, and business issues to establish strategies and programmes that inspire responsible growth. Glenn’s proven track record of fostering collaborative, action-oriented environments allow organisations he has led to thrive and innovate ensuring they remain relevant, influential and an engaging place to work.

Glenn is the new Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance headquartered in London, UK whose members consist of 17 world-leading hotel companies with a combined reach of over 35,000 properties and 5.5 million rooms – 30% of the global industry by rooms. Prior to joining the Alliance, his forward-thinking leadership approach resulted in organisations he headed in Canada to be acknowledged as global champions of excellence and innovation in sustainable destination management and responsible industry development practices.

He was recently recognised by the International Hospitality Institute as a Top 30 Champion of Environmental Sustainability in Hospitality and Tourism and has been a part of numerous honours from several organizations including the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, World Travel and Tourism Council, World Travel Awards, and Responsible Tourism Institute’s Biosphere Gold Certification (a first in the Americas).

Glenn is currently a director on the Board of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and the Responsible Tourism Institute and has delivered keynote presentations advocating for sustainable destination management practices in nearly 20 countries covering 6 continents. He has 10 years experience directly in the hospitality industry in family owned and operated hotels and resorts and holds a Master of Environmental Design degree majoring in sustainable tourism planning and is a Registered Professional Planner with the Canadian Institute of Planners.

Willem van der Zee embodies innovative and personalized hospitality. He has helped numerous leading global hospitality, lifestyle, and travel companies streamline and optimize their vital business aspects like Operations Management, Asset Management, and People Management.

Since September 2022, he has been responsible for the activities in Belgium as Director of Operations for Pandox; he also holds the position of General Manager of The Hotel Brussels. His responsibilities also include the topic of sustainability. Pandox’ Board of Directors and Executive Management Group are committed to reach the CO2 emissions goals to the Paris Agreement pathway.

Willem’s career started at Hilton and PPHE Hotel Group in the F&B segment and climbed the career ladder at Radisson from 1998 onwards – from F&B manager to GM role to Area Vice President Central Europe Radisson Blu – Park Inn. In 2015, he immersed himself in the world of private equity with Lapithus and was later responsible for over 85 hotels in Europe as COO at Event Hotels.

At the end of 2020, he founded his company “Willem & Too” focusing scaling in operations.

Inge Huijbrechts is Global Senior Vice President Sustainability, Security and Corporate Communications for Radisson Hotel Group (RHG)– developing the Sustainability and Safety & Security programs in the group’s 1,100+ hotels in operations & development in 95 countries around the world.

Together with her team, she leads the group’s Net Zero transformation based on approved Science Based Targets and keeps employees around the world engaged in everyday Responsible Business actions. Additionally, she leads the global expert Safety & Security team to ensure all is done to welcome guests in safe and secure hotels:

She developed unique value propositions such as Radisson Meetings worldwide being 100% carbon neutral and defined the company’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic by specifying the Radisson Hotels Safety Protocol in partnership with SGS.

In April 2022, she was one of the key leaders involved in the definition and launch of the Hotel Sustainability Basics, an initiative to set a common, clear and transparent definition of hotel sustainability to drive responsible travel & tourism. The new standard is defined by the industry for the industry and is supported by the World Travel & Tourism Council and a group of leading hotels groups and associations representing over 50,000 hotels.

Inge is Co-Chair of the ASIS Europe conference, the leading cross industry organization for security. She is a member of the ASIS Chief Security Officer Center for Leadership and Development and of the US State Department’s OSAC Hotel & Lodging Sector Committee. She is a member of the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance Senior Advisory Board and sits on the GRI Club Sustainability Committee. Inge also serves on the board of Flanders Special Venues.

In 2022 and 2023, Inge was named one of the 100 Most influential people in Global Hospitality and in the global Top 100 Women in Sustainability.

The speakers of the past years
can be found in the corresponding PDF: