Partner
Amadeus Capital Partners

Andrea Traversone

Andrea joined Amadeus in 1998 and is a partner focusing on the mobile sector. Andrea serves on the boards of: Igenomix, the world’s leading in-vitro fertilization (IVF) genetic testing company; Travelstart, the leading online travel agency in Africa and the Middle East; and ip.access, a leading supplier of picocell and femtocell base stations for 2G and 3G coverage and capacity. He is also the Amadeus representative for Kreditech, an online credit scorer and lender focussing on emerging markets. Andrea’s successes include Octo Telematics, acquired in 2014 by Renova Group, representing one of the most significant exits worldwide in the IoT (Internet of Things) space; and Bellco, a leading innovator in haemo-dialysis and blood-filtration, acquired in 2016 by Medtronic. Andrea also leads the Amadeus Digital Prosperity Fund investment activities.

Andrea started his career as a financial auditor at a chain of resort hotels in Costa Rica, rising to become head of operations, finance and development.

Andrea holds an MBA from Cambridge University and a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics. Italian by birth, Andrea is fluent in English, Italian, French and Spanish.

Co-founder & CEO
GlobalTix

Chan Chee Chong

Chee Chong is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of GlobalTix Pte Ltd, a leader in ticketing technology in Southeast Asia’s tourism industry.

As GlobalTix’s lead visionary and architect, Chee Chong drives key relationships and provides the overall strategic direction of the startup-up. He is fully committed to developing a global distribution system (GDS) to enhance the overall experience of travel partners, merchants and end consumers.

Since the inception of GlobalTix in 2014 when the first ticket was sold, Chee Chong and the team have grown the business exponentially. Now, it sells one ticket every 10 seconds and hosts more than 80,000 products in 120 cities on its marketplace. Under his leadership, GlobalTix has won numerous industry accolades, including being named Top Partner in 2017 by Resorts World Sentosa and Wildlife Reserves Singapore. Its roll call of partners include major names such as Singapore Airlines, National Gallery Singapore, TripAdvisor and niche operators such as Boon Teng Kee chicken rice restaurant chain.

Chee Chong holds a Bachelor of Engineering (2nd Upper) degree from the National University of Singapore.

Senior Vice President, Research & Product Strategy
Phocuswright

Charuta Fadnis

Ms. Fadnis leads Phocuswright’s research team and is focused on delivering high quality data, intelligence and insights that help customers make strategic decisions. She previously worked at Phocuswright from 2014 to 2016 and recently returned to take on responsibility for research content, delivery and setting product direction. Charuta has broad experience across the industry and has worked across various functions at American Airlines, Egencia and BCD Travel. Her expertise lies in uncovering and applying technological and market trends to strategy, product development and marketing. Charuta holds an M.B.A. from HEC Paris and a Bachelor of Engineering from Saurashtra University, India.

Founder & Group Executive Chairman
MakeMyTrip

Deep Kalra

Deep is the Founder and Group Executive Chairman of India’s leading online travel company, MakeMyTrip Limited. He has steered MakeMyTrip as CEO since its inception in 2000, to a successful listing on NASDAQ in August 2010.

Deep is passionate about Sustainable Tourism and has been championing this cause via the MakeMyTrip Foundation. He is on the Board of TiE (The IndUS Entrepreneurs) Delhi Chapter and served as President from 2013 to 2016. Deep is also one of the founding members of Ashoka University and serves on their governing body and Board.

Deep has been recognized by Ernst & Young as Entrepreneur of the Year – Business Transformation (2011) and as the most powerful Digital influencer in India (2012) by KPMG. He holds an MBA degree from IIM, Ahmedabad and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. 

His interests include swimming, yoga, adventure sports, quizzing and of course, travelling.

President
Wharf Hotels

Dr. Jennifer Cronin

Jennifer was appointed President of Marco Polo Hotels in 2016, now Wharf Hotels as of 6 June 2017, after serving as Vice President Sales & Marketing. At the same time, completing her PhD in the field of crisis management leadership attaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Bond University.

Previously, Jennifer managed the rebranding of Dusit International, and was given the responsibility to fully integrate the marketing functions, including the company’s CSR programmes. Prior to this assignment and during her six years in Singapore, Jennifer focused on the growth of intra-regional Asia Pacific travel for Singapore’s luxury hotel market. The emerging markets of China, India and the Middle East attributed to this success. Maintaining an agile and flexible understanding of the feeder markets in the Asian region during crisis periods such as 911, SARS and political upheavals was required to mitigate recovery periods.

Whilst having established her career as a marketing professional, Jennifer’s first role as a hotel General Manager, was for The Kooralbyn Hotel Resort. Her challenge was completed with the sale of the resort after a grueling Voluntary Administration. She then went on to be the opening GM of the Holiday Inn Hope Island before returning to the sales and marketing stream with Hyatt International.

Vice President Digital Marketing APAC
Accor

Emilie Couton

Emilie has been engaged in the ACCOR adventure for the past 19 years with different roles in the Sales & Distribution, Guest Experience and more recently as head of the Digital Marketing for Asia Pacific. Her passion for travel has led her from Paris to Asia where she settled 15 years ago. Bangkokian at heart, she now calls Singapore home.

Co-founder & COO
Klook

Eric Gnock Fah

Eric Gnock Fah is the co-founder of Klook Travel, Asia’s leading platform or travelers to explore and book a curated selection of activities. These amazing experiences are verified and vetted by Klook’s team of travel curators and made easily bookable online and on-the-go at unbeatable prices of up to 50% off.

Prior to founding Klook Travel, Eric worked in hedge fund and Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley, focused on consumer and travel companies in Asia. Originally from Mauritius, an exotic travel destination, Eric grew up speaking 7 languages and is a cultural explorer at heart.

CEO
Queen's Road Capital

Fritz Demopoulos

In 2005 Frederick “Fritz” Demopoulos co-founded and was the CEO of Qunar. Qunar was acquired by Baidu in 2011.

Fritz also co-founded and was the CEO of Shawei. Shawei was acquired by Tom.com in 2000.

Fritz held senior management positions at various online and traditional media companies in China including Netease, Hai Run Media Group and News Corporation.

Fritz currently coordinates his personal investment and entrepreneurial activities through Queen’s Road Capital.

A native of Los Angeles, Fritz was educated at UCLA, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Karls-Ruprecht University in Heidelberg. He has lectured on entrepreneurship and the Chinese Internet at Stanford, Harvard, UCLA, Tsinghua, Beijing University, Singapore Management University and the Communist Party College in Nanjing.

Head of Travel Vertical
Rappi

Guido Becher

As the head of Rappi Travel, Guido is in charge of building and running this new vertical inside the fastest growing “superapp” and ecommerce platform in the Latin American region. Guido brings with him over 20 years of experience in travel tech, launching and building teams and businesses across Latin America. He is a passionate entrepreneur and travel industry enthusiast. After founding a reverse auction model OTA in 1999, 123vendido.com, he started and was the driving force behind Netactica, one of the main travel technology providers in Latin America.

CEO
Agoda

John Brown

John joined Agoda in 2010 and during his tenure has been responsible for product, marketing and branding, customer experience, partner services, and market development teams, leading the company through a period of sustained global growth.

Previously, John was a Principal at Boston Consulting Group in Boston and Bangkok. He was also an economic advisor to the Afghan Minister of Commerce and Industry in Kabul and served three years in the Peace Corps as an enterprise development advisor.

John holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School and a BA in English Literature, cum laude, from Yale.

CEO, Online Business & Corporate Strategy
Yanolja

Jong Yoon Kim

Jong Yoon is the CEO of Online Business & Corporate Strategy at Yanolja, the biggest online leisure and accommodation booking platform in Korea.  Yanolja has expanded its businesses into global hotel chains and system businesses as well as the leisure and activity market.

Prior to joining Yanolja, Jong Yoon worked as a team lead of online sales and operation at Google, and then served as an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company as a digitization expert. He holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and studied chemical engineering at Seoul National University.

Co-founder & CEO
LINE TRAVEL.jp & Trip101

Kei Shibata

Kei co-founded Venture Republic Inc. As CEO, he took the company public in 2008 after 7 years of operation. Over the last 13 years, Kei has built the various online vertical media including “Travel.jp,” “Hotel.jp,” and “coneco.net” (online comparison shopping engine).

Kei also serves as an active investor and board member of various startups including Telunjuk (Indonesia) and Trip101 (Singapore).

With his extensive knowledge of online travel, e-commerce and his strong entrepreneurship, Kei is responsible for driving the company by shaping its strategy, making commercialization efforts and building organization.

Previously, Kei worked at Mitsubishi Corporation for 11 years,  playing a key role in company’s largest M&A deal to acquire the Lawson Inc., one of the largest convenience store chains in Japan.

Kei received a BA of Law from Keio University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

CEO
Singapore Tourism Board

Keith Tan

Keith Tan was appointed CEO of the Singapore Tourism Board in October 2018. Prior to that, he was deputy secretary of policy at the Ministry of Defence (Mindef), responsible for defence policy, strategic communications, national education and Total Defence.

Editor in Chief
PhocusWire

Kevin May

Kevin May has covered technology, distribution and the digital economy in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry since 2005, in roles prior to PhocusWire as editor of both Travolution and Tnooz.

He began his career as a reporter at the Police Gazette in London, before moving to local newspapers as deputy editor of the Essex Enquirer and then the web editor of business title, Media Week (UK).

Kevin holds a degree in criminology and is also the co-author of a biography about British electronic band, Depeche Mode, due to be published in March 2020.

Deputy CEO, APAC
Accor

Louise Daley

Chief Inclusion Officer & Senior Vice President
Expedia Group

Melissa Maher

As senior vice president for Marketing & Innovation for Expedia Group’s Lodging Partner Services, Melissa Maher spearheads the teams responsible for creating Expedia Group’s highly promising tech, marketing and data solutions for the lodging industry, as well as the B2B marketing and communications for hotel partners.

On the innovation side, Maher’s Lodging Platform Services team drives creation, adoption and engagement of Expedia Group’s MICE and white-label solutions, Rev+, Partner Loyalty Enrollment and VIP+. Maher also leads Owner Relations, the team focused on owners and management companies’ relations.

During her tenure with Expedia Group, Maher has been passionate in driving meaningful dialogue about women in leadership within the company and hospitality industry. She leads the Lodging Partner Services Communications & Diversity team, which is responsible for creating meaningful diversity and inclusions initiatives. Maher also oversees Partner Marketing, tasked with building a scalable marketing engine that powers hotel partner engagement.

Previously, Maher served as senior vice president of Global Partner Group, where she managed all aspects of global business relationships driving the strategy behind negotiations, distribution, and connectivity for Expedia Group’s chains, key accounts, and independent partnerships. Additionally, she led the Nevada/gaming lodging division.

Prior to joining Expedia Group in 2001, Maher opened the Paris Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas as the director of conference center sales. She also served as director of tour and conference sales with the Las Vegas Hilton.

Maher received an M.B.A. and a B.S. in hotel administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

CEO
Tidesquare

Min Yoon

Min Yoon is the CEO and founder of Tidesquare, one of South Korea’s leading OTAs. An online travel agency synonymous with premium travel, Tidesquare is partnered closely with one of the biggest credit card companies in South Korea.

Passionate about nurturing potential in the online travel industry, Min is also the majority shareholder of several other successful travel related startups in Korea.

Prior to Tidesquare, Min Yoon worked for international brands such as Samsung, Korean Air and Hyundai Card. He specialises in hospitality services of operations and marketing, premium marketing, new business development and new media marketing.

Executive Vice President, Consumer Travel
Seera Group

Muzzammil Ahussain

Muzzammil Ahussain is the Executive Vice President of Seera Group’s Consumer Travel Business Unit, spearheading the growth and development of Almosafer, Saudi Arabia’s digital-based omni-channel travel brand, and tajawal, one of the UAE’s top OTAs.

An internationally-recognised management consultant and operations executive, he leverages his vast experience in scaling and optimising operations to enable sustainable growth and cater to the MENA region’s evolving travel needs through seamless, technology-driven omni-channel experiences. As a former Senior Manager at Accenture Strategy, Muzzammil has led projects for a range of international clients. He holds an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California, Irvine​.

Group Chief Commercial Officer
Travelstart

Paulina Klotzbücher

Paulina Klotzbucher has spent almost 15 years in various verticals in ecommerce and the last decade in the OTA space with Travelstart. In those years she has worked on the technology front as the CTO and later driving the sales and marketing initiatives as CDO/CMO. She currently spends her time between Cape Town, Dubai and Cairo in the role of Managing Director heading up the Northern Markets and focusing on all spheres of the business; expanding Travelstarts’ reach into the MENA region which also includes developing incubation markets.  She has an undergraduate in finance and accounting from the University of the Witwatersrand and later a postgraduate in marketing and information systems from the University of Cape Town.

CEO
D-EDGE Hospitality Solutions

Pierre-Charles Grob

He began his career with Accor in New York in 2001 where he was instrumental in the creation of the North American Marketing department for the Sofitel and Novotel brands. In 2003, Pierre-Charles joined the New York-based Monaco Government Tourist Office to promote the destination and its luxury hotels to VIP clients and travel agents. An experience that lead him to join Monte-Carlo SBM where he held responsibilities as Sales, Marketing and E-Distribution Manager. He contributed significantly to the SBM’s commercial development, particularly via electronic platforms (Internet and GDS).

Pierre-Charles has a degree in marketing and management from ESSCA (l’Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Commerciales d’Angers).

Board Member, VELTRA Corp; Former Chairman & CEO, Viator & Rome2rio

Rod Cuthbert

Rod Cuthbert was the founder, Chairman and CEO of Viator, Inc, the first OTA to focus on the Tours & Activities space. From 2012 to 2018 he was the Chairman and CEO of Rome2rio, the mutlimodal search engine. He is a member of the board of Veltra Corporation, the Tokyo-based, publicly listed OTA specialising in Tours & Activities, and an investor in Magpie Travel, a content management system for that sector.

CEO & Co-founder
Wego

Ross Veitch

Ross is CEO & Co-Founder at Wego, which is online travel marketplace that provides top ranked mobile apps and websites for users living in the APAC and MENA regions. Wego harnesses powerful technology that simplifies the process of searching, comparing and booking flights and hotels across hundreds of airlines, hotels and online travel agency websites. Wego is has dual-HQs in Singpaore and Dubai and is backed by top-tier investors including Tiger Global, Crescent Group, Square Peg Capital and the MBC Group.

Ross is a veteran of the Asian internet industry having established Yahoo!s Southeast Asian operations in Singapore back in 1998 and leading product development efforts across the region for 6+ years. He is also Singapore Co-Chair of H2, the premier global leadership network for the digital industry. Ross has been an active angel investor in the technology sector for a decade and enjoys working with other passionate entrepreneurs. He has worked in Sydney, Melbourne, London, Kuala Lumpur and is now splits his time between Singapore and Dubai. He travels frequently for business but not nearly enough for leisure.

Director, Global Product Management
Expedia Group

Shyn Yee Ho-Strangas

Based in Singapore, Shyn Yee holds the role of Director, Global Product Management for Brand Expedia Group

Shyn Yee draws on a deep understanding of travel, the global online travel marketplace, and Expedia’s innovation and expertise. In her role as Director, Global Product Management for Brand Expedia Group, she is responsible for driving product local relevance, expanding both Expedia group’s global footprint and online travel audiences for suppliers around the world. Shyn Yee also oversees Expedia’s product strategy in the chat apps space. Shyn Yee directs and utilizes Expedia’s core technology and innovation, leverages global travel product to inform and design strategies aligned to business development goals.

In her six years with Brand Expedia Group, Shyn Yee also led Expedia’s retail strategy in China, and Merchandising efforts for Expedia across Asia, overseeing all regional merchandising strategies and activities for Brand Expedia and AirAsiaGo, Expedia group portfolio brands, across 25 points-of-sale in 13 countries.

Shyn Yee has spent her career developing a broad set of expertise in the travel industry, including general management, strategic development, product management, online distribution and hotel revenue maximization. Her perspective and experience span across Asia Pacific, having held various roles in organizations across the travel industry value chain.

Prior to joining Expedia, Shyn was part of the Digital Marketing team at Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels and Resorts supporting more than 250 upscale hotel properties; and prior to that, Assistant Director at Horwath HTL where she led consulting engagements, focusing on strategic expansion and hotel and resort developments in the region.

A strong advocate for women empowerment, education and young talent development, Shyn Yee founded and co-led the Women at Expedia, Leading and Learning (WELL) Singapore Chapter from 2014-2016; and is also actively involved with her alma mater, the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a guest lecturer, student mentor and Founding President of the SMU Travel and Hospitality Alumni Group (SMUTH). She is a Fellow Member with the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) Company of Good programme for the year 2017, and is actively involved in Expedia Group’s community impact efforts in Singapore and the region.

Shyn Yee is a proud mother of a prolific Grade-schooler and an fearless toddler. In her free time, she is an avid reader, budding musician, and attempts to learn more foreign languages.

CEO
Travelstart

Stephan Ekbergh

Stephan Ekbergh married father of 4, lives in Cape Town. Ex professional DJ for 10 years. Entrepreneur in Travel. Started the E-commerce revolution in Scandinavia 1999. Is now doing the same in Africa. Passion for releasing gifts and entrepreneurship with people. Writes and speaks about business, life and taking risks. Investor and active boardmember, also works with and finances non profits organization Thembalitscha foundation.

Vice President Corporate Development
Agoda

Timothy Hughes

Timothy Hughes is the Vice President Corporate Development of Agoda (a Priceline Company). Timothy is a “retired” blogger and pundit. Previously he was the editor and publisher of one of the top online travel industry blogs (the BOOT: the Business Of Online Travel) and a writer at Tnooz.

Tim is a former lawyer and venture capitalist. As a venture capitalist and consultant he helped a number of start-ups (inside and outside travel) secure funding, set up online media companies, managed investments in public companies and held regular client briefing sessions for a brokerage house. As lawyer he represented technology, new media, Internet, telecommunications and broadcasting clients in Australia, Europe and Hong Kong.

He first joined the online travel industry in 1999 and has worked for top tier online travel companies in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Tim has a Bachelor of Commerce and Hons Law Degree from the Australian National University.

Principal
777 Partners

Timothy O’Neil-Dunne

Timothy O’Neil-Dunne joined 777 Partners in 2018. Prior to joining 777, Mr. O’Neil-Dunne founded and served as head of product at Air Black Box. Previously, he held roles at Expedia and Worldspan.

General Partner, SOSV;
Managing Director, Chinaccelerator

William Bao-Bean

William is a General Partner at SOSV, a US$300M AUM accelerator-focused venture capital fund, and Managing Director of Chinaccelerator, East Asia’s first startup accelerator. Previously, William was the Managing Director of China investments at SingTel Innov8 Ventures and a Partner at Softbank China & India Holdings. William is also an active angel investor, with 39 investments between 2006 and 2014 when he joined SOSV.

In 2005, William was ranked #1 stock picker in Technology, Media and Telecom and #3 overall in Hong Kong and China by Forbes/SCMP/Starmine. The following year, he was ranked #3 analyst in Asia for Technology/Software and IT Services by Institutional Investor Magazine Asia.

He currently holds advisory or director board seats in several companies (GMobi, ChaseFuture, Neonan, EscapeX, Thoughtful Media Group, Vericant, Mingbo, iTalki, kineticOne) as well as major roles in active Asian startup organizations (Angelvest, AAMA Shanghai, Techyizu). He holds a BA from Bowdoin College.

Founder
WiT

Yeoh Siew Hoon

Yeoh Siew Hoon is the founder of WIT, launching it in Singapore in 2005 and going on to launch WIT editions across Asia Pacific. In 2016, WIT Europe made its debut in London, days after the Brexit vote.

WIT has won several awards including Most Innovative Marketing Initiative and Trade Conference Of The Year from the Singapore Tourism Board and in 2014, Siew Hoon was recognised Tourism Entrepreneur of The Year. A journalist by profession and passion, she’s also a speaker and facilitator at events around the world.  

She’s also a published author of titles such as “Around Asia In One Hour: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries” and children’s books such as “Adventures of Habibie The Turtle” and “The Story of Baitong and Boon”.