Boon Sian Chai

Senior Director, Market Management - Asia Pacific

 

 

Boon Sian Chai serves as the Senior Director for Expedia Lodging Partner Services Group for Asia Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, Chai oversees the team spearheading the growth of supply partners in North Asia in support of Expedia’s dynamic portfolio of 200+ travel booking sites globally.

 

Chai has progressed through the ranks in his years with the Expedia group. With an extensive knowledge and in-depth experience of the online travel space, Chai enjoys spending time consulting with hotel partners on their pricing, distribution and marketing strategies.

 

Prior to joining Expedia, Chai was the COO of an IT startup company specialising in online human resource system and held corporate planning and ecommerce positions with SHC Capital Ltd working on strategic planning, business development and sales and marketing.

 

Chai holds a MBA from the Chicago Booth School of Business.


Rachel Grier

Managing Director Asia Pacific

 

 

 

 

Rachel Grier is the Managing Director, Asia Pacific for IDeaS – A SAS COMPANY, responsible for growing IDeaS Asia business and enhancing the company’s leading brand reputation in the dynamic Asian hospitality sector. 

 

Rachel possesses a combination of successful leadership experiences in enterprise software and hospitality sales and marketing.  With more than two decades of experience, she has a record of growing businesses in the regional hospitality and travel sectors across a range of established and emerging markets in Asia, Pacific and the Middle East.

 

Most recently she was senior vice president sales, Asia Pacific and the Middle East for hotel central reservations leader Pegasus Solutions.


Estella Hale

Chief Product Evangelist

 

 

 

 

Estella Hale serves as Chief Product Evangelist for SHR. She is the voice to SHR’s vision to be the most trusted brand for hoteliers. Before being named CPE, Estella served as Vice President of Product, setting and fulfilling the strategic vision for all SHR products, including Windsurfer® CRS.

She possesses a rich hospitality background, having managed implementations and support for hotel management groups in addition to managing client services departments, and holding several guest and internal services positions at major hotel chains.


Lauren Hall

Founder and CEO

 

 

Lauren is a passionate entrepreneur with more than 25 years’ business management experience at Executive and Board level across the MICE, retail (FMCG), advertising and core technology industries in both South Africa and Australia.Lauren is Founder and CEO of iVvy, a multi-award winning SaaS Technology company providing enterprise software to the Events and Hospitality industry. Since its 2009 launch, Lauren has overseen iVvy’s continued growth and global expansion to New Zealand, Asia, Europe and North America. Offering the world’s first real-time marketplace with live availability and pricing for function space, F&B, group accommodation and suppliers, iVvy is a real game changer for the events industry.

Recognised by Ernst & Young as an Industry Leader withthe EWW program, Lauren has also won 4 prestigious Global Stevie Awards for Best New Product, Entrepreneur of the Year, Innovator of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year (Asia Pacific). She has been awarded the Queensland iAwards for Best Innovation in the Digital Economy, as well as Gold Coast’s Business Woman of the Year, Innovator of the Year and was presented with the Gold Coast Mayor’s Award for Innovation. With a second Dan Black belt in ITF Taekwondo, Lauren was the National Taekwondo Champion for South Africa, competing in the World Championships - Russia and on the international circuit for 5 years. She now lives in the Gold Coast Queensland with her husband and two sons.


Richard Hatter

General Manager

 

Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Hotel and Tourism Management

 

 

Mr. Richard Hatter is the General Manager of Hotel ICON and Adjunct Associate Professor of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Well-regarded as a specialist in the Asia hotel market, he brings more than 25-years experience in the hotel industry with him to the roles. As the General Manager of Hotel ICON, a fully integrated upscale independent teaching and research hotel, Mr. Hatter is responsible for implementing and managing all aspects of Hotel ICON’s management and operating philosophy, brand, marketing strategy, operating systems, hiring and recruitment and integrated educational internship model.

Prior to his current appointment at Hotel ICON, Mr. Hatter spent the last four of his 18 years with Shangri-La Hotels & Club Resorts as the Director of Development where he was responsible for driving the renovation and the repositioning of hotels in Hangzhou, Beijing, Pudong, Xian, Qingdao, Harbin, Shenyang, Wuhan, Dalian, Shenzhen, Beihai, Singapore, Fiji, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong.


Ting Huang

Analyst

 

 

Ting Huang is an Analyst specializing in Service & Payment and Home & Tech at Euromonitor International, Hong Kong.

 

Ting is currently dedicated in conducting market research through performing analysis on market segmentation, competitive landscape, sizing, and forecasting. Ting is keen on delivering insights and prevailing trends to help foster understanding of the local market and facilitate strategic decision making across a wide variety of industries including Travel and Retailing.


Nick Jeffery

Vice-President Sales and Account, Management - Asia-Pacific

 

 

Nick Jeffery leads the Asia-Pacific Business Development team for Sabre Hospitality Solutions. A veteran of the Asia-Pacific Hospitality sector he joined Sabre back in 2009 after leading the Account Management team for IDeaS across Asia-Pacific since 2001.

Prior to his roles with leading hospitality technology companies he “cut his teeth” in Hospitality with the Intercontinental Hotel Group where he held a variety of roles during his 13 year tenure. Whilst working with the Sydney Intercontinental he implemented the first automated Revenue Management solution for the Group globally which prove the catalyst for a rollout of the solution across six continents in the late 1990’s. He has studied Commerce and Economics at both the University of NSW and Macquarie University in Sydney


Dennis Leung

Director of Presales

 

 

Dennis Leung is Director of Presales for SAS Hong Kong.  He leads a team of presales specializing on different area of analytical expertise and industrial practice. An industry veteran for over 30 years and has experience on software development, consultant, presales and sales in various Fortune 500 companies.  Dennis’ specialty in analytics is real time predication engineering structure dynamics and Case Base Reasoning.

 

Prior to joining SAS, Dennis served various senior roles in Oracle including GM Application Sales of Oracle Hong Kong and GM Applications Channel for Oracle APAC. Dennis holds a degree in Engineering and PhD in Structural Dynamics from UCL, London University UK.   


Trishe Goh                                                  

Lead, Digital Strategy

 

 

As Lead, Digital Strategy at Happy Marketer, Trishe’s experience spans laying out digital strategy across key channels and guiding clients how to leverage business intelligence to elevate their success further. She has worked on key regional accounts spanning diverse industries, including some heavyweights like Nanyang Business School, Royal Brunei Airlines, PANDORA, Standard Chartered Bank, SMRT, Wildlife Reserves Singapore, and Johnson & Johnson.

 

During her time at Happy Marketer, she has led multiple sales pitches and bagged several key accounts including GROHE, CapitaLand Retail, Royal Brunei Airlines, Grab, Delmonte (S&W), INSEAD, NTUC Income, The Empire Hotel, Delifrance & Space Matrix.

 

Outside of work, Trishe has shared insights about the key factors to consider when executing a successful digital campaign, navigating the intricate consumer habits of Millennials, the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the future of E-Commerce in this evolving world of digital. She was the keynote speaker at events such as the CapitaLand Retail Conference, an E-Commerce Conference organised by Brother & at workshops organised by Temasek Polytechnic X Institute of Public Relations Singapore’s Student Chapter. She was also a panelist at the Digital Thai | Digital Asia organised by AdCamie in Bangkok, sharing about how brands today can advertise more effectively.


Kim Ong

VP Strategic Sales & Account Management APAC

 

 

Kim is a digital marketer and a revenue & reputation management strategist with approximately 20 years of hospitality experience in Asia. Throughout that time, she actively gains new knowledge in the hospitality world and continuously engages with new and existing clients to grow their business.

 

The VP of Strategic Sales & Account Management in the Asia Pacific region for FASTBOOKING, Kim’s overall responsibilities include the development and execution of sales strategies as well as to oversee the management of existing accounts. Kim has held leadership roles in international hotels solution providers and has successfully collaborated with leading hotel chains globally.


Amit Peshawaria

Director of Business Development for Australia, New Zealand & Pacific

 

 

Amit is currently the Director of Business Development for Australia, New Zealand & Pacific with OTA Insight. He is responsible for driving brand awareness, building relationships with key hospitality partners and working with local and regional hoteliers to help them succeed and optimise their businesses in the changing online distribution landscape.

Amit has been involved in the hotel industry for over 20 years. He has held a variety of operational and commercial roles at hotel, cluster and regional levels, specialising in revenue, sales and distribution management. In Asia and Middle East, Amit has worked with Taj Hotels and Hilton.

In Australia, Amit held senior project planning and revenue management roles with Hilton, Belmonde, Accor and Minor Hotels before joining OTA Insight. Amit holds a Master of Business Administration from Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney.


Patrick Sin

Director of Sales, Marketing & Revenue Management

 

 

Patrick Sin is the Director of Sales, Marketing & Revenue Management of Hotel ICON, a luxury boutique design hotel in Hong Kong. Overseeing the sales and marketing division, Patrick’s key role is to set the long term marketing direction as well as revenue management strategies for this independent hotel, which is wholly owned by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

A results-driven senior leader with proven track record in achieving the highest revenue returns possible through the adoption of revenue optimisation products, Patrick has a strong data analytics background in setting up customer mix and pricing strategies.

In June 2010, Patrick joined Hotel ICON as part of the pre-opening team and was responsible for establishing the hotel’s electronic distribution channels, including the hotel’s website booking engine, third party online travel agents (OTAs) and global distribution channels. Before devoting his work to Hotel ICON, Patrick served as the Regional Director of Revenue Management of Preferred Hotels & Resorts in Asia Pacific from May 2014 until April 2016, working with more than 120 hotels in terms of digital marketing, revenue management and sales distribution support.


Kenneth Yong

General Manager, The Salisbury

 

Kenneth Yong serves as the General Manager of The Salisbury - YMCA of Hong Kong. The Salisbury is a Four-star hotel with 372 rooms located at the tip of Tsimshatsui which is the main shopping and tourist area in Hong Kong. The hotel is adjacent to the MTR station with most of the rooms overlooking Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong Island.

The hotel’s slogan “Our location is excellent and theneighbourhood could not be better” sums up its competitive edge. Kenneth has more than 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry and has held senior management positions with the Hilton Hotels, InterContinental Hotel Group and most recently with the Hong Kong Jockey Club as Manager, Racecourse Catering Operations where he managed the extensive catering operations there with over 120 restaurants and Private Boxes at both Sha Tin and Happy Valley Racecourses.

A Malaysian national, Kenneth joined the hotel industry in 1993 as a Banquet Sales Executive at the Hong Kong Hilton. While advancing his career, he continued his education through hospitality management programs at Switzerland’s prestigious Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne and IVEY Business School in Hong Kong. Kenneth is a graduate of Hotel Institute Montreux in Switzerland and Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. When he’s not working, he enjoys playing badminton with his two daughters, reading and trying new restaurants.

 


Ephraim Lam

Agency Partner

 

 

Ephraim currently oversees media agency partnerships at Facebook Hong Kong. He has over 10 years of digital advertising & marketing experience in areas of mobile, video, social, search, and display. As an advocate and business partner, he is passionate on how digital media effectively transform businesses and above all our daily lives. Previously, he has also worked at Google and Yahoo..


Matthew Kum

Assistant Guest and Public Relations Manager

 

 

Matthew is the next generation of hoteliers who have a strong passion for hospitality. He has been with Hotel ICON since 2016 as an Elite Management Trainee and was headhunted right after graduation. Together with his team, he goes above and beyond to ensure that all guests at ICON are well pampered and all guest-facing staff are adhere to ‘We Love to Care’ point of engagement framework. In Aug 2018, he was also elected to be one of the core members of Hotel ICON’s Innovation Team, which generates and executes precious and original ideas to enhance hotel’s values. Despite the young age, Matthew often has unique and sophisticated perspectives on different matters. Back in university, his Honours Thesis was awarded Mr. Louen Tang Best Undergraduate Honours Thesis Award 2016/17 because of its eloquence and supreme performance.


Amanda Wantono

Elite Management Trainee, School of Hotel and Tourism Management

 

 

Amanda Wantono is a final year international student at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University studying Hotel Management and European Studies. She is a curious individual who finds allure in challenging quests and satisfaction in effective time management. As both an academic scholarship recipient and the Vice President of Club Manager's Association student chapter, she does not find herself limited in any aspects of learning. Inspired to live life meaningfully, she actively takes part in cultural-diversity projects through AIESEC and PolyU Project Stars. In ten years, she hopes to be able to speak 5 languages.


Antony Yiu

Digital Specialist, Asia Pacific

 

 

Antony has a wealth of experience handling digital campaigns in the Travel and Hospitality industry including OTAs, global airlines as well as major international hotel chains including The Peninsula Hotels, Mandarin Oriental Group, and Rosewood Hotels. Before joining the agency world, he has worked for Google and a number of Internet start-ups in the United States. He moved to Hong Kong in 2008 to become the Managing Director for iProspect Hong Kong, as well as Key Clients for Asia Pacific. In 2014, he joined Wavemaker (Formerly known as MEC) as the Head of Digital, Search & Performance for Asia Pacific. He is recognized as a leading expert in digital marketing and is frequently quoted in the media including Bloomberg regarding digital development in Asia Pacific. His expertise spans across paid, own, earned media channels. Antony completed his graduate studies in Sociology, with a concentration on Social Psychology and Economic Sociology at Stanford University. He is also a frequent speaker at industry conferences around the region.


Gan Hup Tan

Assistant Vice President (Brand & Marketing, Digital Innovation and lyf)

 

 

Gan Hup TAN spearheads Ascott’s latest co-living brand lyf - Live your freedom, by millennials for millennials. A new co-living concept that connects you with like-minded travellers while setting the stage for jetsetters and trendsetters to bond in an array of social spaces and foster a new way of community living. Gan Hup also drives Ascott’s loyalty programme and is on the search for the latest digital technologies to enhance the hospitality sector. An educator too, Gan Hup’s background is in hands-on, project-based learning and space innovations to support active learning and creating collaborative community to the learning habits of the millennials. Gan Hup holds an MBA from INSEAD, France, a post-graduate diploma in teaching and learning from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and a BSC (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of Southamption, United Kingdom.


And more to come!