Conference Speakers

Marcel Wanders

Marcel Wanders designs for the world, making unique gifts that are meaningful to the people receiving them as well as to the designer himself. Marcel is on a mission which he had already thought of and planned during his time as a student. After graduating with honors from the Arnhem School of the Arts he didn't have to wait long for fame. He received rave reviews at the first Droog design exhibition in Milan in 1993 and later for his Knotted Chair, created for Droog in 1996, which rocketed him to stardom in the design world and is now an iconic piece of design. Now working from his design studio in the centre of Amsterdam, Marcel Wanders studio ‘one of the most inspiring powerhouses of multi-disciplinary design' (The Observer), Wanders began to expand his empire and in 2000 began the high end design label Moooi, which he co-founded with Casper Vissers. Not one to sit back, Wanders remains extremely active as art director of Moooi, in addition to designing new and awe-inspiring designs to the collection.

Over a period of two decades, Wanders has, and continues to, design for leading international companies. His innovative use of material and technology, coupled with his graceful combination of the old and the new as well as his trademark ‘tongue in cheek', make his products instantly recognizable. Avant-gardist, Marcel's products have been received widely and hailed as challenging and surprising; he is continually creating to make the world a better place. In recent years Marcel Wanders has set new standards in interior design, ranging from the Villa Moda flagship store in Bahrain to the sleeping beauty-magic of the Mondrian South Beach Hotel in Miami. These projects, as well as the Lute suites hospitality concept in Amsterdam, private residences in Jakarta, Amsterdam and Mallorca all reflect his sense for the theatrical and remarkable use of space and textures.

Chris Sanderson

Christopher Sanderson is co-founder of The Future Laboratory, where he is responsible for delivering the company's extensive global roster of conferences, media events and in-house briefings. Clients include the Gucci Group, the European Travel Commission, Retail Week, BBDO's HUB conference and Omnicom's DAS.
Chris has a monthly column in UK luxury industry bible The Luxury Briefing, and was previously contributing style editor at British Esquire. Prior to founding The Future Laboratory, he was UK communications director for surfwear brand Quiksilver, and a lecturer in visual communication at the University of the Arts in London. He has also served as a member of the advisory panel for the British Council's Creative Industries Unit, wher eprojects included setting up magazines in Estonia and India, and mapping the growth of the creative economy throughout Scandinavia.

Guy Dittrich

A freelance writer and independent commentator on hotels, travel and design Guy Dittrich frequently moderates at hotel conferences including the Sleep Event, HI Design EMEA, HI Design Asia and the Hotel Investment Conference.  Writing for Wallpaper*, Condé Nast Traveller, Business Traveller, various UK and European newspapers and travel websites Guy also regularly contributes detailed hotel reviews to Sleeper, the specialist hotel design magazine.  In the course of his work he gets to see and experience many of the hotels entering the awards and brings this first-hand knowledge into the judging process.  Additionally Guy provides a wide range of hotel marketing consultancy advice helping hotels get to market.

Born and raised in Zimbabwe and having lived in both London and Munich, Guy now works from Brussels

Andrew Sangster

Andrew Sangster is editor of Hotel Analyst, the monthly newsletter for the hotel investment community. The title, founded and owned by Andrew, draws on more than 10 years of experience covering the leisure industry for other publishers. It is designed to understand, as well as report, the news. See www.hotelanalyst.co.uk for more details.

Andrew has become a respected authority in his field, making regular appearances both in broadcast and print. He has appeared on BBC Breakfast News, Working Lunch, CNBC, Reuters TV, plus various local evening news programmes. He has also worked for BBC business news.

Adam Tihany

Adam D. Tihany established his own multidisciplinary design studio in New York in 1978 encompassing all aspects of design, from commercial and residential interior architecture to furniture, products, exhibitions, and graphics.
Today, he is known as a premier hospitality designer and has created some of the world’s most innovative and highly acclaimed restaurant and hotel projects. Highlights of his work include The Joule, a Luxury Collection Hotel in Dallas, the One & Only Cape Town resort in South Africa, and the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas – all of which were conceived entirely by Tihany Design, successfully branding each individual hotel, whether a resort destination or an urban experience.

Jeremy Blake

Jeremy Blake, Head of Hospitality, is a Rome Scholar and founding secretary of the RIBA Traditional Architecture Group. He combines historic buildings expertise with a much soughtafter specialism in hotel and spa design and is currently Chairman of the European Hotel Design Awards’ judging panel for the second year running. Passionate about sustainable design, Blake has been delivering pioneering BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rated buildings for over 15 years and has spoken about eco-hotels and environmentally responsible design at conferences in the UK, Europe and the USA.

Gregoir Chikaher

Gregoir Chikaher is a Director with Ove Arup & Partners, specialising in the multi-disciplinary design and management of hotel and leisure projects worldwide. He has been with Arup over twenty five years and has worked with all major international hotel chains and Arup has done more than 1000 hotel projects around the globe.

He enjoys drawing on Arup's worldwide network to bring together the best technical and local expertise with understanding of operators' needs and developers' business needs- delivering facilities
that are cost effective both to build and operate.

He has particular skills in the design of innovative and sustainable hotels and eco-resorts. He values creativity and enthusiasm as vital characteristics for an engineer.
Gregoir leads focused teams that understand the issues of owning, developing investing and operating hospitality, hotel and resort facilities.

Dr Chris Idzikowski

Dr Chris Idzikowski is currently Director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre but continues his role with the Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service. He started researching sleep more than 20 years ago when he worked at Prof Ian Oswald’s sleep laboratory at Edinburgh University’s Department of Psychiatry before researching into fear and anxiety with the Medical Research Council in Cambridge. An expert on sleep and its disorders, Dr Idzikowski has served as Chairman of the British Sleep Society, and has sat on various academic boards. He set up the Royal Society of Medicine’s Sleep and its disorders forum, now the Sleep Medicine Section. He’s also worked as a consultant for companies such as British Airways and Crowne Plaza.

Peter Anscomb

Following the acquisition of National Westminster Bank in 2000, Peter Anscomb became head of the Travel and Hotels team within the sector-based large corporate marketing teams of The Royal Bank of Scotland plc. Based in London, the team operated internationally with a global mandate for these industry sectors, whilst also providing an internal ‘advisory function’ to other areas of the bank’s operations with involvement in the hotel sector.  Since moving the role into the core Corporate Bank, he maintains an international mandate alongside his colleagues in Global Banking Markets and continues the ‘advisory function’ helping many divisional and subsidiary areas of the bank and occasional specialist assistance to Credit, and with the release of the non-hotel clients his focus is exclusively on the hospitality sector.

Peter is one of the longest standing hotel specialist lenders in the sector, and as such is well known internationally and has a broad global contact base of owners, developers, operators, consultants, brokers and lenders.

David Jerome

David Jerome is the Senior Vice President for Corporate Responsibility at InterContinental Hotels Group based in the UK. IHG leads the industry in environmental innovation with its guide to sustainable hotel building, construction and operations. IHG is also leading in community investment and local economic development, with over 4,200 hotels globally. Before joining IHG in 2006, Jerome led Corporate Affairs for AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer. Prior to this he worked for General Motors in a variety of staff and operational roles. He was head of GM Korea before assuming responsibility for GM’s global reputation and corporate responsibility activities. Jerome, his wife and two children have lived in Asia, North America and Europe. 

Bart Carnahan

In April 2007 Bart Carnahan started at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide as Senior Vice President, Acquisitions & Development, EAME. 

Bart Carnahan is a veteran of some seventeen years with Marriott and has extensive knowledge and experience in International Hotel Development.  His most recent position at Marriott as Senior Vice President for International Development provides a wealth of experience with such luxury brands as Ritz-Carlton and Bvlgari Hotels.

His experiences include leading and overseeing teams of specialist disciplines encompassing legal, treasury and related, development finance, architecture and construction, international tax, operations, and market planning and feasibility on all transactions, which brings additional experience to the Acquisitions & Development team in Brussels.

Prior to joining Marriott International Inc. Bart Carnahan spent three years as a senior consultant providing international management and valuation advisory services to real estate and lodging developers/ owners in the US, Europe and Asia.

Stephan Oberwegner

Stephan Oberwegner set up Max Bentheim seven years ago following his ‘apprenticeship’ with some of the major hotel interior design companies in London. Following the make over of the Blandford, the iconic Hempel Hotel, and the historic Lygon Arms in Broadway, he has yet again proven the ability to make every project a resounding success regardless of the type, style and star rating of the hotel. In September 2009 the Scarlet Hotel in Cornwall was completed. The Sunday Times calls it ‘not merely the greenest hotel, it’s the best new build hotel Britain has seen in years, a modern classic’. 

Ilse Crawford

Creative Director and Designer translates brands into places; creating identities which give a human perspective to design which is emotional and intelligent. Current projects include a CULTURAL SALON in Budapest, in collaboration with Tadao Ando, a LUXURY GUESTHOUSE in Stockholm and product design for WASTBERG lighting. Her portfolio includes the launch of the recent INN BRAND, which defines new vernacular using largely British materials and locally sourced food, and KETTNER’S, Soho.

Ilse is head of department for Man and Well-being at DESIGN ACADEMY EINDHOVEN, and consultant to an exhibition with Jane Withers, 1% WATER; shaping a new water consciousness. She has worked across media, having been launch editor of BARE wellbeing magazine and ELLE DECORATION UK, and has created the vision for international brands such as SOHO HOUSE GROUP AND DONNA KARAN HOMEWARE.

Timothy Walton

Tim Walton has been Vice President, International Hotel Development for Marriott International, Inc. since August 2005. He is responsible for the development of the Bvlgari Hotels and Resorts, Ritz-Carlton Hotels and Resorts, Marriott Hotels and Resorts, Renaissance Hotels and Resorts, Marriott Executive Apartments and Courtyard by Marriott brands in the UK, Ireland and certain other European markets. Prior to rejoining Marriott in 2005, Tim worked as Vice President of Development with Le Méridien and was responsible for hotel development across Europe. He is a graduate of the University of Surrey.

John Goldwyn

John Goldwyn leads the planning and landscape design studio in WATG’s London office, and brings a broad variety of global project experience to the team. Although he was born and raised in London, John has lived and worked in Bangkok, Singapore and the Canary Islands, developing design influences that are truly international.
His designs always seek to respond to the spirit of place and he is committed to finding sustainable solutions for clients that embrace the ‘triple bottom line’--balancing economic, cultural and environmental factors. John believes the commercial success of any project is directly related to design content. His ability to clearly translate the client’s vision into reality makes him a valuable asset to any project.

John’s experience with WATG encompasses a number of major master planning efforts throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Recent projects include the planning and detailed design of a 480-hectare luxury resort in Southern Turkey; strategic planning for a major 1,000-hectare resort west of Tunis; a 1,000-hectare mountain destination resort in Kazakhstan to include a five-star hotel, branded residences, villas and a variety of recreational amenities; residential/hotel development on the Black Sea in the Ukraine; three upscale resort/residential projects in Almaty, Kazakhstan; and a luxury hotel and residential development in Moscow. His innovative and environmental aptitude also led to winning first place at the international design competition for the Huafa New Century City in Zhuhai, China.

Rabih Hage

With a forward thinking approach Rabih Hage curates cutting edge furniture and works from up-and-coming designers and established talents, whilst his Design Studio creates beautiful interiors and architecture with a unique contemporary vision. His work has been recognized with numerous awards including Interior Designer of the Year in the 2005 idFX BIDA (British Interior Design Association) Awards.
With a reputation for identifying cutting-edge designers early in their career, Rabih Hage showcases first time designers and fine art talent, marking generations and attracting new markets, representing them and their work as assets of the future. As an authority on collectible design, Rabih Hage also acts as an advisor to collectors and has established a new online design think tank for information and exchange - www.DeTnk.com.

Ashley Scott

Ashley is an urban designer and landscape architect specialising in the masterplanning and design of resorts, public open space, residential neighbourhood, mixed-use commercial development and major infrastructure.  He has previously worked in the UK, Bahrain, Barbados, Cyprus, Qatar, France, Malaysia, Borneo, Russia, Costa Rica, Spain, Singapore, Hong Kong and P.R. China. 

Jane Lawrence

Jane joined Conran & Partners in 1996.  She leads the interior design team, covering the retail, residential and leisure sectors.
Her work includes two award-winning projects - Georges department store in Melbourne Australia, winner of the RIAA Marion Mahony Award and World City Gallery at the Museum of London, winner of the Dibner Award for excellence in museum design and interpretation. 
Jane’s projects also include the £70 million refurbishment of the Great Eastern Hotel, Liverpool Street and the Bluebird Club, part of Conran Restaurants 50,000sqft retail and restaurant conversion of a listed art deco garage in Chelsea.

Recently, Jane led the design of the suites, restaurants and conference facilities at Das Triest Hotel, Vienna and Café Drechsler, a Viennese café for the same client. She is currently overseeing two hotel projects for the Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotel Group, in Kolkata and Hyderabad, having completed two other hotels for the same group. 

Ian Memmott

Ian Memmott is the Partner responsible for Davis Langdon’s EME International Hotels and Resorts Group, which he leads from the UAE, offering Hotel and Resorts construction consultancy across the Middle East, Northern Africa, Europe and the Caribbean.  Until recently, Ian was located in Nassau, Bahamas, where he led the commercial management team on a $2.5bn mega resort.

Ian joined Davis Langdon in 1988 after completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Operations Research at The London School of Economics. He became a partner in 2001 and has a wide range of experience in cost consultancy, project management and project monitoring.  Past projects have included Baha Mar, Nassau, Dubai Waterfront, Four Seasons, Umbria and The Sheraton Park Tower, London.

David Bailey

A graduate in hotel management from Bournemouth University, David Bailey is a Registered Marketer and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Prior to joining TRI in 1988, he worked in hotel management at the Churchill Hotel in London, and in sales and marketing with Sheraton. Bailey has over 20 years hotel consultancy experience, developing a broad range of skills and expertise with particular emphasis on project market, financial and investment
 appraisal, and strategy development.

David Morris

Having worked in retail and leisure from 89-97 delivering European projects for Fitch, RPW, XMPR and The Principles Group (WPP), he became studio head for Cobalt Consultancy helping to deliver 3 DBA award winning projects in successive years. In 2002 he started PROOF Consultancy to focus on a growing leisure and hospitality portfolio, and continued his winning streak when PROOF’s first hotel interior project, the Westminster City Inn,  won both RIBA and Sleep awards. Most recently his work has seen the significant upgrade of Accor’s Novotel brand with progressive flagship sites including Cardiff, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and London, as well as richer interiors at the Landmark London’s Mirror Bar and Spa. He describes his studio’s approach to design as functional, honest, and enthusiastic. 

Chris Rouse

Chris Rouse, a Senior Director of CBRE Hotels, is responsible for the growth of CBRE Hotels’ professional services, including hotel development, international operator selection and management contract negotiations.

Thomas Smit

Since 2001, South African-born Thomas Smit has been Chief Executive of Waldeck Capital, a family-owned investment trust with offices worldwide.  Waldeck Capital’s core business is a diverse portfolio of commercial property developments in Europe, with a strong focus on the hospitality industry.  To date, Waldeck Capital has completed 17 hotel projects, of which four have been in the luxury sector, the latest being Rocco Forte’s The Augustine in Prague (opened May 2009).  Current plans either under review or development include a Capella Hotel and a KOR resort; Waldeck Capital is also actively pursuing hotel projects in Luxembourg, Austria and Bermuda.  Away from the commercial property side of the business, Waldeck Capital launched the Global Hospitality Recovery Fund in March of this year, seeking Euros 1 billion in order to acquire luxury hotels struggling in the current economic crisis.  Prior to heading up Waldeck Capital, Smit had a stellar career in the City, specialising in privatisation, mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance.

Peter Zenneck

Peter Zenneck is Vice President Development – Europe and North Africa for the Jumeirah Group, the dynamic Dubai based luxury hospitality group. The group has 9 existing hotels and 12 under construction worldwide (including two in Europe- Frankfurt and Mallorca). Jumeirah’s focus is to grow its portfolio to more than 55 luxury hotels and resorts worldwide.

Peter has twenty-five years of international hospitality and real estate experience having worked in Europe, Asia and the United States. Much of Peter’s career has been with Meridien Hotels and Resorts where he was Director of Worldwide Development. Peter also headed Leading Hotel Fund Advisors in Europe prior to joining Jumeirah.

Peter graduated from Cornell University School of Hotel Administration and holds an MBA from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management.

Christoph Hoffman

Christoph Hoffmann is in charge of the development of the small but innovative 25hours lifestyle hotel group. With enthusiasm, courage and a twinkle in his eye he evaluates individual locations and implements customized hotel products for urban nomads, night owls and daydreamers in search of variety. The Hotels of the brand include 25hours Hotel Hamburg, Goldman 25hours Hotel Frankfurt and 25hours Hotel Frankfurt by Levi’s. Upcoming Projects focus on the vibrating cities of Berlin, Hamburg and Zurich. Advanced talks are being held in main cities around Europe.

Khirstie Myles

Khirstie Myles, Vice President, International Design & Project Management for Europe, The Middle East & Africa (EMEA). Supporting the regional Development & Operation teams’ efforts in growth and product development whilst also promoting Marriott’s exciting new brand initiatives worldwide across all Marriott brands.
 
A graduate of the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Khirstie has since enjoyed the last 15 years of her career deeply immersed in all matters design and construction associated with the global hospitality industry and major international chains throughout Asia, Australia, Latin America, Europe, The Middle East & Africa.

Bob Lewis

Bob Lewis is the proprietor of International Hotel Property Services, a company he established some three years ago providing advice to hotel owners developers and investors on all aspects relating to the buying and selling of hotel properties internationally. He is often involved in acting for developers and investors in the hotel operator selection process, and negotiating management contracts and leases. Lewis has spent a lifetime in the hotel industry, originally as finance director for the metropolitan division of Grand Metropolitan Hotels, moving to VP Business Development for the InterContinental Group EMEA Region, and more recently as a director at PKF for fifteen years prior to starting his own business.

Allan McEwan

Senior Vice President, Finance & Development, EMEA
Allan is the Senior Vice President Finance & Development for EMEA. The Finance team is responsible for the financial accounting and control at the hotels, management reporting, financial analysis and support and investment appraisal. The development team is responsible for the development of IHG’s hotel estate which includes responsibility for signing all management contracts, joint ventures and franchises within EMEA as well as progressing relationships with IHG's development partners and lenders to the development community.

Prior to working with IHG, Allan worked in the Corporate Development Department of Rexam plc and in the audit department of Arthur Andersen. He has a degree in accountancy from Glasgow University and is a professionally qualified accountant.

Tony Potter

Chief Executive Officer
Tony Potter is CEO & Managing Director of CHI Hotels & Resorts and is a Board Director of that Company.  He joined the company in September 2006.Before joining CHI Hotels & Resorts, Tony was Group Chief Executive Officer, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels and an Executive Director of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc.Prior to that, Tony held the post of Chief Executive Officer at Choice Hotels International Europe and was an Executive Director of Choice International plc.

Previously, Tony Potter had spent 19 years with Hilton International, where he was also a Director of that company.  During this time he held the positions of Senior Vice President Europe, Senior Vice President North America and Canada and Managing Director of Hilton UK. In his earlier career he was General Manager of various hotel properties including the London Hilton on Park Lane.Before joining Hilton International he held various general management positions with Thistle Hotels, De Vere Hotels and Leisure and General.

He is a graduate of Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Domestic Art and an Honorary Fellow of that College.  He is also a Visiting Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Plymouth from where he holds a Science Degree and is a Fellow of the Hotel & Catering International Management Association (FHI).Tony Potter is a recipient of the Guild of Travel and Tourism and Reed Travel Exhibitions Meridian Club’s “Outstanding Services to Travel” Award.

Jonathan Hubbard

Jonathan Hubbard is Managing Director for Northern Europe of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels and manages a team of over 30 people based across the UK who deal with hotel assets. Hubbard has broad market experience, primarily providing valuation and real estate advice for operational hotels, direct investments in the sector and development opportunities. He also has responsibility for Jones Lang LaSalle’s UK Licensed Leisure team, which provides national UK coverage, focusing particularly on the pubs and restaurant market. Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, the first and leading global hotel investment services firm, is uniquely positioned to provide the depth and breadth of advice required by hotel investor and operator clients.

Patrick Fitzgibbon

Senior Vice President
Patrick Fitzgibbon was appointed Senior Vice President Development – Europe & Africa for Hilton Worldwide in 2005. Based in London, he is accountable for the rapid expansion of the Hilton family of brands throughout Europe and Africa and for helping to realize the company’s largest development pipeline to date. 

Heading a team of more than 25 hotel and property development experts located in eight offices across Europe (London, Paris, Frankfurt, Rome, Madrid, Moscow, Warsaw and Istanbul) Patrick is focused on extending the core Hilton brand in gateway cities and airport locations, as well as introducing new Hilton brands to Europe & Africa, including the luxury Waldorf Astoria Collection, the upscale Doubletree, the mid-market Hilton Garden Inn and the economy Hampton by Hilton.

His priority lies with securing management and franchise agreements in the strategic markets of UK, Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Turkey. 

Patrick joined Hilton in 1997 as Development Manager for Hilton International’s stand-alone health club business, LivingWell, before moving to Miami for three years to head up the company’s hotel development activities in Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada. In 2004, he returned to London as Managing Director of LivingWell.

Rob Willem Henri Wagemans

Rob Willem Henri Wagemans was born in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, at February 13th 1973. In 1995 he studied architecture at the HTS in Utrecht and after that he obtained his masterdegree architecture at the Acedemie voor Bouwkunst in Amsterdam.

In 1997, Rob founded Concrete Architectural Associates together with Gilian Schrofer and Erik van Dillen. In June 2004 Rob became director of Concrete.

In 2006 Rob founded together with ErikJan Vermeulen Concrete Reinforced for their wish to increase architecture in their portfolio. Now Concrete exits out of 30 people.

Concrete develops total concepts for businesses and institutions. the agency produces work which is commercially applied. this involves creating total identities for a company, a building or an area. Concrete’s entire team consists of about 25 professional people. visual marketeers and interior designers, product designers and architects work on the projects in multidisciplinary teams.

The work extends from interior design to urban development integration and from the building to its accessories. concrete, for example, also sets the perimeters for the graphic work and considers how the client can present itself in the market. Good design always starts with good analysis. A truly functional design must always be accompanied by an appropriate and stimulating concept. We live in a rapidly changing world with new lifestyles that demand radically different solutions than those that were offered one or two generations ago.

This all happens from the ‘one concept’ philosophy. the designers of concrete create holistic plans and everything they design is used for the benefit of that total concept: that’s where their strength – and thus the client’s greatest advantage – lies.

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www.concreteamsterdam.nl