Dr Ray F. Iunius is the author of various academic and professional articles published by journals in the management of services, technology, and innovation. He is also the author of a number of books such as « Industrie de l’accueil », « Hôtellerie de Luxe », « La gestion des spas », “Un Hôtel, un modèle ?” in de Boeck editions and co-author of the “Lausanne Report on the future of Hospitality Industry.”

He is the founder of the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne Institute of Technology and Entrepreneurship (EHLITE), the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (INTEHL), the Students Business Projects (SBP), the EHLITE magazine, and the Chair of Innovation Paul Dubrule.

Dr Iunius is also Invited Professor at the Faculty of business and Economics (HEC) of the University of Lausanne – Switzerland where he is teaching Strategic Service Operation in the Bachelor and Master programmes. He is also the founder of the Centre for Research and innovation in Services (CRIS) of HEC Lausanne.

Ray earns a BSc, MS and PhD in Technical Sciences from the University of Transylvania Brasov and an MBA and PhD from the Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) of the Lausanne University. He is currently Director of Business Development at Lausanne Hospitality Consulting, an Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne and Swiss Hotel Association company.

Ray aims to help people to become Leaders and companies to optimize their business processes to enhance customer experience.

A graduate of the University of Michigan (BA) and New York University (MBA), Magdalena Sekutowska has both finance and development experience.

She worked on financing numerous energy projects in North America at Credit Suisse Investment Banking. She then moved to structure real estate projects in North America and the Caribbean at Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

For last ten years Magdalena has developed hotels at Hilton in Central and Eastern Europe. She is currently based in Warsaw and her focus is on developing the Hilton portfolio of hotel brands in Poland, Ukraine, the Czech and Slovak Republics. She has been responsible for developing over 40 projects in the region.

Aron was born in Russia but has lived and worked in Europe (Belgium and UK) in property
development and later as a strategic consultant to local authorities and regional
development agencies.
Aron is based in Moscow. His task as a head of the Russia Area Team is implementing
plans for the future growth of IHG`s brands in Russia and CIS.
Aron is also responsible for the operations of 38 hotels in the managed and franchised estate of IHG and opening of another 15 in the next 3 years.

Aron holds an MBA degree from Tanaka Business School, Imperial College, London as well
as a Hotel Management Diploma from American Hotel & Lodging Association.

Brigita has a vast experience in the hospitality sector and is currently working as a Development Director at Apex Alliance Hotel Management. She is responsible for the further development of the company in Central and Eastern Europe, finding and maintaining the contacts with the real estate agencies, investors, developers, market research companies, architects, bank representatives and of course the International hotel chains. She evaluates the potential of the hotel project for the given market/location, prepares the preliminary business plan estimations, leads the negotiations on the management and/or lease agreement conditions.

Previously she worked as Accorhotels Development Projects Manager for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia for Orbis Hotel Group/ACCOR, taking care of rebranding, development and acquisition hotel projects in the region.

Brigita finished a postgraduate course at the Swiss Hotel Management School as well as Vilnius University Economy Faculty, Holding International Business Master Degree. She had her managerial internship in Chicago, United States and held various managerial positions in hotel operations at Novotel Vilnius Center Hotel in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Thomas joined Revinate in 2014 and within his position, he is responsible for
Revinate’s partner ecosystem. This entails creating strategic partnerships with the
hotel technology industry to strengthen the integrations for Revinate’s hospitality
CRM.

Prior to joining Revinate, Thomas gained more than twelve years of international
marketing and sales experience around the globe. He held positions at The Fairmont,
St. Andrews Bay in Scotland and TBA Global Marketing where he worked for a
variety of brands like Apple, Pixar, ING and GlaxoSmithKline.

Thomas has a degree in Hotel Management from Stenden Hotelschool in The
Netherlands and Master’s Degree in Strategic Marketing. He is a Dutch native who
loves exploring the world with his family.

SHS is the global leader in SaaS-based distribution, operations, retailing, and guest experience and enterprise intelligence solutions for the hospitality industry.
An e-commerce Pioneer and Tech Evangelist at heart, Olaf Slater started his career in travel in the 90’s when he built one of the first online booking engines, after deciding to relocate from Canada to Germany. Innovation and disruption have since been a primary focus in all roles, facilitating successful ecommerce pivots at numerous companies in travel.
Previously he held positions in public and private equity backed businesses in the tourism industry in Germany, the UK and the USA, including Travel Technology businesses where he led the evolution and repositioning of the e-commerce and direct distribution portfolios in the travel tech industry.

Olaf Slater is a certified specialist in the areas of Digital Disruption, Innovation and Strategy from leading universities such as Kellogg, MIT, Columbia and INSEAD.

Amy Clarke has been in digital marketing and ecommerce for eighteen years, starting with the UK-based OTA lastminute.com and moving on to lead ecommerce functions for other leisure and travel businesses including Radisson Edwardian hotels.
For the past five years Amy has been leading the ecommerce strategy for EMEA at Wyndham Hotels and Resorts to drive direct bookings for franchisees. More recently Amy has expanded her role to include loyalty marketing with the highly acclaimed Wyndham Rewards programme, and brand marketing, to provide a holistic strategy designed to help hotels capitalise on the value of the Wyndham family of brands.

The CEO of Vertex Hotel Group, which manages 4 and 5 star hotels - President Hotel Kiev, Londonskaya
Hotel Odessa, Bristol Hotel Odessa, and Formula Wellness SPA.
More than 15 years of experience in building a hotel complex management system.
Over 6 years of experience in senior management positions in Front Office, Sales and Marketing at 4 and
5 star hotels.
Member of the Alumni Club of the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University (New York).
Graduate of Strategic Business Planning (Swedish Agency for International Development).
Holds a Hotel Valuation certificate by Lausanne Hospitality Consulting.
Leading expert of industry periodicals, moderator and forum speaker.

Independent hotel consultant, specializing on concept development, business-planning, designing, construction & equipping, building-up operating team and market launch of hotels. Experience in operations – 10 years, hands-on advisor to hotel investors & developers – another 14 years, participated in over 50 projects, of which many ended up with successful property openings, in Ukraine, Italy, Germany, Canada, the USA, Russia and Belarus.
Convinced that further development of the hospitality industry in Ukraine will be based on expanding MICE product & proposition, further expansion of international hotel brands & corporations and inflow of foreign asset capital. This will raise the service quality bar and operational efficiency of hotels in the area, will make them more technologically advanced.
Received his education from Lviv National University, a degree in International Economic Relations (1998). Later got his MBA at École hôtelière de Lausanne, Switzerland (2003).