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.

Alexis Feuillat is French, but has lived and worked in the former Soviet Union region since 2001. He studied history at the Sorbonne University in Paris and holds an MBA degree from the Moscow State University. Alexis joined InterContinental Group (IHG) from AccorHotels, where he has been working for 8 years as Project Manager in the Technical Department overseeing technical support for the hotels design, construction, interior design, equipment and opening and as Deputy Development Director for the last 5 years.
Currently Alexis Feuillat works at IHG as Development Director for Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, CIS & Baltics. IHG is one of the key international hotel operators in the region with 39 managed and franchised hotels and with a pipeline of 30 hotels to open in the next 3 years.

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.

Alexandra is an ambitious individual focused on building long lasting relationships and ensuring client expectations are exceeded. With 15 years of experience in the hospitality Industry, she has shown a proven record of significant knowledge and expertise in sales, event management, group planning, F&B, financial management, statistic and analytical research. Alexandra holds an MBA Degree from the
University of Bedfordshire, UK. Throughout her life career, she has been working in various international
hotel chains worldwide, such as Best Western Hotels, Melia Hotels International and Belmond Hotels,Trains & Cruises.
Alexandra is a strategic sharp thinker, who anticipates opportunities and risks, identifies issues and develops action plans. Analytical mindset, precision in numbers help her in her daily work at STR.
Alexandra values integrity and honesty in a relationship with her clients and colleagues. She focuses on understanding client’s needs, so the approach is tailored to them and their requirements.
STR is a company that tracks supply and demand in the hotel industry and provides a valuable analysis of the market share of international and regional hotel chains, as well as independent hotels. STR’s standard and specialized reports help to better understand the trends of past periods, orient in market forecasts and analyze the dynamics of supply and demand in the hotel industry.

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.

His goal is to develop the brands of the group through franchise, management and lease contracts as well as to look for strategic partnerships. He also supervises regional development managers across Europe. Louvre Hotels Group is historically a French company, currently fully owned by Chinese Jin Jiang.
Previously Adam was a Country Head Poland at Christie & Co and responsible for identifying hotel opportunities across Poland and CEE for the development and expansion of the company in the region. He has been involved in several advisory and valuation assignments as well as operator search and section processes and investment transactions.
Prior to Christie & Co, Adam worked several years as a Senior Consultant in the hospitality area, at DTZ´s (now Cushman & Wakefield) investment & hospitality department.
Adam Konieczny has a Master of Arts in Management from Warsaw School of Economics and a Master of Science in Real Estate from Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He also obtained a Certificate in Hotel Real Estate Investments and Asset Management from Cornell University. Adam is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

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).