Philip Bischoff
Beverage Manager & Beverage Ambassador APAC
Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Bangkok at Chao Phraya River.

His first professional stint was as a bartender at the Felix Club Restaurant, which provided him with travel opportunities and greater exposure to the cocktail scene; eventually leading him to Switzerland for a year in 2006, before returning to Germany in 2007.

Philip Bischoff joined Regent Singapore, A Four Seasons Hotel in 2015 as Bar Manager of the Hotel’s award-winning bar, Manhattan, overseeing all bar operations; with a focus on enhancing the beverage programme for the outlet and elevating the overall guest experience.

Now, as the beverage manager of the new Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Bangkok at Phraya River, Philip will be a part of opening team and he will be the Beverage Manager of the hotel, overlooking and working with the teams at several restaurants and bars to create great experiences for the guests. From a lobby lounge over in room dinning and banquet, to pool bar, restaurants and destination bar - numerous projects, opportunities and responsibilities. When not being in Bangkok, he will have the chance to work with the teams at the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in APAC (Australia, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Maldives and Thailand) together and look into the beverage programs (step by step).

Alexeï Matouchkine is heading Booking.com Partner Services in Eastern Europe - from the Czech Republic to Russia, including Ukraine, Baltic States and Georgia. Under his leadership, local teams have been experiencing a tremendous growth and were happy to see an increase in Partner satisfaction. Being closely in contact with headquarters in Amsterdam, a crucial part of his role is to make sure the company's big picture and strategy is known and shared within local offices.
Before taking this opportunity in early 2017, he was Managing Director at Dreamlines, a leading cruise OTA based in Hamburg, Germany, and led it from start-up to market leader positions in Russia, Italy and France.

Prior to these responsibilities in online travel industry, Alexeï held different Director positions in fashion retail - among others, launched the French clothing brand "Kiabi" in Russia.
Alexeï graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and has been working as a Strategy Consultant in Paris until 2009.

Janusz joined Marriott International in March 2015 to develop the brands both through franchise and management in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Baltic Countries.

Till March 2015 he was a partner in hotel consulting team in Horwath HTL in Poland. Before he joined the consulting, he worked for seven years in Qubus Hotel chain. He was a general manager of two hotels, and then Director of Sales and Marketing in the headquarter of the chain in Poland.

He has been active in hotel industry for almost 20 years. He has extensive strategic and operational experience gained in the growing Polish and CEE hotel market.

Janusz Mitulski is a graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and studied MBA at the University of Economics in Poznań. He is also a Member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS).

Jakub Emanuel Malec - Kitchen Chef with international background working in Spain, Argentina and France, for last 15 years associated with Orbis hotel group and AccorHotels in Poland. Executive Chef at Novotel Warsaw Centrum and Warsaw Market Place. Jakub is in charge of kitchen, stewarding and purchasing department in this сentrally located 742-room flagship hotel. He is also responsible for menu engineering and offers for whole Novotel chain in Poland. Proponent of philosophy of zero waste, who introduced a comprehensive program to fight against food waste in his hotel, achieving 52% reduction result.

Ivana Neskovic is Senior Account Manager in STR, based in London, UK. Having commenced studies of tourism management in her home city of Belgrade, she continued her education in England obtaining master’s degree in Marketing in Tourism from University of Surrey. Since then she has worked in travel and hospitality industry and her career is blend of different experiences in destination marketing and management, project management, event organization and finally research, benchmarking and consulting. She has joined STR 4 years ago and currently leads a team of Regional Account Managers for entire EMEA region.

A marketing consultant and an educator with over 20 years of teaching and consulting experience in prestigious Swiss Hotel and Business Schools as well as British and American Universities. He was an adjunct professor at SBS Swiss Business School, Florida International University, Schiller International University, IHTTI School of Hotel Management, IMI University Centre and Glion Institute of Higher Education. In addition, he has over 15 years of managerial and marketing experience in luxury hotels, resorts and tour operators in the Middle East and Switzerland. He is a graduate of SSTH Swiss School of Tourism & Hospitality and holds a joint M.Sc. degree with the Imperial College of London. He is pursuing his Doctor of Business Administration degree (DBA) at Heriot-Watt University with a specialization in services marketing.Bangert Consultancy (Independent digital media and IoT consultancy).

Thomas Bangert started working in the travel media industry in 2000 for a little start up called Ifyoutravel, a part of the multimedia branch of LVMH.

He transferred to Ifyoutravel’s headquarter in London late 2001 and shortly after that, Ifyoutravel was acquired by the Online Travel Corporation (OTC). OTC was then acquired by lastminute.com and later by Travelocity (Sabre).

From Commercial Manager, to Supply Sales Director, Thomas moved on to become the Media Director for Northern Europe for lastminute.com.

In April 2011 he moved to TripAdvisor where he was the Director Display EU. Thomas had direct reports all over Europe working with both clients directly as well as media agencies and trading desks to provide both the advertiser as well as the TripAdvisor user with the most relevant ad at the right time in the contextually most appropriate environment. In 2017 Thomas founded The Bangert Consultancy (Independent digital media and IoT consultancy)

Beat Fornaro is Area Director of Portfolio Development for Design Hotels™. He is responsible for the curation of the hand-picked portfolio of one-of-a-kind properties across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. With his multidisciplinary background of 15 years in hospitality and tourism. Beat held positions in the US, Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is passionate about forward-thinking hotel concepts that engage local culture with international hotel standards to create exceptional guest experiences. In his role, he looks for hoteliers who act as elicitors for the guest’s personal enrichment.

Iryna Sidletska,
CEO at the hotel operator Premier Hotels and Resorts

• 15 years of experience of managing the largest hotel operator Premier Hotels and Resorts
• Over 5 years of experience in different senior positions in operational departments (Front Office, Sales and Marketing) in such hotels as «Oreanda» (Yalta), «Premier Palace» (Kyiv)

Professional trainings:
2000 – International Exchange Program at Erasmus School (The Netherlands)
2008 – Professional Development Program School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University (Brussels)
2010 - SABIT at the US Department of Commerce (Washington-Atlanta-Chicago)
• 2014 – Professional Development Program, Cornell (Ithaca, New York)
• Member of the Alumni Club, School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University (Ithaca, New York)
• Honorary member of the Association of Hotel Unions and Hotels of Ukrainian Cities
• Member of the Ukrainian Tourism Academy
• Leading expert of industry-related periodic editions
• Visiting professor at specialized higher educational institutions of Ukraine, lecturer at Higher School of Hotel Business
Professional quote: «A perfect hotel is the one where everybody is happy: guests, staff and the owner. Our aim is to create all necessary conditions for this purpose»