HIDE Speakers
Felicity is responsible for developing Hyatt’s diverse brand portfolio across EAME, heading a diverse team of subregional development experts. Since joining in 2016, Felicity has overseen Hyatt’s market entries into 31 markets, including Barcelona, Biarritz, Dublin and Madrid, along with brand debuts in 23 markets including Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Paris and the French Alps. With 25 years’ experience in real estate and hospitality – spanning acquisitions, development, asset management – she understands the market from multiple industry perspectives. Prior to Hyatt, Felicity led acquisitions and developments for Starwood Hotels and Resorts in Western Europe, supported prominent brands including Forte, Le Méridien and worked with the investment fund Starman.
Peter is a results-driven hotel real estate investment expert with a proven track record in identifying, executing, and managing high-value transactions. He co-founded IREMIS and leads their Hotel and Leisure division, overseeing the IREMIS Hotel Real Estate Fund I, which is currently in its acquisition phase. His leadership in this role is central to driving strategic growth and innovation.
Before launching IREMIS, Peter was a key leader at Internos Global Investors (now Principal Real Estate Europe), where he managed transactions totaling over one billion Euros. He played a pivotal role in leading capital expenditure projects, restructurings, and strategic initiatives that significantly enhanced asset performance and profitability.
Earlier in his career, Peter served as a consultant at Hamilton Hotel Partners, where he advised on hotel operations, optimizing performance, and unlocking value through operational improvements and investment strategies.
A CFA Charterholder, Peter combines deep financial expertise with a thorough understanding of market dynamics and hotel real estate. He holds degrees in hospitality management from Glion Institute of Higher Education and Les Roches Gruyère University of Applied Sciences.
Claire is the Managing Director of Casa Collective Ltd, a hotel franchising business that was acquired by Goldman Sachs Asset Management in 2023.
Based in London, Casa Collective is the parent company of the brands Casa Cook and Cook’s Club, with 15 hotels currently in operation across Greece, Spain, Turkey and Egypt. Claire joined Casa Collective at the beginning of 2024 from her role as VP of Asset Management in Goldman Sachs with a focus on hospitality investments.
Previous roles include asset manager for Pygmalion Capital and a director in the Colliers Hotels team.
Claire holds an MBA in International Hotel Management from EHL Hospitality Business School and has worked in various hospitality roles across London, Vietnam, Japan and Germany.
Cris is a highly experienced and award-winning customer insight professional with an outstanding reputation for pinpointing the business implications of research findings.
Cris provides business advice that is sought at CEO and Board level. His extensive experience of global projects includes much customer service and brand evaluation work and more recently studies in the sustainability area.
Tara Colpitts is a Senior Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa Market Management, Lodging at Expedia Group. In her role, Tara oversees a team of account management professionals responsible for lodging partnerships across various markets.
Over the past 21 years, Tara’s career in tourism and travel has spanned leadership roles in both the hotel and activity sector, primarily focused on sales, marketing, and account management. She has had the opportunity to instruct at Capilano University in Canada in the discipline of Cross Cultural Tourism. Fostering development, growth and inclusion within the travel industry has driven Tara to be involved in various boards and councils over the years including Travolution Advisory Board, Women in Travel Thrive, Women in Expedia Leading and Learning and the Alliance for Cultural Tourism Whistler.
Tara holds a bachelor degree in Commerce from University of Manitoba and holds a master’s degree in International & Intercultural Communications from Royal Roads University.
Ted leads a team of applied behavioural scientists incorporating insights into tangible actions organisations can implement to drive better behaviours. Ted & team look at system- and individual-level interventions and optimisations that align business objectives with customer & employee intentions for behavioural and business impact.
James Macnamara is Global Head of Value-Add & Alternatives, Real Estate at Schroder Real Estate and a member of the Investment Committee.
James has been investing in all forms of European real estate since 1997 with a focus on value-add, restructuring, real estate private equity and distressed investment strategies. Prior to joining Schroders Capital, James was co-head of European Real Estate at SVP Global and prior to that he was a partner at Kildare Partners.
James graduated from Christ’s College, University of Cambridge.
Richard Clarke is a managing director at Bernstein Research and is sector head for the Global Hotels, Cruise and Online Travel sector. In its most recent poll, Institutional Investor, investors ranked Richard as part of the top-3 ranked Large-cap Internet Team and Runner-up in European Hotels & Leisure sector. Richard joined Bernstein in 2013; before that, Richard spent six years as a forensic accountant at CRA International, and three years working in structured finance at Société Générale and Taurus Asset Finance. Richard earned an MA in Mathematics from Trinity College, Cambridge, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.
Philip Lassman leads the Development Team in Northern Europe (UK/I, BeNeLux and Nordics) for Accor Premium, Midscale and Economy brands. Across the region Accor has over 400 hotels across all core markets. Since joining Accor in September 2017, Philip has overseen over 100 new openings which equates to over 14,000 new rooms joining the group as well as the addition to over 40 brands. The growth of the brand portfolio in recent years demonstrates Accor agility and dynamic development team. Philip has worked in development with some of the biggest hotel groups in the world, focusing on UKI development for nearly two decades.
Philip holds a BA(HONS) degree in Economics and Public Policy and from Leeds Metropolitan University where he was also active in student politics. He is married and lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and two children. In his spare time, he enjoys watching football, cricket and Formula 1. He also supports his wife’s charity work.
Tristan is the co-founder and CEO of Alliants and has spent his career focusing on using technology to make companies and industries more seamless and accessible to consumers. Alliants helps high-end hotels deliver on their luxury promise and was conceived while Tristan was a director at Opodo.
Tristan has made his home in the sector, and through Alliants, is helping hotels embrace a new way to deliver exceptional service. A frequent speaker at industry events, he has also contributed to research on transforming the hotel experience through technology, the role of messaging in enhancing the customer experience and reshaping the future of hospitality.
Tristan has sought to innovate throughout his working life, having built a successful startup in the education sector before spending 10 years at Accenture working with companies including Prudential, American Express and British Airways. He worked on the
Travelport IPO and consulted on the Avis Digital Transformation, Four Seasons Digital Experience and Samsung Digital Strategy.
He has three great kids, loves to sail and enjoys a dark chocolate Digestive.
Andreea Bodea is an Investment Director at Pygmalion Capital responsible for deal sourcing, underwriting and execution across Europe. She has been with the Pygmalion team for over 3 years working on hotel investment opportunities, particularly in the value add and opportunistic space. Before joining Pygmalion, she worked for 4 years with Christie & Co in their London-based Hotel consultancy group, conducting feasibility studies, research projects, and commercial due diligence across Europe. Before that she gained operational experience at Dorchester Collection and started her career as a Corporate Operations Trainee with Kempinski Hotels. She has a Bachelor of International Business, Hospitality and Tourism Management from César Ritz Colleges Switzerland and Washington State University and an Advanced Certification in Real Estate and Hotel Investment from Cornell University.
A regular industry commentator and speaker, for over two decades Chris worked with real estate developers and hospitality brands all over the world. He is probably best known as author of the industry’s #1 reports Branded Residences: An Overview and Branded Residences: A Compendium.
Former Group Marketing Director at Hamptons International, he founded Graham Associates in 2008 as a boutique marketing consultancy specialising in branding, marketing, and sales strategies for luxury international residential and resort developments.
Elected a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, he has picked up many industry awards including the Overseas Property Professional Gold Award for Marketing; Best Development Marketing (x6), Best Property Website and Best Estate Agency Marketing at the International Property Awards; TITAN Platinum Award for Property Strategic Program (Project Launch), and twice a finalist in CIM’s Excellence Awards (Digital Media and Hotels & Leisure categories).
Michelle is a key partner in the CMS Hotel & Leisure sector group.
She is best known for advising on UK and multi-jurisdictional mandates including complex on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, restructurings and general corporate advisory work. Michelle also regularly advises on commercial arrangements, including management, franchise and asset management arrangements.
Listed in Legal 500 as a key lawyer. “First-rate legal capability, hard-working and highly collaborative to get deals done across a wide range of stakeholders. Highly recommended.”
Alison has worked with Archer Hotel Capital since its set-up in 2018, and previously with its predecessor Host Hotels’ European joint venture from 2007. Her responsibilities at Archer include portfolio strategy and asset managing the UK & Ireland hotel portfolio.
Prior to Archer/Host, Alison held management consultancy and valuation roles in the hospitality sector in London and the US, worked with InterContinental Hotels Group in development and in several hotel operational roles. Alison graduated from the Hotel School at Cornell University and has lived and worked in the UK for 25 years. Her two teenage boys keep her busy and she loves sharing her passion for travel and hospitality with them.
Ufi Ibrahim is Founder and Chief Executive of the Energy and Environment Alliance (EEA), a global coalition of hotel investors, asset owners and asset managers working to transition the industry to Net Zero Carbon and ESG stewardship in a robust, timely and profitable way.
Previously, as Chief Executive of the British Hospitality Association (BHA) 2010 to 2018, Ufi reshaped and reformed the organisation from the ground up, achieving significant financial and commercial success. She led the BHA merger with the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, creating UK Hospitality to wield powerful commercial and political influence. Ufi also shaped the UK Tourism Industry Group, a government-led Advisory Board for the industry, and delivered ground-breaking campaigns, such as the Big Hospitality Conservation, which engaged over 4,000 businesses and government to create 67,000 new jobs and apprenticeships for young people, under 25, across the UK.
At the World Travel & Tourism Council, where Ufi was Chief Operating Officer between 2000 and 2010, she supervised the formulation of the International Competitiveness Monitor for Travel and Tourism. This defined a benchmark for policy makers and is now operated by the World Economic Forum. Under the auspices of the WTTC and UNFCCC in 2009 Ufi led the industry’s first global commitment to cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2035. Ufi is also a Commissioner of the Food Farming and Countryside Commission, overseeing executive and legislative issues affecting the future of UK food, farming and the countryside.
Peter is the founder of Venue Performance, a future-focused M&E benchmarking service for hotels and venues.
Venue Performance also provides regular market updates and analysis for industry bodies including beam, HOSPA, government bodies and many of the UK’s DMOs.
Co-founder of Otus
Formerly Managing Director of investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein
Author of “The Economic Ascent of the Hotel Business”
With Vertiq since June 2024, Lisa oversees Vertiq’s capital relations and portfolio management of Vertiq’s existing investments. Her experience in investment management spans both the hospitality and living sectors.
Lisa’s professional career covered Portfolio & Investment Management at Greystar and Redevco Living, as well as European Hospitality Development at specialist operators Zoku & Cycas Hospitality. Before that, Lisa was part of Invesco Real Estate’s hotel team, covering Fund Management & Acquisitions across Europe, having previously worked for CBRE Hotels, London and HVS, New York, in Valuation, Advisory, and Asset Mgmt.
Lisa holds a Bachelor of Science from Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, CH, specializing in hotel investments & real estate finance.
Nadia has been advising hospitality asset owners, investors and international brands for over 15 years. She has extensive expertise in hotel management and franchise agreements, branded residential development and commercial property, with a particular interest in advising owners and investors of hospitality assets, their landlords and international brands in the amicable resolution of operational and relationship issues.
Prior to joining Keystone Law in September 2024, she worked at InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, Hilton Worldwide and Clifford Chance. Nadia also chairs the Legal Committee and sits on the Advisory Board for the Energy & Environment Alliance, a not-for-profit formed by the former CEO of the British Hospitality Association, Ufi Ibrahim, focusing on driving ESG into the hospitality sector.
Tina is an Interior Designer and Architect with a diverse portfolio stretching across many contexts and continents, from hotel and restaurant design to high-end residential and boutique retail projects. She is passionate about travel and loves designing spaces that enhance the enjoyment of life.
Tina leads design teams in both the UK and Hong Kong and was instrumental in building the team in Asia. She is very hands on as she directs projects across the globe and thrives on the cultural exchange and collaboration this entails.
With every project, Tina develops the client brief by delving into the specific context and history to create a bespoke narrative and design language that tells a unique story.
She believes in style over fashion in design to ensure the result is timeless and remains fresh. With her main focus on hospitality, many of the lessons learnt from her extensive experience are applied to her other projects to create an equally experiential solution.
Tina joined the practice in 1997 and joined the board of Conran and Partners in 2016. As a Principal, Tina jointly leads the practice and its overall strategic direction through its UK and Hong Kong studios.
Rickesh Patel has some 20 years’ experience of designing premium residential and hotel properties. Three years ago, he founded the interior and architectural design practice, RJP Design, which, in addition to its work for private clients has brought together the two themes of Rickesh’s career in the form of hotel branded residences.
RJP Design is currently completing residences at two of London’s most outstanding new hotels; OWO Residences that complement Raffles London in the Grade ll Listed Old War Office and the Residences at the new-build Peninsula London in Belgravia.
Rickesh puts his young company’s formidable success down to an innate appreciation of what UHNWIs require. He says: “Naturally, clients who have had their taste honed by global travel and all the accoutrements of a luxury lifestyle expect world-class design, but it is more than that. These clients are used to exclusivity and the service they receive must feel exclusive to them in every regard.”
Originally from Estonia, Heleri has traversed seven countries, cultivating a rich background. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Business from New York University and an executive MBA in Hospitality Administration from EHL Hospitality Business School, formerly known as École hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland.
Following her graduation, Heleri spearheaded Puccini Group’s expansion in EMEA for two years before joining forces with Think Hospitality. Together, they’re dedicated to driving F&B focused projects through strategic advice and review. Her expertise primarily focuses on hotel and mixed use developments, boasting a diverse portfolio including Accor, Hilton, Hyatt, Kempinski, Meliá Hotels International, and many private investors.
Heleri’s influence extends beyond strategic projects. She contributes to Supper Magazine, directs programs and creates content at major hospitality events worldwide, and co-founded Ideas-Flavours-Experiences, a premier gastronomy event in the Baltics, hosting luminaries like Heston Blumenthal, Mr. Lyan, and Niklas Ekstedt. Additionally, she played a pivotal role in establishing the New Baltic Hospitality Forum, the region’s inaugural hotel-focused event. Heleri serves on the board of the Global Restaurant Investment Forum, Restaurant Marketer and Innovator and co-leads the UK Chapter of the EHL Alumni Network.
Jacob currently works for Pandox as Senior Vice President – Transactions . He is responsible for the development and execution of Pandox’s M&A strategies. Jacob holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and a Swiss Hotel Diploma from H.I.M
Simon is the Chairman and CEO of HOFTEL, which he founded in 2005, having seen the need for an owners’ network when he had served as CFO of the half-billion dollar hotel investment platform, Hospitality Europe BV (“HEBV”). Prior to working at HEBV, Simon had spent ten years at JP Morgan, eventually becoming the global hotel industry coverage investment banker. After HEBV, he went on to be CFO of luxury resort group Six Senses and then Chief Development Officer at Onyx Hospitality, both in Bangkok.
Simon has a first class degree in Modern History from Oxford University and has also stood for Parliament in the UK.
Justin Salkeld is a partner in our London office and Head of the London Real Estate Department. He also co-chairs our EMEA Hospitality practice group and is a leading figure within the hotels and leisure industry. He has a wealth of experience across the real estate and hospitality industries including acquisitions and disposals, development, structuring and joint ventures, leasing, planning and financing of operational and investment real estate assets. He also has significant experience of advising banks and borrowers in connection with the financing of investment and development real estate as well as hotels. He is recognised as a leading practitioner in Chambers and Legal 500.
Angela Lille has been head of travel management at Erste Group in Austria for more than 10 years, where she actively promotes the topics of digitalisation, strategic sourcing, process optimisation, the implementation of tools and future-oriented travel expense accounting. Business travel thus becomes a customer journey with an individual experience for every single traveler – from the planning of the business trip to booking and invoicing. Angela Lille has a special focus on sustainability and all the associated challenges in the context of business travel. She is in charge of this important topic nationally within the framework of ABTA and internationally at BT4Europe, which she was involved in founding from the beginning.
Nikodem is an associate professor at University College London and the director at the Bartlett Real Estate Institute. He moved to UCL from the London School of Economics where he worked after getting a PhD from Cambridge University. He is also an academic visitor to the Bank Of England and a Research Affiliate of the UCL Centre for Finance. His work has been featured in leading non-academic outlets such as the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, World Economic Forum – Strategic Intelligence, the Guardian, Bloomberg Businessweek or IPE Magazine. His research focuses on applied urban economics and finance and consulting and advisory projects include forecasting, nowcasting and market analysis.
Michelle began her career in hospitality aged just 13 years old, starting in room service and coat check eventually earning her degree at Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne. She went on to spend six years with Andre Balazs Properties, contributing to the success of esteemed properties such as The Mercer, Sunset Beach, and The Standard Hotels. Michelle also lent her expertise to Faena, an Argentinian-based hotel group, as well as working with globally renowned hotelier Ian Schrager at his original Hudson, Sanderson and EDITION Hotels in Miami and New York. She joined Sydell Group in 2011, where she played a pivotal role in the pre-opening and development team of Nomad New York, and later took part in task force and pre-opening assignments at several Sydell properties, including the Line DC, Line LA, Freehand NY, The Ned and NoMad in Las Vegas and London. After working with the Reuben Brothers at the 22 in London and NYC, Michelle was recruited to return to one of her original work families as the VP of Operations, Europe at Standard International.
Charlie Walsh joined the Hinduja Group in December 2020 as a Director and Head of Residential Sales & Marketing for Westminster Development Services Ltd – the development company for The Old War Office project. Prior to that he was Head of Sales and Marketing at Lodha Group UK and spearheaded the launch of the Indian business into London with the development of Lincoln Square (221 units = £500m GDV) and then their flag-ship scheme No.1 Grosvenor Square (44 units = £1bn GDV). Charlie was also instrumental in the acquisition and sales strategy surrounding their latest development Holland Park Gate.
Prior to Lodha Group UK, Charlie headed up the international department at Savills and has an extensive network of contacts throughout Asia, but also the GCC where he was based for a number of years.
Charlie began his career in the City of London working within the Commercial Investment department of Colliers. Some of his notable transactions include the acquisition of HSBC Tower in Canary Wharf (£1.1bn) and also the Walbrook Square development site (£250m) opposite the Bank of England.
On arrival at WDS, Charlie has recruited a sales team and been developing the sales and marketing plan for The OWO. This has involved utilizing his extensive global network, but also positioning and pricing the scheme ahead of a launch into the wider market.
The OWO is a 760,000 sq ft transformation of the grade II* listed Old War Office, which has now launched as The OWO. It incorporates the first 120-key 5* Raffles Hotel, 9 restaurants and 3 bars as well as 85 private residences with an accumulated GDV of £1.1bn.
Charlie holds an MSc in Real Estate and is also a qualified Chartered Surveyor.
Shona joined Coutts & Co in 2022 to lead their Hotels, Healthcare and Insurance team. With nearly 25 years experience, she has specialised in operational real estate for the last 17, working both bank and client side. Shona’s remit covers the UK and includes a wide variety of assets including funding for development, trade/fill up and investment.
Founder, CEO – Lifestyle Hospitality Capital (LHC) Group
Keith founded LHC and leads its global investment and asset management platform. LHC is a private equity firm focused on real estate and corporate investment across hospitality and operational real estate sectors.
Keith has transacted on >$4B of hospitality real estate and M&A across the globe, during his career in private equity, institutional and corporate investment.
Prior to founding LHC, Keith was Chief Investment & Development Officer at Ennismore. He led the company’s investment and development activities, where he was instrumental in completing the transformational global merger of Ennismore and Accor’s lifestyle hospitality management platforms in 2021.
Prior to joining Ennismore, Keith was SVP of European Hotel Acquisitions at Starwood Capital Group (SCG) in London. At SCG, he led several successful investments, including equity, debt, strategic JVs and NPLs.
During his 19 years of industry experience, prior investment and asset management roles include Invesco Real Estate in Europe and Kingdom Hotel Investments in EMEA & Asia Pacific. He started his career at Four Seasons in the US and received his MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain.
Navneet has over 38 years’ experience in the hotel, travel and e-commerce sectors. He has been a Director of Investment Services at HVS International, the global hotel-consulting group, and Director of Finance at Taj International Hotels, based in the UK. During this period, he has transacted on and developed hotels in UK and Europe, India and in the US.
He was with the Tata Group for eighteen years as Head of Finance at Taj International Hotels during which he coordinated the listing of the Indian Hotel Company Limited’s (The Taj Group), in London. Thereafter he was a Director with HVS international based in London. Subsequently he joined as CFO at Ebookers plc, a leading pan European travel agent, where he was responsible for listing Ebookers’ shares on the London Stock Exchange.
In 2009 Navneet joined Duet Group, a Private Equity firm headquartered in London, as Chief Investment Officer of Duet’s specialist hotel fund for India. Duet India Hotels raised USD 200 million. In April 2011 Duet signed a c$150m JV with IHG, to develop the Holiday Inn Express brand in India. Navneet led this initiative for Duet and headed the JV.
In 2012 Navneet joined Holidaybreak as Group FInance Director. Holidaybreak included several travel brands: an Education Travel Business (PGL and NST), a Camping business (Eurocamp), Hotel Bookings (Superbreak), Adventure travel (Explore). The Education business had acquired Meininger Hotels in 2010 and the transaction was completed in March 2013.
Following this Navneet took over as CEO of Meininger Hotels in April ‘13, whilst continuing as Group FD of Holidaybreak. In 2016 took over as Chairman of Meininger. At this stage Meininger had 16 hotels and c7,000 beds but no pipeline. Navneet re-structured Meninger as an independent division within Holidaybreak and focused on creating a new senior management team and growing the business. The company now operates over 30 hotels with c19,500 beds across Europe.
Navneet left Holidaybreak in 2020 and has now launched a new hybrid brand LyvInn which combines a hotel and hostel along with extended stay and aims to satisfy the increasing need for young travellers for and leisure and business to stay in accommodation which is flexible and provides a sense of community in a safe and trusted environment. Lyvinn opened its first hotel in Frankfurt in 2023 and is now looking to expand in gateway cities across Europe.
Mr. Bali holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management. Mr. Bali has also completed the Investment Management program at the London Business School.
BVA BDRC provides intelligence to help clients perform, transform and grow. A full-service market research and consumer insights agency, it has a expert team working the hotel sector which James also heads. James specialises in hotel brand research, which includes assessing performance, perception and premium across the world.
Andrew has been a journalist for his entire career, starting out on trade press titles before joining the national press and a brief spell at the BBC. He launched his own business focused on providing high level information on a subscription basis after despairing at the quality of what the old business model of selling advertising space was producing.
Andrew Sangster launched Hotel Analyst almost 20 years ago and it has grown into a publishing business that now encompasses a paid subscription service for hotel investors, a reports division and events.
More information on these services can be found at www.hotelanalyst.co.uk.
Andrew holds a BSc in economics and a MA in journalism. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and three children.
Andrew is senior UK economist at Berenberg Bank. Previously he worked at Capital Economics where he worked in the UK economics team (2017-2020) and led the firm’s UK and US housing coverage (2020-2024). Prior to that, Andrew worked in the Economic Analysis branch of HM Treasury. He holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Surrey and a MSc in Economic History from the LSE.
Thomas Emanuel is a Senior Director at STR, a CoStar Group Company. He is based in London, and leads a team focused on driving business with Industry Partners.
He has spent his entire career in the hotel industry, beginning in 2000 with Miki Travel, before joining Hyatt Hotel & Resorts, where he gained experience in corporate sales at both the worldwide sales office and at property level. Thomas then led the corporate sales function for Hazlitt’s Hotels, a group of independent boutique hotels in London.
In 2006, Thomas joined the Deloitte HotelBenchmark team, where he was responsible for creating and leading the department’s business development function. He held this role until the formation of STR in March 2008, and has since focused on overseeing STR’s rapid expansion outside North America. Throughout his time with STR, Thomas has gained a wealth of experience working with hotels, investors, developers, consultants, banks, governments, destination management companies and many others.
Thomas has been a guest lecturer at Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, and been invited and participated in the OECD’s high level meetings on tourism policies.
Travelling extensively, Thomas has worked in over 45 countries across 6 continents and regularly speaks at major hospitality conferences around the world. He is also frequently interviewed for his insights on the hotel industry by news outlets including CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, as well as various tourism and hospitality publications.
Dimitris Manikis was appointed President and Managing Director for EMEA in April 2018. In his current role as President of EMEA, he is responsible for the development of all of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts’ brands in the EMEA region as well as maximising the performance of all new and existing franchise and managed hotels. He focuses on driving the strategic objectives of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts including quality and technology solutions as well as new business, loyalty, sales and marketing.
Dimitris Manikis has a long-standing career and deep knowledge of the hospitality industry. Prior to joining Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, he spent over 27 years with RCI, the worldwide leader in vacation exchange, across a number of senior roles, and most recently served as Vice President of Business Development for EMEA. Earlier in his career, he also held a number of key positions in the region as Managing Director of RCI Greece and RCI South Africa.
Dimitris is an Industry Advisory Board member for Hotelschool the Hague, a Senior Advisory Board member for the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance and a Board member for Christel House Europe.
A Greek national, Dimitris was born in Athens and holds a Bachelor degree in Tourism and Administration from the Technical University of Patras in Greece, and an MSc Postgraduate degree in Tourism Marketing from the University of Surrey. His passion for people and work ethic comes from his father, who built up a grocery retail business in Athens where Dimitris learned the value of elevated customer service, having a positive outlook and hard work as being the foundations of success in both business and life.
He is based in Wyndham Hotels & Resorts’ London office.
Rebekah Tobias is Co-founder and Managing Partner at Propela Ventures, providing seed capital to new operators in real estate with a focus on the living and hospitality sectors. The company partners with prominent family offices to help diversify their direct real estate portfolios.
Rebekah is also founder of Independence Ventures, a consulting firm specializing in helping operational real estate businesses scale quickly and become more institutionalized and tech-enabled. She holds various Directorships and Board positions and sits on the Real Estate Expert Council at Global Family Office Community (GFOC).
Rebekah was formerly MD at single family office Marcol leading new growth strategies in real estate, venture and private equity. Prior to this, Rebekah was Divisional Director at pan European fund manager M7 Real Estate, held various senior roles at CBRE in New York and London and was a Partner at Cushman & Wakefield in the cross-border capital markets team, advising North American private equity and pension funds investing in European real estate.
Rebekah has over 20 years of real estate and investment experience, is a certified real estate appraiser in New York and Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS).
