Maria Whiteman is the Commercial Director for Amadeus UK & Ireland. She joined Amadeus in 2013 with the aim of developing the commercial strategy in the UK and Ireland, with a focus on expanding the range of consulting and solutions services provided, ensuring travel sellers have the smarter technology they need to most effectively grow their businesses.

Maria has 25 years of experience in the travel industry. Prior to joining Amadeus, she was the CEO at Directline Holidays. She has previously worked for tour operators Travel 2 Travel 4 and Hayes & Jarvis. 

Paul Richer is Senior Partner of Genesys, a management consultancy that has built a worldwide reputation for its knowledge and experience of the application of e-commerce and online distribution technologies to the travel industry.   Clients include many of the best known names in travel.

Paul has co-authored several reports examining the impact of technology on the distribution of travel, including “Distribution Technology in the Travel Industry” originally published by Financial Times Retail and “Marketing Destinations Online – Strategies for the Information Age” published by the World Tourism Organisation. 

He holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and is a member of the Institute of Travel & Tourism and the Chartered Institute of Marketing.   Paul is married with three children.   His leisure interests include gliding and power flying.

More information at http://www.genesys.net

Iain is the founder of Skipedia Travel Marketing and Natives.co.uk. He has been working in the travel industry since 1988.

Joel has been Managing Director of Travelzoo’s UK business – the largest market for Travelzoo in Europe – since 2009. Since joining the company over six years ago, he has grown the team from 17 to 150 employees, helped Travelzoo win Best Deals Provider at the British Travel Awards – a category voted for by the public – four years running and contributed towards growing the Travelzoo UK member community to over 4 million people.

Regularly called upon by broadcasters including BBC Breakfast to discuss travel trends and forecasts, Joel is an industry expert and frequently appears as keynote speaker at top international travel and digital marketing events.  

Before joining Travelzoo, Joel had a hand in building a dot-com start-up into the world’s then-leading provider of digital travel content, a business that was then bought by the largest travel guidebook brand in the US.

Joel has also had success in the music industry, working in the 1990s with artists including INXS, Simple Minds and Depeche Mode, who were signed to his first record label. This collaborative venture with the main man from Groove Armada won Music Week's Emerging Label of the Year award.

A thrill-seeking holidaymaker, Joel has scuba dived over 100 times in some of the most remote areas of the Banda Sea and also completed the highest bungee jump in the world – he has no desire to repeat the experience!

Marco Ryan was the Chief Digital Officer for Thomas Cook Group plc, accountable for all Digital Revenues (c£3.5bn), Strategy, Product Development and Innovation. Before this, he was Thomas Cook’s Omni-channel Managing Director in DACH. Prior to that he was Accenture’s Partner for their Digital business in Asia.

In 2014 Forbes Magazine rated him one of the Top 10 most influential in Digital Marketing. He is an expert on Digital transformation – his book on this is to be published in March - a guest lecturer to several Business schools in UK and Asia and a regular speaker at conferences and seminars. He has survived 2 revolutions, two air-crashes and far too many long haul flights to be proud of. He flies vintage Biplanes and is an accomplished travel photographer that regularly exhibits.

Francesco de Marchis is responsible for LCTG IT division since March 2015. Here, he is driving an innovative Technology and Product Roadmap to enhance LCTG’s role in the Travel and Hospitality arena. Previously, he had been the CIO of Play.com building a new Digital e-commerce offering in the media business while expanding the 3^rd Parties Offering bringing Play.com to become the 3^rd Marketplace in UK. Prior to Play.com, he had been CIO/CTO for Travel Companies like Orbitz World Wide, Travelport and Jac Travel where he accomplished major complex Platform Implementation and Migrations. Before coming to the UK, he worked for 12 years in the USA playing a key role in the E-Commerce market.  As VP of Product Development for ATG, he led the implementation of the E-commerce Suite which was awarded #1 in Gartner Magic Quadrant and best product of the year 2004-2006. Francesco has a degree in Electrical Engineers and Computer Science from University of Rome. He lives in North London with his wife and 2 sons.

With over 15 years of experience in design, Kevin has been responsible for the successful delivery of projects in the travel, leisure and retail sectors. In his role at 20.20 Ltd, Kevin was influential in the award-winning Thomson Holiday Design Store, which transformed the traditional travel retail experience into a collaborative relationship between travel experts and high-street holiday shoppers. Kevin is now spearheading growth and opportunity for 20.20 in the wider travel market. 

Lee Jackson has been with WEX Europe business since its inception in the UK almost 3 years ago and currently manages business development in travel in Europe. Previously Lee worked in senior commercial and business development roles primarily in the Payments and Travel Industry.

His 20 years’ experience in the travel sector spanning both Retail and Corporate Travel, Tour operations and the Airline business included full P&L accountability in his time with American Express and the development of commercial partnerships with agents at British Midland.

Lee moved into the payments arena through an eight year spell in the electronic money sector with PayPoint plc. Through his experience of working with new and established payment institutions Lee has a 360 degree view of the payment sector and solid experience in the integration of payment solutions to meet wider business strategy.

Clive Cornelius joined Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) in 2011 as programme manager, where he delivered projects related to CWT’s hotel offering. He then became business manager, EMEA and Global Partners Network, where he supported the EMEA leadership team to ensure delivery against CWT’s business plan.

In his current role as senior director, Global Card Products, Clive is responsible for CWT’s card product portfolio, managing the relationships with the banks and networks that clients use, and delivering card products and services to ensure a smooth payment process for travel booked via CWT.

Prior to joining CWT, Clive held project and programme management roles at Travelport. He has also worked with OAG and Natwest.

Over the course of his career, Peter has had many dealings with Hoteliers, Corporate Travel & Procurement Managers, Travel Agents, Travel Suppliers, Tour Operators and Destination Management Organisations worldwide. Today he is seen by many as a notable specialist and indeed a Guru in the world of Global Distribution Systems and the Internet, and the very important part that modern ICT technologies are playing in the world of global communications and electronic distribution. He is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences and a popular chair/moderator at various travel related conferences, forums and events both in Europe and the United States. He has also been interviewed on international television and radio on a number of occasions and is an avid futurist with a particular interest in M-commerce and emerging biometric technologies.

Tal Pelta, a senior member of the Dropbox strategic account team, works with UK Travel & Hospitality companies to improve collaboration and get work done faster, easier and more securely.

With over 15 years experience in the software industry, Tal understands the challenges facing IT departments such as shadow IT, security, and BYOD. As enterprise needs change with so much work created outside enterprise walls and across so many devices, Tal works with CIOs, CISOs and CTOs on strategies for securing their information, increasing innovation, and improving the customer journey. He also helps companies understand the business value of collaboration and it’s place in the digital workplace and will speak on these topics at Travel Technology Europe.

Working with a range of clients over his career, from highly regulated industries such as banking and pharma to travel, hospitality and other industry sectors, Tal also successfully built channel partnerships at companies such as EMC and eCopy.

http://it.linkedin.com/pub/walter-toscano/0/38/b/
Senior advisor specializing in digital tourism projects with deep experience in international business developement, strategic alliances, creative development of innovative solutions and technology transfer.
Leader leveraging leading-edge technology transfer to provide competitive advantage deliverables .  Strategist focused on business environment positioning and opportunities development and creation, builder of long-term alliances and win-win model scenarios.
Multi-sector vertical experience including aviation , tour operation, hospitality, general transportation, network distribution and telecoms Pro bono mentor and advisor to travel focused European-based startups

Matt Zito is the founder of TravelStartups.co, a veteran travel entrepreneur, Managing Partner and Lead Advisor for Travel Startups Incubator. Matt brings 20+ years of experience in travel having founded and sold two travel companies, CollegeSkiTrips.com the largest youth based ski travel agency (OTA) in the U.S. and the Yellow Breeches House Fly-Fishing Lodge. Matt advised over 25 travel companies between 2013-2014, helping both angel and VC backed travel companies launch new travel brands. He has built one of the largest travel industry networks of travel CEOs and entrepreneurs in the industry. Matt leverages his contacts to help our portfolio companies gain traction for their products and services through strategic partnerships and business development deals.

John has spent the past 15 years of his career within the hospitality sector. Selling primarily SaaS platforms for the later part of his career. John has joined TravelTripper form one of Europes best known booking engine technology providers Bookassist, where John was Head of Sales for over 3 years. During this time John opened several new markets for Bookassist including the UK and UAE regions, while pitching to some of the largest hotel groups in Europe and the UAE.

After graduating with a BA in Business, John joined a private investment company and opened several hostels, guest houses, and small hotels in Dublin. Since then John has been part of several startups in the past 18 years, including two of his own companies within the hospitality sector which have since been bought and continue trading.

John is a calculated risk-taker with great tech and marketing knowledge bringing many years of sales experience and know how, and has been tasked with the setup and introduction of Travel Tripper to the UK and European markets. In his personal time john has been a competitive windsurfer for many years, and loves nothing more than going windsurfing with his daughter during the summer months and racing the Irish triathlon circuit during the off season and winter months.

Xaveer is the Commercial Manager for Booking.com for Business. Responsible for overseeing the global commercial approach for Small and Medium Enterprises, Xaveer combines charismatic leadership with a high degree of all-round business acumen to pave the way in business travel for Booking.com.

Having achieved his Master’s degree in Innovative Hospitality Management from the ESADE Business & Law School in 2007, and already with extensive experience in both Hospitality and Project Management, Xaveer joined Booking.com in October 2008. In the course of the next seven years with the company, he built both career and reputation in management roles both in his native Netherlands and whilst overseeing operations in the East Coast of the United States. Driven, committed to results and with an energetic entrepreneurial flair, Xaveer now helps steer Booking.com for Business in its continued global development.