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Rob is a master coach known for hijacking people’s minds, rewiring their limiting beliefs, and leaving them completely transformed. Starting from a very difficult path, Rob overcame being abused as a child, being homeless and a battle with cancer, to reach a breakthrough in consciousness – he began to question his beliefs and shift his read more
Jeffery Tobias Halter is a corporate gender strategist. The country’s leading expert on engaging men to advance women, Jeffery is the President of YWomen, a strategic consulting company. The former Director of Diversity Strategy of The Coca-Cola Company, Jeffery has worked with leading companies including McDonald’s, Deloitte, Publicis Groupe, GE and more. Jeffery’s latest book read more
Ruth K Ross led a successful career as a strategic human resources executive with top FORTUNE 100 companies for 30 years before she went on to start her own company in San Francisco to focus on the critical intersection where people and process fuse together in organizations. A thought leader on engagement, Ruth’s work with read more
Ciara Feely is the creator of The Conference Converter System™ – a proven formula that shows hotels and venues how to win BIG in the Meetings & Event market by helping them to see their business from their client’s point of view. Ciara helps venue teams to be leaders in the sales process and be in read more
Rocco Bova is a passionate hotelier and an energetic entrepreneur with a remarkable career of nearly 20 years. He studied hotel management at Westminster College in London and Cornell University in Singapore, and he has worked in some of the finest, world class properties in amazing destinations spanning three continents. He’s led pre-opening, rebranding, and read more
Evan Hackel, creator of the concept of Ingaging Leadership and author of Ingaging Leadership, is a successful businessman who has started more than 10 companies. During his tenure at CCA Global Partners, he ran a $5 billion division. One of his signature achievements was turning around a bankrupt business in four years, more than doubling read more
Sunil was born in Walsall, England. His family migrated to the United States in the early eighties. They purchased their first 35 room motel in Pulaski TN. Sunil finished high school there, and earned a BS degree in Accounting from Middle Tennessee State University. Through high school and college he helped in the family business read more
Pratik Harishchandra Bhakta is a second generation hotelier and multi-property owner. He has served as a Board Member for the Days Inn Franchise Advisory Committee, AAHOA North Carolina Regional Ambassador, and AAHOA North Carolina Regional Director. Pratik earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1994. The son of Harishchandra read more
Jagruti has been active in AAHOA for over a decade, holding leadership positions since 2011 when first elected Female Director At Large, Eastern Division. Re-elected in 2014, she has also co-chaired the Women’s Hotelier Committee for five years and served on the Strategic Planning Committee for two years. She testified to Congress against proposed harmful read more
Dan Gregory & Kieran Flanagan are behavioral researchers and strategists, specializing in behaviors and belief systems–what drives, motivates and influences us. They have won business awards around the world for Innovation, Creativity and ROI working with such organizations as Coca-Cola, Unilever, News Corp and the United Nations in Singapore. They are passionate advocates for the read more
Paul Kesman is a marketing and public relations professional with over 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry. He assists hotel owners, management companies, capital providers and suppliers to the industry define and articulate what separates them from the competition and develop strategies to convey their messages in the right manner, to the right read more
Eliza Selig is the Director of Communications for Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®), a global professional association for financial and technology personnel working in hotels, clubs and other hospitality-related businesses. She has been with HFTP since 1999, overseeing the association’s communications endeavors, including serving as editor/managing editor of the association’s journal The Bottomline. HFTP read more
Howard Feiertag, CHA, CMP, CHSE, is an industry veteran, with more than 50 years of service to the industry. He is currently on the faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, where he teaches Hospitality Sales as well as Meetings and Convention Management. A prolific writer, read more
Gregory L. DeShields, CHO, CHE currently serves as the Executive Director at PHLDiversity Multicultural Affairs Congress a division of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB), adjunct instructor for Temple University School of Tourism and Hospitality and Hospitality Educators. A graduate of Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, Greg earned an A.S. Degree read more
Rupesh is the CEO of 3Hospitality and SmartGuests.com, and he operates award winning hotels in the Daytona Beach area. Known for his out of the box, innovative thinking, Rupesh has incorporated his marketing and design background into the hospitality industry to deliver simple ideas that bring smiles to guest’s faces and drive revenues for his read more
Rick Takach, Jr. is President and CEO of Vesta Hospitality – a fully integrated hotel development and hospitality management company based in Vancouver, Washington. In less than 20 years, Vesta has grown their portfolio to 13 properties under management in 8 states. Last year, Hotel Business ranked Vesta Hospitality #78 in their Top 100 Management Companies of read more