Attendees
Sales Team
Olivia Byrne
Senior Vice President
Sales - Boston, USA
Laura Choules
Senior Director
Global Sales - EMEA
Nic Allen
Senior Director
Global Sales APAC
Speakers
We’ll hear directly from our key partners and industry experts as they share their point of view on the major trends impacting their business, and the industry at large.
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Christopher Hartley
Chief Executive Officer
Global Hotel Alliance, Dubai
In 2004 Chris Hartley was one of the pioneers behind the launch of Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), and since 2006, has led its growth, forging a unique joint venture, which enables independent, privately owned hotel brands to compete with the world’s largest hotel companies. GHA’s shareholders are hotel groups Minor, Pan Pacific, Corinthia, Kempinski, tech-giant Oracle and social media company, ASMALLWORLD.
Since celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2024, GHA now represents a collection of 45 brands with 850+ hotels in 100 countries and offers a shared loyalty platform, the award-winning GHA DISCOVERY, to 30 million customers, which in 2024 generated US$2.7 billion in annual revenue and 11 million room nights to the participating hotels.
Chris has spent his entire 35-year career in the hospitality industry, starting out in marketing with Forte Hotels in the early 1990s, he headed sales and marketing at Kempinski for ten years, which evolved into the GHA role when Kempinski became a founder member of the alliance in 2004. Chris has always been passionate about travel and languages, having studied French and German at London University before doing post-graduate studies in hospitality at Manchester University, and an MBA at NEOMA in France. He has lived and worked around the world and has now settled in Dubai where GHA is based.
Simon Fishman
Vice President, Global Hotel & Media, American Express Global Business Travel
Simon Fishman is Vice President, Global Hotel & Media at American Express Global Business Travel, where he focuses on developing and implementing innovative solutions that deliver strong outcomes for both suppliers and clients.
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Simon has extensive experience across the travel, technology and hospitality sectors. Prior to joining American Express Global Business Travel, he spent nine years at Expedia Group in several leadership positions, including Vice President of Strategy, Analytics and Supply for Expedia Partner Solutions, where he played a key role in advancing Optimised Distribution within the B2B travel landscape. He also served as Vice President of Revenue Optimisation, Lodging Partner Services, with a focus on ensuring Expedia Group sourced, priced and displayed competitive rates and inventory globally.
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Earlier in his career, Simon held several B2B analytics and strategic partnership roles at Yahoo!, focusing on yield management and partnerships across EMEA. He also worked at toptable.com, an online restaurant reservation start-up that was later acquired by OpenTable.
Simon holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Bristol and is a qualified management accountant. Outside of work, he enjoys travelling, cooking and spending time with his two daughters.
Ben Wedlock
Senior Vice President, Global Sales – Asia Pacific,
BCD Travel
Ben Wedlock is Senior Vice President of Global Sales for the Asia Pacific region at BCD Travel. Originally from Australia and now based in Singapore, Ben brings extensive regional expertise and cross-cultural leadership experience to the corporate travel sector.
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Throughout his career, Ben has built and led high-performing teams across a diverse range of APAC markets, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. His experience spans complex and rapidly evolving markets, giving him a deep understanding of the unique dynamics and business cultures across the region.
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Ben specialises in developing innovative, tailored travel management solutions for multinational corporations, combining strategic vision with strong on-the-ground market knowledge. His expertise includes corporate travel trends, regional market adaptation and global sales strategy, positioning him as a trusted leader within the corporate travel industry.
Matt McArdle
Director, Lodging Partnerships
NAVAN, New York, USA
Matt McArdle is Director of Lodging Partnerships at Navan, based in New York City, where he manages hotel partnerships across the East Coast and Texas, as well as relationships with global hotel chains and management companies.
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Matt has 11 years of experience in the travel industry, with a background spanning hotel partnerships, corporate travel and account management. Prior to his current role at Navan, he worked on client-specific hotel RFPs for companies including Netflix, Wayfair and Twilio, and previously served as an Account Manager during the pandemic.
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Matt began his career with Expedia Group in the Bay Area, where he managed hotel partnerships across the East Bay. He later moved to Singapore, joining FCM Travel as a Multinational Account Manager.
Samantha Jones
Senior Vice President, Hotel Programs,
TRAVELSAVERS
Sam leads the strategy for the TRAVELSAVERS Preferred Hotel Program and is responsible for advisor outreach and supplier relationships, including accommodation and content providers.
Sam joined TRAVELSAVERS in January 2019, after leading North American Agency sales for Carlson Wagonlit Travel's hotel distribution division, RoomIt by CWT.
Prior to this, she led the TMC/Consortia strategy for Radisson Hotel Group for nine years and held previous roles within IHG and Millennium Hotels and Resorts. A native New Yorker, she is now a Midwest transplant, based in Chicago.