As a destination expert and influencer, with over 25 years’ experience, I bring immense international knowledge and ‘art of international insights and best practices’ on how to establish and grow a destination, within the tourism industry. I have been fortunate to have worked along with several Tourist Boards, Associations and Local Governments in Africa, Middle East, India and north America.

My expertise and body of work over the years, comprises of tourism and destination strategy development and action planning – supporting some of the most prolific “winning tourism destinations” such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, Canada, USA and most recently South Africa and Pakistan, to name just a few.

Currently, I serve as CEO of World Tourism Forum Institute is the international institute, based in London, UK. As a tourism Think Tank, our focus is on ‘Reshaping Economies Through Tourism’.

Our activities support and contribute to developing countries’ three high priority objectives; to invite tourism related investment projects, to create jobs, and drive diversity and sustainability – all eventually helping to increase foreign direct investment into a country. We support governments, where tourism is the overarching cornerstone of their economic development agenda.

Maribel Rodriguez joined WTTC in 2014. She has built an extensive network within the Travel and Tourism industry public and private sector, accumulating over 20 years of sales, marketing, communication and commercial experience in Europe and Latin America in airline and hospitality industry.

She was an Executive Commercial Director and Board Member for Travelodge Hotels Spain from 2008 to 2014. Prior she spent 11 years in the aviation industry, gaining extensive experience in all aspects of commercial aviation managing among others the introduction of low cost airline operations into the Southern European market for: Virgin Express, Go-Fly, EasyJet and Ryanair.

She also worked for British Airways for Spain, Portugal and France. Maribel has an Executive MBA at ICADE Business School, Degree in Industrial Psychology from University of Salamanca and holds a Senior Executive Program for Travel & Tourism at IESE & JSF. She speaks fluent English, Portuguese and good level of French and Dutch.

Dr. Sanjay Nadkarni’s domain interests are in the convergence space of Analytics, Digital & Sustainability in the services sector.

His portfolio comprises of applied research, advisory and consultancy assignments for corporate, government and multilateral agencies, in addition to his pedagogic practice which includes visiting professorships at premier academic institutions in Asia and Europe.

He is also a verified Dubai Futures Research Contributor. Dr. Nadkarni’s focus is on developing and co-creating applied research and capacity building practices that have tangible impact on industry and society- an antithesis to the conventional academic ivory tower legacy.

He is passionate about leveraging Industry 4.0 and democratizing data science to benefit small and micro-businesses and enjoys mentoring in social entrepreneurship.

Darren has a passion for bringing technology and tourism together creating a better destination experience for residents and visitors alike. New tools like Artificial intelligence and machine learning will create the final mile for true destination stewardship.

Prior to Zartico, he served as SVP of Destination Strategy at ADARA for 7 years, most notably conceiving and launching Impact, their highly successful destination analytics platform. Darren brings over 20 years of industry leadership experience working for FarePortal, Orbitz, and Expedia/Trip Advisor as part of Interactive Corp (IAC). The diversity of travel companies allowed him to gain valuable experience in destination, air, and hotel businesses across the globe.

Zartico is two years old and is the 3rd company Darren has co-founded.

Hammad Albalawi is currently the General Manager of Tourism Investment joining the Ministry of Tourism from the General Entertainment Authority where Hammad was the Director of Business Development and Outreach securing more hundreds of unique IP’s reaching an audience of more than 10 million in 2018. Most recently Hammad was a core team member in the development of the National Tourism Strategy to open up the Kingdom’s doors to the world. Hammad is now responsible for the investment implementation of this strategy by enhancing regulation for the ease of doing business, developing investment opportunities across the priority sites as well as promoting and attracting investment into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia across the Tourism value chain.

Hammad also acted as the Chief of Staff for His Excellency Ahmed Alkhateeb overseeing operations of H.E. the Minister across the 8 portfolio entities that he serves as Chairman; during this time Hammad was involved in multiple mergers and acquisitions, development and launching of corporate and sector strategies, as well managing HE agenda across all board and administrational responsibilities. Hammad started his professional career with Chicago based A.T. Kearney as a Business Analyst and during his time there won the EMEA Strategy Transformation Award for their work in the Telecommunication sector.

Hammad is a graduate of Masters of Science in Finance from the George Washington University in Washington D.C, during that time Hammad represented Saudi Arabia as the Sherpa in the Y20 platform in Puebla Mexico.

Gregory Surabian is a commercial real estate and capital markets practitioner with 10+ years professional experience across real estate and lodging private equity, development, and investment banking.

In his role as Executive Director of Investment at the Red Sea Development Company, he is responsible for driving long-term strategic value by originating, structuring and executing the Company’s investment and financing strategy across all projects including the Red Sea Project and AMAALA.

Prior to joining TRSDC, Mr. Surabian worked as a commercial real estate acquisitions officer at Anbang International in New York as well as at Citigroup in their Real Estate and Lodging Investment Banking Group where he was involved in ~USD 15B of mergers and acquisitions and corporate advisory assignments and capital markets transactions covering all property sectors. Mr. Surabian has extensive experience in hospitality, office and multifamily sectors across North America and the Middle East.

Mr. Surabian received a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Southern California and received his CPA license while in the audit department of PricewaterhouseCoopers covering gaming and lodging.

Salvatore Lavallo is the Acting Head of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) at the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO).

Prior to joining ADIO, Salvatore has held roles across an eclectic range of industries and organisations. Salvatore started his career with Invest in Bavaria before founding Trail of Seeds – an NGO promoting culturally inclusive development around the world. He has also held positions at McKinsey and Company, Akemi Venture Partners and, most recently, acted as an advisor for the Tony Blair Institute.

Salvatore also holds the distinct honour of having travelled to every country of the world – one of the youngest ever to do so – as part of his “193Journeys” project where he shared images and stories with over 100k social media followers. The project was featured in Conde Nast, CNN, the New York Post and more.

Salvatore holds an International Baccalaureate from the United World College as well as a B.A. in Culturally Inclusive Development from New York University where he was the recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar for Devotion to Service and President’s Service Award.