Leadership

Considered one of the travel industry’s top minds in marketing and strategic planning, Clayton Reid has worked with companies around the world for over two decades. He is responsible for MMGY Global’s overall vision and leads the company’s $60 million marketing communications practice across six countries and 10 offices. Heavily involved with industry advocacy, Clayton is a sought-after speaker and has been featured by news organizations such as Bloomberg, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and CNN. He has served on boards including The United States Travel Association, The New York City Hospitality Council and The World Alpine Ski Championships, and he is a strategic council member of Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) in their travel advisory practice. Clayton has twice been awarded the American Express Steven Harvey Achievement Award for Marketing and has been selected for the exclusive Arthur Page Society. He is also an advocate for sustainability and social cause in travel, being featured by Skift and Forbes for MMGY Global’s international push to make travel a platform for equality and understanding.

Katie Briscoe is responsible for the development of core marketing services and talent along with helping to lead MMGY Global’s strategic growth through acquisition. In addition to being part of the global leadership team, Katie oversees the operation of the company’s integrated marketing communications brand, MMGY, which offers clients around the world full-service support, including brand planning, content and creative development, media planning and buying, marketing technology and data, CRM, and analytics. She also oversees the company’s North American PR, social and experiential brand, NJF.

Katie has spent over a decade with MMGY Global, leading strategic work for clients including Club Med, Marriott International, Destination DC, Namibia Tourism, Sixt Rental Car and Wyndham Hotel Group. She is currently a member of the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Americas Board as well as the recipient of the organization’s 2017 Chair’s Leadership Award. She has been named to the Expedia Select Board and is a designee to the Visit KC marketing committee.

She also is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, including Destinations International, HSMAI’s Digital Marketing Conference, Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition, Eye for Travel North America and Luxury Travel Advisor’s Ultra Summit. In addition, Katie led a record-breaking fundraising effort for pediatric cancer research as part of the Midwest Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Woman of the Year campaign in 2017.

In more than 14 years with MMGY Global, Craig Compagnone has played a lead role in shaping account and brand planning, client strategy, marketing technology and business development for the company. As chief operating officer and part of a four-member global leadership team, Craig oversees company operations, business strategy and staff support for 10 international offices, seven operating brands and a stack of services that support more than 400 clients across five continents.

Craig’s guidance on brand strategy and deployment has led to successful and award-winning marketing solutions for brands across multiple travel industry disciplines, including tourism, hospitality, cruises, attractions and OTAs, as well as ownership, operations and real estate development.

In addition to managing MMGY Global’s signature events DMO Mojo, Summit at Vail and Summit at London, Craig is consistently featured as a presenter and speaker on industry topics. His travel insights have been featured in publications like The New York Times, Skift, Luxury Travel Advisor and Travel Weekly.

Claire Griffin has been providing planning and strategic guidance in public relations and media for more than 25 years. Today, she serves as a partner for MMGY Global and oversees operations for the Grifco and Ophir PR brands in London. Since 2002, Claire has led Grifco into becoming a premier luxury specialty firm in the U.K., now representing more than 40 of the top travel, spa and beauty clients in the world. And her leadership has helped grow Ophir PR’s reputation as a best-in-class public relations and communications partner in the travel industry.

Claire has a degree in law and American studies from Middlesex University, London. Her first job was in journalism working on The Chester Chronicle & Evening Leader before entering the world of public relations in 1990. Her first PR role was at Grayling Company, one of the U.K.’s biggest PR agencies. For more than three years, she worked on big brand accounts including Mars. This was followed by four years as an account director at Barclay Stratton PR, working on travel clients such as the Jamaica Tourist Board and Oasis Forest Holiday Villages.

Claire left the U.K. to follow an opportunity to work in Sydney, Australia, as communications director for one of Australia’s leading law firms. She returned in 1998 to run and develop Columbus Communications. Claire was charged to grow Columbus’ business, which she did, and ran the PR agency as account director for just under five years. The accounts she looked after included Four Seasons Hotels Worldwide; Mediterranean Experience; Cap Juluca in Anguilla; Rome Cavalieri Hilton; 51 Buckingham Gate, London; and Dolce Vita Villas in Italy.

Amanda is one of the most well-known and respected faces in the global travel industry, with more than 30 years’ experience in the business. Having grown up in Bermuda and Saudi Arabia, travel is clearly in Amanda’s DNA – so it was only natural that she went on to study business studies and travel and tourism. Throughout her career, Amanda has specialized in product and marketing with the UK’s leading tour operators; she was a founding member of Sunworld Holidays before leaving to head up the global marketing efforts at Eurotunnel. Amanda founded Hills Balfour in 1998 with the ambition to create the most innovative and creative travel, tourism and lifestyle communications agency specializing in PR, digital, representation, crisis management, sales, trade and consumer marketing, branding and MICE.

Today, Amanda leads a creatively minded, strategically savvy and passionately people-centric team promoting clients in the UK, Europe and Middle East. Day in and day out, Amanda and the Hills Balfour team help places grow – cities, countries, regions and their infrastructures. One of the most experienced minds in tourism, Amanda has helped some of the world’s most iconic destination brands maximize the economic and social benefits of travel. Ever growing the organization’s footprint, Amanda has a special understanding of international markets and cultures, in addition to a passion for, and commitment to, tourism. Amanda thinks she has the “best job in the world,” which feeds her passion for travel every single day.

Rob has over 23 years of experience in both traditional and digital advertising and media. He held a variety of advertising management roles with titles such as The Scotsman, The European and The Financial Times, where he headed up FT.com and managed the print and digital commercial operations across Europe. Rob co-founded Digital Spring and now leads the commercial strategy for the company.

As the founder of Myriad and a partner with MMGY Global, Al’s efforts are hands-on and wide-ranging. More often than not, you can find him developing strategic solutions to client challenges, creating industry partnerships, research, and presentations and supporting Myriad and MMGY Global’s growth. Al’s also an accomplished speaker, having presented on five continents and in countless countries on topics including research, marketing, changing trends and the creative process.

In more than 30 years with Myriad, Al’s worked with more than international and U.S.-based destinations. His experience touches most categories in the travel and tourism industry, including cruise lines, airlines, tour companies and consortia.

While covering millions of miles across dozens of countries, Al’s done it all. He’s been lucky enough to jump out of an airplane over the Great Barrier Reef, samba in full costume for Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and summit Mount Kilimanjaro. He’s even bungee jumped off Macao’s tallest tower, trekked the villages of Papua New Guinea, hang glided in Cape Town and square danced in the Ozarks.

Paul is a Partner and President of MMGY NextFactor, which he established in 2015. He also serves as Managing Director of DestinationNext in partnership with Destinations International, a professional trade association based in Washington, D.C.He was one of three founding partners of InterVISTAS Consulting Inc. in 1997. For 20 years, he played a major role in building it into a multinational company with offices in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Specializing in aviation, transportation and tourism, InterVISTAS has completed projects in over 75 countries. Paul has retained the role of Executive Consultant at InterVISTAS since leaving the firm in 2015.

Paul has successfully delivered strategic plans and tourism master plans for several destination marketing organizations (DMOs), governments, nonprofit organizations, hotels and airports around the world. He has completed organization reviews and developed start-up plans and business plans for new ventures. He has also facilitated over 300 planning retreats and led several major community consultation and engagement processes.

During the past four years, Paul has led the team that developed and delivered DestinationNext, a Destinations International initiative on the future of DMOs. DestinationNext was ranked by Skift as one of the top 10 biggest developments in the global tourism industry in 2015.
He has spoken around the world on this new strategic roadmap for the DMO industry and he and his team have now completed more than 200 detailed assessments of destinations around the world.

An industry thought leader, creative pioneer and award-winning strategist, Nancy has combined her passions for hospitality, travel and lifestyle into one of the most respected firms over more than 30 years. The namesake behind NJF, Nancy uses her “no stone unturned” philosophy and relentless focus on results as the forces behind the agency’s numerous long-lasting relationships.

As a partner at MMGY Global, she continues to set the benchmark for PR done right for hotels, destinations and luxury brands. From her early ascent as director of PR for the Dominican Tourist Office and Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager’s nascent hotel company to her current post steering one of the industry’s most talented PR teams, Nancy’s rare combination of grace and tenacity has led to countless industry firsts, including her role in launching or representing more than 75 hotels in NYC alone. Acting as the go-to PR counsel to some of the most innovative leaders in hospitality, she conceived of the popular Hotel Week NYC program and won the Hotel Sales Marketing Association International Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.

Nancy remains a passionate traveler, hotel geek, foodie and always a media junkie at heart, and is the proud mother of Emily and Michael.

As the original founder of MMGY Global, Don spent 30 years combining his passion for travel with his love for marketing ideas and innovation. He has worked around the world in travel with brands such as Disney, Hertz, MGM Resorts and Westin Hotels, and the bedrock of the firm has been his work on the ground level with individual hotels and tourism entities across marketing, operations and sales. In 1997, Don created the Summit at Vail, an event that continues today as an annual gathering of travel thought leaders, and he remains involved with MMGY’s industry advocacy, marketing advancement and community leadership. Along with Peter Yesawich, Don formed the foundation of what is today the largest travel marketing firm in the world.

Julie leads the Myriad team in implementing strategically integrated programs for their international destination clients. Julie’s focus is on ensuring that her team effectively plans and implements robust programs, including consumer marketing, travel trade engagement from product develop to agent training, public relations and social media.

Her 20-plus years in the industry started at the South Australian Tourism Commission in their U.S. office. She then worked at Qantas Vacations before joining Myriad in 2001. Ever since, she’s worked on nearly all of Myriad’s destination clients.

As a child, Julie told her family that her life goal was to see the world. Since then, she’s learned that every destination offers something fascinating, even if it wasn’t already on her bucket list. She couldn’t tell you how many countries she’s visited. She just knows she’s always moving closer to her childhood goal.

Ant has over 20 years of experience working in some of the most award-winning and bold creative agencies throughout the U.K., Australia and the Middle East. Ant is the former Managing Director of BMW Dubai and a communications agency specialist. He brings global agency and client experience to our diverse client portfolio and has led creative teams in the development of cutting-edge creative and media campaigns, communications plans and branding. Key client work has included global brand campaigns for Jumeirah Group; digital campaigns for Qatar Airways; and unforgettable events for Virgin Atlantic and NYC & Company.

His passion for “going big” creatively has led him to photograph Sir Richard Branson in hot tubs, film Tiger Woods at the top of the Burj Al Arab, and completely reimagine the Louvre. For Ant, it’s not enough for the work to be the most creative – it also has to perform.

With 25 years of experience, Julie is an expert at creating innovative programs that build and elevate travel and hospitality brands through media relations, consumer engagement, and strategic partnerships and events at the local, national and international levels. She leads the agency’s public relations, social media and experiential marketing brand, NJF, in addition to MMGY Global’s New York City office.

Julie talks the talk when it comes to international destinations and brands and is fluent in Spanish. Her hands-on approach is evident, as she’s personally involved in overseeing business development plus strategy and implementation of programs for NJF’s growing portfolio of clients, ensuring they integrate into overall marketing efforts and generate maximum exposure and impact. In 2018, she was named one of PR News’ Top Women in PR, and she has won numerous HSMAI Adrian Awards for her work.

Previously, Julie spent 17 years at Edelman, helping to build the firm’s global tourism and hospitality offering as executive vice president and deputy global director.

Julie graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California with Bachelor of Arts degrees in public relations and Spanish. She enjoys playing tennis, spending time at the beach, skiing, and hanging out with her puppy and is always looking for her next big adventure, no matter where in the world it takes her.

Caroline is an energetic global business leader that inspires others with her passion, encourages people to think bigger and instigates positive change through her fearlessness to challenge the status quo. As a former Executive Vice President of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), Caroline brings over 20 years of travel and tourism industry experience and an extensive network of global travel and tourism leaders to MMGY Hills Balfour as Managing Director.

From her former positions as an EVP for WTTC and both Group Marketing Director and Group Aviation Director at Manchester Airport Group, Caroline joins MMGY Hills Balfour with a multifaceted and comprehensive outlook on the travel and tourism industry. She is equipped with innovative ideas on how to solve problems the industry faces in the future and is excited to have the opportunity to be a loud voice for the value of tourism, to be a part of and continue to grow the great company culture at MMGY Hills Balfour, and to create business growth for the company in her new role as Managing Director.

Caroline believes that the more people travel, the more it can foster a greater understanding of the world and lead to peace. While incredible growth of the industry is exciting she says, there needs to be a lot of thinking in how to ensure growth is sustainable and remains positive. She’s a seasoned traveler and one of Caroline’s favorite places she has been is Goa, India — you’ll have to ask her why.

As EVP of Europe and Middle East Strategy, Jonathan Sloan brings more than 25 years of marketing and PR experience in the travel, hotel and restaurant sectors. In his role, Jonathan connects companies and destinations in the travel and hospitality space with specific brands under the MMGY Global umbrella based on their specific channel marketing needs in Europe and the Middle East. 

An energetic and passionate member of the travel and hospitality industry, Jonathan offers a wealth of industry knowledge and experience having worked with major tourism destinations, hotel brands, tour operators, restaurant brands and media houses. Previously, Jonathan was with MMGY Hills Balfour in London for 17 years, with the last 10 years in the role of Managing Director. He’s also been actively involved with industry associations and committees including The Travel Media Awards and Visit USA Association and has been included in the PR Week Power List on a number of occasions.

Justin is responsible for MMGY Global’s continued growth in the travel and tourism industry. He spent 16 years leading creative teams to successful and award-winning campaigns for travel brands like Lufthansa, South Dakota Department of Tourism, Los Cabos Tourism, European Travel Commission and Visit KC. Now, as vice president of business strategy, he brings together his passion for great creative work with a smart strategy for MMGY Global and its portfolio of agency brands and clients.

Danny Guerrero brings 20 years of dedication in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry to MMGY Global. His perspectives on travel strategy and his business acumen are derived from his deep experience with a variety of travel verticals in marketing agencies as well as in-house environments.

Danny is a passionate and committed leader who guided teams in North American offices across three different agency brands as General Manager. From his post in Los Angeles, Danny has led integrated campaigns to reach the North American traveler for clients on nearly every continent, has crafted positioning strategies for luxury hotels throughout the Americas, and has developed distribution and travel trade platforms for international destinations worldwide. His assignments include work for Tourism Australia, Visit California, Viceroy Hotel Group, Fiji Airways, Turismo Chile, The Travel Corporation, Visit West Hollywood and the Los Cabos Tourism Board, among others.

Dedicated to promoting travel as a career path for diverse youth through his volunteer work, Danny also serves as the agency’s Co-Chair for Diversity, Equality and Inclusion where he helps advance the agency’s efforts to advocate for better representation. His role includes developing research programs and thought leadership platforms to advance better representation within the agency and the industry.

A proud first-generation Mexican-American and native of San Diego, California, Danny lives with his husband and two dogs in LA. He is a graduate of the University of California at Riverside where he studied Political Science and Marketing with a focus on International Trade.

Calep is responsible for providing the communications, computing and security infrastructure that supports MMGY Global’s internal business operations as well as a variety of hosting and digital delivery services for MMGY Global’s customers.

Prior to becoming CIO, Calep was chief technology officer at MMGY Global, with his primary focus being on client-facing web and digital solutions. With over 20 years of experience in high technology, Calep has held a number of leadership positions in technology at VML, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City and GeoAccess – a Kansas City-based software and services company. Calep earned a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy with an emphasis in symbolic logic from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and a Master of Business Administration from Baker University.

Michael Dellar, with chef Bradley Ogden, opened The Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur, California, in 1989, which eventually led to the creation of the 15-restaurant, $50 million Lark Creek Restaurant Group. Today he is the principal of San Francisco’s iconic One Market Restaurant, which is celebrating its 25th year. Michael’s restaurants have won James Beard Foundation awards and Michelin stars. He was named a James Beard Foundation “Outstanding Restaurateur” semifinalist. He holds a BA, magna cum laude, and an MBA from USC. Previously, he served as director of marketing for The Clorox Company’s restaurant operations division after managing marketing activities for new products, Clorox Bleach and other brands.

Michael has served as a trustee of The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts (COPIA); a member of the American Airlines Chefs’ Conclave; and a director of the California Restaurant Association, the USF Hospitality School, Visit Napa Valley, the Mill Valley Film Festival, the Oakland Symphony and several other industry and charitable organizations. A founding director of OpenTable.com, Michael is currently a member of the Kitchen Cabinet for the Food Project at the Smithsonian Institution, a director of LightHouse for the Blind and a member of the Leadership Roundtable of food service industry CEOs. He maintains an active restaurant consulting and advisory practice. He and his wife, Leslye, live and grow grapes in Napa Valley, where their estate-grown cabernet sauvignon, Stardust, has received multiple awards and accolades.

Harry Hopper has been a venture capital partner, investor, founder, board member and M&A advisor in the communications, media and technology (CMT) sector for more than 28 years. At Columbia Capital, a CMT venture capital firm that he joined in 1994, Harry served as a managing partner for institutional venture funds (over $2 billion under his management).

Harry is very active and engaged in the consumer finance space where mobile functionality or enabling technologies are central. He is on the boards of Sixgill and LendPro and is an investor with Zebit, Global Analytics Holdings and Salt Technologies.

Harry has served as president of The Columbia Group, Inc. and executive vice president of Bachtel Cellular Liquidity, LP, a wireless investment fund. Prior to Bachtel, he founded Sky Broadcasting Corporation and AFSC Corporation. Harry received his Bachelor of Arts (Phi Beta Kappa) and Juris Doctor degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. He is an avid cyclist and is chairman of the board of trustees of the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design in Washington, D.C.

Chris Jarnot was appointed executive vice president, Mountain Division in December 2016, having previously served as chief operating officer of Vail Mountain, senior vice president of marketing and sales and vice president of marketing and sales. In his new role, Chris will bring his extensive resort experience to oversee the company’s four Colorado resorts: Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone, as well as provide continued oversight of the operations of Perisher in Australia, Afton Alps in Minnesota, Mt. Brighton in Michigan, and the company’s most recent urban ski area acquisition, Wilmot Mountain in Wisconsin.

Chris has held numerous other positions with the company since 1989, including director of advertising and direct marketing, director of reservations and vice president of marketing for Vail and Beaver Creek. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Vail Valley Foundation and of the Vail Valley Medical Center.

Karl has over 25 years of private equity, investment banking, operating and consulting experience, spanning a wide range of industries and corporate settings. His diverse background allows him to assess both the financial and operational aspects of an investment opportunity.

Prior to joining Peninsula Capital Partners, Karl was an officer at First of Michigan Corporation, where he established and led its private equity practice. He has been involved in the underwriting of over $300 million in private placements and public offerings. Before First of Michigan Corp., Karl was with Harrell & Associates, a boutique consulting firm providing services to Fortune 500 companies including Westinghouse, Asea Brown Boveri and Aramark. He started his career with GMFanuc Robotics Corporation, where he held various management, engineering and operations roles in both the United States and Europe.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Michigan Technological University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan. Karl is a licensed professional engineer, speaks fluent German and is a member of the CFA Institute. Karl is an active member in his church and frequently serves as a lay minister.

Flo Lugli is principal of Navesink Advisory Group, LLC and serves as the interim chief commercial officer for the Radisson Hotel Group, Americas. She is a well-known expert on travel industry distribution, travel technology and digital presence. Lugli has been recognized as one of the “Most Powerful Women in Travel” for seven years by Travel Agent Magazine and among the top 75 hotel executives and top 10 technology experts by Lodging Magazine. She was also recently recognized as one of the most influential women in hospitality technology by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP).

In addition, Lugli is non-executive chairman of Global Hotel Alliance, the world’s largest alliance of independent hotel brands. She also serves as an advisor to Simplenight, a Global Experience PlatformTM (GEPTM) providing cloud-based distribution, inventory management, merchandising and technology solutions for the travel industry.

Lugli served as the executive vice president of marketing for Wyndham Hotel Group, where she led the global strategy for customer engagement and market positioning for the company. She joined after serving in senior executive positions with privately held Travelport Limited (and its predecessor Galileo International), one of the world’s largest global distribution system providers.

In her tenure at Travelport, she served in a variety of executive roles in the Global Distribution Systems (GDS) division, including senior vice president of Global Supplier Relations, managing director of airline solutions, and senior vice president of commercial. She was also responsible for overseeing Travelport’s Global Operations and Global Land and Sea businesses.

David Miskit was educated at Northwestern University, where he received a Bachelor of Science. In 1981, David was hired by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager as a senior member of their management team for nightclubs and hotels. From 1981 to 1988, David served as general manager of New York’s most successful nightclubs, Studio 54 and The Palladium. In 1988, he transitioned into hotel management, becoming the opening managing director of the Royalton Hotel NYC (1988–90), Paramount Hotel (1990–94) and Delano South Beach (1994–98). These hotels were the first of their kind and created the roadmap for what eventually became known in the industry as boutique hotels. With their innovative modern designs, gracious and eager young staff, inventive food and beverage concepts, and many other transformations of the accepted status quo within the hotel industry, a new segment of savvy travelers found a refreshing and new hotel genre of choice. David also had multiproperty portfolio management oversight during his tenure with Ian Schrager Hotels of Morgans, Royalton, and Paramount Hotels, Mondrian LA., and Delano South Beach.

David retired from his role as director of KenMont KenWood in 2012, and in 2013, he founded a 501(c)(3) nonprofit project called Small World Symphony. The mission of this project was to find common ground between teenagers from regions of conflict around the world through the power of music and the internet. Most recently, David reunited with Ian Schrager – this time to cultivate Ian’s new PUBLIC Hotel brand at the first of its kind: PUBLIC Hotel Chicago.

As the original founder of MMGY Global, Don spent 30 years combining his passion for travel with his love for marketing ideas and innovation. He has worked around the world in travel with brands such as Disney, Hertz, MGM Resorts and Westin Hotels, and the bedrock of the firm has been his work on the ground level with individual hotels and tourism entities across marketing, operations and sales. In 1997, Don created the Summit at Vail, an event that continues today as an annual gathering of travel thought leaders, and he remains involved with MMGY’s industry advocacy, marketing advancement and community leadership. Along with Peter Yesawich, Don formed the foundation of what is today the largest travel marketing firm in the world.

Bernard Muir was named Stanford’s Jaquish & Kenninger Director of Athletics on July 27, 2012.Through six academic years under Muir’s leadership, Stanford has extended two of the most recognizable streaks in college athletics. In 2017-18, the Cardinal captured its 24th consecutive Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup, presented to the most successful intercollegiate athletic department in the nation. Stanford has also won at least one NCAA team championship in each of the last 42 academic seasons, the longest such streak in the nation.

The 2017-18 campaign was especially memorable, with Stanford also finishing first in both the men’s and women’s standings of the Capital One Cup, which had previously never featured a dual champion in its eight-year existence recognizing cumulative top-10 finishes in both NCAA championships and final coaches’ polls.

In 2017-18, Stanford claimed four NCAA titles and five national championships for the second consecutive year. During Muir’s tenure, Stanford has won 14 NCAA championships and 21 national titles overall. Meanwhile, at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Stanford-affiliated athletes earned 27 medals, more than those from any other school.

Tim is a principal at Audax Private Equity, a middle-market PE firm based in Boston that manages over $3 billion in assets with over $3 billion of assets under management. Tim focuses on evaluating and executing leveraged buyouts and assisting portfolio companies with strategic initiatives and add-on acquisitions. Prior to Audax, Tim worked at L.E.K. Consulting. He received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Duke University. He lives in Boston with his wife, Liz, and daughter, Isabel.

Geof Rochester is a recognized thought leader in corporate sustainability, CSR, NGO management, philanthropy and social entrepreneurship. Founder of Geof Rochester Consulting, he advises nonprofit, social enterprise and corporate brand leadership on marketing strategy and social purpose. Past and current clients include Day One, Purify Fuel, American Farmland Trust, AppHarvest, Ziggie.com and MindSpark Learning. Rochester has distinctive and dynamic experience with the world’s leading conservation NGO, media companies and consumer brands.

Rochester has served in various global roles. As Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer of The Nature Conservancy, he directed the organization’s marketing, membership and visibility strategies. At TNC he pushed the organization to broaden its impact beyond traditional audiences for environmental support by going after mega-brand partners and securing unusual collaborations with companies like Macy’s, Subway, Harley Davidson, Univision, Globo, Tencent, and a host of other leading global organizations. Rochester previously held the positions of Executive Vice President for Marketing at World Wrestling Entertainment, and Senior Vice President for Marketing at Showtime Networks. Earlier in his career, he served in senior marketing positions with Comcast Communications, Radisson Hotels International, and Procter and Gamble.

Rochester is highly sought after for his insights and opinions, guidance, inspiration and heart. He has served on several advisory boards including EcoAmerica, MMGY Global, Wharton IGEL, Sonoma County Winegrowers, the Georgetown University Alumni Association and the Sustainable Ocean Alliance. Born in Barbados and raised in Brooklyn, he earned his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

An innovative technology leader and widely recognized entrepreneur, Davyeon Ross has more than 15 years of experience in the technology space. Davyeon is co-founder and chief operations officer of DDSports Inc., a team sports performance platform fueled by wearable and smart equipment data. DDSports’ first product is ShotTracker, which is wearable tech for basketball that automatically tracks a basketball player’s shot attempts, makes, misses and location on the court while providing real-time statistics and data. Prior to launching Digital Sports Ventures, Davyeon served as lead technical and management consultant for eVergance Partners (acquired in 2007), managing projects across the United States, Europe and Canada for clients including Research In Motion Limited (now BlackBerry), T-Online, Business Objects, SaskTel, Mattel, Siemens Healthineers, Nortel Networks Inc. and others.

As SVP of Investments at Reterro, Kevin is responsible for identifying attractive real estate investment opportunities and managing the execution of both acquisition and disposition transactions throughout the United States.

Reterro has a patented process to clean contaminated soil on-site, in an efficient manner that is environmentally friendly. The company has been in existence for a few years and has performed clean-up services to developers and companies on a fee basis. We are now building a real estate acquisition team around the technology to acquire property and benefit from the arbitrage between a contaminated site and a clean site.

Prior to joining Reterro, Kevin was President and chief executive officer of The Parking Spot (TPS), the nation’s leading near-airport parking company. Kevin was co-founder of TPS and was intimately involved in acquiring all 39 properties that comprise the company’s parking portfolio. Kevin was responsible for all strategic and operating elements of the business that includes nearly 2,000 employees reporting up through regional and general managers.

Prior to his work at The Parking Spot, Kevin was an Equity Partner and Senior Vice President with Jones, Lang, LaSalle (JLL), formerly LaSalle Partners, a worldwide real estate investment management and services firm. While at JLL, Kevin specialized in executing land and under-utilized property transactions. He was also responsible for raising capital for a variety of real estate vehicles.

Kevin founded the Near Airport Parking Industry Trade Association (NAPITA), the industry’s first and only trade association, in 2015 and was Chairman of the Board from 2015 through 2018. Kevin is also an active member of the Urban Land Institute and the Chicago Economic Club.

Kevin holds a Master of Management degree in Finance and Marketing from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Management from Albion College in Albion, Michigan.

In her role as global managing director of corporate and executive communications at Accenture, Jayme is responsible for developing and managing communications strategies to tell the Accenture story and elevate the company’s brand. She oversees executive communications, financial communications, corporate content development and crisis communications, and she is a communications advisor to Accenture Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Pierre Nanterme. In addition, she serves as chief of staff to Accenture’s chief marketing officer, with a focus on marketing strategy, operations and measurement. She is a member of Accenture’s global marketing and communications leadership team.

Michael Stacy is CEO of ID90 Travel, whose web-based SaaS platform fully automates airline employee space-available travel for carriers across the globe. ID90 Travel is the first company in the space to provide airline employees the ability to easily purchase discounted hotels, rental cars and cruises online or via their industry-leading mobile application. During his tenure at ID90 Travel, Michael has raised venture capital financing and brought the company to first-time profitability. In 2018, Michael was recognized as a Southwest Region finalist in the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards for his contributions at ID90 Travel.

Michael has been a leader in online technology since the late 90s, when he was hired in a marketing role in the very early stages of the development of Travelocity.com. He rose to become SVP of Marketing while helping the company go public and through its purchase by Sabre Holdings. He also served as President of Cheaptickets.com, where he led the company to first-time profitability and helped parent company Cendant complete the acquisition of Orbitz.com and the consolidation of Cheaptickets.com into the Orbitz family of brands. Prior to that, he was SVP of Marketing at Clear Channel Entertainment (now called Live Nation). Before joining ID90, Michael served as CEO of Groople.com, an online startup company devoted to group travel.

Michael has also served on the board of the nonprofit African Food and Peace Foundation, a trailblazing philanthropic community investing in groundbreaking education for women and girls in Uganda.

Thomas has worked in the hospitality industry for more than 25 years and is currently the chairman of the board for Summit Hotel Properties. He was formerly the president for SONIFI, a hotel industry technology company, and prior to that was the executive vice president business strategy for Fairmont Raffles Hotels International (FRHI), a leading global hotel company with over 100 hotels worldwide under the Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel brands. Having helped launch FRHI as a publicly traded company and assisted with its subsequent privatization, Tom was responsible for strategic planning and helping to identify new opportunities for FRHI that capitalized on improving business fundamentals. Tom held a series of progressive leadership positions with FRHI, including executive vice president development and executive vice president business strategy, as well as president of Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. Tom has been a member of various hospitality industry organizations, including the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the Travel Industry Association of America and PCMA. Tom received a BA in economics from Bates College and an MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell University.

Peter is regarded as one of the most respected and insightful sources on the habits and preferences of American travelers. He is a frequent commentator on travel trends in such publications as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY,  Time,  Newsweek and Business Week. He has also appeared on the CNN, CNBC, MSNBC and BBC World television networks and is frequently heard on National Public Radio. Listed in Who’s Who in America, Peter is the recipient of the World Travel Award from the American Association of Travel Editors, the Albert E. Koehl Award from the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI), the Silver Medal from the American Advertising Federation and the Spirit of Hospitality Award from Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI). He was named one of the “25 Most Extraordinary Marketing Minds” by HSMAI and is a former member of the board of directors of the Travel Industry Association of America. He is also the coauthor of Marketing Leadership in Hospitality and Tourism, published by Prentice Hall.