Stone, who announced he would be stepping down from fulltime corporate life earlier this year, has spent the last 13 years heading up sales and marketing at Accor Asia Pacific at possibly the most intense time of the company’s growth in the region.
In the months since his announcement, Stone has hardly been doing nothing. He’s been appearing at Accor’s events such as the World of Accor across Asia and working on special projects while he keeps his options open for the future.
At WIT*e, Stone will share his experiences in the industry, the changes he’s seen in sales and marketing and the issues the industry needs to tackle as it continues to grow without the attendant growth in new and inspired talent. He will also talk about what it takes to build a long and sustainable career. (To read more about Ray Stone, click here)
Following Stone will be a panel of “Tomorrow’s Tourism Leaders” featuring a selection of young executives who are working in different segments of the industry.
• Graham Hills (left), who now heads up product management and marketing for Yahoo! Travel in Southeast Asia, started his career at Tourism Western Australia in the online marketing team where he managed the ongoing product development and search marketing and analytics for westernaustralia.com, the State’s official tourism website.
A university exchange to Indonesia fuelled his desire to return to Asia and in December 2007 he took on a position as Web Content Manager at OctopusTravel.com.
In his current role, Hills, who is originally from Perth and a Tourism Management graduate from Curtin University in Western Australia, oversees Yahoo! Travel sites in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia.
He says he is exploring new social and user generated content projects in Indonesia for Yahoo! and is happy that learning Bahasa is finally proving useful for more than bargaining and ordering another Bintang.
• Nassim Majdalawi, vice president for technology APAC of BCD Travel, is accountable for formulating and implementing BCD Travel’s technology and automation services strategy for the region.
His main areas of focus include addressing the automation needs of front office and point of sale applications and scripts, mid office routines, backoffice technology that is focused on pre, on, and post-trip reporting, managing the helpdesks, support and implementation processes within the APAC region.
With over 18 years experience in the travel industry and holding an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and an MBA in International Management, Nassim has held various technology positions and worked for Marriott International, Tijwal, the International Corporate Business Bureau and Datalex.
• Gordon Hya is currently assistant sales manager working in the regional marketing office of Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts. He is responsible for developing business opportunities, establishing relationships with new and prospective clients and managing existing corporate accounts, and organizing familiarisation trips to respective Banyan Tree resorts.
Prior to Banyan Tree, Gordon worked with Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay as business service executive and did his student internship programme with Marina Mandarin under Temasek Polytechnic.
Gordon is a graduate of the Singapore Institute of Management/International Hotel Management Institute, Switzerland 2007-2008, achieved Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in Int’l Hotel and Tourism Management and was awarded the Best Dissertation on the topic, “Hotels adopting corporate social responsibility practices in Switzerland”.
• Nur Syazanah Haniff is a Singapore Management University graduate who is part of the founding team of Forget Boundaries (Fobo). Fobo is a travel platform providing youths with the opportunity to conveniently explore socially responsible and eco-friendly travel options. The team’s business pitch won the Top Incubation Award at the recent Grand Final of NTU ideas inc. Business Challenge where they walked away with S$100,000 worth of funding.
Wrapping up the evening will be the story of Singapore’s own “Motorcycle Diaries” as told by Goh Mia Chun.
The last WIT*e of the year, held at the Atrium Ballroom at The Fairmont Singapore, is free for all. To register, contact [email protected]
