Kevin Carey serves as AHLA’s interim president & CEO and senior executive vice president & chief operating officer. He works closely with AHLA’s board and executive team to lead the association, which represents more than 30,000 members from all segments of the industry nationwide – including iconic global brands, 80% of all franchised hotels, and the 16 largest hotel companies in the U.S.
Pascal is a Director at Edgar, Dunn & Company based in the Paris office and co-leads EDC's Travel Payments Practice globally. He has been with Edgar, Dunn & Company (EDC) since 1999 and has worked in the London, Sydney, and San Francisco offices. Pascal has managed a large number of strategic planning, marketing strategy and implementation projects for clients including issuers, acquirers, payment networks, and large merchants such as airlines, hotels, rail operators, etc.
Mike Carlo is the CEO & Founder of XanderPay Inc. Mike has over 25 years of payment and consulting experience working with leading travel industry payment providers, including GlobalCollect (now Worldline), WEX, Transpay, Onyx CenterSource, and PwC.
Mike has an MBA from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
A passionate leader who thrives on driving business transformation and achieving tangible outcomes through innovation and technology - Sanjay Sharma is recognized as the top 10 CIOs in the Middle East and awarded the BT 150 (Business Transformation) in Silicon Valley. As the Chief Technology Officer of Orascom Hotel Management, he is responsible for driving digital transformation and change within the Group. In his previous role with Jumeirah Group and Emirates Airlines, he has launched many industry-first solutions.
Bryan is the Vice President of IT for Belmond responsible for application standards, infrastructure, compliance, security, IT operations, budgeting, and strategy for all hotel, train, cruise, and safari products globally. Nearly 20 years in hospitality technology spanning the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, with Starwood Hotels and Marriott prior to joining Belmond.
When not IT-ing, hobbies include driving a Jeep Wrangler through the mud, ultra- trail running through the mountains, and Trappiste beer.
As the Director of the Transformation Management Office at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Sjoerd spearheads the digital transformation in the hotel operations area. He draws on his experience in various operational roles, most recently as the opening Hotel Manager of Mandarin Oriental Palace, Luzern, to drive group-wide transformation and bridge the business relationship between IT and operational departments.
Riko is based at Kempinski's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland overseeing the global IT, Distribution, Guest Intelligence and Digital technology solutions of the group. In this position, he architects the strategic direction of the company's technology and data infrastructure, in order to optimize the delivery and integration of software applications and the exchange of data across multi-system environment for all commercial and operational enterprise solutions.
Manika holds 20 years of payment experience across the payments value chain, from issuing to acceptance and acquiring. Manika joined Planet in 2019 to drive Planet’s ambition to become a payment provider and launch merchant acquiring, for both card present and ecommerce. Being involved in several acquisitions including two payment gateways and their integration into Planet, Manika accelerated the ambition to drive and grow payment products and overall Planet proposition into integrated payments.
Lawrence specializes in hospitality management business systems strategy and development, boasting a 25-year track record in leveraging technology, data, and analytics to empower operations, drive profitability, and exceed customer expectations.
Caroline is a partner in Cooley’s antitrust team in London. Caroline’s practice focuses on providing clients with strategic competition law and regulatory advice. She represents clients seeking merger control and foreign direct investment (FDI) clearances, and has extensive experience with UK and European Union merger control processes, and the coordination of global merger and FDI filings. She also guides clients on competition law risk management and compliance strategies in respect of pricing, distribution, licensing and joint venture arrangements.