Philippe Alanou has a rich experience of 24 years with ACCOR, the world leader in the hospitality industry. In May 2021, he created his Swiss consulting company in the hospitality sector. In the last years, he has held several positions as Country General Manager of the Accor Group in Europe (ACCOR Switzerland, ACCOR Austria) and Operational Management in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Eastern Europe. He started his career in finance with 15 years of concrete experience at ACCOR & MAZARS.
Anne-Marie Auriault is an executive in the field of real estate and hospitality asset management, investment strategy and Capital Markets. As Non-Executive Director, she sits the Board of AVENA – Fondation BCV 2e Pilier and HAMA Europe (Hospitality Asset Managers Association). Prior founding Pimlico Asset Management, she was leading UBS Real Estate Advisory in the French speaking part of Switzerland. She holds an MBA from Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne.
Eric Bonnel is the Director of Val Thorens Tours, the B2B incoming travel agency of the Savoyard resort, and President of the resort's reservation centre. He is also Marketing and Sales Director of SETAM, the resort's ski lift operating company. As part of his duties, he participated in the implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) at the resort level, and is currently developing a 4-season resort project with SETAM.
Christophe Clivaz is a political scientist specialising in tourism and an associate professor at the Institute of Geography and Sustainability at UNIL, Sion. He coordinates the Master's degree in Tourism Studies as well as the CAS "Tourism, Innovation and Sustainability". He has also been a national councillor since 2019.
Florence Driessens is project manager at EHL Holding SA. For the past three years, she has launched and developed the EHL Next project. She started her career as a brand manager at Nestlé, was a founding member and led the marketing efforts of a technology startup in Los Angeles and launched her own digital marketing company (www.growtharchitects.ch).
Lionel Flasseur is a expert in the world of tourism. He worked for Aéroports de Lyon and promoted the Lyon metropolitan area internationally before taking over the management of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Tourisme four years ago and recently became president of Essentiem. He is a director of several organisations, notably Handicap International and France Montagnes.
Dr Emmanuel Fragnière CIA (Certified Internal Auditor), is a professor of Service Design and Innovation and director of the CAS HES-SO in Treasury Management at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais). Previously, he was a raw material risk analyst at Cargill (shipping) and senior internal auditor at Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, the fourth largest bank in Switzerland.
A specialist in territorial marketing and tourism development, François Gaillard (45) has been managing ONLYLYON Tourisme, the DMO of the Lyon Metropolis, for 17 years. This Savoyard was previously director of the La Plagne resort. François Gaillard holds a Master's degree in Services Marketing and is a graduate of the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne. He is also a director of Atout France, the French tourism development agency.
Dany Gehrig previously worked as project manager of the Gigathlon for many years and as marketing and guest travel manager for Swiss Olympic at the Beijing and Vancouver Olympic Games. In November 2010, Gehrig joined Globetrotter as Head of Marketing and took over as CEO at the beginning of 2013.
Adrien Genier completed his commercial training with a professional diploma in the hotel and restaurant industry. After completing a university degree at HEC Lausanne, followed by an MBA specialising in tourism, he took over the management of a regional and intercantonal tourist office in the Broye. Five years later, he went abroad for Switzerland Tourism, where he was responsible for the regional offices, first in Brazil and then for the Nordic market. On 1st January he took over the general management of Geneva Tourism and Congress.
After completing his banking apprenticeship in 1982, Peter Gloor held various positions in the commercial lending business at different banks until the end of 2007. Most recently, he was responsible for the corporate client business of the Aargauische Kantonalbank in Aarau. From 2008, he was Head of Financing at SGH and at the same time Deputy Director. Peter Gloor has been a director of SGH since 2021.
Stéphane Gras graduated from EHL in February 1997. He has an international career, mainly with Four Seasons, between 1999 and today, in 8 of the brand's properties: USA (NYC, Austin, Newport Beach, Hawaii), Egypt (Cairo), Azerbaijan (Baku), Czech Republic (Prague) and France (Megève). F&B operational career then General Manager positions in Prague and Megève (January 2020).
Amine Hamdani is Executive Director and member of the Board of Directors of CBRE Switzerland since 2014. He heads the Capital Markets and Asset Management departments, where he is active in the industrial and logistics sectors, the office sector, the hotel sector and in portfolio optimisation for institutional investors. Prior to joining CBRE, Amine Hamdani was Head of Real Estate Advisory for UBS in French-speaking Switzerland.
Ambassador Eric Jakob, Head of the Promotion Activities Directorate since 01.12.2012. Previously General Manager of Regio Basiliensis and the Intercantonal Coordination Office at Regio Basiliensis in Basel. 1995 to 2003 Assistant General Manager of this organisation. Prior to that Senior Project Leader within the framework of the PTT Initiative at that time «Communication and Model Community Basel», also worked as a journalist.
Christophe Julliard is in charge of recruiting students at Bachelor, Master and Executive levels through various digital channels. He is also in charge of the transformation of the student pathway, which is now done in a multi-channel universe. Prior to this, he held various marketing and digital positions within the Accor group in the United States, Switzerland and France and more recently in charge of the digital transformation for Michel Reybier Hospitality.
Reto Kaufmann is Vice President Kuoni Tumlare South East & South Asia in Singapore. He graduated from the University of Applied Sciences - Switzerland in Business Administration. He has 30 years of experience with Kuoni, involved in B2C and B2B inbound & outbound group travel in Europe and Asia. Over the past 20 years he has gained experience in leading country sales organisations in Asia through start-up, expansion, turnaround and periods of change.
Stefan Künzle has been Head of Digital and a member of the Executive Board of Switzerland Tourism since 1 July 2020. Before joining the national tourism organisation, the industrial engineer held various management positions in the medical technology industry, each time in the context of digitalisation and e-commerce.
Peter Lochbihler has been Global Director Public Affairs at Booking.com since February 2016, heading a global government relations team, based at headquarters in Amsterdam. Prior to joining Booking.com, Peter served as Vice President – EU Affairs with Rolls-Royce from 2012 to 2016, representing the company towards the EU institutions.
Dr. Masaki Mori has international educational and research experience in Real Estate Finance and Investment in Japan, U.S., Singapore, U.K., and Switzerland. He is constantly ranked as one of the world's academic leaders in the area of Real Estate. Before joining Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, he was a manager at Nomura Asset Management, Associate Professor of Finance at the International University of Japan, Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore, and Associate Professor of Real Estate Finance and Investment at the University of Reading.
Since 2021 Philipp Niederberger has been Director of the Swiss Tourism Federation. Previously, he headed the secretariat of the Centre parliamentary group in the Swiss Parliament. He holds a master's degree in public administration and politics from the Graduate Institute of Public Administration of the University of Lausanne.
Marcel Perren has been Tourism Director in Lucerne since 2007 and heads a team of around 60 employees. Luzern Tourismus AG (LTAG) is the competence centre for positioning, market development, public relations and guest services on behalf of numerous partners who provide first-class services for the Lake Lucerne Region. The tasks of Lucerne Tourism apply to the first quality, authenticity and sustainability of the region's tourist offer.
During her studies at the HES Tourism and Management in Sierre, Morgane Pfefferlé had the idea of the surprise trip. A brand new way of travelling where the customer discovers his destination at the airport and experiences his journey from surprise to surprise by means of a Mobile App. With her Bachelor's degree in hand, she created Travelise in November 2016. In 2020, Travelise was nominated for the Milestone Prize in the Innovation category thanks to the Valais Tour.
Alessandra Priante is the Director for Europe at UNWTO, the UN agency that promotes sustainable, responsible and universally accessible tourism. She was Chief of multilateral relations and tourism policy in Italy for the Ministries where tourism was positioned (Ministry of Culture and subsequently the Ministry of Agricultural, Food, Forestry policies). She is also an adjoint Professor at Luiss Business School and teaches culture and tourism management at other major universities.
Roland Schegg is a professor at the HES-SO Valais and a researcher at the Institute of Tourism (ITO). Between 2000 and 2004, he worked at the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL). His research interests for almost 20 years have been in the field of e-tourism (online distribution, social media, technology adoption and mobile technologies in tourism and hospitality).
As Director of Switzerland Tourism, Jürg Schmid positioned Switzerland as a holiday, travel and conference destination. Today, he is co-owner of the marketing and communications agency Schmid Pelli & Partner AG, chairman of the luxury hotel group "The Living Circle" and president of the Graubünden tourism organisation.
Ursula Schneider Schüttel, originally trained as a lawyer, has been President of Pro Natura since 2018 (on the Central Board since 2014) and a member of the National Council. She has been a member of the National Council's Committee for the Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy (UREK) since the beginning of 2021. As an executive member of her home municipality of Murten, she is still responsible for spatial planning, environment and energy until the end of 2021.
Andreas Steibl has been CEO of the Paznaun-Ischgl Tourism Association since 2003. He is also marketing director of Silvretta Seilbahn AG. He has a professional background in tourism. Previously, he also worked in marketing for Club Med, Karthago Reisen, Gullivers Reisen and the Neustift im Stubaital Tourism Association, where he was marketing manager.
Berno Stoffel has been the director of the Swiss Cableways since 1 October 2020. Previously, he was CEO of the Grächen Tourism Company, CEO of the cableways, and he was President of the Valais cableways from 2017-2020. He holds an Executive Master in Business Administration from HSG St. Gallen.
United Nations Secretary-General announced on 30 May 2019 the appointment of Tatiana Valovaya of the Russian Federation as Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva. Ms. Valovaya brings to the position experience in journalism, diplomacy and government service. She is a Member of the Board and Minister in charge of integration and macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission, the executive body of the Eurasian Economic Union which is responsible for implementing decisions, upholding the EEU treaties and managing the day-to-day business of the Union.
Romain Vetter, SWISS Director for Western Switzerland, since May 1, 2021. He is head of business development at the Geneva base. He began his career at Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) in 2015, first as Head of Sales Channel Management at SWISS. Then, as project manager for the development of new distribution channels. Most recently, he was Head of Leisure Purchasing for the Lufthansa Group, successfully developing collaborations with key partners in the travel industry.
Rémi Walbaum was nominated Director of Innovation of the EHL Group and joined the EHL Board of Directors in 2010. He now leads a small group working on the strategic vision of all EHL entities for 2035. He is President of Innovaud and an experienced regional entrepreneur (founder of Shop & Fleur de Pains).