Matthew Weihs

Managing Director, Bench

Matthew Weihs is Managing Director of Bench. Within this role he focuses on the development of new business opportunities and sales for Bench and partners, whilst also supporting the direction of the business and providing commercial support for new product launches.

With over 15 years experience in B2B conferencing with Guardian News and Media, IQPC and now Bench his main responsibilities have been to manage the sales across the portfolio, deliver the projects to the high standards our customers expect and to find new development opportunities for the business. In 2012 he successfully founded and launched the African Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) and in 2013 he launched the Morocco Tourism Investment Forum (MTIF) - an invitation only event for the industry. 2014 will see the launch of the Global Restaurant Investment Forum (GRIF), the latest addition to the Bench hotel investment conference portfolio.

Imad Barrakad

Chairman & CEO, Moroccan Agency for Tourism Development (SMIT)

HE Nadia Fettah Alaoui

Minister of Tourism, Handicraft, Air Transport and Social Economy of the Kingdom of Morocco

Nick van Marken

Managing Director, van Marken Limited

Following a 30-year career in professional services with PKF, Arthur Andersen and latterly as Global Head of Advisory at Deloitte; and based variously in London, Hong Kong and the Gulf, Nick is currently acting as senior adviser to several hospitality investors. He serves a wide spectrum of clients, including private family offices; PE, SWF, institutional, RE and corporates, and encompassing owners, investors, lenders and operators. The range of services provided includes commercial strategy and development advice; M&A/transaction services and operational/profit improvement reviews and restructuring.

Nick spent the early part of his career in hotel operations in Africa and Europe, working with Holiday Inn, Sun International, Gleneagles and Meridien. He has subsequently consulted in over 80 countries and 250 markets. He is a sought-after speaker and moderator, and was the organiser and chairman of the highly-regarded European Hotel Investment Conference (EHIC), in London. Nick served on the board of global industry data provider STR (from 2011 to 2017), and currently serves on several advisory boards.

He currently splits his time between London, Australia and South Africa.

Federico J. González

Global CEO, Radisson Hotel Group

Federico J. González is the CEO of Radisson Hospitality AB (publ). Federico serves as the chairman of the Global Steering Committee of Radisson Hotel Group, made up of equal representation from Radisson Hospitality AB and Radisson Hospitality, Inc. The Global Steering Committee, under Federico’s leadership, provides guidance and strategic counsel to both management teams and boards, fosters a deeper level of collaboration & communication, and ensures alignment on important matters such as partnership & global growth.

Federico has extensive global executive leadership experience in the hospitality, leisure and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors. Prior to joining Radisson Hospitality AB, he was Chief Executive Officer of NH Hotel Group – where he led a major turnaround of the company – and as Deputy General Manager of Disneyland Paris.

He previously spent 16 years in senior management positions at Procter & Gamble in Brussels, Madrid and Stockholm before becoming the company’s Country Head of Portugal in 2000.

A respected marketer and hotelier, González has written three books: Living and Working Abroad; How to Live and Work with Portuguese; and How to succeed in doing business the Swedish way.

As a global leader, Federico’s personal mission is to motivate and energize large organizations to be more ambitious – in profitability, purpose and people – through respect for diversity of thoughts, culture, gender, experience and beliefs. González majored in Economics at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and received a Masters of International Trade and Finance from the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris. He is fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.

Jonathan Worsley

Chairman & CEO, Bench

Jonathan is one of the founders and organisers of multiple leading international conferences for the hospitality industry including AHIC (UAE); AHIF (Africa); SHIC (Saudi) and SAHIC (Latin America). Jonathan branched out into aviation and F&B, through AviaDev and GRIF. In 2020, the Bench team pivoted quickly to virtual and hybrid conferences with the launch of the www.hospitalitytomorrow.com series and the Future Hospitality Summit for the G20 Saudi Secretariat.

In 1997, Jonathan co-founded the annual IHIF (Berlin) which today attracts over 2,500 delegates. Earlier in his career, he worked for real estate consultants CBRE & Hotel Partners, hotel advisors PKF and hotel operator Forte & Holiday Inns. Jonathan was a board director and co-founder of STR Global until 2019 and is on the advisory board of inHovate and Hotel Swaps. He also sits on the Advisory Board for RAK TDA, a member of Women in Hospitality (WiH) and is a Trustee of Future Talent, a charity that provides financial support to gifted young musicians.

Jonathan’s drive is building great teams and communities around him to propel industry transformation.

Sophie Hanlon

Senior Manager, STR

As a Senior Manager for STR, Sophie oversees the Business Development Industry Partners team across Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Since putting the team together in 2017 Sophie has grown the team’s annual sales revenue by over 95% by prioritising clients’ data needs and reviewing internal sales processes. Sophie regularly presents at industry conferences and networking events to raises awareness of STR’s services.

Prior to joining STR, Sophie held numerous positions in hotel operations, front office and revenue management, ran her own Bed & Breakfast and latterly was in charge of Sales, Marketing & Operations for an e-commerce business where she doubled sales in her first 6 months.

Sophie holds a first-class joint honours MA with distinction in Business Management and Modern Languages from the University of Glasgow and a Postgraduate Diploma with distinction in International Hospitality Administration from Les Roches International School of Hotel Management in Switzerland.

Sophie is an active member of both the University of Glasgow and Les Roches International School of Hotel Management alumni networks and currently serves on the board of the Les Roches Alumni Committee. 

Philippe Gauguier

Associé , In Extenso Tourisme Culture & Hôtellerie

Matthew Weihs

Managing Director, Bench

Matthew Weihs is Managing Director of Bench. Within this role he focuses on the development of new business opportunities and sales for Bench and partners, whilst also supporting the direction of the business and providing commercial support for new product launches.

With over 15 years experience in B2B conferencing with Guardian News and Media, IQPC and now Bench his main responsibilities have been to manage the sales across the portfolio, deliver the projects to the high standards our customers expect and to find new development opportunities for the business. In 2012 he successfully founded and launched the African Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) and in 2013 he launched the Morocco Tourism Investment Forum (MTIF) - an invitation only event for the industry. 2014 will see the launch of the Global Restaurant Investment Forum (GRIF), the latest addition to the Bench hotel investment conference portfolio.

Philippe Doizelet

Director, Hotel & Real estate Voltere by Egis

Director Hotels and Real Estate at Voltere by Egis, Philippe Doizelet started his career as a consultant with Horwath HTL before joining Accor as Corporate Research Director. He joined again Horwath HTL France as a partner in 2006 and founded the Abidjan office in 2016. He joined Egis group and launched Voltere by Egis late 2020.

Specialized in hotel market and feasibility studies, Philippe has managed over 300 development studies in France and internationally including 31 African countries.

Philippe Doizelet is regularly invited to speak at leading Hotel Investment Conferences and is a contributor to several industry publications. He is a co-founder of the CITHA conference in Abidjan, the African Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference.

He is a RICS follow member.

Hamid Bentahar

Executive Vice President - Morocco, Accor

Hamid Bentahar has over 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry. He is currently the President of Accor Gestion Maroc and Executive Vice President Accor Morocco overseeing hotels across all brands and any further development in the kingdom of Morocco.

Since 2012, Hamid Bentahar successively managed the operations for the Luxury brands. He was the Executive Vice President, Luxury Brands, Africa and Indian Ocean for AccorHotels overseeing a portfolio of 47 hotels in the region. Previous to this role, Hamid Bentahar was the Vice-President Operations for Sofitel Luxury Hotels Southern Europe and Africa.

Hamid Bentahar is the President of Marrakesh Regional Council of Tourism (since 2008) he has been reelected unanimously to the Presidency once again. He is also Vice-president of the National Federation of Tourism (2008) and National Federation of the Hotel Industry as well as Executive Board Member of Mediterranean Tourism Foundation (since 2015). 

Cedric Guilleminot

Chief Executive Officer, Onomo Hotels

Cedric is the Chief Executive Officer of Onomo Hotels since 2013.

Prior to that, Cedric worked for the Batipart Group in charge of investment in Africa and of the Onomo project in particular. 

Before joining Batipart, Cedric spent eleven years in real estate private equity at Morgan Stanley (MSREF) leading acquisitions across Europe and Africa.

Cedric graduated from HEC Paris business school with a degree in finance.

Nisrine Karazi

Managing Director, Development, MENA, Hilton

Nisrine Karazi is the Managing Director of Development for the Middle East and North Africa at Hilton. Based in the MEA Regional Office in Dubai, Nisrine spearheads the growth strategy for Hilton’s portfolio across her respective region; managing new signings and expanding Hilton’s prospective owner network. Nisrine joined Hilton in 2010 as a Development Manager for the Middle East. In 2020, her role expanded to include overseeing the growth plan for North Africa.  A hospitality veteran, Nisrine started her career in hospitality in 2006 as a business development manager. Nisrine is a graduate of the Lebanese American University, with a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance.

Mark Dunford

Partner - Head of Investment, Cavendish Maxwell

As Partner - Head of Investment Mark leads the investor services and commercial agency teams at Cavendish Maxwell with a focus on transactions, investment advisory and structured finance.

In his previous role at JLL Mark was the Head of JLL East Africa and a Director in the MENA’s Capital Markets team where he oversaw JLL’s business operations while managing key assignments and clients across the region. Other past roles include; Senior Consultant at Lausanne Hospitality Consulting providing strategic advice on large scale mixed-use and hotel development projects in over 50 countries. Development Director for Singaporean private equity fund KOP’s Spanish based Stein Management Company and Franklyn Hotels & Resorts where he was heading up the growth of the brand and asset portfolio. With a comprehensive background in real estate, Mark also served in the London offices of Jones Lang LaSalle, where his primary responsibility was working on hotel asset sales and acquisitions.  

Mark is a Swiss/Kenyan national with more than 16 years of experience, initially in yield management and hospitality real estate advisory. His broad range of experience includes, owner-operator structuring, brokerage, master planning, development and strategic consulting work across the globe including a focus on Europe the Middle East and Africa.

Mark’s diverse projects have included; chief accommodation advisor to the International Olympic Committee for the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, developing hotels from concept to opening on a single asset and portfolio basis, destination development planning, brand and corporate strategies as well as the creation of learning centres on behalf of governments and private clients across Asia, Europe and Africa. Mark holds a BS & HES-SO in Hospitality Management from École Hôtelière de Lausanne.

Pierre-Frédéric Roulot

CEO, Jin Jiang Europe & CEO, Louvre Hotels Group

Pierre-Frédéric Roulot is the CEO of Louvre Hotels Group, the international hospitality player based in Paris, France. He joined the Group in 2007, bringing more than 25 years of experience in the service industry including extensive knowledge in marketing, brand management, operations management and franchise network development.

Since the acquisition of the group by the Chinese conglomerate Jin Jiang in March 2015, Pierre- Frédéric has been successfully collaborating with his new shareholder to smoothly integrate Louvre Hotels Group to their existing structure while pursuing sound business development.

In December 2015, in addition to his current role, Pierre-Frédéric was named CEO of Groupe du Louvre – the holding of Louvre Hotels Group – which has become the new European headquarters of Jin Jiang International. He is responsible for implementing European development strategies of Jin Jiang, supporting Louvre Hotels Group to achieve better performance, as well as facilitating and coordinating the growth of its brands in China.

In 2019, he is named Vice Chairman of Jin Jiang Global Management Committee.

Prior to joining Louvre Hotels Group, Pierre-Frédéric spent 20 years with McDonald’s where he served in various strategic positions including Deputy Managing Director for France and Operations Director, Southern Europe.

Pierre-Frédéric holds a master’s degree in Strategic Management from HEC Paris. He is also Executive Doctor in International Hospitality from IEMI/CMH Paris. In 2020, Pierre-Frédéric Roulot received the French Legion of Honor from the Ministry of Tourism.

Nick van Marken

Managing Director, van Marken Limited

Following a 30-year career in professional services with PKF, Arthur Andersen and latterly as Global Head of Advisory at Deloitte; and based variously in London, Hong Kong and the Gulf, Nick is currently acting as senior adviser to several hospitality investors. He serves a wide spectrum of clients, including private family offices; PE, SWF, institutional, RE and corporates, and encompassing owners, investors, lenders and operators. The range of services provided includes commercial strategy and development advice; M&A/transaction services and operational/profit improvement reviews and restructuring.

Nick spent the early part of his career in hotel operations in Africa and Europe, working with Holiday Inn, Sun International, Gleneagles and Meridien. He has subsequently consulted in over 80 countries and 250 markets. He is a sought-after speaker and moderator, and was the organiser and chairman of the highly-regarded European Hotel Investment Conference (EHIC), in London. Nick served on the board of global industry data provider STR (from 2011 to 2017), and currently serves on several advisory boards.

He currently splits his time between London, Australia and South Africa.

Daniel Rudasevski

Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer, Selina

Daniel Rudasveski, CGO & Co-Founder of Selina, after serving the Israeli Air Force where he lead over 40 soldiers in special commando operations, Daniel decided to visit Latin America where he started his real estate career.

Daniel Rudasevsk and his partner, Rafael Museri, launched Selina in 2015 with the mission of inspiring authentic and meaningful connections through the world's first work, stay and play ecosystem.

Daniel and Rafi have been immersed in cultural and community building for over a decade — originally through their disruptive real estate company (Dekel), which redevelops struggling neighborhoods into vibrant communities. Based on key learnings from their work with Dekel, they launched Selina and have carried forward the concept of converting distressed assets into community-based and economically viable hospitality properties.

Over the past five years, Selina has expanded to 120+ properties in 20 countries as one of the world's fastest-growing hospitality brands, blending beautifully-designed accommodation with coworking, recreation, wellness, and local experiences. Custom-built for today's nomadic

After ten years of experience developing Real Estate and being the driving force behind Selina’s Real Estate Strategy, Daniel’s invaluable knowledge and expertise have secured and consolidated the Selina portfolio and helped in its global expansion.

Adil Chikhi

Director, EBRD

Adil Chikhi has 23 years of experience in origination, structuring and execution of structured, project financings, equity/quasi-equity and debt capital raisings and M&A transactions in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America and origination and implementation of FDI Greenfield industrial investments across sectors in Morocco.

After a successful career with Citigroup and BNP Paribas, Adil led a family office out of Bahrain before joining the Moroccan Government and heading the country's Investment Development Agency. In 2015 Adil joined EBRD as regional director heading the private sector lending and direct investment practice for the North Africa region.

Adil is a Morocco / UK citizen and is married and has 2 kids.

Vincent Di Betta

Head of International Expertise Activities, Bpifrance

Head of the International Expertise Activities (Paris) since 2010 (creation of the Department)

Objective

Support foreign countries to help them create or develop their own tools to finance their economy:

• To help innovative companies emerge and grow and to structure the instruments for supporting and financing projects (structuring a seed fund, development range of products for financing innovation, evaluation grid for innovative projects, etc.)
• To develop a job-creating entrepreneurial ecosystem, by promoting access to bank credit for SMEs/VSEs

 Area : Sub-Saharan Africa, Maghreb, Middle East, Russia

 Professional background

• 5 years: Head of OSEO Business Network (Bpifrance: formerly OSEO)
• 8 years: Business Analyst Team Manager: Strategic transversal projects for the reorganization of entities, optimization of processes, operational change. Projects size > 10 M€
• 6 years: Senior Business Manager – Large Account Division. Expert in Tourism
• 5 years: Expert in SME Credit Risk

Other skills

• Lecturer at the MBA Executive program of Rennes School of Business: “How start-ups creates, delivers and captures value”
• Member du Club des dirigeants de Banques et établissements de crédit d’Afrique

Diploma

June 1998         Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de Banque – CESB / HEC – Paris

June 1986         Ecole Supérieure du Commerce Extérieur – ESCE – Paris

Fabio Nava

Vice President, Hotels & Hospitality Group, Sub-Saharan Africa, JLL

Fabio is the Vice President in JLL’s Hotels and Hospitality group in Sub-Saharan Africa. Fabio focuses on investment sales, acquisitions, corporate capital market advisory, capital raising and debt facilitation to match JLL’s clients investment aspirations. Fabio joined JLL in 2018, having gained experience in the property financing sector within the South African banking industry.   

Previous notable appointments include having been a Relationship Manager at Nedbank Property Finance where he was responsible for the Mpumalanga area in South Africa; as well as a Specialized Structured Lender for RMB Private Bank.

He holds a BComm Honours degree in financial and business management degree from the University of South Africa, as well as a Chartered Financial Diploma from the University of the Free State.

Salim Mikram

Business Development Head, Moroccan Agency for Tourism Development-SMIT

Mark Dunford

Partner - Head of Investment, Cavendish Maxwell

As Partner - Head of Investment Mark leads the investor services and commercial agency teams at Cavendish Maxwell with a focus on transactions, investment advisory and structured finance.

In his previous role at JLL Mark was the Head of JLL East Africa and a Director in the MENA’s Capital Markets team where he oversaw JLL’s business operations while managing key assignments and clients across the region. Other past roles include; Senior Consultant at Lausanne Hospitality Consulting providing strategic advice on large scale mixed-use and hotel development projects in over 50 countries. Development Director for Singaporean private equity fund KOP’s Spanish based Stein Management Company and Franklyn Hotels & Resorts where he was heading up the growth of the brand and asset portfolio. With a comprehensive background in real estate, Mark also served in the London offices of Jones Lang LaSalle, where his primary responsibility was working on hotel asset sales and acquisitions.  

Mark is a Swiss/Kenyan national with more than 16 years of experience, initially in yield management and hospitality real estate advisory. His broad range of experience includes, owner-operator structuring, brokerage, master planning, development and strategic consulting work across the globe including a focus on Europe the Middle East and Africa.

Mark’s diverse projects have included; chief accommodation advisor to the International Olympic Committee for the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, developing hotels from concept to opening on a single asset and portfolio basis, destination development planning, brand and corporate strategies as well as the creation of learning centres on behalf of governments and private clients across Asia, Europe and Africa. Mark holds a BS & HES-SO in Hospitality Management from École Hôtelière de Lausanne.

Mark Willis

Chief Executive Officer, India, Middle East, Africa & Turkey, Accor

Mark Willis holds an MBA in International Business from Oxford University in the United Kingdom and has completed a number of senior management programs at Cornell University, New York.  

Previous to his appointment, he was the President for the Asia region with Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, a very dynamic area with a robust expansion strategy to open 30 properties by 2020.  

With a career spanning over 30 years with leading hospitality companies, including IHG and Sun International, a large portion of his professional life was spent with the Radisson Hotel Group (formerly Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group), where he held a number of senior leadership positions, including Senior Vice President Middle East, Africa & Turkey. It was in this role that Mark oversaw all brands within a portfolio of 85 hotels with over 80 hotels in the development pipeline.  

Marks brings with him a wealth of operational experience alongside an intuitive knowledge of the Middle East and Africa, a region that he has worked in for over 12 years.  

He joined the Group Executive Committee in September 2018, when the Group finalized the acquisition of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts.

Amr El Nady

Head of Hotels & Hospitality MEA and EVP, Global Hotels Desk, JLL

As Head of Hotels & Hospitality, Amr has overall responsibility for the strategic direction and growth of JLL’s hotel business in the Middle East and Africa. Amr is also an integral part of the Global Hotel Desk Team and is currently involved in a wide range of hotel advisory and hotel investment sale instructions for single assets and portfolio transactions, with a focus on cross-border investment activities primarily from the Middle East. In addition, Amr also provides hotel investment services to private and institutional investors across the Middle East region. 

Amr has 14 years’ experience within the hospitality industry. He has been involved in numerous assignments including Market and Financial Feasibility Studies, Operator Search and Selection, Strategic Development Advice and international Investment Sale Instructions.

Jalil Benabbés-Taarji

CEO, Group Tikida

Jalil Benabbés-Taarji is a business school post graduate from HEC Paris. He is a director and CEO of the Tikida Group a family business and a leading hospitality developer. The Tikida Group owns 10 hotels developed with and operated by partners like RIU Hotels & Resorts, Robinson Club and Barceló Hotels and Resorts and directly operates a Relais&Châteaux boutique hotel in Agadir and a 36-hole golf course. That totals over 3000 hotel rooms mainly in Agadir, Marrakech and Casablanca. He also presides the National Association of Tourism Investors (ANIT) in Morocco. Jalil lives in Marrakesh. He is a father of 3.

Adam Nisbet

Head of Investment, Grit Real Estate Income Group

Adam joined Grit in May 2019 as Head of Investments. Previously Adam was with Collins Property Projects (a division of JSE-listed Tradehold Limited) where he held the position of Development Director responsible for all the group’s development and refurbishment projects in Africa with direct involvement in the asset management function.

Prior to Collins, Adam cut his teeth in the property sector when he was appointed by Investec Bank in Durban to risk manage the bank’s significant development finance positions across South Africa.

Adam brings considerable experience in property development throughout Africa with specific expertise in the development management from inception to final account of large commercial projects across industry sectors including industrial, office and residential.

David Zisser

Founder and CEO, Omnam Investment Group

Matthew Weihs

Managing Director, Bench

Matthew Weihs is Managing Director of Bench. Within this role he focuses on the development of new business opportunities and sales for Bench and partners, whilst also supporting the direction of the business and providing commercial support for new product launches.

With over 15 years experience in B2B conferencing with Guardian News and Media, IQPC and now Bench his main responsibilities have been to manage the sales across the portfolio, deliver the projects to the high standards our customers expect and to find new development opportunities for the business. In 2012 he successfully founded and launched the African Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) and in 2013 he launched the Morocco Tourism Investment Forum (MTIF) - an invitation only event for the industry. 2014 will see the launch of the Global Restaurant Investment Forum (GRIF), the latest addition to the Bench hotel investment conference portfolio.