Greg Duff
Principal and Chair
Foster Garvey PC

Speaker: Stuck in the Middle with You

Greg Duff is a Principal in the Seattle office of Foster Garvey. He serves as Chair of the firm’s national Hospitality, Travel & Tourism practice. Throughout Greg’s 25+ year career working exclusively in the hospitality industry, he has dedicated himself to helping clients solve the range of “back of house” legal issues associated with owning and operating a modern hospitality operation – from advising on the myriad of issues associated with distribution and online travel to navigating the complex relationships among owners, operators, regulators and vendors/suppliers. More recently, he has been helping clients stay up-to-date with operating in the COVID-19 pandemic environment, including advising on best practices for guest communications, COVID-19 testing and related guest services and risk mitigation.
 
Prior to his career in private practice, Greg served in-house legal and business roles with the Westin Hotel Company/Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Homegrocer.com/Webvan Group and Columbia Hospitality.

Vaughn Davis
General Manager, Dream Hollywood
VP Hospitality Innovation, HSMAI

Speaker: Boutique Meets Geek: Adapting To Today’s Technology to Enhance Guest Experience
 

Tapping into over a decade of experience earned at leading luxury lifestyle hotels in New York and Los Angeles, Vaughn Davis is a proven leader in launching experiential luxury hospitality brands in new markets. He is a forward-thinking, modern-day savant with exceptional vision and consistent attention to detail, as proven through multiple successful hotel openings in North America and large scale projects with Dream Hotel Group, Gansevoort Group, Hyatt and Two Roads Hospitality. As General Manager at Dream Hollywood, Vaughn is responsible for the day-to-day management and operations of Dream Hotels’ 178-room west coast flagship and its six bustling dining and nightlife offerings located in and adjacent to the property. Here, he has introduced ground-breaking developments, introducing Alfred the delivery robot, mobile and contactless services, and a first-of-its-kind NFT art exhibition with The Crypt Gallery. Drawing inspiration from previous tenures in fashion and entertainment, along with a Political Science degree from Hofstra University, Vaughn knows how to propel travel and hospitality forward in changing environments. He was recently appointed as the VP of Hospitality Innovation of HSMAI Los Angeles. Through his roles on the Diversity and Inclusion Board at Los Angeles Tourism and as Treasurer for The Hollywood Partnership, Vaughn also works to enhance the experience within the broader community of Los Angeles for all individuals, whether they are here to live, work or visit. His ongoing commitment to community service and leadership drive his unique vantage point and overall philosophy toward building and guiding successful teams and ventures.

Peter Hay
Lead Instructor
SimSpace


Speaker: Pandas, Unicorns and Cybersecurity  

Pete has an extensive and diverse background in a variety of highly technology driven fields including Computer Network Operations (CNO), Network Forensics, Business Development, Workforce Development and Nuclear Chemistry. From his Navy service in leading a quick-response team of NSA cryptologists and developers who designed solutions to some of the agency’s most vital problems, to delivering multi-domain cyber security training to thousands of students world-wide, or obtaining cyber security patents, Pete continues to stretch the edges of technology, its use, and application. Pete’s background and experience in CNO and Joint Operations Planning make his expertise highly sought after by government and civilian personnel around the globe.

Sally Kelly
Sr Vice President Consulting Service
PROVision Partners

Speaker: Management in the Time of Predictable Supply Chain Unpredictability: How the industry must adapt to achieve Resilience, Agility and Sustainability

Ms. Kelly is Sr, Vice President Consulting Services, PROVIsion Partners. Ms. Kelly has developed a proven track record of helping companies define and execute their strategic technology vision to support their customer experience, business revenue, and cost targets. Ms. Kelly is also experienced in the management of key vendor agreements and optimizing vendor relationship value through diligent contract management and negotiation. Her clients include Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Accor and Churchill Downs. 



 

Kelly McGuire
Principal
ZS

Speaker: Want to build a personalization roadmap?  First you need the right technology foundation

Dr. Kelly McGuire is Managing Principal, Hospitality, ZS Associates, where she is responsible for helping global hospitality clients improve their commercial strategy and operations, and to find impactful uses for data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning to support their commercial strategy.  She recently served as senior vice president, revenue management, distribution and direct marketing for MGM Resorts International, where she oversaw strategy and execution of revenue management, distribution and direct marketing for MGM’s Las Vegas resorts, and guided the selection and implementation planning for MGM's revenue management and distribution technology roadmap. Prior to joining MGM, Kelly served as vice president, advanced analytics at Wyndham Destination Networks where she led a team of scientists and developers that built custom analytical solutions for Wyndham's vacation rental business, as well as the RCI exchange. Before joining Wyndham, she was executive director, hospitality and travel global practice at SAS, the world’s largest privately held software company, where she specialized in analytics solutions for hospitality and travel companies. 
 
Kelly is an author and analytics evangelist.  She is passionate about helping hospitality and gaming businesses infuse science into the art of hospitality with big data and analytics, through strategic investments in technology, talent and business process redesign. She helps organizations turn desire into strategy and strategy into execution to ensure the organization responsibly and effectively realizes value from data, analytics and technology investments. She is the author of two books on analytics in hospitality, “Hotel Pricing in a Social World and The Analytic Hospitality Executive”. She holds a MMH and a PhD in revenue management from the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, and sits on the HSMAI America’s Board and the advisory board for the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research. 

Jakub Petri
Senior Director
Visa

Speaker: The Rise of Digital Tipping: How Fintechs Are Helping Hospitality Go Cashless

Jakub Petri is a Senior Director at Visa focusing on new opportunities to introduce digital payments, eliminate friction and offer diverse financial solutions including risk, fraud, and compliance to potential clients. His background includes development of new payment and financial products and offerings across global markets. Jakub works with hospitality and service clients, including FSRs, QSRs, fintech, hitech, payment processors and financial institutions to enhance the digital experiences of guests, employees, and operators. During the CIO Summit, Jakub will share his knowledge of digital tipping offerings and how Visa collaborates with variety of partners to offer state of the art tipping solutions to its clients.