Director General, Sharjah Airport Authority

Ghanem Mohammed Obaid Al Hajri’s professional career in aviation took off in 1980, when he joined Sharjah Airport Authority, as Manager Administration. He was promoted to General Manager of Sharjah Airport Authority, in 1983. After completion of fourteen successful years he was designated as Director General in 1997.

He earned his B.Sc. degree in Management from Woodbury University, Los Angeles, California, USA in 1979. He obtained his Master’s degree in Airport Planning and Management from Loughborough University of Technology in February 1990.

He enrolled for Doctor of Philosophy in Air Transport with Cranfield College of Aeronautics and successfully attained the same in August 1997 on the subject ‘Sea-Air Cargo Transportation.

Besides holding several other respectable positions, Dr Ghanem Al Hajri is presently a board member in Air Arabia Board of Directors, Immediate Past President & Chairman of the Nominating Committee of Airports Council International (ACI) and holds honorary positions in various international organizations whilst In 2012 February, Dr Ghanem promoted to Chairman - Sharjah Airport Authority & Member of Sharjah Executive council.

CEO - Tigers Eye Division of Tourvest

David has over 20 years' airport travel retail experience. After qualifying as a chartered accountant, his innate entrepreneurial spirit lured him into a fledgling travel retail business called Tigers Eye.
He played a leading role in growing the business from a marginally profitable chain of four outlets to its current position as the destination retail market leader in Southern Africa with 65 outlets in Southern Africa and a further 12 in the Caribbean.

Being part of Tourvest, a multi channelled integrated tourism group, David has exposure to most aspects of tourism, however his core experience is destination retail. Whilst many retailers talk about “sense of place”, he believes the real challenge is to create retail experiences that hold “pride of place”!

He is a firm believer in trying to break the step and repeat “cookie cutter” approach to retail. Tourvest’s award winning “Out of Africa” destination outlets are clear examples of how history, imagination, focus and retail passion can differentiate airport malls, adding interest and value to the overall customer experience and significant revenue to airport operators.

Vice President Finance, Dubai Duty Free

Bernard Creed is a qualified Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with over 23 years of experience living and working in Ireland, Scotland, Bahrain, Dubai, the Dutch Antilles and the United States. His career has seen him work in the textile manufacturing, mobile telecommunications, private practice and the travel retail business.

Bernard has over thirteen years’ experience working in the duty-free industry, having previously worked for Bahrain Duty Free (1998-2001) and for Dubai Duty Free (2001-2007). Bernard returned to Dubai Duty Free in May 2010 to head up the finance department as Financial Controller. In addition to his CPA qualification Bernard holds a Masters in Business Administration and is currently carrying out Doctoral studies in airport retailing.

Bernard is Treasurer of the Irish Business Network in Dubai. Bernard is also a keen keep fit enthusiast.

In July 2011, Bernard was named Vice President of Finance.

Giorgio Armani and Designer’s Fragrance Director for L’Oréal Luxe TREMEA

Stefan is responsible for repositioning Giorgio Armani as an Haute Couture global brand by capitalizing on its high notoriety, its femininity and its selectivity, while at the same time boosting Designer’s fragrances such as Viktor & Rolf or Ralph Lauren and recruiting new consumers to the luxury world with Diesel and Cacharel.

Prior to this assignment Stefan Dembinski was the head of L’Oréal Luxe in Poland developing extensive partnerships (eg. Sephora, Douglas…) and establishing new ways of doing business using the power of the supplier’s brand and the power of the distributor to increase the penetration and transformation rate.

He first joined L’Oréal 18 years ago, when he was part of the pioneering team which convinced duty free retailers to enrich their offer with a whole new offer in mass market; first in Europe and Middle East than creating and developing L’Oréal Paris in the Americas. He successfully helped establish L’Oreal Paris as a key brand in skin care and make up, giving retailers a wide portfolio to attract new customers and increase penetration rates.

Director Commercial, Sharjah Airport Authority

Donald DeSouza, has been with Sharjah International Airport since 1991.

With a Masters in Strategic Planning and International Marketing Strategy, he has been in charge of the Business Development team over the last 10 years, responsible for both Aeronautical and non Aeronautical business aspects at the airport..

In this role, coinciding with the expansion and rennovation of the Terminal Buildings, he has been closely involved in the decision making re the Concession mix and their susequent recruitment and installation.

Earlier this year his role has been broadened when he was mandated with heading the airport's Commercial Division.

Vice President Global Merchant Development, MasterCard

Catharina joined MasterCard in February 2007 and holds the position Vice president Global Merchant Development. She is heading up MasterCard’s global corporate program for merchant partners, where she is developing the global solutions and services for companies partnering with MasterCard across the world.

Prior to taking this role, Catharina was responsible for European Merchant Development, heading up a group responsible for developing new business with Pan European partners such as retailers, hotels and airlines. The group was developing payments solutions which enhances customer experience as well as generates cost savings and revenues to the partner (e.g. loyalty solutions, co-brand programs, cost optimization solutions.) In this context she has successfully developed partnerships with retailers like IKEA, the Ahold Group, Ferrari, H&M, Zara as well as airlines Swiss, Turkish and Austrian and SAS, Starwood and Accor hotel groups.

Before joining MasterCard, Catharina worked for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) where she held positions such as Vice president Commercial strategies, General Manager Belgium and Luxembourg and Director Product Development.

Her engagements ranged from general management, global market strategy development, brand positioning and product development for SAS and Star Alliance. In these roles Catharina built a strong knowledge base of developing customer segmentation and customer value propositions. She has led both B2B and B2C marketing and sales, bringing strategy into implementation on a global level. Catharina led multiple global consumer research and strategy projects for the Star Alliance group.

Catharina is also actively engaged in MasterCard’s partnership with the World Food Program. The World Food Program (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency active in solving hunger problems worldwide. It has a reach of 100 million people served and an average yearly budget of 4 billion USD. WFP was created in 1961 and is part of the United Nations. MasterCard and WFP are developing Digital Food (i.e. more market based solutions which will leverage new payment tools.)

Catharina Eklöf holds a MBA from Uppsala University in Sweden.

Partner in Bain & Company Middle East

Based in Dubai, Cyrille leads the consumer goods, luxury and retail practice. 

Cyrille advised leading GCC retailers and brands in apparel, cosmetics, electronics,  grocery, dairy and confectionary. Cyrille also has a large experience of agribusiness and of economic policies in the region. Cyrille has lived 8 years in the Middle East.

Before joining Bain, Cyrille worked 6 years in marketing and consulting for IBM Middle East and Cap Gemini.

Cyrille is also part of the leadership team of the French Business Council where he helps French companies exporting in the region.

Cyrille graduated from the University of Cambridge and got a MBA-degree from INSEAD.

General Manager & Vice President Worldwide Duty Free

David Francis, native British, has worked in Gallaher Limited for more than three decades (since 1977). After holding a wide variety of positions in sales and marketing he was appointed National Account Director for the UK market in 2000. He was appointed International Travel Retail Director in 2005.
Following the acquisition of Gallaher by JTI in 2007 he was appointed C&TM Director Western Europe & Middle East Duty Free. In March 2008 he was appointed General Manager WWDF Vice-President.

He is married with two children and lives in Geneva.

Managing Director, Pernod Ricard Gulf

David Freeborn, previously worked in the UK for L’Oreal for ten years before moving to Dubai in 1998. He joined Seagram in 2000 and subsequently set up the Pernod Ricard Gulf business following the Seagram acquisition in 2001. As Managing Director he has responsibility for all the Pernod Ricard sales throughout UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar as well as Sri Lanka and The Maldives. In addition the Pernod Ricard Gulf business also supports operational delivery into India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Key brands would include Royal Salute, Chivas Regal, Ballantines, The Glenlivet, ABSOLUT, Martell Cognac as well as wines such as Jacobs Creek, Brancott Estate and Campo Viejo.

CEO, i2i Group China

Alexander Glos is the CEO of a leading China–based tourism and brand consultancy, market representation and PR firm, with offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. With nearly ten years of business experience in China, eight years living full time in China, having worked with over 50 travel destinations, suppliers, hotels and attractions in developing their China strategy, Glos brings a unique depth of experience and knowledge to the event.

Glos is a former Vice President of Merrill Lynch, Events Director at The Gartner Group, Divisional Director of the ITE Group and COO of eMarketworld Inc. Glos is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia School of Business Management, a native New Yorker, with a passion for sailing, flying and skiing.

Chief Executive Officer – Tourvest Duty Free

Selwyn Grimsley has spent twenty years in customer facing businesses in Europe and Africa, both in the service retail and consumer leisure segments.

He joined Tourvest Duty Free in August 2007, following financial, commercial, operations and general management roles in businesses as diverse as Unilever, Hertz Rent A Car and Ster Kinekor, market leaders in filmed entertainment in Southern Africa.

His vision is to globalise the business by gaining recognition within the industry that TDF provides the most dynamic solution in in - flight retailing to maximize revenue and returns to customers.

CEO, Dubai Airports

Paul Griffiths is Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Airports, with the responsibility for the operation and development of Dubai International as well as the recently opened Dubai World Central.

Paul joined Dubai Airports as its first CEO in October 2007. Exactly a year later, on October 14, he orchestrated the flawless launch of Terminal 3 at Dubai International.

Prior to moving to Dubai, Paul was Managing Director of London’s Gatwick Airport, the second largest airport in the UK.

Before joining airport operator BAA in 2004, he spent 14 years with the Virgin Group, working closely with Sir Richard Branson as a Board Director of the Virgin Travel Group, embracing the commercial activities of both Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Trains. Prior to this, in the 1980s, he spent four years in Hong Kong developing the marketing, commercial planning and technology functions for the then start-up airline Dragonair.

Senior Vice President Qatar Duty Free and Qatar Airways Inflight Duty Free

Keith Hunter joined Qatar Airways in October 2008 as the Senior Vice President of their Duty Free business at the Doha International Airport. Keith is also responsible for the onboard Duty Free business of Qatar Airways, one of the fastest growing airlines and operating one of the youngest fleets in the world.

• Read more about Keith Hunter

Executive Creative Director and co-founder, Start JudgeGill

David is an accomplished brand and retail experience designer with 22 years in the industry working with some of the best agencies in the world (Landor, Conran and Imagination) and creating multi awarding winning experiences for global brands such as adidas, Virgin, Diagio, M&S, McLaren, BP, BAT, Ford, DeBeers, P&G, IBM, DVLA, PWC, Tropicana, Fred Perry and MTS.

• Read more about David Judge

CEO, Kavanagh Communications

Anne has specialised in Travel Retail for over 15 years, developing a unique service in her PR communications agency, Kavanagh Communications, alongside extensive experience in the European retail sector.  The award-winning agency represents all sectors of Travel Retail with a global portfolio of consumer brands, retailers, airports, border stores, service providers, airlines, cruise and railway retail from Uruguay to Singapore.

The agency's mission is to connect clients with their own B2B and B2C customers, directly impacting commercial performance with a tailored strategic approach.  Vitally, this approach reaches beyond traditional media coverage and right to the heart of customer engagement in Travel Retail and related sectors such as airports, airlines and luxury brands.  Holistic strategies include creative use of multi-channel communications platforms (including social media), Travel Retail trade, national press and lifestyle magazines, TV and radio, digital, as well as employee engagement programmes and direct customer initiatives, including editorial input on tender programmes.

General Manager, Traveller LTD

Rami Madi joined the Chalhoub Group 12 years ago managing the regional perfumes division. Rami brought with him 8 years of experience in the perfume industry in the Middle East region. Rami then moved to the luxury watches, accessories and writing instruments division within the Chalhoub Group managing the local market and duty free shops accounts in the Middle East. Five years ago Rami was given an assignment and challenging position as General Manager for Traveller Ltd, the Chalhoub Group’s specialized airlines in-flight duty free company adding his 15 years of experience in luxury brands to the in-flight duty free sector with airlines across the Middle East region and has grown the company by 400% in the years under his leadership up until 2011.

Chairman, Scorpio Worldwide

Stuart McGuire is the founder and CEO of Scorpio Worldwide, a leading supplier of branded goods to the inflight and travel retail market.

Scorpio’s portfolio of products includes fine fragrances, cosmetics, watches, jewellery, electronics and novelty goods. The company was recently voted Supplier of the Year at the prestigious DFNI Awards in 2012 and been awarded Supplier of the Year three times at the annual Airline Retail Conference.

Today, the company works with most of the world’s airlines and is one of the largest suppliers to many airlines and concessionaires globally. It is also a growing force in the travel retail industry.

Stuart founded the company in 1995, and hails from a family with over 40 years’ experience in the inflight and travel retail business.

Partner and Co-founder of m1nd-set - Global Marketing Intelligence & Solutions

Dr. Peter Mohn graduated as a Psychologist and earned a Ph.D. in Business Psychology at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Peter is of Norwegian origin, has lived in Denmark, Belgium, The Netherlands, Finland, UK and Germany and lives in Switzerland since 2002. Peter has been working for various leading global market research agencies since 1993 and has been in top management positions since 2000. He has been specializing in Travel Retail research since 2004 and consults various leading brands as well as shop operators in this field.

Based at Lake Geneva, m1nd-set is specialized in Travel Retail and Airport marketing research & consulting on a global basis. m1nd-set conducts consumer research at airports, at border shops, on ferries and cruises on over 60 markets worldwide for global Travel Retail brands as well as operators, airports etc. m1nd-set conducts quantitative and qualitative research on many different subjects, such as Travel Retail shopping motivation & behaviour, mystery shopping, brand awareness and evaluation, price elasticity (conjoint surveys), promotion effectiveness, observation of shoppers, travel retail exclusive product testing, segmentation surveys etc.

Vice President Retail Operations, DFS Abu Dhabi

Glen Morgan moved to Abu Dhabi three years ago when he joined luxury travel retailer DFS as Vice President of Retail Operations. An experienced retailer, he began his career with Marks & Spencer in the UK where he held a number of positions in various stores over his 14 years of service.

In 2002, Glen joined M.H. Al Shaya where he held several key management roles – the last of which was as Senior Operations Manager for Debenhams, Middle East where he was responsible for 20 stores across six Middle East countries. He was the General Manager of M.A.P Luxury Division Indonesia, where he was responsible for luxury brands such as Harvey Nichols, Armani, Ferragamo, Loewe, and Max Mara, prior to joining DFS Abu Dhabi.

CEO Jazeera Airways

Stefan Pichler joined Jazeera Airways K.S.C., a public listed airline on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, in June 2009 as the CEO. He launched a successful turnaround program in the same year and since July 2010 the company has returned to sustainable profitability, exceeding analyst’s expectations every month. For 2011, the carrier reported an operating profit margin of 25.6 %, the second highest in the airline industry. Stefan is responsible of the future growth strategy and regional expansion of one of the few profitable regional airline groups.

• Read more about Stefan Pichler

Vice President Europe Middle East & Africa, Estée Lauder Travel Retail Inc.

Jean-Charles has over 25 years experience in the cosmetics and luxury goods industries, the last 15 of which have been with The Estée Lauder Companies in several pivotal roles. He commenced working with Estée Lauder Companies in South Korea as General Manager of the affiliate and subsequently moved on to be General Manager of Clinique in Japan, followed by GM of Darphin in France.

In his present role he is responsible for the ELC Travel Retailing business in Europe, Middle East and Africa which has expanded substantially and delivered year on year sales growth during his tenure. Jean-Charles is well travelled and has lived and worked in France, UK, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. 

John Sime is the MEDFA President and Vice President Retail Services & General Manager Emirates High Street a wholly owned subsidiary of Emirates Airline.

John has been employed by Emirates since 1997 and is tasked with the development of the companies on-board retail programme and the operation of a global rewards platform for Skywards members. Before joining Emirates John held positions with several major Duty Free operators including Aer Rianta International and Harding Bros. John has worked in most Duty Free environments including Cross Channel Ferries, Cruise Lines, Airports and Airlines.

Vice President - Operations Dubai Duty Free

Sean Staunton is the Vice President for Operations Dubai Duty Free. 

Prior to joining Dubai Duty Free, he was employed with Aer Rianta for 10 years (1990-2000) working in such locations as Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Moscow, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria and Qatar.

Sean is responsible for a team of 4,000 staff who handled a $ 1.46 billion turnover in 2011 as well as 63,000 sales transactions daily.

Sean is Vice President of the Middle East Duty Free Association (MEDFA) and Vice Chairman of the Dubai Irish Society. He is also President of Dubai Celts Gaelic Athletic Club.

Managing Director, DC Activ

Providing brand owners and their retail customers with innovation, strategy and design for over 20 years, Robert is the joint Managing Director of dc-activ; one of Europe’s most respected retail activation agencies.
 
Robert has worked on projects across the world in all channels for clients including Nestlé, Estée Lauder, Colgate, Diageo, Coca-Cola, Tesco, M&S and Imperial Tobacco.
 
Over the past 3 years, Robert has been credited for building and ensuring the success of dc-activ’s travel retail business unit. As Nestlé ITR’s lead activation agency, he has worked closely with Alan Brennan and his team to develop the industry-leading Perfect Store™ initiative.
 
Using his wealth of experience and the very latest in design technology, Robert is able to provide his clients with an unparalleled competitive edge in the ever- changing, fast-developing travel retail industry. His drive and determination has ensured that many of the activations actually land in-store, with results that continue to delight retailers and their shoppers.

Independent Director, Flemingo International

Paul has been in the duty free business for over twenty five years. During this time he has held a number of senior roles, as Managing Director Alpha Retail, Managing Director Alpha Asia, President Asia for Aldeasa and Director South East Asia for Heinemann.

He played a major part in the public listing of Alpha Airports Group on the UK stock market and was responsible for creating Alpha Retail International’s business, including the USA, Europe and Asia. This involved the first PPP (public private partnership) airport in India, Cochin and Orlando Sanford Airport in the USA. Alpha was the first international retailer to operate in India and Paul started the awareness campaign for the country by running two successful conferences. He was one of two founders of The Travel Retail Tsunami village, supported by the industry.

Paul is currently an independent main board director of Flemingo International, Odels, the largest non-food retailer in Sri Lanka, is owner & director of Bangalore Soma Winery and CEO of Tractopping, a travel retail consultancy. He is known as The Wine Man Sri Lanka, given his involvement in the wine industry in the country over the last ten years.

Commercial Director EMEA & Asia Dufry Group

Erik was born in Rotterdam in 1966 and graduated Business Economics in 1989 at the Erasmus University. He accumulated huge commercial strategic experience during positions at companies as Foot Locker, Levi Strauss and Asics, as well on retail as on the wholesale part of the business. Erik moved into travel retail with Dufry Eurasia, based in Sharjah U.A.E., in June 2007. At present time, Erik is leading Dufry’s operations in the Middle East, India and Asia Pacific, where his main focus has been, is and will be, people. It is all about people. Erik believes that if you are able to keep your people productive and happy, you will go a long way!

Director, Consulting Real Estate & Hospitality, Deloitte & Touche

Costas is a Director with Deloitte’s consulting practice based in Dubai.  He specializes in assisting clients in the real estate and hospitality sectors. Since joining Deloitte in 2006, Costas has project managed several large-scale real estate and hospitality consulting assignments across the UAE and the GCC region. His areas of specialization include strategic planning, real estate development planning; development feasibility; hotel operator selection, and hotel operational/performance improvement reviews. Costas holds a PhD from the University of Strathclyde, UK on hotel feasibilities and valuations and has served, in various capacities, the hospitality and real estate real estate industries for over 18 years.

Executive Director – Deputy Publisher, The Moodie Report

Dermot Davitt is an experienced editor and commentator working in the travel retail media. He joined The Moodie Report in April 2006 as Deputy Publisher and Editor of the company's Digital Print Division. Previously he spent 10 years with trade magazine Duty-Free News International, six of those years as Editor-in-Chief. He is based in Galway, Ireland

Consultant Director, Aer Rianta International Middle East

John joined Aer Rianta in 1977 having worked with two American Multinationals, Bechtel and Merck Inc. He went to Dubai in 1983 as part of the team that set up Dubai Duty Free and stayed on as Deputy General Manager until 1990.

He then joined Aer Rianta International and held the position of Director and General Manager at Moscow Duty Free which was then ARI's largest business unit. In 1992 he transferred to Bahrain as General Manager of Bahrain Duty Free. The following year he was instrumental in establishing Aer Rianta International Middle East and held the position of Managing Director until he retired in December 2010. During John’s time at ARIME it grew to become the largest international operator in the Middle East with the greatest geographical footprint and turnover just short of one billion US Dollars.

John was instrumental in establishing MEDFA and was elected its first President in 2001. He has spoken at a number of trade conferences including ACI, The Trinity Forum, TFWA Asia Pacific & GATE ONE2ONE and MEDFA.