Christian de Barrin, CEO, HOTREC

French native, with an economic background, Christian has built up expertise and experience in strategic communication, stakeholder relations and public affairs in Brussels for 13 years. He held several senior communication and association management positions in major trade associations for complex industry sectors, including metals, consumer goods, air transport and media. In parallel to that, Christian worked for an EU Think-Tank and delivered trainings at the European Training Institute. He was also Board Member at the European Association of Communication Directors and a columnist at French radio France-Info.

Alvaro Carrillo de Albornoz, General Director, Instituto Tecnológico Hotelero (ITH)

Alvaro Carrillo de Albornoz is an aeronautical engineer and MBA from Instituto de Empresa. He began his career in the world of aviation, to shift almost immediately to ENDESA, where he spent four years in strategic consulting and another 4 to Technology and Innovation, responsible for Finance and External Relations R & D Company in a corporate level. In January 2008, became part of the ITH as Director General, combining this activity with teaching at the Instituto de Empresa. It is also coordinator of the working group 2 WG2 Systems Innovation Management, within the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) / Technical Comitee (TC) 389 Innovation Management CEN / TC 389.

Monica Chao Janeiro, Director of Environment and Sustainability, NH Hotel Group 

Over the last 20 years, Monica has been working with companies, Governments and NGOs, on the management of environment, energy and social issues, as drivers for innovation and value creation
Monica is Director of Environment and Sustainability NH Hotel Group where she is responsible for Creating and overseeing an integrated global sustainability strategy as part of the Strategic Plan of the Company (aprox 400 hotels in 23 countries); set high-level goals and commitments, coordinate projects and collaborate with other areas of the company implementing sustainability as part of the operational promise of the brands. Monica is member of the Technical Committee for Standardization about Tourism (CTN 182) regarding ISO Standards, Member of the Sustainability Committee of GBTA, Member of the Spanish Green Growth Group, Member of the Working Group for HCMI at International Tourism Partnership, Member of the Environment Committee of the AEC (Asociación Española de la Calidad). Monica was part of the Working Group for Finance Initiative of United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP-FI)

Nigel Claridge, Senior Adviser EU funding/project manager, Sustainable Innovation
Nigel holds a degree in Ergonomics (BSc Hons) from Loughborough University (UK) and has 20 years of experience as an IT industry consultant. He was co-founder and senior partner at the UX consultancy company Nomos Management until 2001 and then joined IconMediaLab. In 2003, he founded Scandinavian Usability Associates, specializing in EU funded projects and consultancy assignments. He is joint owner and business director of the international on-line WAMMI service that measures and analyses website user experience. Since 1994, he has worked on over twelve projects funded by the European Commission including MAPI, RESPECT, INUSE, PASSION, Usabilitynet, Tenuta, Coldtrace, Coldroad and EurEauWeb I & II. He is currently working in the field of energy efficiency and on the IEE funded project neZEH. He is an evaluator and reviewer of EU projects and proposals, senior user experience adviser at Advince AB, an associate senior usability consultant at Usability Partners AB and senior EU adviser to Sustainable Innovations AB.

João Cotrim de Figueiredo, President, Turismo de Portugal

João Cotrim de Figueiredo was appointed President of Turismo de Portugal, the National Tourism Board, in December 2013, and elected Vice-President of European Travel Commission in 2015.
Before joining Turismo de Portugal, he co-founded and managed several start-up companies including Jason Associates (HR Management) and Faber Ventures (Digital business). Among other management positions in major companies, João Cotrim de Figueiredo was CEO at Compal and Nutricafés until 2006. He was CEO of TVI, the leading free-to-air TV station in Portugal. João Cotrim de Figueiredo holds a MBA from Universidade Nova de Lisboa and a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Alain Dupeyras Head of the Tourism Unit, OECD

As Head of Tourism at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), Alain Dupeyras manages, with the support of governments, the work of the Tourism Committee. The OECD Tourism Committee helps member and partner countries develop policies that address major challenges faced by the industry (e.g. competitiveness, quality jobs and skills, innovation, travel facilitation, taxation), promotes an integrated governmental approach to tourism (effective policies for tourism growth), contributes to improved measurement and analysis of tourism services (e.g. Tourism Satellite Account, competitiveness indicators, impacts of tourism at regional level), and enhances international co-operation in tourism. Before joining the OECD, Mr. Dupeyras held a post at the French bank for the development of SMEs. He is a visiting professor in tourism policy and tourism economics in various universities.

Marcio Favilla, Executive Director, UNWTO

M. Favilla is currently Executive Director for Operational Programmes and Institutional Relations at the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) based in Madrid, Spain. He has been in this position since January 2010. Prior to this appointment, he was Brazil’s first Vice Minister of Tourism, from 2003 to 2007, where he played a key role in the structuring of the first exclusive Ministry of Tourism in Brazil, then, before joining UNWTO, was Vice Minister of Institutional Relations of the Presidency of Brazil.

Irene Goikolea Uriarte, Natural Resort Amalurra

Irene Goikolea Uriarte, natural Oma (Basque Country) is director of Amalurra Project, a project of personal and collective learning and development including the Natural Resort Amalurra.Philologist and with a Masters in deep Psychology (Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara-California) NLP, family constellations, yoga and coaching among other disciplines.

Pablo Hernández Ubiria, Commercial Director of RH Hotels

With a Degree in Management and Business Administration I currently hold the position of Commercial Director of RH Hotels, responsible for the marketing of 15 establishments.In earlier stages of my career I held the position manager at the Hotel RH Portocristo in Peñiscola and prior to that I was the assistant manager of the Hotel RH Princesa in Benidorm.Besides my profession, I am a nature lover and I am very proud that RH Hotels has a strong commitment to the defense of the - environment.

Olle Jonäng, Senior Advisor, Head of Office, EU-office in Brussels, Region Västra Götaland

Olle has served as Head of Office, EU-office in Brussels, Region Västra Götaland in 2010-15, as Political Advisor, Prime Minister´s Office, Swedish Government from 2007-10 and as Protocol Director, Region Västra Götaland 1999-2007.

Vlaho Kojakovic, Senior Banker, Property & Tourism Team, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Vlaho Kojakovic is a seasoned real estate executive and a Senior Banker with the Property and Tourism Team at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“EBRD”). Over the past 15 years, while with major private real estate developers and EBRD, he has been involved in a large number of major hospitality and real estate transactions in Central and Eastern Europe and MENA regions. During this time he has structured and led the underwriting and implementation of numerous transactions in the hospitality and real estate sector totaling approximately EUR 2 billion. Vlaho is also representing the EBRD on the Investment Committees of private equity real estate funds where the EBRD is an LP and on the Supervisory Board of companies where the EBRD is an equity investor. Additionally, he is responsible for coordinating EBRD’s policy engagement activities within hospitality and commercial real estate projects in the Bank’s countries of operation. Vlaho holds an MBA from the Imperial College and has attended executive education at Harvard’s KSG.

Ilona Lelonek Husting, Policy Officer, Unit: Tourism, Emerging and Creative Industries, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission (DG GROW)

Since April 2009, Ilona is a Project and Policy Officer responsible for implementation of the preparatory actions: "European Destinations of Excellence" EDEN, “Sustainable Tourism”, the actions linked to promoting diversification of European tourism offer and to development of a sustainable and responsible tourism, coordinating works of the Tourism Advisory Committee gathering Member States’ national authorities in charge of Tourism, communication campaign and support to cultural and creative industries file. From 2004-2009 she was a Parliamentary Assistant to the Polish Member of the European Parliament, (Brussels and Strasbourg). She holds a Master in economics from the Cracow University of Economics (Poland), Faculty of Economics and International Relations, specialisation in European Studies and studied in IUP 2 Management and territorial development at the University Pierre Mendès France in Grenoble (France).

Rodrigo Morell, Managing Director, CREARA

Rodrigo Morell holds a Bachelor degree of Economics and Business Administration (ICADE, Madrid).Currently, he is a partner and Director at Creara, energy experts. Since 2006, Creara has become a leading company in the field of Energy Efficiency, offering high value added consultancy and engineering services to clients all along the value chain. He has a vast knowledge of the sustainability challenges and financial aspects of the energy efficiency. He has been part of the panel of experts that supported the government on the development of Energy Efficiency standards, becoming a member of the Managing Group of the Spanish Energy Efficiency Technical Platform (PTE-EE) and President of the ESCO Association (A3E).

Philippe Moseley, Project Advisor, EASME

Philippe Moseley is a Project Advisor at the EASME (Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) in Brussels, working in the Horizon 2020 Energy Unit. EASME is tasked with managing several programmes on behalf of the European Commission, notably Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) and parts of Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. Before joining EASME in early 2014 Philippe had built up a 15-year career as a professional architect and urban designer, designing and delivering energy efficient building projects across Europe. Philippe is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and of the Urban Design Group. He holds Master degrees from the Royal College of Art, London (MA Architecture), and from the Catholic University of Leuven (MSc Human Settlements).

Cristina Nuñez, Coordinator, NECSTouR

Coordinator of the European Network of Regions for a Competitive and Sustainable Tourism - NECSTouR - since 2012, she holds a Degree in Tourism (Spain-France), a post graduate degree in European affairs (Belgium) and a Diploma of National Interpreter-Guide (France). She has over ten years of experience in the tourism sector, covering customers welcoming and guiding, accommodation and leisure activities booking, destination marketing and promotion, events organization (MICE), research, project management and tourism policy. Her previous employers are ECORYS Brussels NV (Events Project Manager), the European Commission (interservice traineeships), the Catalan Tourism Board Benelux Officer (Promotion Assistant) and several tourism stakeholders based in the Costa Brava Tourism Destination (Catalonia, Spain).
Cristina has a strong expertise in Destination management models and in tourism territorial strategy. Today she runs the NECSTouR Network, driving and promoting its strategy, projects and activities, being the main representative of its Members position towards the European Institutions. Beside Catalan and Spanish as mother tongues, she speaks fluently French and English as well as very good Italian.

Tassos Papadourakis, Managing Director of Ibiscos Garden Blue Star Hotel

Tassos is the Managing Director of Ibiscos Garden Blue Star hotel, situated in Rethymno-Crete, Greece since 1992. He was a member of the Rethymno Hotel Association Board for 7 years (1999 – 2006).Tassos is elected as a city Councilor in the Municipality of Rethymno since 2007 and served as Chairman of the Municipal Development Company (2007 & 2008), Deputy Mayor for the solid waste management (2009-2010) and Finance (2009-2014). Since 2014 he acts as the Executive Director of Planning and Development in the Municipality of Rethymno.His studied Economics in the Athens University of Economics and Business and Hospitality in the Alpine center.

Jose Maria Martin Rigueiro, Director of Tourism Business Department, Banco Sabadell

Jose Maria Martin Rigueiro is Director of the department of the Tourism Business of Banco Sabadell, which operates a specialized division covering over 10,500 customers, composed mainly by hotels, tourist accommodation, travel agencies and tour operators.
Banco Sabadell Tourism Business offers a global value proposition, especially directed to selling hotels finance operations, financing renovation projects, integrated refurbishments, adapting corporate image, energy efficiency projects, replacement of equipment, finance hotel franchises as well as a complete catalog on different means of payment, such as: electronic commerce, electronic billing and claims coverage
José María has a degree in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid, Master in General Management from IESE (University of Navarra) and has over 25 years of experience in the domestic and international banking sector, having developed high management positions in Banking Commercial, Corporate Banking and International Business

Stavroula Tournaki, Technical University of Crete- Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems Lab

Stavroula TOURNAKI is head of the European Projects dpt. at the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems Laboratory of the Technical University of Crete since 2007); has participated/managed 14+ EU funded projects in the Sustainable Energy field. From 1996 to 2007, she has worked as Business Development and Marketing Director in a number of multinational companies activating in the fields of communications, ICT, vocational training and certification.

Dr Theocharis Tsoutsos,

neZEH Project Coordinator, Professor, Director Graduate Programme, Technical University of Crete- Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems Lab

Dr.Theocharis Tsoutsos is Director of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems Laboratory and Director of the Graduate Programme “Environmental Engineering” at the School of Environmental Engineering-Technical University of Crete. He is working in the Sustainable Energy field for 30+ years. He has been the Head of the Development Department, Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving - CRES (1992-2005).

Theocharis is assigned as evaluator of the European Commission and the national authorities of Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Kazakstan, Russia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Wales, etc; he has worked in several RDD projects on RES, Energy Efficiency and Planning, 35+ as coordinator, 50+ as participating expert and 80+ as scientific collaborator (IEE2, IEE, ALTENER, SAVE, FP7, FP6, FP5, COST, MED, LEONARDO, Interreg, Erasmus).

Theocharis is the author of 100+ scientific publications in international scientific and technical journals, 20+ book chapters, 200+ publications in conferences, and counts 1,500+ citations. He is a reviewer in the all major International Scientific Journals relevant to Sustainable Energy, Energy Efficiency and RES topics.

Zoritsa Urosevic, UNWTO

Zoritsa UROSEVIC is UNWTO Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, pursuing UNWTO’s advocacy efforts in moving tourism higher tourism in the development and trade agenda. From 1993 to 2004, she worked for the Seychelles at the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Tourism and Transport, as Director of International Cooperation at regional and global levels.