Africa Travel WeekSESSION 1
Commencing the Travel Forward ONLINE Conference series by a welcome address from Paul Charles, CEO and Founder, The PC Agency.
SESSION 2
In this panel, we get the perspective of the service provider: airline, hotel, and the travel agent. Their relationship with the Acquirer and hear how they are stepping up to deal with unprecedented challenges of this current crisis, while laying the ground for the new post-COVID-19 reality.
SESSION 3
Lee Hayhurst, Editor of the leading travel technology publication Travolution, speaks to Chiara Quaia, VP, Market Development Travel at Mastercard, to gain her perspective on current events and discuss how cross industry collaboration and innovative B2B payment technology can support a robust industry recovery.
THE SPEAKERS
Paul Charles
CEO and Founder of The PC Agency
Paul Charles is a former BBC News Presenter, former Communications Director to Sir Richard Branson at Virgin Atlantic and at Eurostar, and now runs The PC Agency, a global travel PR consultancy based in the United Kingdom. Paul and his agency have been named the Most Influential in Travel by PR Week four years running, every year since 2017. Paul was named one of London’s ‘Most Influential 1000 People’ by The London Evening Standard in 2011 and 2012.
SESSION ONE
Brian Quarrie,
Global Head of Sales, PayTabs
Brian Quarrie is a management executive with 20 years specialist knowledge within the payments industry. Having worked across multiple continents and several payment product verticals (Card issuing, Merchant Acquirier, ATM management, and scheme construction), Brian has a deep understanding of both the challenges and opportunities for companies seeking to enhance the experience of making purchases to address their needs and requirements.
SESSION TWO
Mikko Turtiainen
Market Management Sales, Finnair Plc.
Mikko joined Finnair in 1999 and since then gathered extensive experience in sales and business development divisions within Finnair and the airline industry. He started the Shanghai route for Finnair successfully. He has also worked for Revenue Management Pricing, as well as lead the Finnair Cargo Sales organisation. Currently Mikko is heading up the global sales organisation as well as the team responsible for Finnair brand. He emphasizes the development of digital solutions and implementation of new capabilities, while pushing for new approaches that can be adopted in sales.
SESSION 2
Peter Brennan
MD of Holiday World, UK
The company operates three websites for British holidaymakers:
- www.americanskiclassics.com – featuring ski holidays to 30 top resorts in the USA and Canada.
- www.travelisrael.co.uk – a tour programme aiming to capitalise on the growing popularity of travel to Israel.
- www.villafinders.com – a specialist re-seller agent for quality villa holidays to Greece and Corsica.
For the purposes of the discussion, the ski programme will be discussed as it was the most affected by COVID-19.
SESSION 2
Paulo Salvador
Senior Lecturer, Innovation track, ESSEC Paris Master Hotel Program
A seasoned international executive with 20 years background in Hotel Sales and Global Distribution. Former global head of e-commerce and Loyalty at AccorHotels in Paris, he was responsible for conceiving and launching the loyalty program LeClub and member of the distribution board. Paulo was also managing director EMEA at Worldhotels in Germany, Head of Distribution at Intercity Hotels and global COO of the leading CRS company in Latin America Omnibees. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in hotel Innovation for the IMHI/ESSEC and CMH Paris and Managing director of Inn&Out Performance, specialized in innovation and Distribution boost for hospitality.
SESSION 2
Shiv Bhatt
Merchant and Acquirer Solutions, Visa
Shiv is responsible for combining Visa capabilities with third party technologies, and driving new methods to checkout and pay. Shiv has been with Visa for eight years, across corporate strategy, operations at CyberSource, innovation and solutions. He and his teams have developed concepts and solutions in airline pay at seat, data driven personalisation, installments, blockchain identity, connected car payment, person present payment, biometrics, small merchant onboarding and many others. Shiv’s prior experiences include launching retail recommendation engines and as a start-up founder, running a B2B marketplace in India. Shiv has an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth, and an engineering degree.
SESSION 2
Chiara Quaia
VP, Market Development Travel, Mastercard
Chiara has been working in the travel and payments industry for the past 20 years and is currently the Vice President Market Development Travel, within the Enterprise Partnerships team at Mastercard, focusing on Travel B2B propositions and industry strategy. She previously worked as the Head of Commercial in the Amadeus Payments Unit, ensuring B2B payment solutions and merchant acceptance commercialization in the travel industry and prior, also in Amadeus, she headed the Payment Business Development Area and Partnerships Team. Prior to joining Amadeus in 2012, Chiara has worked in leading Financial Institutions mainly focusing on commercial card processing and acquiring. Chiara is also an ambassador in Spain for the European Women Payments Network, a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to promote gender parity in the payment industry.
SESSION 3
Lee Hayhurst
Editor, Travolution
Lee has been reporting on the travel industry for the last 14 years, most recently as editor of Travolution, the technology and digital travel publication brand and sister title to the UK’s leading trade magazine Travel Weekly. A former local newspaper journalist, Lee has covered various travel sectors including cruise, travel agents and tour operators and now regularly moderates both Travolution and partner events and conferences.
SESSION 3
Paulo Salvador
