Anders Nissen

Anders Nissen is the CEO of Pandox AB, one of Europe’s largest and leading hotel property companies. Anders was one the founders when Pandox was formed in 1995 and he has been the company’s CEO since then.

Under Anders’ management Pandox has grown from a small local company with property portfolio value of 600 million SEK to a large international company with a portfolio value of 65 billion SEK During this time, Pandox has expanded its geographical platform from one to 15 countries. Currently Pandox has 156 hotel properties in 90 cities. Pandox’s business model is an important factor in explaining of the company’s success. Based on an active ownership model with revenue-based lease agreements and management contracts, as well as own operation via franchised and independent brands, Pandox can move freely over the hotel value-chain and create a tailor-made strategy for each individual asset.

Anders Nissen has been active in the hotel industry for more than 35 years. Before joining Pandox Anders was Managing Director for Securum Hotel & Turism AB where he led the restructuring of Securum’s hotel property portfolio. He also had a number of executive positions within the RESO organisation.

Anders Nissen has also more than 20 years of experience from the international capital market as the CEO of Pandox, which is currently listed on Nasdaq Stockholm for a second time. He has also held various board assignments over the years.

Anders has a lifelong interest in handball and he is chairman of the Swedish organisation responsible for all commercial arrangement like international games and international championships in Sweden.

Anita Mendiratta

A committed Tourism & Development practitioner, Anita is the Founder and President of ANITA MENDIRATTA & Associates (first launched as CACHET CONSULTING), a highly respected and trusted international consulting firm based in London, UK.

With over two decades of professional working and living experience worldwide, Anita’s hands-on, cross-cultural, cross-industry expertise in both public and private sectors has created an innate ability to feel the ‘heartbeat’ of societies – the economic, social, political, cultural and environmental dynamics impacting and inspiring nations facing change, including confronting challenge. Importantly, with established expertise in Travel, Tourism & Aviation, and proven agility in mobilising impact across diplomatic, governmental and business spheres, she has earned the trust of leaders seeking to unlock higher levels of performance. This includes being the bridge between government and business, aligning missions, mandates, metrics and management principles critical for economic development programmes.

For this reason, Anita is highly sought after as both a strategist & advisor in the areas of national growth, development, and often, recovery.

She is also honoured to be:

• SPECIAL ADVISOR to the Secretary General of the UNWTO
• STRATEGIC ADVISOR TO CNN INTERNATIONAL in the area of Tourism & Development as lead Consultant of CNN’s T.A.S.K. GROUP
• STRATEGIC RESOURCE TO THE WORLD BANK, WTTC, IATA and ATAG in Tourism, Aviation and Development 

Liam Brown

Liam Brown was appointed Group President, EMEA, in January 2020 and is accountable for developing and managing Marriott's hotel portfolio in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which comprises 25 brands in 76 countries and territories. 

Mr. Brown began his career with Marriott International in 1989.  He served in multiple General Manager and regional positions across Marriott’s brand portfolio from 1989 until 1999.  From 1999 to 2007, he held several corporate positions including, VP of Franchising for Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites, and SVP for the Fairfield Inn brand.  From 2007 to 2010, Mr. Brown held the positions of SVP and EVP of Development for Marriott’s Select Service & Extended Stay lodging products. From 2010 to 2012, Mr. Brown served as Chief Operations Officer, The Americas for Select Service & Extended Stay Lodging and Owner & Franchise Services followed by his appointment as President for Franchising, Owner Services and MxM Select Brands, North America, which he held until the end of 2018.  In January 2019, Liam moved to London to serve as President & Managing Director, Europe.

Educated primarily in his home town of Dublin, Ireland, Mr. Brown has a Hotel Diploma Business Degree from the Dublin Institute of Technology, Trinity College (1980 – 1984).   In 2005, he completed his MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Management at the University of Maryland. 

Mr. Brown currently resides in London, with his wife Lillian and daughter Ciara.

Jens Mathiesen

Educated within Shipping back in 1989. Worked with Sales in Avis rent a car and became Sales Manager at the age of 24. In 1999 Jens became Nordic CEO of a Brussel based vending company within the coffee industry. In 2003 Jens joined the Hotel industry starting at Remmen Hotels. Later the same year moved to Nordic Choice Hotels as Sales and Marketing Director. In early 2008 Jens was offered the job as Managing Director of Scandic in Denmark. A position that he has had until early January 2019 where he was offered the position as President & CEO for Scandic. Now he is based in Stockholm with the full responsibility of Scandic, with 280 hotels, 18000 team members and a turnover of 18 b.sek. Besides Scandic Jens is also since May 2016 the Chairman of the Danish Chamber of Commerce (Dansk Erhverv).

Torgeir Silseth

Silseth’s first hotel related work experience was as a chef at Union Hotell in Geiranger, an effort that led to a prestigious trainee position at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Hamburg. In 1991, he became General Manager at Quality Hotel Hafjell and held this position until 1996, when he was made Operations Manager for Choice Hotels Scandinavia (later Nordic Choice Hotels). In 1999, Silseth was named deputy CEO, and in 2006 he replaced Petter Stordalen as CEO of the company while retaining a close work relationship with the owner and chairman of the board of Nordic Choice Hotels.

Silseth is educated at the Norwegian School of Hotel Management and has also served as a UN peacekeeper in Lebanon.

Demian Hodari

Demian Hodari is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management at École hôtelière de Lausanne where his innovative teaching methods have been recognized as the Best Teaching Practice. His research has also won numerous awards and he was named researcher of the year in 2015. Demian’s achievements were recently acknowledged by Cornell University School of Hotel Administration where he was invited to spend a semester sabbatical as a visiting research fellow at the university centre for hospitality research. His research focuses on the strategic partnerships between hotel owners, management companies. Asset managers and general managers, and on the performance of professionally managed versus independently managed hotels. His most recent academic publications have appeared in the Cornell’s hospitality quarterly, Tourism Management, the international journal of hospitality management and the journal of hospitality financial management. He regularly presents his research at academic conferences, provides executive education and is a frequent moderator and speaker at hotel industry events. Demian regularly published practitioner-oriented articles in hotel industry trade publications.

Prior to beginning his academic career, Demian spent 15 years working in the hospitality industry. He was several years a hotel general manager and the president of an independent hotel management and consulting company in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He holds a Ph.D. in Strategic management from the university of surreys school of management, a masters (honours) from Cornell university school of hotel administration and a B.A in comparative religions and philosophy from Georgetown university.

Heleri Rande

Originally from Estonia, Heleri has lived in seven countries and holds a Bachelor’s Degree from New York University in Economics and Business, as well as an executive MBA in Hospitality Administration from École Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) in Switzerland. 
 
After leading Puccini Group’s growth in EMEA for two years, she has partnered with THINK Hospitality to deliver on F&B strategy projects helping brands and owners assess the market, find the right concept positioning and/or operator & chef for the properties. Her portfolio includes the likes of Accor, Hilton, Kempinski, EC4 Hotels, Puro Hotels, SuperCity Group and Marriott.
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She is the Contributing Editor of Supper Magazine & programme director at various major hospitality events around the world. 

Frank Fiskers

Frank retired in August 2017 after having led Scandic Hotels Group as CEO over the last ten years. Leading a private equity buy-out of Scandic in 2007, he oversaw the growth from 110 to 285 hotels and projects as well as the successful IPO in 2015.

Prior to Scandic, Frank had senior operational roles with Rezidor and Hilton International. Today he is an advisor to private equity funds, involved as a guest lecturer in hospitality education and a professional company Board member at, among others, Whitbread PLC the largest UK hospitality company.