Prakash Shukla

Managing Partner

Prakash is a seasoned professional with over 25 years of general management, finance, technology and entrepreneurial experience. Prakash is a managing partner with seed firm Solarex LLC. Before that he was a partner with HGM asset management (PE fund) and was an Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard University. He served as Senior Vice President and CIO of TAJ Group of Hotels from 1999-2012.
Prakash was an early investor and a board member of Speech & Software Technologies (a Tata promoted company), TravelGuru (Sequoia funded India centric travel portal sold to Travelocity) and Transerv.
Prakash holds an MBA from Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MSc. from NYU and BSc from Rutgers University. He attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He was an active board member of HFTP and HTNG. Prakash was inducted into HFTP "International Hall of Fame" for his contributions to hospitality industry, and has served on Microsoft Hospitality Advisory Board.

Jyoti Narang

Partner

Jyoti is a business leader with 35 years of work experience, including 16 years of senior leadership positions in the hospitality industry. Jyoti was the Chief Operating Officer of Taj Hotels, Resorts & Palaces, India. The Taj group manages a large and varied portfolio of 122 hotels spread across 5 continents. Before her current operations stint, Jyoti was the Global Head of Marketing for the Taj Group. Jyoti has a Bachelors in Economics and an M.B.A in Finance. She has attended Executive programs at Wharton School of Management, IMD Lausanne and the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. Her contribution led her to be recognized as the most powerful woman in the travel industry worldwide by Travel Agent, a leading US trade weekly.

Dave Berkus

Angel Investor

Dave is acknowledged as one of the most active angel investors in the United States, having made and actively participated in over 140 angel technology investments, achieving an IRR of 97%. Labeled "Super Angel" by Inc. Magazine, Dave currently manages several angel VC funds, and is past Chairman of Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel network in the United States. He currently serves as chairman of six of his portfolio companies, and was named "Director of the Year, Early Stage Businesses" by Forum for Corporate Directors for his successful directorship and CEO coaching efforts, as well as "Tech Leader of the Year" by the Los Angeles County Supervisors.
Dave was the founder of Computerized Lodging Systems Inc (CLS), which he guided as CEO for over a decade that included two consecutive years on the Inc.500 list of America's fastest growing companies. For his accomplishments in advancing technology in the hospitality industry, in 1998 he was inducted into the HFTP "International Hall of Fame", one of only thirty-nine so honored worldwide over the years.
Dave is author of "Extending the Runway", the BERKONOMICS series of three books, and "Get Scrappy," all books addressing resource and growth issues for businesses and their leaders, and travels internationally giving keynotes and workshops on trends in technology and building great corporate boards. His weekly emails and blog are read by over 120,000 entrepreneurs and CxO's.

Terry Jones

Founder, Travelocity

Best known for founding Travelocity.com and serving as founding Chairman of Kayak.com, Terry Jones has become a powerful voice in the world of entrepreneurship through his numerous speaking engagements and the publication of his book, ON Innovation. His career path has established him as a thought leader on innovation in our increasingly digital world.
Jones, who began his career as a travel agent, spent 24 years at American Airlines, in marketing and information technology, capping his career as Chief Information Officer of its SABRE division. While at SABRE he led a team of six working on a project that became Travelocity.com. Jones served as CEO of Travelocity for seven years transforming it to a public company with three billion dollars in travel sales..He left Travelocity when the company was taken private and became part of the founding team at Kayak.com, a company that yet again revolutionized how travel was purchased. He served as Chairman of the company from its founding until it was sold to Priceline for $1.8 billion dollars in 2013.
Today he is the Chairman of Wayblazer and managing principal of ON Inc, a consultancy he founded to help companies in their transition to the digital economy.
He has served on theboards of thirteen public and private companies and currently serves on the boards of Wayblazer, Boingo, Smart Destinations and The Camping and Education Foundation.
He is a venture capitalist with General Catalyst Partners and Sierra Angels.
The holder of several patents. Jones is a graduate of Denison University and has an honors doctor of letters from Sierra Nevada College.

Krishna Palepu

Ross Graham Walker Professor at Harvard Business School

Krishna Palepu has been a professor at the Harvard Business School since 1983. He is the Ross Graham Walker Professor of Business Administration and also serves as Senior Advisor to the President of Harvard University for Global Strategy.  He previously served as Senior Associate Dean for International Development at Harvard Business School and other leadership positions.

Professor Krishna Palepu has published many academic and practitioner-oriented articles and case studies in the areas of strategy,  financial analysis, and governance. He teaches courses in the Accounting and Control unit and courses on strategy in emerging markets at Harvard Business School.  He chairs or co-chairs the Global CEO Program in China, Building Businesses in Emerging Markets, and Leading Global Businesses.

Professor Krishna Palepu has a doctorate in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration (now Aalto University).

Page Petry

Founder, Strategic Advisor, PD Petry Consulting

Page Petry founded PD Petry Consulting in 2020. With an executive lens on hospitality, PD Petry Consulting knows that the industry is a harbinger for the future of our communities. Together, with partners, PD Petry Consulting provide services that guide teams through extraordinary and transitional periods. Page was the Chief IT Officer of the Americas at Marriott International in Washington, D.C., where she was charged with directing key initiatives from conception to completion, with responsibility for 3500 hotels that span from Canada to Argentina. Page joined Marriott in 1979 and has held positions of increasing responsibility in several areas including Hotel Operations, Customer Call Centers and Regional Information Systems. Following her initial tenure with Marriott, Page worked with Fannie Mae and Varsity Books.com before rejoining Marriott in 2000 as the Regional Director of IR North American Lodging Field Services for the Southeast Region.

In 2006 Page's accountabilities expanded to include the North American portfolio as the Senior Vice President. In 2010 Page joined the Americas Continent organization as the Chief Information Resources Officer. Page led the IT integration for the Autograph Collection, Gaylord Hotels and Delta Hotels and Resorts. In 2011, Page was honored with a place on Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders. Page earned her Bachelor of Science at Syracuse University and is certified PMP through the Project Management Institute. She sits on the Board of Directors at the Academy of Information Technology for Montgomery County Public Schools.

Jim Armstrong

Partner, March Capital Partners

A successful and experienced early stage venture investor in enterprise and consumer technology, Jim Armstrong has established himself as a leading investor based in Southern California. Jim has 19 years of technology investment experience, and has generated multiple large exits through IPOs or mergers and acquisitions from companies he either incubated or participated as the first institutional investor.

Floor Bleeker

Group Chief Technology Officer at Accor

Floor has over two decades of multinational experience in the hospitality industry and a substantial background in IT leadership, strategy development and execution, business analysis and application development. In all his roles, Floor has prioritized team leadership and performance management as fundamental to delivering on the demands of the industry. Floor is a tech guru like no other. He is not only MBA material, but a dynamic problem solver. He’s spent more than 15 years honing his hospitality IT skills and has brought energy and enthusiasm to his technology teams. Off duty, Floor is a Dutch super dad who loves to take his daughter horse riding and on desert hacks. He also takes time out to read to her and her classmates every Tuesday.

A solutions architect needs focus, and Floor leads a varied life to sharpen his mind. He relishes practicing yoga in his garden, scratching tracks in his home DJ booth, and having a kick-about with his local football team.

Laurent Idrac

Chief Operating Officer at Hapicloud.io

After graduating from French business schools ESSCA and ESSEC, Laurent Idrac started his career with Accor in 1983 where he held several positions in operations and support functions (finance, marketing and reservations). He notably managed all the worldwide call centers.  From 2002 to 2012, he ran IT Departments for Accor North America.  He returned to France in 2012 to be appointed Group Chief Information Officer for Accor.  Laurent Idrac has taken part in numerous IT projects including the design and roll-out of TARS (The Accor Reservation system), which is used by the group’s 3,700 hotels, and of FOLS in-house PMS (Property Management System) in 1,800 hotels, as well as the management of CRM and sales force automation projects.  In 2012, he managed Accor’s partnership with the Innovation Factory, the first innovation campus cluster in Paris.  In 2014, Laurent Idrac has also been elected member of the Board of Governors of the association Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) which defines technology standards in hotels.  He has a French and US dual citizenship, is married with 2 children who live in the US.

Ellen L. Keszler

Travel Industry Board Member and Advisor

Ellen has spent her career in the travel technology industry, serving in operational and finance leadership roles at American Airlines, Sabre and Travelocity. She has served on the board of eight public and private companies and has advised numerous technology start-ups through to raising a series A round or to a strategic acquisition. Her extensive finance background also qualifies her as an Audit Committee Financial Expert. She is a nationally recognized travel technology expert and is a sought-out advisor by entrepreneurs in the industry. She was also named to the Skift30 as one of the top 30 movers and shakers in online travel. Ellen currently serves on the board of Pros Holdings (NYSE PROS), Sojern, Travel and Transport, Extended Stay America and Yapta.

Monika Nerger

Global Chief Information Officer, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group

Monika Nerger is Chief Information Officer overseeing all aspects of the Group's global technology. She joined Mandarin Oriental in 2006 as Vice President of Technology, the Americas, and was promoted to her current role in 2011. She is based in the Group's Hong Kong and San Francisco offices.

Prior to joining Mandarin Oriental, Ms Nerger worked internationally with Pan Pacific Hotels, KPMG Consulting, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. She holds a Master's Degree in Business from the University of Miami as well as an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, and is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma. She is currently a Board member of HTNG (Hotel Technology Next Generation).

Jeff Bzdawka

CEO at Knowland | Board Member at BirchStreet Systems

Jeff is an accomplished, results-driven executive management professional with demonstrated leadership and distinguished performance in operations management, sales, acquisition / integration efforts, change management, and product development, across information technology, business information, software as a service, hospitality, travel, and customer service arenas. He worked on and led winning teams in multiple verticals at various stages of company maturity levels; ranging from large corporate to small start-up environments. At Hyatt, Jeff was responsible for establishing and executing the portfolio roadmap of all Global Property Systems and Solutions deployed to support Hyatt's global brands. This includes PMS and PoS, guest service and spa applications, guest Internet access, interactive TV and telecommunications systems. Prior to Hyatt, Jeff was the Executive VP of Global Operations for TravelClick, where he managed a cross-functional, geographically-dispersed team that provided hotel business process management and distribution solutions for 30,000 customers across 140 countries. Prior to that he worked for Pegasus Solutions as SVP of Service Delivery, where he created a functional service delivery organization with focus on enhancing customer experience and improving operational efficiencies.

He also served as Pegasus’ SVP of Financial Services, focused on providing centralized travel agency commissions payment services and was responsible for product development, product delivery, sales and support for the global service offering. Earlier in his career, he served as the VP of Strategic Information Systems for Security Capital Group in Atlanta, GA where he managed IS for Homestead Guest Studios. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Wisconsin – Stout with BS in Hotel, Restaurant & Institutional Management, and is active with the university’s foundation alumni programs. He resides in Palatine, IL.

Frank I. Wolfe, CAE

HFTP CEO, Speaker

Frank Wolfe, CAE joined Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) in March 1991 as the association's director of education. He became executive vice president/CEO of HFTP in 1994, and at that time was one of the youngest association CEO's in North America. As HFTP's CEO, Wolfe oversees the association's operations, as well as represents the association worldwide at industry events, on industry boards and committees and via the news media.
As the spokesperson for HFTP, Wolfe frequently speaks on hospitality finance, technology, social media and travel issues to varied audiences and has presented in more than 25 countries. He is also a regular columnist for Hotel Management magazine - "Tech Watch" is Wolfe's monthly column. He has been featured in association, conference and industry publications including Convene magazine, Association Management magazine, MeetingTech Online and Hospitality Upgrade magazine. He has appeared on several television network interviews and programs including CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, TVAsia and Bloomberg.
Wolfe's current & previous director positions include: International Hotel & Restaurant Association; American Hotel & Lodging Association; Dean's Advisory Board at Hilton College - University of Houston; Texas Society of Association Executives. Wolfe's been an instructor for the Academy of Assn. Management on topics including assn. law, finance & technology.