/ Bangkok
On September 3, Bangkok’s hospitality community came together for honest conversations about what’s happening in the industry and where it goes next. Now you can watch them on demand.
Speakers
A carefully curated mix of hotel leaders, operators, and hospitality innovators from across Bangkok and Southeast Asia.
Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun
Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun is a prominent Thai hotelier and the current President of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), elected in March 2024 to lead the nation’s premier hospitality body representing over 1,000 member properties. A former real estate developer, he pivoted into hospitality during the 1997 financial crisis, converting his Bangkok project into his signature property, the Grand Diamond Hotel. He served as an active THA board member for nearly 20 years before stepping into the presidency. As THA President, his key initiatives focus on driving industry-wide sustainability, protecting local operators from unregulated short-term rentals, and collaborating with the government to develop high-value tourism infrastructure.
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Anchalika Kijkanakorn
K. Anchalika Kijkanakorn is the founder of AKARYN Hotel Group and a pioneer of boutique luxury hospitality in Southeast Asia. Her Aleenta properties (spanning Hua Hin-Pranburi, Phuket-Phang Nga, and Chiang Mai) are celebrated for blending contemporary design with a deep sense of place, earning Michelin Keys, Leading Hotels of the World recognition, and selection among Travel + Leisure’s World’s 500 Best. In 2026, she expands the collection with The akyra Bangkok 11. Beyond her properties, Anchalika is an industry trailblazer on sustainability and wellbeing, leading Asia’s first hotel group to go fully single-use plastic-free, founding the AYURAH Wellness brand, and establishing the Pure Blue Foundation for marine conservation. She made history as the first female Board Member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, later serving three consecutive terms as Chairperson.
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Proudputh Liptapanlop
Prou is Executive Director of Proud Real Estate and Proud Group of Companies, overseeing a THB 10bn portfolio of tourism-driven developments across Thailand. Her projects span luxury hotels, integrated resorts, retail, and residential — including InterContinental resorts in Phuket and Hua Hin, the Holiday Inn Vana Nava Hua Hin, and Andamanda Phuket, Thailand’s largest water park. Before moving into real estate and hospitality development, she was a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company in Bangkok.
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Glen Alexander Grosic
Glen Alexander Grosic brings over 26 years of experience building loyalty and commercial strategies for the world’s leading luxury hotel brands. He has held executive-level roles at IHG, Hilton, and Marriott International across the ANZ, APAC, and Greater China regions, and has worked with iconic names including St. Regis, Mandarin Oriental, and Langham. Two decades based in Asia — including ten years across mainland China — give him a perspective on the region that is both broad and genuinely on-the-ground. He now serves as Managing Director Asia for HSMAI (Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International), a 99-year-old global not-for-profit dedicated to the commercial disciplines of hotel management: sales, marketing, revenue, and distribution. In Asia Pacific alone, HSMAI runs over 30 industry events annually.
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Eric Conger
Eric Conger has spent 37 years living and working in Phuket, building and operating independent hospitality businesses from the ground up. Through Bolder Business Associates, he has been hands-on across every dimension of the process (from architecture and systems design to digital marketing, revenue management, and F&B) combining an operator’s instincts with a genuine interest in the technology that makes it all run.
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Shruti Ugalmugale
Shruti Ugalmugale is the Director of Business Development at Vayudoot Group, where she leads strategic growth initiatives and partnerships across the company’s hotel portfolio. With a strong background in hotel technology, revenue optimization, and commercial strategy, she is passionate about helping hotels leverage innovative solutions to improve operations, enhance guest experiences, and drive sustainable business growth.
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Supakorn Chairongsri
Supakorn Chairongsri is the co-founder of Zuwala Hotel, a minimalist beachfront boutique on Wonnapha Beach in Bangsaen, and the founder of SGSS Acoustics. With a background in fine arts and cultural management, he and his wife — a musician and an engineer — built Zuwala from a converted house into a design-led boutique that resonates strongly with a new generation of independent travelers. Along the way, Supakorn developed a marketing approach built on data, design, and authentic word of mouth — proving that independent hotels can grow on their own terms without relying on the playbook written for larger brands.
Michael Belanger
Michael Belanger leads commercial strategy at GCP Hospitality across a portfolio of 35+ properties and 7,500+ keys worldwide — a deliberately diverse collection spanning luxury hotels like The Regent Hong Kong and The Standard High Line New York, serviced apartments, hostels, and student accommodations. Before joining GCP, he spent over 15 years at IHG in senior revenue and commercial roles across Canada, Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong, most recently as Director of Revenue Management at InterContinental Hong Kong. Beyond his day-to-day remit, Michael serves on the HSMAI Thailand board and teaches Hotel Entrepreneurship at Vatel Hotel School Thailand — a reflection of his conviction that the industry’s next chapter depends on how it develops its talent today.
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Riku Penttinen
Riku Penttinen has spent his career at the intersection of hospitality, technology, and commercial strategy. A former CEO of a lifestyle hospitality company in Southeast Asia, he now leads commercial strategy at Avalon Analytics, a business intelligence platform helping hotel teams in 30+ countries move from static reporting to real-time, revenue-driving insight. His approach is deliberately practical: technology as a tool for smarter pricing and more confident decisions, not an end in itself.
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Yann Gouriou
Yann Gouriou is the CEO of Unicorn Hospitality and COO of WINK. A hospitality professional with more than two decades of experience in Asia, he specializes in hotel management, commercial strategy, branding, technology, and asset optimization. Yann is known for his owner-centric approach to hotel management, helping independent hotels and resorts unlock their full potential through a combination of operational excellence, revenue strategy, and innovative technology.
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Audy Punnada Leung-Aram
Audy Punnada Leung-Aram is Head of Enterprise at Grab Thailand, where she leads GrabAds, GrabForBusiness, and GrabGifts. Over 18+ years in marketing and media, she’s helped brands from Facebook Thailand to Universal Music Group turn creativity into commercial results — most recently scaling Grab’s ads business into an 18-time award-winning omnichannel operation.
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Ben Charlton
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Jason Richards
Jason Richards is Chief Business Officer at Cloudbeds, the hospitality management system trusted by 20,000+ properties, where he leads growth strategy, go-to-market operations, marketing, corporate development, and monetization under a single mandate. He came to the job from the other side of the desk: operator first, then Cloudbeds customer, then company leader. Jason was CEO of Vietnam Backpacker Hostels and led hospitality groups across Asia-Pacific. He joined Cloudbeds in 2017 as its first employee in Asia-Pacific, built the regional sales team, and has since moved through sales operations, strategy, and corporate development, where he leads M&A. Jason leads a team of 70, on the belief that good leaders create leaders, not followers. He studied Economics and Commerce at the University of Tasmania and holds an Executive MBA from RMIT. He lives in Tasmania’s wine country with his wife and three children.
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Jintana Borin
Giggi Borin has lived both sides of hospitality. She spent the first chapter of her career as a hotelier, managing operations for global brands including Marriott, Six Senses, Dusit Thani, and Minor Group. She later transitioned to the SaaS world, spending four years at SiteMinder before joining Cloudbeds, where she has been championing independent hoteliers for over nine years. That dual perspective is what drives her passion for independent hospitality to this day.
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Mind Tintabootr
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Richard Castle
Richard Castle is the co-founder and COO of Cloudbeds, the intelligent unified platform powering hotel growth worldwide. Under his purpose-driven leadership, Cloudbeds has grown into a company that has generated billions of dollars in revenue for thousands of properties alongside a fully-remote, distributed workforce of 650+ people in more than 40 countries. Together with his co-founder, Adam Harris, they have amassed awards for culture, product, and innovation including Forbes’ America’s Best Startup Employers, Inc’s Best Workplaces, and EY Entrepreneur of the Year.
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Sebastien Leitner
Sebastien Leitner, VP of Partnerships at Cloudbeds, heads up global partnerships and industry relations. Sebastien’s team partners with solution providers, associations, educational institutions, and major distribution partners to complement and enhance Cloudbeds’ value proposition. Prior to Cloudbeds, Sebastien worked at Expedia in various roles managing Expedia’s lodging connectivity solutions. After studying Hotel Management and Business Administration in Germany, Sebastien started his career in hospitality working for Le Meridien Hotels and Swissotel in Europe. Sebastien has been a board member of HEDNA since January 2014 and currently serves as President.
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