Sustainable Future: in every crisis there is an opportunity

Megan Epler Wood is a thought leader, pioneer, teacher, and consultant on questions of managing sustainable tourism for destinations, business, and civil society. Epler Wood is the Director, International Sustainable Tourism Initiative. She has led her firm EplerWood International since 2003 to design net positive regional tourism development projects working in over 35 countries with support from the World Bank, IFC, IDB, GIZ and USAID.

Since 2010 her research and on-line courses with Harvard and Cornell universities vetted a wide range of solutions to help protect destinations using science-based, technology-powered measures together with socially and environmentally responsible business development techniques- all designed to meet local economic development goals and global SDG and Paris Climate standards.

Her research work is presently dedicated to addressing the tough questions of managing tourism sustainably as it scales upward after the historic COVID 19 downturn of 2020-2021.  Epler Wood wrote her acclaimed 2017 book, Sustainable Tourism on a Finite Planet and widely-read 2019 report Destinations at Risk; The Invisible Burden of Tourism to address the gaps in governance, business and civil society models for meeting the aspirational goals of sustainable tourism worldwide.

Savvas Perdios was born in 1981 in Nicosia. He studied Accounting and Finance at Warwick University and International Hospitality Management at the École Hôteliere de Lausanne. Between 2008 and 2010, he worked for internationally known companies like Design Hotels in Mykonos and Kempinski Hotels in Switzerland.

From January 2010 until January 2018 he worked at Louis Hotels from the position of Quality and Brand Manager. After 8 years in that position, he was promoted to Chief Operation Officer, a position which he held until he was appointed as Cyprus‘s Deputy Minister of Tourism on January 2, 2019.

Angela Gerekou is the President of the Greek National Tourism Organization since August 2019. She also served as the Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism (2009-2010) and Deputy Minister of Culture (2014-2015)

She holds a degree from the School of Architecture of the University of Rome. She has worked as an Architect for the Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works, on special programmes for the renovation of underdeveloped areas of Athens and she has also worked out a great number of architectural projects in the island of Corfu.

She also has a significant career in acting. She studied in Derek Jakoby’s “London Academy of Performing Art” in London, UK and she was a member of Federico Fellini’s student group in Italy.

Since 2011 she is President of the Board of Directors of the Ionian Cultural Center which hosts since then the Corfu Festival of Arts.
During 2005-2006 she was appointed as the National Representative on Global Progressive Forum’s campaign against AIDS. She is also the president of the Lafkadio Hearn foundation.
She is a volunteer participant in various social initiatives for environmental protection, youth culture and sensitive social groups. She is an Ambassador for Tourism in ICC Hellas .

 She is  an activist for sustainable development and women rights, as a Senior Senator for Greece and Vice President of WBAF’s Global Women Leaders Committee.

Angela Gerekou will represent Greece as Senior Senator in the Grand Assembly of the World Business Angels Investment Forum.

Thomas Ellerbeck is a Member of the Group Executive Committee and Group Director Corporate & External Affairs of TUI Group. He is responsible for Public Policy, EU and International Relations, Group Communications, Regulatory and Government Affairs, Environment and Sustainability as well as Foundations.

Thomas joined TUI in July 2013. He is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the TUI Foundation and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the TUI Care Foundation.

Thomas Ellerbeck serves voluntary at the interface of the economic, political and media arenas. His activities have included work as a member of the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings on Lake Constance since 2000. He is also a Co-Founder and has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Foundation since 2001. He is involved in international economic and political dialogue as a member of the Advisory Council of the Near and Middle East Association (NuMOV) and supports Trans-Atlantic cooperation as a member of
Atlantik-Brücke.

Prior to switching to a career in industry, he spent almost ten years working various regional and national government policy units. From 1995 until the end of 2000 he was one of the closest advisors to the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, initially as Deputy Spokesman of Federal President Professor Dr. Roman Herzog, subsequently as Head of the President’s Office.

Helen Marano is the founder and President of Marano Perspectives, Limited since 2019, whose mission is to lead the engagement and collaboration of key Travel & Tourism industry stakeholders to help develop plans and solutions that promote responsible industry growth. She previously served as Executive Vice-President of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) where over 7 years she built the Government and Industry Affairs Department for the advocacy efforts of WTTC and expanded WTTC’s engagement with academia, and other key tourism stakeholders.

Helen is a seasoned leader, having headed up the National Travel & Tourism Office of the United States for over a decade.  Her career spans key positions in destination management, market research, program and product development, and ten years in the financial services industry.

Helen is Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Travel Foundation and a Board Member of ArtWorks for Freedom, activist artists dedicated to raising awareness for deterring Human Trafficking.  She also serves on the Advisory Board for Blacks in Travel and Tourism Cooperative in the USA and has been serving for many years on the Advisory Board for the University of Surrey School of Hospitality Tourism Management in the UK.   She is a 2019 recipient of the Celebrating Her award for building global alliances that promote tourism as a force for good. In 2020 she was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Women in Travel and Tourism International for her leadership and contributions to the sector.

Garry Wilson joined easyJet holidays as Chief Executive Officer in November 2018 and holds responsibility for the easyJet holidays business, as well as being a member of easyJet’s executive board. Garry is a highly experienced commercial leader who has worked across international organisations, and has more than 20 years’ experience in travel. Prior to joining easyJet holidays, Garry worked at TUI Group, where he held the position of Managing Director for Group Product and Purchasing, leading commercial strategies across a number of markets and heading a large global team in 20 countries.

He also held the position of Director of Europe, Middle East and Africa for American travel group Orbitz Worldwide (now Expedia Inc.). Garry has worked extensively with overseas governments, PWC, and the Travel Foundation to create sustainable tourism policies throughout the world and is passionate about the power of global tourism to promote major economic growth and positive social change whilst minimising negative environmental impact. Garry has been a trustee of the Travel Foundation and Travelife and holds a BCom (Hons) in Business Management and Languages from the University of Edinburgh.

Fabrizio Orlando joined Tripadvisor at the end of 2018 and since then he leads the global Industry Relations team, overseeing the company’s institutional relationships, and global thought leadership projects and partnerships.

He works with national hospitality and tourism bodies, associations, and non-governmental organizations to build Tripadvisor’s role as a trusted partner for stakeholders in the travel and tourism industry. Fabrizio has a Philosophy degree from Federico II and a Master in Philosophy and Politics obtained at La Sorbonne University and before joining Tripadvisor he worked as a strategic consultant for a global consulting and market research firm.