Mona is extremely well respected in the industry for her over 25 years’ experience, foresight and profound professional research. Her management knowledge is all embracing, ranging from her passion for hotel opening and start-ups, distribution and channel management, to her in-depth market understanding across the Middle East and East Africa.
With a far-reaching network of key industry leaders, Mona is admired for her forthright opinions and desire to provide real, honest and productive feedback and work. Insight | Out was established following an extremely successful hotel career with Hilton and Rotana, where she established the Global Sales Network, central reservations systems and led the groundwork and framework for the brands distribution strategy.
With her intuitive understanding that the region required real ‘hands-on’ support for rapidly evolving sales and marketing disciplines, Insight | Out quickly became the go-to consultancy company for research, feasibility and solutions, with an agility that outstripped the traditionally larger, established companies.
Among her many accolades, Mona holds a Degree in Business Administration from the American University of Beirut with a Total Quality Management certification from Cranefield University, UK. Mona is also the Managing Director of the Middle East chapter of HSMAI – the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International.
Hotel Professional with a vast experience in Revenue Management, with over 15 years spent optimizing the properties under his remit. Jithesh has exposures from multiple international chains across EMEA region which include Hilton, IHG, Rezidor, Choice hotels & Movenpick in both ‘on’ and ‘above’ property roles. Jithesh has led multiple projects ranging from implementation of new decision support systems to a complete revamping of existing strategies for proven and improved results.
Jithesh relocated to Dubai in early 2018 to set up and head the Revenue Management Shared Services (Remote RM Solution) for Movenpick Hotels and Resorts. Prior to Movenpick Hotels and Resorts, Jithesh worked for Hilton Worldwide based in London in the capacity as a Cluster Commercial Director were he maximized revenues and profit for the hotels he managed.
Jithesh is a graduate from Hotel Management and Catering Technology, India and has an MBA in International Marketing, UK.
Nicolas Durand
Senior Director Global Distribution
Jumeirah Hotel
With 15 experiences in the Travel Industry with major players in Hospitality & Car Rental Nicolas Durand has wide experiences in Distribution, E-Commerce & Revenue Management and has work in all major markets in the world (Europe, North America, Middle-East & Asia).
His career started with Hospitality European Leader Accor where he was in charge of management Online Travel Agents Global Accounts by negotiating global deals with all global players at the time such as Lastminute.com, Orbitz, and Priceline
Then he was in charge of the Outbound & Inbound Leisure Market for Europcar and was assigned of transforming the way Wholesalers & OTA’s were working to move them to the retail model over a short period of time. Since 2011 Durand has joined Movenpick and successfully transformed the way the company was handling Distributors & Traffic generation from a decentralised approach to a globalized approach.
More recently Durand joined Jumeirah Hotel Group as Senior Director Global Distribution.
Mariano Faz is Head of TFG Asset Management in Dubai. He is responsible for the asset management of the company’s Hospitality and Real Estate portfolio which comprises over 3,000 units in the UAE and an additional 3,000 hotel units under development. During his tenure, Mariano has guided the strategic planning efforts to achieve investment objectives on behalf of owners. He provides leadership to the asset management team and ensures that the hotels are managed to the best of their capacity.
Mariano is an active HAMA (Hotel Asset Management Association). Mariano brings over sixteen years of expertise within the hospitality sector, where he has held a number of management, finance and operational roles. He has successfully negotiated multiple hotel management contracts, coordinated pre-openings and possesses in-depth knowledge of hotel industry trends.
Before joining TFG Asset Management, Mariano served as the SVP of JLL Hotels in Dubai where he focused on investment and advisory in Dubai and Barcelona. Prior to that, he worked for Ilunion hotels as a Chief Operating Officer for three years and Barcelo hotels in Europe where he successfully managed to expand the brand through management contracts and lease contracts.
Mariano is a Spanish national and holds a Bachelor degree in Business Administration from the University International of Catalonia, Spain and a Master in Finance from EADA, Barcelona. Mariano is a regular speaker at prominent Hospitality Conferences in the Middle East. He also collaborates in multiple hotel sector publications related to Hotel Asset Management topics.
Raquel brings with her over 27 years’ experience mastering an array of faculties from Strategic Planning, Business Development, Marketing & Sales to Brand Positioning and Revenue Management. Valued for her in-depth knowledge and commercial capabilities within the leisure, entertainment and hospitality sector, she has a unique flair to develop bespoke and tailormade solutions to each individual client.
Offering an in-depth, insightful awareness into the complex dynamics of the local market and key influencers in the region are some of Raquel’s key attributes. Her methodological approach in defining optimum Sales & Marketing channels and strong leadership have ensured an unparalleled track record of success.
Perceived as a commercially savvy Senior Executive, with an extensive portfolio, working for some of the world’s most esteemed brands, her previous employers include Dubai Parks & Resorts, Universal Studios’ PortAventura Resort, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, Sofitel, Shangri-La, Hyatt International and Amadeus. Raquel holds a Bachelors in Economics and Business Administration from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain.
Moustafa has extensive 19 years of hospitality experience, at hotel & corporate levels, in multiple hotel functions. 11 years are within Revenue Management & Pricing at the largest hotel international operators, like AccorHotels & InterContinental Hotels Group, with vast knowledge of Middle East & Africa markets. Moustafa has 5 international awards as recognition for his functional & leadership contribution. Currently he is the Regional Director of Revenue Management at AccorHotels supporting Luxury Brands in Middle East, Egypt and Legacy hotels in Africa.
Moustafa has B.Sc. degree of hotels management and have completed multiple executive courses with Cornell, Oxford Brooks & Ashridge business schools.
Cristina Polo
Senior Consultant
Insight Out Consultancy
Cristina has successfully worked with global and regional multi-brand groups building and optimizing their performance within the global marketplace.
Cristina’s experience spans more than 20 years within the hospitality industry across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She started as a sales executive for Le Meridien Hotels in Paris, moving to a cluster sales role for Hilton Hotels in Paris and then joining the opening team for the Rezidor Hotel Group where she led the sales, meetings & events departments for an airport hotel. Her re-location to Dubai coincided with a move to revenue management at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Dubai Media City, where she was later promoted to Regional Director of Revenue Optimization with responsibility for thirty properties.
In her most recent hotel role, Cristina led the sales, revenue, distribution and digital marketing teams for HMH Hospitality Management Holdings. She holds a Post Graduate Degree (DESS) in International Trade, a Master’s Degree in International Economics, and 2 professional certifications: CRME, and CHDM, from HSMAI (Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International). Cristina brings a great wealth of knowledge to the team and delivers a holistic approach to sales, revenue and distribution.
With an established track record in handling hotel revenue management, pricing, analysis and distribution, she is tasked with maximizing revenue of hotels under operation focusing on yielding and areas of opportunity.
Prior to joining HMH, Jaya was the Director of Revenue at Radisson Blu Hotels in Dubai. During the course of her 12 year career in the industry she has worked with Al Bustan Rotana - Dubai, The Oberoi - Mumbai and Hilton Towers - Mumbai. She has a post Graduate Diploma in Marketing from CIM, UK and Bachelors in Hotel Management & Catering Technology from Pune University – India.
Tarandeep Singh is a seasoned hospitality professional with over 20 years of both on & above property experience across Hotel Operations, Sales & Marketing, Revenue Management, and Hospitality Consulting.
A Hotel Management graduate and an alumni of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kozhikode (India), he has worked with Oberoi Hotels, Taj, Carlson & Technopak Advisors
At IHG since January 2010, he led the Revenue Management initiatives for South West Asia, based in India and was responsible for setting up the remote RM solution across Asia Middle East & Africa (AMEA). He also managed the Manila Operations for IHG that provides backend analytical support to regions across the globe. He moved to Singapore in 2014 to establish IHG’s regional analytics function & went on to manage Revenue Performance & Analytics for the AMEA region.
In his current role based in Dubai, he now provides leadership & strategic direction to the RM function for India Middle East & Asia region.
Before joining Majid and Futtaim, Francesco had several regional marketing director roles with Hilton Worldwide, for almost 10 years, in Western and Southern Europe, UK and Ireland and lately in Central, Northern and Eastern Europe. Before entering the hospitality industry, Francesco worked in several senior commercial roles for international companies in the like of IBM and Vodafone.
Francesco is Italian national and holds a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from the Bocconi University of Milan, Italy and a certificate in Executive Management from the Henley Management College, UK and along with his family have lived in Milan, London, Frankfurt and now he is based in Dubai.
Born and raised in Lebanon, where he completed his Bachelor of Arts of Hotel & Tourism Management at the University of Notre Dame Beirut, Sayed Tayoun has been a highly regarded commercial leader in the hospitality industry for over 15 years, building his international and diverse career from individual properties in Doha, an area commercial role in Abu Dhabi overseeing the InterContinental Hotels Group portfolio, to currently leading a team of 45 senior members as Area Director of Sales & Marketing at InterContinental Hotels, Dubai Festival City.
In his free time, Sayed is a family man, loving spending time with his two daughters as well as having a passion for supercars, travelling and reading up on history.