Melissa is currently serving on the HSMAI APAC Commercial Advisory Board.

Melissa leads the development of global strategy and commercial opportunities for hoteliers within the Asia/Pacific region. A 30+ year veteran of the industry, her current role sees her engage regularly with Hotel Owners and Operators on a range of topics from acquisitions to asset management, budgeting and finance, revenue generation and profit improvement.

Currently, a large focus of mine is helping improve our industry’s state of mind. As perhaps the longest-suffering industry during this pandemic, we have to constantly find new and relevant opportunities to innovate and grow.

Now, more than ever, we must be flexible, strategic and, critically, empathetic. If we want to evolve, improve, and seek to achieve then we cannot do it alone. We need to be brave, we need to collaborate and we need to trust, supporting each other to strive for our goals both professionally, and personally.

Optimism for me isn’t a passive expectation that things will get better; it’s a conviction that we can make things better – Melinda Gates