Hon. Najib Balala, EGH, assumed the position of the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife in the 2015 government reshuffle. He moved from the Ministry of Mining where he was appointed as Kenya’s first Minister in May 2013 and is credited with delivering the Draft Mining Bill in 2014, the first policy and institutional framework review of Kenya’s mining sector since 1940. Having also served as Minister for Tourism from April 2008 to March 2012, Hon. Balala holds the record of being the longest serving Minister in the docket. During that tenure, Hon. Balala delivered the Tourism Bill and gave the sector a policy and legal framework geared towards maintaining sustainability.

Hon. Balala has been elected Chairman of the United Nations World Tourism Organization twice, in 2011 and 2019, where he currently holds the position. In April 2019, he was awarded a World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Champion Award at the 2019 Global Summit in Seville, Spain, for his country’s outstanding work on Social Impact. The annual WTTC Global Champion Awards recognize public officials or countries who, through their leadership, have made a difference through unique public policies and initiatives that have increased the competitiveness of the sector within their countries. In 2009, Hon. Balala was voted Best Tourism Minister in Africa by Africa Investor (AI). He is trained in International Urban Management at the University of Toronto, Canada, and underwent the Executive Program for Leaders in Development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

He is credited with steering Kenya’s tourism sector to recovery following the post-election violence in 2008. He played a significant role in boosting growth and stability in the Kenyan and regional tourism sector, working closely with private and institutional investors, with conservation and regional development agencies to ensure that the economic potential of this vital sector was both prudently and sustainably managed.

Mr. Berthe was the CEO of Air Mali and Air Burkina. He has 28 years’ experience in the airline industry and a total of 16 years as an airline CEO.

Mr. Berthe built his career in various Airlines and multicultural environment both in Europe and Africa at positions such as aircraft performance and dispatch engineering, maintenance and operations quality, ground operations and Chief Executive Officer.

Abdérahmane graduated from:

- French Civil Aviation school in Toulouse (1987 Master Of Science degree).

- French Aeronautical and Space school in Toulouse (1988 Master Of Science degree)

- Business Institute in Toulouse (1989 Master degree)

He also obtained a Private Pilot License in 1985 for Single Engine Aircraft.

Jillian Blackbeard is passionate about tourism in Africa, and believes that sustainable growth can only be achieved through collaboration and understanding across the continent by private sector, governments, associations, international organisations and grass roots communities. She is the CEO of The Victoria Falls Regional Tourism Association and the founder of The Africa’s Eden Digital Destination Solution. The Association is driven by private sector, representational membership that surpasses national boundaries and traditional destination definition. The Association is based on inclusivity and represents all levels of the tourism supply chain. She is collaborating with a unique group of global professionals who have been inspired by the Association to come together in a dynamic and pro bono consortium of digital communication and marketing solution during the survival phase of Covid19.

Jillian has collaborated with the World Tourism Forum Lucerne and the Travel and Tourism Global Resilience Council. Her tourism expertise encompasses destination strategy, branding and marketing, wildlife tourism, circular economy, tourism product development, crisis and risk. She was the former Director for Africa at the World Tourism and Travel Council and the Executive Manager Marketing at Botswana Tourism Organisation.

Moritz joined AIIM in 2010 and is responsible for originating deals, analyzing, assessing, structuring and negotiating investment opportunities as well as the execution, realisation and performance monitoring of investments.

Moritz’s experience spans a range of infrastructure sectors, with a particular focus on airports as well as energy and utilities. In 2018, he was responsible for the successful acquisition of a 50% stake in SEGAP, an airport holding company with interests in 4 airports across West and Central Africa. Moritz was furthermore involved in the due diligence and structuring of the 81MW Renewable Energy Investments SA solar PV power plant and the 67MW Umoya Energy wind farm in South Africa as well as the acquisition, development and sale of the 100MW Kipeto wind farm in Kenya.

Moritz is a non-executive director on the board of SEGAP.

Prior to joining AIIM, Moritz worked at Macquarie Capital in Frankfurt where he formed part of their corporate and project finance advisory team, advising on various infrastructure transactions, primarily in the energy sector.

Moritz holds a B.Sc degree from the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel, Germany (EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht).

Olivier is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kasada Capital Management, which was formed in 2019 to support and drive the long-term growth and development of the hospitality market in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Olivier Granet has extensive hospitality industry experience gained over 20 years at Accor.
• In his last position as CEO of Accor Hotels Middle East and Africa, he oversaw 30,000 employees and was responsible for a portfolio of over 200 hotels consisting of 50,000 rooms across over 30 countries.
• He joined the Middle East team in 2011 when the Group had 40 hotels in the region. As a senior executive leading Accor’s expansion in the region, Olivier made remarkable strides in growing the network, where he was ultimately acquiring one new property signature every two weeks and opening one hotel a month.
• In 2016 Olivier took on the role of Chief Operating Officer Middle East, and in 2017 added Africa to his remit when he became Chief Operating Officer of Middle East and Africa.
• Before joining Accor, he spent 10 years within Deloitte’s Audit and Corporate Finance practice.
• Olivier has a BA from Grenoble Institute of Political Studies (Science-Po Grenoble) and an executive MBA from ESSEC Business School.
• Olivier is French and speaks English & French.

Sanjeev launched cargo carrier Astral Aviation in 2000, which has grown to become the largest private cargo airline in Eastern Africa, boasting a fleet of B747–400F, DC9F, B727F, and F27 freighters.

He is also Vice Chairman of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) Cargo Task Force, Africa’s largest airline association and promoting co-operation in operational, commercial, technical, and training fields.

Positions Held

• Executive Chairman of Mantis Group
• Patron of Wilderness Foundation
• Chairman of Stenden University, South Africa
• Founder of CCFA – Community Conservation Fund Africa

Personal Awards

• Terra Nova Award Conservation Award 2001
• Prestige award from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University 2002
• SATSA (South Africa Tourism Services Association) 2004

Recognition of the Development of Alicedale - an idea born of leadership, for sustainable development with integrity in the Tourism Industry

• The Herald Citizen of the Year Award in the Environmental Conservation category 2005
• South Africa’s Tourism Investment Award 2007

• CHN University Netherlands 2007

Degree Master in International Service Management (Honoris Causa)

• South African National Parks - Chief Executive Award 2007
• SAB Environmentalist of the year award 2008 (Nick Steele Memorial Award)
• Tourism Business Leadership Award 2009

African Hospitality Investment Award

• AHIF 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award

Born in Zambia in 1943, Adrian Gardiner’s passion for nature coupled with his strong entrepreneurial skill was forged from an early age. His love of wildlife came from his father who worked for a cattle ranching business and who took his son camping in the bush and hunting from an early age. His entrepreneurial skills were formed when he attended Falcon College in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. As one of the first 60 boys who were the initial intake of the new school, he was instrumental in helping to build the school from the ground up, from literally building their school classrooms to planting the sports fields. He soon understood that success was only possible with a good team, a clear vision and a focused passion.

From Zimbabwe he travelled to Cape Town to further his studies but, like many successful business people, he struggled at college taking 7 years to do a 3-year course. Academia was not for him. Whilst learning the ropes working for various Cape Town firms, it was evident that Adrian was not content working for other people and by the age of 29 he had moved from Cape Town to the Eastern Cape where he embarked on his first venture, to help build the Spar franchise in Port Elizabeth.

And so began a love affair with the city of Port Elizabeth (also referred to as PE, now officially called Nelson Mandla Bay). As a rapidly developing location, PE offered exciting new business opportunities which Adrian relished. For the next 20 years, he embarked on a rollercoaster ride of building companies in a multitude of industries from swimming pool development to garage swing doors, pagers to crane hire. Today, as the home of his major business developments, Adrian’s affection for PE continues and has caused him to keep his company HQ in the city rather than relocating to larger markets such as Johannesburg, Cape Town or London.

Having enjoyed commercial success, Adrian was able to ‘return to the land’ so to speak by developing a new venture into tourism in the early 1990’s. He began with 2,000 hectares of eroded, degraded and abused land. A small insignificant piece of valley bushveld, and from this, he grew Shamwari Game Reserve, which is now 25 000 hectares in size and has seen the re-introduction of all the large game that once thrived in the Eastern Cape. He was the first person to put the Eastern Cape on the tourist map and today the area is a booming tourist destination and home to countless other private game reserves. Shamwari has since become a blueprint internationally for successful sustainable conservation tourism, and its development was instrumental in forming the next phase in Adrian’s life.

On seeing the success of Shamwari, Adrian was able to replicate the model a few years later, by creating Sanbona Wildlife Reserve in the Western Cape (54 000 hectares). With two wildlife reserves flourishing, Adrian then founded the parent company Mantis in 2000. The name Mantis relates to the San people who revere the Praying Mantis and protect it as the most important animal in their ecosystem as ‘if you look after the little things, the big things take care of themselves’. Rather than only securing the inbound business within his game reserves, Adrian recognised the opportunity in providing a consistently high-quality tourism experience from start to finish where properties could join forces under one group, thus providing a one-stop shop for international visitors wishing to travel from West to East along the Garden Route.

The Mantis Group, while maintaining its origins in South Africa, then developed their model worldwide understanding that consumers could use Mantis as a mark of quality, consistency and character with their portfolio of over 85 properties worldwide. Today the Group comprises the finest examples of privately owned boutique hotels, game reserves and eco experiences. Each property is unique and seeks to bring to life the real character and spirit of its location.

As the company has grown, Adrian’s ambitions for Mantis have also grown in two distinct directions; developing Mantis’ global footprint of properties worldwide and using the lessons learnt when developing Shamwari to educate, support and develop major conservation tourism projects worldwide. In this vein, he is also consulting on wildlife regeneration in numerous African countries. Adrian sees this as a tangible way of giving something back to nature and creating a positive legacy where communities can see the financial benefits in conserving their environment and wildlife. Thus fulfilling the philosophy that is entrenched in our name: Man And Nature Together Is Sustainable (MANTIS).

In light of his work in the arena of conservation, in 2000 Adrian was invited to join the highly respected African Wildlife Foundation whose mission is to conserve and protect critically important wildlife and landscapes in Africa. Adrian is looking forward to supporting the Foundation to further protect the land he so loves. In particular, he is keen to highlight the rhino poaching crisis which is currently at catastrophic proportions in Africa. Adrian feels that ’as global populations grow, Africa is set to be the food basket and mineral basket of the world. With such extensive natural resources, exploitation is happening so we need to protect Africa from the global influx. Tourism plays a part in this. However, we need to think of the bigger picture’. Adrian has reiterated his commitment to conserving Africa’s natural heritage through the joint venture with Accor Hotels announced in April 2018 and the resultant formation of the Community Conservation Fund for Africa.

Education is one of the Mantis Pillars, and the first groundbreaking move in this sphere was through the establishment of Stenden University in Port Alfred. Adrian together with colleagues and Stenden University in Holland opened the campus in 2001, and Adrian currently serves as chairman of the Board. Stenden is the only university in Southern Africa where you can qualify with a Bachelor’s degree in Hotel Management and Hospitality and a Bachelor’s degree in Disaster Management.

Adrian has been married to his wife Shirleyanne for 50 years; they have 3 children, Paul, Murray and Angela all of whom have adopted their father’s entrepreneurial ways and run their own businesses. Paul is the CEO of the Mantis Group in the UK, and Murray is a partner in their travel business, Giltedge.

James Hogan is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Knighthood Capital.

James recently served as President and Chief Executive of Etihad Aviation Group, which he built into a US$20 billion enterprise between 2006 and 2017, achieving the mandate from his shareholders to build a world-class diversified aviation and travel group.

During this time, he also held positions as Vice Chairman and Board member of Alitalia, Airberlin, Jet Airways and Air Serbia; Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC); and as a member of the IATA Board of Governors.

Prior to this, James was President and CEO of Gulf Air, and held senior executive positions at BMI, Forte Hotels, and Hertz. He served as a non-executive director and member of the Board’s Audit Committee of Gallaher Group and was also a member of the UBS Industrialisation Advisory Board. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aerospace Society. Under James’ leadership, Etihad Airways was named Air Transport World’s Airline of the Year in 2016, the industry’s most prestigious independent accolade

In 2017, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for ‘distinguished services to the aviation transport industry, to the development of tourism and trade linkages between Australia and the Gulf states, and to international airline associations.

Knighthood Capital Partners offers business advisory, capital structuring and investment services in the following sectors: Aerospace & Aviation, Travel & Tourism, Hospitality, Construction & Real Estate and Information Technology.

Raphael Kuuchi is the IATA Special Envoy to Africa on Aero-Political Affairs. He has many years’ experience in air transport management, operations and consulting. After working with an airline in various senior management positions for over a decade, he joined the Nairobi-based African Airlines Association (AFRAA) in 2005, as Commercial Director and later as Director Commercial, Corporate and Industry Affairs. In this capacity, Mr. Kuuchi initiated and oversaw many projects in airlines business development, commercial operations, IT and communication, liberalization/market access, aero-political/regulatory affairs and training across Africa.

Mr. Raphael Kuuchi effective July 2018, assumed a new role as IATA Special Envoy to Africa on Aero-political Affairs. Prior to that he was IATA Vice President Africa for 4 years. In his new role Raphael is leading IATA engagements with top government, regional and industry leaders in driving key initiatives aimed at unlocking the full potential of African aviation. He is also IATA’s focal point on the implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM).

Mr. Kuuchi holds an MBA from Henley Management College, UK and a B.Sc. degree in Business Administration. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (FCILT) UK.

Refilwe Ledwaba is a social entrepreneur, a qualified Pilot (Fixed wing and Rotor wing), an academic passionate about youth development and the economic empowerment of women in Africa. She is the founder and executive director of Girls fly programme in Africa (GFPA) foundation, a STEM education programme in Africa currently operating in South Africa, Botswana and Cameroon. Through the foundation, Refilwe was named and featured on BBC as one of the innovators in Africa. She is a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society, council member of the Aeronautical Society of South Africa (AeSSA) outreach team and a recipient of The Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship (AEMSF) for flight training.

Refilwe is a recipient of numerous scholarships, international awards and honours for her visionary work with the NPO organizations she founded. The success of the NPO has led to Refilwe being the recipient of multiple social entrepreneurship awards such as the winner in the entrepreneurship category at the inaugural South African Youth Awards in 2012, the winner of the aviation category of CEO Communication’s most influential Women in Business and Government in 2012 and 2015; and she was listed as one of Top 35 Africans Under 35 to watch by the Young people in international affairs (YPIA) in 2014. In 2018 she was named as one of the Inspiring fifty women in STEM.

Refilwe holds a Bachelor of Science degree (Microbiology and Biochemistry) from the University of Cape Town (UCT), A Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from UCT graduate school of business and an MBA from the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of business science. She will be pursuing her PhD in the latter part of 2019. In her free time, she flies all over the country in a C172, landing in remote areas to inspire girls to take up careers in the STEM field. She is a keen photographer and hopes to have her first exhibition of pioneering women Pilots in Africa in 2020.

A seasoned tourism policy analyst with over 20 years' experience in the hotel and tourism industry in Africa and Europe.

Carmen is a dynamic business leader with an International track record of delivering significant results in a variety of difficult, volatile markets. With extensive experience and deep domain expertise in the tourism business (destination management and tourism policy); cross-regional consultancy and most recently tertiary education.

She is driven by her passion to catalyse change, initiate and oversee transformation and a deep desire to serve. She is an expert in pulling together strategic frameworks, building coalitions, fostering innovation and through lobbying, advocacy and communication driving substantial policy changes.

Most of her development work and consultancy has been in emerging destinations and fragile states, Carmen has worked in different capacity as advisor to tourism boards, international and private organizations in East, Central and Western part of Africa.

A passionate champion for building solutions that transcend national borders her interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence have infused her advocacy for inter - and intra-regional travel and tourism in the East African region.

Carmen was awarded the “African Women in Tourism Leadership Award” in 2018 and voted as one of the top 100 influential women in Travel in 2017. She is widely known for her courageous advocacy of quality education and socio-economic empowerment for women.

She is the Chair of the Rwanda Board of Directors of Davis College, an East African higher education institution. She also serves on the advisory board of Inkomoko, a business incubator in East Africa, an outlet for her interest in entrepreneurship.

Currently, based in Kigali, Carmen is serving as a Workplace Learning Tourism Expert at GIZ International on a project funded by MasterCard Foundation. The project focuses on the tourism and hospitality sector in Rwanda in line of its transformation strategy and vision of improving skills, products development, job creation for the youth and women and investment for SMEs.

From April 2018 to May 2019 Gillian was Special Advisor to the then Tourism Minister; Minister Derek Hanekom. Gillian also works as a consultant to the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) and worked on the TBCSA’s Public Private Growth Initiative (PPGI) Tourism Growth Strategy which projected the potential 21 million tourist arrivals which President Cyril Ramaphosa mentioned in both 2019 SONAs.

Until mid-2018 Gillian was Deputy CEO of Audit Tax and Advisory Firm, Grant Thornton in Johannesburg, and head of their Advisory Services in South Africa. Gillian’s client facing expertise while at Grant Thornton was consulting to the hospitality, tourism and leisure industries and she has a long track record, of more than 30 years in her area of speciality.

In 2012 Gillian was appointed Global Sector Leader, Hotels and Tourism for Grant Thornton and she led a team of experts in various fields related to the industry from over 25 countries. Gillian has consulted extensively in all aspects of these industries for the public and private sector throughout Africa. Her work includes tourism destination and tourism marketing strategies and plans, and working on many aspects of feasibility, market development, economic and social impacts across the industry including for hotel and tourism accommodation, conference and exhibition industry, air-routes, airports, attractions, and more.

Prior to consulting she worked in the industry in Europe and South Africa, with stints with EUREST (a contract catering subsidiary of Nestle and Wagon Lits), in France, and with Sheraton in Germany and Switzerland, before joining the Southern Sun Group in South Africa in 1982.

Gillian has a BSc Hotel Catering and Tourism Administration (Surrey 1981) and an MBA (Wits 1988 cum Laude).

Gillian is the author of a number of articles and a regular commentator in the media on many issues related to Tourism and Hospitality.

She is a member (and previous chairperson) of the board of the University of Johannesburg’s School of Tourism and Hospitality and is passionate about education and education in the Hospitality and Tourism sector.

John is a seasoned leader in the fields of conservation, environment and sustainable development. He has worked across multiple continents, disciplines and organisations and served in senior positions with the private sector, government, the UN, and not-for-profit organizations. This includes senior positions with IUCN in Germany and UNEP in Kenya and John was Secretary General of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) from 2010 to 2018. During his term John significantly increased the level of political attention, public profile, funding, partnerships and outreach of CITES. This included leading global efforts to combat illegal wildlife trade, the creation of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime and actively engaging with the International Air Transport Association and the World Travel and Tourism Council on combating wildlife crime.

Mr. Udjo is a professional in the commercial aviation sector. He has worked for Comair Limited, previously for South African Airways and Qatar Airways, based in Doha. His roles have formed part of the research, commercial and/ strategy functions of all airlines. In his last capacity in the corporate sector, he developed and headed the Network Planning, Scheduling & Alliances Department of Comair Limited - South Africa's only Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed airline business. Prior to that, he was involved in strategic planning and implementation for the core airline business in the Domestic, Rest of Africa and Intercontinental markets for South African Airways. Most recently, Mr. Udjo has decided to enhance his contribution to the African aviation industry, by focusing fully on building his management consulting practice, ZA Logics, which seeks: “To be the strategic partner of choice for African businesses involved in transport, infrastructure and tourism development”

His professional ethos is the belief that transportation and connectivity (both virtual and physical) are keys to economic inclusion, opportunity and ultimately success for the African continent.

Academically, his foundation is based in Management Sciences - he obtained a bachelor’s degree and postgraduate degree (Honours) from the University of Pretoria, both Cum Laude. Further, he holds a Master of Business Leadership degree from the University of South Africa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership (focusing on Strategic Management & International Business).

Mr. Udjo served as a Director of the Board of Brightest Young Minds (July 2016- July 2018), a 17-year-old non-profit company that exists to create positive social impact across Africa, in partnership with Barclays Africa/ ABSA Capital.

Trevor Ward is a specialist consultant in the hospitality, leisure and real estate industries. He is the Managing Director of the Lagos-based W Hospitality Group, and Chairman of Hotel Partners Africa.

His industry experience spans over 40 years, and includes advising clients on hotel, tourism and leisure development in over 90 countries across the globe, and in 39 in Africa. With a special focus on sub-Saharan Africa, he works with many of the international hotel groups seeking a presence there, and with financial institutions, investors and entrepreneurs across the continent. He is regarded as one of the foremost experts on the hotel industry in sub-Saharan Africa, and is engaged primarily in development consultancy, ranging from investment appraisals to operator selection, asset management, valuations and agency.