The Future

Sheryl E. Kimes is an emeritus Professor of Operations Management at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. From 2005 to 2006, she served as interim dean of the school, and from 2001 to 2005, she served as the school’s Richard and Monene P. Bradley Director of Graduate Studies. Dr. Kimes specializes in revenue management, restaurant revenue management, and service operations management. She has been named the school’s graduate teacher of the year three times and was awarded a Menschel Distinguished Teaching Fellowship by Cornell University in 2014.

Dr. Kimes’s research interests revolve around revenue management in the restaurant, hotel, and golf industries. She has over 100 articles in leading journals, such as Interfaces, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Service Research, Decision Sciences, and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. She was awarded the CHR Award for Industry Relevance in 2010, 2012, and 2014, and she was given a lifetime achievement award by the Production and Operations Management Society in 2010. In addition, Dr. Kimes was given the Vanguard Award for Lifetime Achievement in Revenue Management by the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association International in 2017.

Dr. Kimes has served as a consultant to many hospitality enterprises around the world, including Chevy’s Fresh Mex Restaurants, Walt Disney World Resorts, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Starwood Asia-Pacific, and Troon Golf. She earned her doctorate in Operations Management in 1987 from the University of Texas at Austin.

Noah Glass is the founder and chief executive officer of Olo, a leading on-demand commerce platform powering the restaurant industry’s digital shift. Olo’s customer list includes over 400 of the most-loved enterprise restaurant brands. Mr. Glass’s career in food service began nearly 20 years ago, starting as a cashier and moving to server, bartender, and delivery driver before founding Olo. His mobile ordering work pre-dates the iPhone, beginning with text-message ordering on feature phones in 2005. Mr. Glass currently serves on the Board of Share Our Strength, a nonprofit focused on ending childhood hunger in the United States, and is a Trustee for the Culinary Institute of America. He has received numerous awards and industry recognition, including being named number one on the 2020 Nation’s Restaurant News Power List. Mr. Glass holds a B.A. in Political Science (International Relations) from Yale University.

Adrien Desbaillets is co-founder and managing director of SaladStop!, an international salad and fresh-fast food chain operating over 50 outlets across Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, and Spain. After growing up and working in the Asian hospitality industry for years, in 2009 Mr. Desbaillets and his father saw a need for healthier food options in Singapore. That year, they launched SaladStop! to bring their vision to life, offering an innovative, fresh, and tasty option for increasingly discerning and health-conscious consumers. Mr. Desbaillets began his career as a senior consultant in the hospitality industry and most recently worked as Vice President of Development and Acquisitions for Kingdom Hotel Investments, spearheading the group’s investment opportunities in China. He holds a B.S. in Hotel Administration/Management from Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration.

Jianggan Li is the founder and chief executive officer of Momentum Works, a Singapore-headquartered company that builds, scales, and manages tech ventures across the emerging world, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia. Prior to founding Momentum Works, Mr. Li co-founded Easy Taxi in Asia, was managing director of Foodpanda, and consulted for various mobile internet startups. He is fluent in English, Mandarin Chinese, and French, as well as conversational in Cantonese and Spanish. Since 2016, Mr. Li also has been an INSEAD Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EiR) and adjunct faculty member at Singapore Management University. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Nanyang Technological University.