Your Itinerary

Chekitan Dev is an internationally renowned scholar and thought leader on marketing and branding in the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries. As an expert witness, he has testified in deposition, at trial, and at arbitration in numerous hospitality-related matters, both in the United States and internationally, including multiple cases involving hotel owner–brand relationships and the online travel industry.

Professor Dev has consulted on marketing and branding to major corporations. He has more than 40 years of experience analyzing an array of issues involving hotels, travel, and tourism. Professor Dev’s recent research has focused on how branding and rebranding affect both public perception and profitability in the hospitality industry. In particular, he has assessed key drivers of profitability and customer loyalty, including branding, digital marketing, and consumer service. Professor Dev has also evaluated brand portfolio strategy in the context of hotel mergers.

An award-winning author, Professor Dev wrote “Hospitality Branding” (Cornell University Press), as well as over 100 articles in leading academic and practitioner journals, including the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research, and Harvard Business Review. He has coauthored multiple case studies for Harvard Business School and in 2019 received the overall winner award for best case study from the Case Centre at the Cranfield School of Management (UK). The American Marketing Association recognized Professor Dev and his coauthors as finalists for the Best Service Research Paper of the Year Award for their article “Return on Service Amenities” (Journal of Marketing Research, 2017).

Professor Dev is a sought-after commentator on hospitality trends. He has been interviewed numerous times in the mainstream media, and his research has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, and the International Herald Tribune, among others. The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) has selected Professor Dev as one of the “Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality, Travel and Tourism Sales and Marketing.”

At Cornell’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Professor Dev teaches courses on brand and marketing management.

Greg Land is Senior Vice President and Global Industry Leader for Aviation, Hospitality and Travel-Related Services at IBM. In this role, Mr. Land drives IBM’s strategy and growth initiatives for a broad range of industry segments; from airlines; to cruise lines; to global distribution systems, online travel agencies, and travel management companies. Over his 23-year career in the travel industry, Mr. Land has served in leadership roles with American Airlines, Sabre, Wyndham Hotel Group, and Radius Global Travel Management. He currently represents IBM on the Sustainability Working Committee for the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), serves on the Thought Leadership Committee for Global Hotel Network, and is a member of the IBM Industry Academy. Mr. Land holds B.S. degrees in Computer Science and Accounting and an MBA from Oklahoma State University, and he has completed the global leadership program at Wharton School of Business.

Jacqueline Nunley joined Salesforce in 2018 and serves as the Senior Industry Advisor for Travel and Hospitality, helping internal teams and their customers apply hospitality strategies to transform the guest experience and optimize their businesses. She is a recognized “thought leader” in travel and hospitality with over 20 years of experience in strategy, distribution technologies, supplier relationships, and digital marketing. Ms. Nunley is a technology geek at heart with a passion for understanding consumer behavior and the ethical use of technology. She has worked as a key adviser to executives on strategic planning and direction related to hospitality product strategies. Ms. Nunley has delivered solutions for many of the top global hospitality companies in the marketplace. Her background also includes positions at Micros Systems (Oracle Hospitality) and Sabre Hospitality.

Kristi White is Vice President of Product Management for Knowland, a hospitality solutions provider combining powerful analytics with the industry’s largest historical database of meetings market intelligence data. Throughout her 30-year career in hospitality, Ms. White has advised hundreds of hotels worldwide on improving their group strategy, hotel performance, and overall profitability. She is a recognized expert in hospitality group sales and meeting intelligence, revenue management, and industry analytics, as well as a frequent speaker at industry conferences and universities. Ms. White also is a founding member of the Board of Directors for the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Revenue Management Special Interest Group.

Yaron Lipshitz is Chief Executive Officer of Allseated, an event technology platform with the goal to revolutionize and digitize the event planning process. Over the past six years, Mr. Lipshitz has led rapid growth at Allseated. In 2021, the company’s exVo product — a platform for creating immersive, fully branded virtual experiences — was a Gold winner in the Event Technology category at Eventex Awards, the biggest global event awards. Prior to becoming CEO of Allseated, Mr. Lipshitz was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, and Ridgecrest Capital, where he focused on strategic transactions in the tech industry. He received a B.A. in Economics and Computer Science from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon. Mr. Lipshitz also served in the 8200 unit of the Israeli Defense Forces.