The Advisory Board is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the Alliance and for oversight of its operational performance.
The members are highly experienced hoteliers, senior business executives and experts in sustainability. All are passionate to see the hospitality industry as a leader in the journey to net zero carbon.
EEA Advisory Board
John Beesley
Asset Owner and Operator,
Yenton Hotels
John Beesley
John Beesley has been a Bournemouth hotelier for over 30 years and he also heads a hospitality consultancy specialising in hotel management and development working across England and Wales. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality.
He has extensive experience in both the private and public sectors through serving on a variety of trade and political bodies alongside his business career in hospitality. He has a very good understanding of the practicalities of the interface between both local and national government and business, and how to plan strategically to develop soundly based decision making and sustainable outcomes.
In the public sector, John has been a local Councillor since 2000 and held a number of positions at regional and national level. He was Leader of Bournemouth Council for 7 years and previously Deputy Leader for 5 years, and for 12 years he was also responsible for Bournemouth Council’s Finance and Budget. He is currently Chairman of the Audit & Governance Committee on the newly formed BCP Council.
Ayhan Bektas
Chairman of the Board
Coral Travel Group
Ayhan Bektas
Ayhan Bektas was born in 1968 in Germany.
He has graduated from Mediterranean University Construction Department.
He acted as the representative of European tourism companies in Istanbul and Antalya previously, has been one of the three founders of ODEON Tours, which is the first affiliate of Coral Travel Group (OTI Holding),which was founded in 1992, of Coral Travel which was opened in Moscow in 1995 and of Wezyr Holiday Service which was opened in Warsaw in 2000.
As of 2006, based on the decision of uniting all of the companies within Coral Travel Group (OTI Holding A.S.), he started acting as the Chairman. Besides being the Chairman, he is responsible of the Accommodation, Legal, Corporate Communications and Business Development processes.
In addition to his memberships of WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council), DEIK (Foreign Economic Relations Board), HIB (Services Exporters’ Association), TTYD (Turkish Tourism Investors Association), ( ANSIAD (Association of Industrialists and Businessmen of Antalya), he is the Board Member of BETÜYAB (Belek Tourism Investors Joint Venture)
He is fluent both in English and German.
Krishma Singh Dear
Product Design Manager,
Edwardian Hotels
Krishma Singh Dear
Krishma Singh-Dear, is the Product Design Manager for Edwardian Hotels. Krishma is a project manager with a skill to craft sophisticated interiors.
She joined the team in 2015, upon returning to the UK after completing an interior design degree from the Parsons School of Design in New York. Whilst in the US she also interned at the award-winning design firm Yabu Pushelberg alongside her studies.
Prior to moving into the design sector, Krishma spent more than four years successfully carving out a career in investment banking as part of HSBC’s real estate investment banking team after graduating with a Bsc in Economics and Management from the University of Bristol.
It is this combination of experience which she credits for giving her a critical eye to not only improve customer experience through design, but also crucially increase the value of a property.
Frazer Durris
Chief Executive Officer,
Businesswise Solutions
Frazer Durris
Frazer is co-founder and Director of the Energy & Environment Alliance.
He has been in the energy industry for over 10 years, as founder and Chief Executive Officer of Businesswise Solutions, an award-winning disruptor in the energy management consultancy space. Businesswise Solutions mission is to help corporate businesses eliminate energy waste, achieve NetZero and make energy management simple.
Businesswise use cloud-based tech solutions developed in-house and are leading the way in becoming the first fully managed, digital energy management service provider, to serve the needs of modern energy clients globally. This approach recently led to Businesswise being placed amongst the UK’s top 100 tech disruptors in two national awards in 2020.
In 2018 Businesswise launched the sectors first ‘Energy Centre’. The inspiring modern office building educates clients and others alike by taking them on a visual and interactive journey of energy through the ages to the modern-day. It demystifies the complex nature of energy, demonstrates the latest technology, live energy trading floor and client energy control centre, from with they manage their proprietary ‘Energy-Management-As-A-Service’ (EMaaS™) solution.
Robert Godwin
Managing Director,
Lamington Group
Robert Godwin
Robert is a trained economist and entrepreneur with a background of sporting excellence, and a passion for design and experience.
Robert heads up Lamington Group, an established group of companies investing and developing real estate in the residential and commercial sectors. He is also the founder and MD of award-winning room2 Hometels, an innovative and creative hospitality brand and operating business which bridges the gap between Airbnb and hotels. room2 currently has 2 open sites with 5 in the pipeline, as part of an ambitious roll out plan of 5000 keys by 2030.
Robert used to compete at the highest international level representing Great Britain in sailing for 10 years in a fiercely competitive, performance-orientated environment. He brings these skills to business today, actively targeting market shares of the hotel giants with a more relevant business model built for the future.
Ufi Ibrahim
Chief Executive Officer,
EEA
Ufi Ibrahim
Ufi Ibrahim is the founder and Chief Executive of the Energy and Environment Alliance.
Previously, as Chief Executive of the British Hospitality Association (BHA), 2010 to 2018, she reshaped and reformed the organisation from the ground up, achieving significant financial and commercial success. She led the BHA merger with the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, creating UK Hospitality, to wield increased commercial and political influence. Ufi also shaped the UK Tourism Industry Group, a Government led Advisory Board, and delivered ground-breaking campaigns, such as the Big Hospitality Conversation, which engaged over 4,000 businesses with the government to create 67,000 new jobs and apprenticeships for young people across the UK.
At the World Travel & Tourism Council, where Ufi was Chief Operating Officer between 2000 and 2010, she supervised the formulation of the International Competitiveness Monitor for Travel and Tourism. This established a benchmark for policy makers and is now operated by the World Economic Forum. Under the auspices of the WTTC and UNFCCC in 2009, she led the industry’s first global commitment to cut carbon emissions, 50% by 2035.
Ufi is also a commissioner of the Food Farming and Countryside Commission, overseeing executive and legislative issues affecting the future of the UK’s food and agricultural sector. The remit embraces negotiating with authorities and legislative bodies to address environmental impacts, changing economic climate and dietary trends, health & safety and funding to remain relevant within a highly volatile and competitive global market. Ufi also chairs the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Tourism, which works with the Government to enhance the UK’s tourism proposition to international investors.
Eddie Keelan
Group Head of
Procurement, Shiva Hotels
Eddie Keelan
Eddie is a Procurement & Supply chain professional with a proven track record of achievement across Hotels, Hospitality, FMCG, Logistics, and Energy, over a period of 20 years.
He is an expert at bringing Procurement to life for stakeholders and showing them how Procurement can positively impact them. He has successfully built new teams and driven new approaches to Procurement in existing organisations delivering change and significant value.
Currently employed with Shiva Hotels as Group Head of Procurement, Eddie has responsibility for managing the central Procurement function of 7 operational hotels, including 3 new future openings.
In the past Eddie has spent over 5 years at The Doyle Hotel collection, where he had overall responsibility for the overall management of the central Procurement function for 8 hotels located in the UK, Ireland and the US. The scope of his role included the building of a ‘best in class’ Procurement function, implementing world class Procurement strategies, as well as managing key contractual relationships across the Group.
Eddie was also a member of the Energy Advisory board, where he provided input around energy concerns, challenges and cost saving tactics, with tax breaks and rewards for meeting carbon reduction targets across the hospitality sector.
Alexi Khajavi
President of Travel &
Hospitality, Questex LLC
Alexi Khajavi
Alexi Khajavi is President of Travel & Hospitality for Questex LLC, a global business intelligence company that informs and connects buyers and sellers across five key sectors; hospitality, travel, healthcare, wellness and technology. Alexi is responsible for the overall management and development of the company’s global hospitality and travel communications properties and events including notable flagship assets like the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) Summit Series, The Bar & Restaurant Expo, Ultra Travel Summit, Luxury Travel Advisor, Hospitality Insights, HOTEC and the Destination Develop investment promotion arm.
Khajavi, who brings more than 20 years of travel, technology, hospitality, media and aviation experience to his position, joined Questex in 2014 as head of Hospitality and Hotel Investment.
Prior to joining Questex, Khajavi was senior vice president, global strategy, for MercuryCSC, a creative agency specializing in the travel industry where he helped
designed global marketing campaigns for hotel companies, tourism boards and active lifestyle brands. Prior to MercuryCSC, he was one of the founding team members of the travel consortium Nature Group based in Costa Rica and helped lead the airline and hospitality portfolio to be awarded the fastest growing travel company in Central America between 2003 and 2010 and the world’s first carbon neutral airline in 2005.
Khajavi has been a board member and advisor to a number of non-profits and tech companies including the Center for Responsible Travel at Stanford University, The Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health, Sustainable Travel International and KERBspace an early stage startup in the revolutionizing the electric vehicle charging stations for the built environment.Khajavi holds a B.A from the University of California Santa Cruz, graduating Magna Cum Laude, with distinction and honors.
Tasos Kousloglou
CEO Hotel Division
Sun Hung Kai Properties
Tasos Kousloglou
Tasos Kousloglou is the CEO – Hotel Division of Sun Hung Kai Properties, one of the largest property companies in Hong Kong.
SHKP has a portfolio of 18 hotels (12 operating and 6 under development) in Hong Kong and Mainland China with a total of 6 million square feet or 7,000 rooms. Amongst those are some of the finest hotels including Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong, The Ritz-Carlton and W Hong Kong, Hyatt Centric Victoria Harbour, The Royal Garden in TST East, Royal Plaza Hotel in Mong Kok, The Ritz Carlton Shanghai Pudong, Andaz Shanghai ITC (2025). It also owns and operates a portfolio of luxury serviced suites.
Before joining SHKP Hotels, he was the head of Strategic Advisory & Asset Management of JLL Hotels & Hospitality. He also headed the Asset Management function of prime hospitality asset portfolios in Singapore and Middle East comprising luxury and upper upscale hotels, resorts and serviced residences.
Tasos is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and National University of Singapore and a board member of HAMA Asia Pacific.
Jonathan Lass
Consultant Solicitor,
Ince GD
Jonathan Lass
Jonathan Lass is a seasoned corporate/commercial lawyer who relishes the challenge of providing high level strategic and corporate counsel to a wide range of clients domestically and internationally.
He regularly acts in a General Counsel capacity for corporates, entrepreneurs, and high net worth family groups in relation to their UK and international interests.
Prior to joining Ince, Jonathan was a partner at a number of other leading international law firms and General Counsel for Citibank in the UK and Europe.
Nadia Milligan
Associate General Counsel,
Sonder
Nadia Milligan
Al-karim Nathoo
CEO
4C Group
Al-karim Nathoo
Al-karim is the CEO of the 4C Group, a family-owned business formed in 2010, building on the foundations of the family’s property business which stretched back to the 1990s.
4C Group manages and develops properties and hotels in key business districts and leisure hot spots across the UK, Middle East, East Africa and Canada. The group’s mission is to operate sustainably, delight guests and investors, whilst striving to deliver a positive environmental and social impact within local communities.
Al-karim drives the growth and leads on the expansion of the group’s property portfolio and development projects. In 2021, 4C Group opened the debut UK hotels for renowned brands, Westin Hotels & Resorts and Canopy By Hilton.
Al-karim is also an active volunteer for the Ismaili Community in the UK. He currently serves as Chairman of the Aga Khan’s Youth and Sports Board, whose mandate is to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of the Community’s youth across the UK and Europe.
Deepak Ohri
Chief Executive Officer,
lebua Hotels & Resorts
Deepak Ohri
Deepak Ohri (born February 9, 1968) is an Indian business executive. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of luxury hospitality company lebua Hotels & Resorts.
He earlier worked with Kempinski Hotels, Oberoi Hotels and Taj Hotels before founding lebua in 2004. lebua operates hotels and resorts at Thailand, New Zealand and India and has won numerous travel awards.
Ohri has been a speaker and a panelist at the Forbes Global CEO Conference, the Financial Times Business of Luxury Summit, the World Travel and Tourism Council Global Travel and Tourism Summit. In 2012, Ohri began writing a weekly column in India’s The Financial Express newspaper.
Jonathan Raggett
Managing Director, Red
Carnation Hotels
Jonathan Raggett
As Managing Director of Red Carnation Hotels, Jonathan Raggett, is responsible for the operation of eighteen 5 and 4-star hotels across the globe – six in London and others in Dorset, Guernsey, Ireland, Geneva, Palm Beach, Botswana and South Africa.
In 2009 Jonathan was named Hotelier of the Year by The Caterer and Hotelkeeper, in 2012 he was included in Caterer and Hotelkeeper’s Top 100 – The most powerful people in hospitality and listed at number 8 in the Top 10 Hoteliers. Jonathan is a Trustee for the industry’s benevolent fund, Hospitality Action and a Master Innholder.
After almost thirty years in the industry, Jonathan remains passionate about the opportunities that it offers to anyone who is prepared to work hard. Formal qualifications are not always necessary; a friendly personality, the right attitude and a willingness to learn are the keys to success.
Robin Sheppard
Co-founder and President,
Bespoke Hotels
Robin Sheppard
Robin has been an hotelier for 40+ years winning many Hotel/Hotelier of the Year awards. In 2000 he co-founded Bespoke Hotels which has grown into the UK’s latest independent hotel group with over 200 properties, including the multi-award winning Hotel Gotham. He has already won the Hotel Catey and then the Oxford Brookes awards for Outstanding Contribution to the Hospitality Industry. Most recently he won the AA Lifetime Achievement Award to the Industry. He is also the Government’s Hospitality Sector Champion for Disabled People.
His greatest achievement, though, has been to fight back from GBS, a totally paralysing illness. His slow recovery inspired him to launch the www.bluebadgeaccessawards.com in conjunction with RIBA encouraging better design and empathy from architects, interior designers and hospitality professionals alike.
Peter Till
Chairman of the Advisory
Board, EEA
Peter Till
Till has spent his entire career in the hotel industry. Beginning in operations at hotels such as the Lygon Arms and the Hyatt Corporation, he then moved on to development consulting with Pannell Kerr Forster in London for 6 years, performing feasibility studies across EMEA and ending as a managing consultant. He then joined Marriott hotels for a 15-year period of developing hotels in EMEA for the Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, and Bvlgari brands, responsible for hotel projects including the Marriotts in Budapest, Bucharest, Prague and Berlin, the Ritz-Carltons in Dubai, Doha, Wolfsburg and Berlin, and the first Bvlgari Hotel in Milan.
Till set up a development consulting firm in 2002 and for the next 14 years provided development services to firms such as the Delancey Group, De Vere Hotels & Resorts, and Carlson Rezidor. From 2016 to 2021 he was the Managing Director of Choice Hotels Europe, responsible for the United Kingdom and Western Europe. Till has a BSc in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.
Rekha Toora
SVP, Capital Markets, JLL
Chair, EEA CMC
Rekha Toora
Rekha is Senior Vice President in the Hotels Capital Markets at JLL, she is also Global Capital Markets Sustainability Council Member at JLL and Chair of the Capital Markets Committee of the not-for-profit Energy and Environment Alliance.
Rekha began her real estate career at Investec Bank in 2007 in structured property finance after which she spent a number of years on the sourcing and execution of commercial investment and debt opportunities across a number of real estate sectors including hospitality. Rekha has represented the interest of a broad spectrum of investors. Rekha’s interest in sustainability began during her time as Chief Investment Officer of Qbic Hotels in 2019, a sustainable hotel company which was backed by Cerberus Capital. Rekha is passionate about sustainability in the built environment and actively engages in strategic discussions and knowledge-share within JLL and beyond through the Energy and Environment Alliance. Rekha is a member of the Chartered Management Accountants and has an MBA from INSEAD business school.
Tim Wheeldon
Managing Director
Zeal Hotels
Tim Wheeldon
Tim has been involved in the hotel industry for 40 years, the last 10 of which have been focussed on establishing Zeal Projects and Zeal Hotels.
Zeal Projects is a Project Management & Cost Consultancy company specialising in hotel and aparthotel construction. Zeal Projects has been involved with various brands including Hampton by Hilton, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Ibis, Travelodge, Staycity, room2 & Quest Aparthotels.
Tim founded Zeal Hotels and in April 2019 opened the 138 bed Holiday Inn Express, at M5 J24 Bridgwater. This continues to be recommended as the benchmark going forward for the development of the Gen 4 HIX brand. Zeal’s 2nd hotel, the 144 bed Ibis (Plaza) Hotel & Keepers Restaurant & Bar at M5 J23 Bridgwater successfully opened in April 2021.
Tim is a fellow of the Institute of Hospitality and in 2019 attained distinction on the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership course (CISL).
Reducing our carbon footprint in non-negotiable and Zeal Hotels is committed to developing and operating net zero carbon hotels. Tim is looking forward to collaborating with others in the hospitality industry who share the passion for a cleaner and more sustainable world.