Attend Ambition Bangkok

Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun

President
Thai Hotels Association (THA)

Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun is a prominent Thai hotelier and the current President of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), elected in March 2024 to lead the nation’s premier hospitality body representing over 1,000 member properties. A former real estate developer, he pivoted into hospitality during the 1997 financial crisis, converting his Bangkok project into his signature property, the Grand Diamond Hotel. He served as an active THA board member for nearly 20 years before stepping into the presidency. As THA President, his key initiatives focus on driving industry-wide sustainability, protecting local operators from unregulated short-term rentals, and collaborating with the government to develop high-value tourism infrastructure.

Anchalika Kijkanakorn

Founder & Managing Director
AKARYN Hotel Group

K. Anchalika Kijkanakorn is the founder of AKARYN Hotel Group and a pioneer of boutique luxury hospitality in Southeast Asia. Her Aleenta properties (spanning Hua Hin-Pranburi, Phuket-Phang Nga, and Chiang Mai) are celebrated for blending contemporary design with a deep sense of place, earning Michelin Keys, Leading Hotels of the World recognition, and selection among Travel + Leisure’s World’s 500 Best. In 2026, she expands the collection with The akyra Bangkok 11. Beyond her properties, Anchalika is an industry trailblazer on sustainability and wellbeing, leading Asia’s first hotel group to go fully single-use plastic-free, founding the AYURAH Wellness brand, and establishing the Pure Blue Foundation for marine conservation. She made history as the first female Board Member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, later serving three consecutive terms as Chairperson.

Glen Alexander Grosic

Managing Director, Asia
HSMAI

Glenn Grosic brings over 26 years of experience building loyalty and commercial strategies for the world’s leading luxury hotel brands. He has held executive-level roles at IHG, Hilton, and Marriott International across the ANZ, APAC, and Greater China regions, and has worked with iconic names including St. Regis, Mandarin Oriental, and Langham. Two decades based in Asia — including ten years across mainland China — give him a perspective on the region that is both broad and genuinely on-the-ground. He now serves as Managing Director Asia for HSMAI (Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International), a 99-year-old global not-for-profit dedicated to the commercial disciplines of hotel management: sales, marketing, revenue, and distribution. In Asia Pacific alone, HSMAI runs over 30 industry events annually.

Michael Belanger

Vice President of Commercial Strategy
GCP Hospitality

Michael Belanger leads commercial strategy at GCP Hospitality across a portfolio of 35+ properties and 7,500+ keys worldwide — a deliberately diverse collection spanning luxury hotels like The Regent Hong Kong and The Standard High Line New York, serviced apartments, hostels, and student accommodations. Before joining GCP, he spent over 15 years at IHG in senior revenue and commercial roles across Canada, Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong, most recently as Director of Revenue Management at InterContinental Hong Kong. Beyond his day-to-day remit, Michael serves on the HSMAI Thailand board and teaches Hotel Entrepreneurship at Vatel Hotel School Thailand — a reflection of his conviction that the industry’s next chapter depends on how it develops its talent today.

Eric Conger

CEO & Founder
Pacific Club Resort & Bolder Business Associates

Eric Conger has spent 37 years living and working in Phuket, building and operating independent hospitality businesses from the ground up. Through Bolder Business Associates, he has been hands-on across every dimension of the process (from architecture and systems design to digital marketing, revenue management, and F&B) combining an operator’s instincts with a genuine interest in the technology that makes it all run.

Shruti Ugalmugale

Director of Business Development
Vayudoot Group

Shruti Ugalmugale is the Director of Business Development at Vayudoot Group, where she leads strategic growth initiatives and partnerships across the company’s hotel portfolio. With a strong background in hotel technology, revenue optimization, and commercial strategy, she is passionate about helping hotels leverage innovative solutions to improve operations, enhance guest experiences, and drive sustainable business growth.

Riku Penttinen

Chief Commercial Officer
Avalon Analytics

Riku Penttinen has spent his career at the intersection of hospitality, technology, and commercial strategy. A former CEO of a lifestyle hospitality company in Southeast Asia, he now leads commercial strategy at Avalon Analytics, a business intelligence platform helping hotel teams in 30+ countries move from static reporting to real-time, revenue-driving insight. His approach is deliberately practical: technology as a tool for smarter pricing and more confident decisions, not an end in itself.

Yann Gouriou

Chief Executive Officer
Unicorn Hospitality

Yann Gouriou is the CEO of Unicorn Hospitality and COO of WINK. A hospitality professional with more than two decades of experience in Asia, he specializes in hotel management, commercial strategy, branding, technology, and asset optimization. Yann is known for his owner-centric approach to hotel management, helping independent hotels and resorts unlock their full potential through a combination of operational excellence, revenue strategy, and innovative technology.

Supakorn Chairongsri

Co-founder
Zuwala Hotel

Supakorn Chairongsri is the co-founder of Zuwala Hotel, a minimalist beachfront boutique on Wonnapha Beach in Bangsaen, and the founder of SGSS Acoustics. With a background in fine arts and cultural management, he and his wife — a musician and an engineer — built Zuwala from a converted house into a design-led boutique that resonates strongly with a new generation of independent travelers. Along the way, Supakorn developed a marketing approach built on data, design, and authentic word of mouth — proving that independent hotels can grow on their own terms without relying on the playbook written for larger brands.

Richard Castle

COO & Co-Founder
Cloudbeds

Richard Castle is the co-founder and COO of Cloudbeds, the intelligent unified platform powering hotel growth worldwide. Under his purpose-driven leadership, Cloudbeds has grown into a company that has generated billions of dollars in revenue for thousands of properties alongside a fully-remote, distributed workforce of 650+ people in more than 40 countries. Together with his co-founder, Adam Harris, they have amassed awards for culture, product, and innovation including Forbes’ America’s Best Startup Employers, Inc’s Best Workplaces, and EY Entrepreneur of the Year.

Jason Richards

Chief Business Officer
Cloudbeds

Jintana Borin

Emcee & Head of Market Development, APAC
Cloudbeds

Giggi Borin has lived both sides of hospitality. She spent the first chapter of her career as a hotelier, managing operations for global brands including Marriott, Six Senses, Dusit Thani, and Minor Group. She later transitioned to the SaaS world, spending four years at SiteMinder before joining Cloudbeds, where she has been championing independent hoteliers for over nine years. That dual perspective is what drives her passion for independent hospitality to this day.

Ben Charlton

Regional Director, APAC
Cloudbeds