Meet the speakers

Nadine’s journey in the luxury travel industry is rooted in her unique background as part of a travelling showman and circus family, which ignited her passion for exploration. She’s had the privilege of travelling around the world, staying in some of the most remarkable accommodations, and experiencing extraordinary luxury offerings firsthand.

After building Limelight Access, a bespoke concierge business for footballers, entertainment figures, and HNWIs, Nadine's personal experience with her footballer ex-husband provided her with deep insights into the elite lifestyle. Following their amicable split, she didn’t slow down; instead, Nadine built her own global team spanning the Philippines, Lithuania, Albania, London, and Scotland, demonstrating her commitment to creating a diverse and innovative workforce and continues to work with her ex husband on the brand Limelight Escapes.

In addition, her brand, Travl.Love, now delivers tailor-made, luxurious escapes for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, with a focus on providing seamless, bespoke experiences.

Nadine also founded The Travel Sisterhood in February 2023, a collective of female luxury travel agency owners, fostering collaboration and empowerment for women entrepreneurs in the travel industry. Nadine’s wealth of experience, entrepreneurial spirit, and unique backstory make her a powerful and inspiring speaker in the luxury travel sector.

Simon Casson joins Corinthia Hotels as Chief Executive Officer at a pivotal time to elevate and grow the brand. He is dedicated to delivering a world class experience and outcomes for all stakeholders – employees, guests, shareholders, and business partners.

Founded in Malta, Corinthia is an ambitious and entrepreneurial hotel company that uplifts the lives of creative-class travellers with properly inventive hospitality. Simon is responsible for overseeing brand growth, starting with new openings in New York and Brussels in 2024, with Bucharest and Rome in 2025.

Formerly President EMEA at Four Seasons, Simon was responsible for the operations of over 42 hotels across 26 countries, as well as development in the region. His more than three decades in the company showed inspiring progression from an assistant manager role through a variety of senior leadership roles around the world. As such, Simon’s career is marked by ambition, passion and lifelong learning. His relentless pursuit of service excellence sets him apart as a true and notable leader in his generation of hoteliers.

Based in London, Simon introduces a fresh perspective into every project, be it constructing a ground-up build, meticulously renovating and carefully restoring, or repurposing an existing structure. Simon takes pride in working collaboratively to deliver the very best product, providing exceptional guest experience and ensuring that each property’s unique attributes are reflected in every aspect, from the guest rooms to the design concept of the restaurants.

Sophie Galvagnon

Sophie Galvagnon, a French-Swedish captain, has spent a significant period in Arctic regions, exploring the polar world aboard a wide range of vessels, from research icebreakers to sailing ships. At just 26 years old, she became the youngest woman to command polar expedition ships, earning maritime honors for her remarkable contributions to sea expeditions.

With a blend of passion and dedication, navigating through the ice and mapping uncharted areas have become her distinctive expertise, which she continues to nurture during her own expeditions or special missions. Since 2017, she has expanded her influence in the field of polar adventure to entrepreneurship, founding maritime companies and developing ships tailored to these unique extreme environments.

Sophie is deeply committed to advocating for the consideration and inclusion of women in the maritime industry.

Alexandra is an experienced and insightful creative. Beginning her career at a tech-start up four years ago, Alexandra found her niche writing quality copy to drive the go-to-market strategy. 

She joined Pion in 2022, bringing lived experience to writing about the behavior of her generation and helping brands understand the cultural nuances that define it. 

Injecting energy, personality and wit into her writing, she specializes in trend and culture content. She has authored Pion’s influential Youth Trends Report for the last two years, forecasting the biggest trends to impact youth culture and working with industry experts, researchers and creatives to bring them to life. Her work has secured coverage in Hypebae, The Independent, CNBC, The Mirror and TechRound.

Alexandra is a gifted public speaker, excelling at both hosting and standalone gigs. She has delivered keynote talks for Pion in both New York and London. She regularly appears on webinars with marketing leaders and has appeared as a guest speaker at events for UNICEF, JCDecaux and IPM. She sits on the Expert Advisory Board for Fumble, a leading sexual health charity, and previously volunteered with Zero Gravity, a charity helping state-educated students get places at top Russell Group universities.

Joss Kent joined &Beyond as CEO in 2012, and in 2023, he assumed the dual role of Executive Chairman and CEO, focusing on the strategic growth of the company, including &Beyond’s Scaling Impact Strategy for 2030. Before joining &Beyond, Joss served as the global CEO of Abercrombie & Kent (A&K), where he led their 61 international offices, gaining extensive experience in the luxury travel industry.

Joss’s background is diverse, with leadership roles in the safari industry and corporate sectors. He trained at the Royal Military Academy (Sandhurst), served as a Lieutenant in the British Army, and later pursued an MBA at Harvard. His career includes roles in finance, management consulting, and executive leadership at A&K, where he was instrumental in setting up A&K Philanthropy, underscoring his commitment to conservation and community development.

Born and raised in Kenya, Joss has deep ties to Africa and vast experience in leading safari expeditions. His passion for conservation is evident through his role as a Trustee of Africa Foundation, supporting &Beyond’s mission to create meaningful impact. Outside of work, he enjoys kitesurfing, scuba diving, and flying, and is fluent in Swahili.

Carmel McQuaid started in her role as Head of Environment and Social Impact for Belmond in January 2024, responsible for delivering on the brand’s environmental and social ambitions. She will further shape the brand’s global sustainability strategy and lead the execution of key global environmental and social projects and partnerships across the business. 

Carmel was previously Head of ESG at Marks & Spencer addressing environmental and social challenges across the business, including working closely with her leadership team towards becoming a net zero business. 

Throughout her 15+ years’ experience, she has been instrumental in driving forward one of the most pioneering sustainability programmes, delivering on ambitious ESG commitments, while building trusted relationships with stakeholders and constantly raising the bar to meet increased customer and investor expectations. 

Belmond is accelerating its efforts in this area as it sets ambitious goals to reduce its impact and reliance on natural resources while driving positive change. The brand is launching a pilot programme at 10 properties which will create tailored and actionable roadmaps for them to meet the rigorous standards of parent company LVMH Life 360’s sustainability targets. 

With a career that spans more than 25 years working in wellness, travel, retail, yachting and hospitality, Laura Montesanti is not only well versed across the industries but has also gained a deep understanding of how they interconnect and complement each other.

In 2007 Laura moved to South Africa where she spent extensive periods volunteering with community causes such as the Scalabrini Centre for Refugees and Ubuntu Africa for HIV Children in Cape Town. She also opened a yoga school in Cape Town where she taught clients on a donation basis, believing the practice of yoga should be available and attainable to all.

Throughout her career Laura has travelled around the world visiting luxury hotels and spas for work and pleasure, as well as spending time in Montenegro where she developed the Marina of Porto Montenegro, giving her a unique understanding of how properties can enhance their guest experience.

In 2014, she launched LM Luxury Consultancy, supporting brands with pioneering new concepts and lead generation. Past projects include spending three years leading the sales of diving and onboard wellness experiences for a luxury yachting services company, and helping luxury hotels across the world to host retreats, curate wellness journeys, and partner with some of the industry's most esteemed wellbeing practitioners.

Having attended countless travel and wellness trade shows in her time, Laura felt the industry lacked an event that fully focused on combining wellness, travel and retreats in the same space, hence the reason she decided to launch Synergy -The Retreat Show in 2022, a sophisticated, holistic business networking event for wellness and travel professionals.

Synergy now brings together insightful retreat entrepreneurs and inspiring industry leaders and provides a space for them to learn from each other and evolve in a more informed and conscious way.

As the new Chief Executive Officer of Kempinski Group and a member of the management board, Barbara Muckermann leads the iconic brand with 82 hotels in 36 countries around the globe.

Starting in her position this May, Barbara plays an integral role in the luxury hotel group’s next chapter as it intends to add another 34 hotels and residences to its portfolio in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa in the coming years, and to further secure Kempinski’s legendary global position and standing.

Barbara was previously responsible for leading Silversea Cruises (part of Royal Caribbean Group), the world’s largest ultra-luxury and expedition cruise line. During her more than 25 years of hospitality experience, she has successfully expanded sales and profitability as well as significantly upgraded the guest and customer experience for leading global brands in luxury and travel including Loro Piana, MSC Cruises and NCL.

A seasoned executive with a long track in luxury tourism, Barbara is the first woman in the company’s 127 years of history to be leading Europe’s oldest luxury hotel group. A German native, having lived in Italy, France and the US, Muckermann is fluent in five languages and is a Doctor in Political Sciences and Economics and holds a joint MBA from Columbia and London Business School. 

Anna Nash joined the luxury lifestyle ocean travel brand of the MSC Group, Explora Journeys, as President in September 2024, reporting directly to Pierfrancesco Vago, Executive Chairman of MSC Group's Cruise Division.

With a career spanning over 20 years in the ultra-luxury hospitality industry, she brings significant expertise in brand development, marketing, global sales, communications, and holistic brand stewardship. Prior to joining Explora Journeys, Nash held leadership positions at Aman, where she served as, Chief Communications Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and most recently Chief Commercial Officer. In these roles, she was instrumental in shaping the company's global commercial strategies and driving its brand expansion.

Her professional journey also includes prominent roles at other renowned luxury hospitality brands, such as Rosewood Hotels and Orient-Express.

Anna's extensive background and strategic vision positions her to lead Explora Journeys as the brand continues its innovation and expansion. Her wealth of experience and proven leadership are critical as Explora Journeys prepares to increase its fleet of two ships currently sailing, with four additional ships entering service from 2026 to 2028.

Natasha has been with the luxury specialist Carrier for over 10 years, leading and transforming both the brand and marketing strategy. She has already been fundamental in shaping the business and securing its market-leading status.

Now, as managing director for the reputable brand and leading Carrier through one of its most successful years, Natasha plans to continue building on Carrier’s success as one of the UK’s leading tour operators for some of the industry’s most elite travel agents and high-net-worth consumers.

She believes that a clear purpose along with a highly engaged team drive the culture that sets Carrier apart, and that this is key to delivering a true luxury experience, one that is deeply human, genuine and very personalised.

Antonia is Chief Futurist at Stylus, the expert source for trends and insights. She leads the Stylus Advisory team, combining Stylus trends intelligence with exclusive custom research to meet clients’ exact needs.

Antonia’s background is in print and online journalism, having held editor roles at titles such as FX, New Design and Engineering Magazine, along with freelance stories published in the Financial Times, Design Management Review and more. 

As part of the senior leadership team at Stylus, Antonia ensures Stylus remains forward-thinking in everything the business does. Antonia is also the Stylus Diversity, Equity and Inclusion executive sponsor.

Justin has been with Steppes Travel since 2012 and for the five years preceding that was managing director of Abercrombie & Kent UK.

Brought up in Zambia, educated at Oxford and having survived London, Justin began exploring his passion for travel. His travels have taken him to more than 100 countries, whether as a guide (Explore Worldwide), expedition leader (World Challenge Expeditions), pioneering expedition (Mekong River Expedition) or for personal pleasure.

His travel highlights have been many but from a wildlife perspective would include spotting a snow leopard in Ladakh, tracking gorillas with the Ba’aka pygmies in Central Africa and seeing a Sei whale in the Galapagos. In terms of landscape it would be the tepuis of Venezuela, the remote island of Socotra off Yemen and the pristine beauty of the North-West Frontier Province in Pakistan. In terms of cities, Cartagena, Kashgar and Beirut. In terms of experiences, spending time with the nomadic Wodaabe in the Sahara and cycling up the Mekong River.

Justin firmly believes that travel breaks down barriers and prejudice: “Travel gives us so much – experience, empathy, perspective, understanding and such vivid memories. Our world is wonderfully diverse and we should not shrink from it but experience it, relish it and use those experiences to redefine our own lives."