Speakers
Velleda is from Italy and works as an international coach and trainer for leadership and authentic communication. She is passionate about meditation, a habit she has cultivated and taught for years, living in India and the USA. Her goal is bridging the inner and the outer world: she believes that concrete change in the world is a reflection of our inner transformation, the result of a grounded and balanced state of mind.
Dr. Mosaraf Ali is a physician trained in both Western and Indian medicine and a proponent of integrated medicine. He studied medicine at the University of Delhi followed by the Central Institute for Advanced Medical Studies in Moscow from 1973 to 1982. Dr. Ali runs the Integrated Medical Centre in London, attended by many high-profile clients, and has conducted rejuvenation programmes in the Himalayas for 25 years. Dr. Ali has written 8 books on healthcare, health columns in popular British magazines and newspapers, done research in stroke rehabilitation, trained 6 batches of British doctors in his techniques, speaks regularly at international conferences, headed a famous clinical spa in Italy and runs his wellness programme in a leading spa in Kerala as well as a charity clinic in the Himalayas, serving 50.000 people.
Dr. Neal Bermas is the founder and chairperson of STREETS International – an innovative social enterprise providing sustainable culinary and hospitality training programs for street kids and disadvantaged youth in Southeast Asia. Dr. Bermas was awarded a membership to the Clinton Global Initiative in 2014 for this extraordinary work. As an independent management consultant and educator with international experience in the hospitality and tourism industry, his clients included The Walt Disney Company, Sheraton, and Le Meridien Hotels. He was Director with the worldwide consulting and financial services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (formerly Coopers & Lybrand). In his spare time, he owned and operated notable restaurants in both the US and abroad.
„How can I help healing“ is the first question Dr. Eger, a clinical psychologist practicing in California, will ask when you meet her. The 86 year old Holocaust survivor has worked all her life for one cause: turning tragedy into triumph. She leaves us with a sense of joy, compassion and the sacredness of life and teaches us, how we all can move from victimhood to empowerment and what it is we should let go of and what to hold on to. It is about the power of choice.
Samantha is Australia’s top spa chef and renowned for her nutritional wisdom and for being a powerful influencer among healthy lifestyle audiences. Her Byron Bay based global wellness company Food Health Wealth creates culinary programs for luxury hotels, spas and health retreats worldwide. Food Health Wealth offers dynamic wellness business solutions that help food and health entrepreneurs create successful and sustainable businesses. Samantha holds a Diploma of Health Science Nutrition, is a member of the Australian Traditional Medicine Society and renowned for being one of the best wellness business mentors in Australia. Using her unique blend of nutrition, fine dining and business expertise Ms. Gowing helps to put ‘Food as Medicine’ on the map in Australia.
The bestselling author, awardwinning spa consultant, mental trainer and actress Michaela Merten has been a fixture in the film and TV area for over 25 years. She was voted the most popular German actress in 1999. Ms. Merten is trained in naturopathy, alternative healing methods and is furthermore an expert on water and its benefits, proved in her bestselling book “Water – The Healthy Key to Beauty and Health”. She received the Senses Award in London for the “Best Country Spa 2014” and is a passionate ambassador for the Waterfoundation. Ms. Merten works as a mental trainer and motivation coach together with her husband Pierre Franckh – also an international bestselling author.
Dr. Nordström looks back on more than 20 years of experience in working with large multinational companies where he has served as an advisor/consultant throughout the world. He holds a doctoral degree in International Business from the Stockholm School of Economics and focused his research and consulting on the areas of corporate strategy, multinational corporations and globalization. Dr. Nordström has published three books to this point as well as numerous articles on the internationalization process of firms.
As a Founder and President of NextLevel Leadership Inc., Catherine Parrish has worked with executives in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, India and Australia for more than 25 years, to help them moving up to the next level of their leadership, effectiveness, communication and productivity. Her area of expertise includes assisting leaders and their organizations to create the right professional environment for people to express their full potential and exceed their objectives.
Mrs. Roth is the former Vice President of the largest luxury hospitality organization: The Leading Hotels of the World, handling the business in Europe, the Middle East & Africa. She is an opinion leader in her industry and has a deep understanding for the mindset of the discerning traveller. Her interest is to combine her business career with her passion to support people and organizations to become more conscious of the relationship between the true nature of the human being and business to create sustainable value, because she is a firm believer that the level of consciousness we approach any given situation with determines its outcome. Mrs. Roth is furthermore the co-founder of ConsciousLab, a not-for-profit social enterprise pioneering social transformation in business.
Mrs. Silveira is one of the daughters of the founders of the Kurotel, Medical Longevity Center and Spa, located in Gramado, south of Brazil. She studied Hotel Management in Gramado and specialized in Salzburg, Austria. She also studied Marketing in Berkeley, CA, United States and is now part of the Family Council at the Kurotel as well as the Director of Kur Concept, the hotel’s cosmetics company. For the third consecutive year Mrs. Silveira will be part of the jury of the World Spa and Wellness Awards. She also spends her time working with Mente Viva, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the promotion of culture and peace in schools through meditation techniques.
Sylvia Ye is managing partner at a hotel asset management company based in Shanghai, that is providing hotel development & management advisory services to numerous hotel owners in 31 provinces. Mrs. Ye has been studying Zen, yoga, meditation, acupuncture, moxibustion and TCM for years. Her ambition is to plant the “healing seed” in the hotel projects she’s involved in. Now Mrs. Ye is dedicated to connecting the healing concept between China and the world.Hotel Panel
Kirsten Feld-Türkis – former Executive Director of airtours, the leading German luxury tour operator – offers her knowledge about how holistic brand strategies and luxury marketing will be tomorrow’s successful concepts. 27 years in management positions for prestigious tourism companies (1986-1996 Meier’s Weltreisen, 1996-2013 TUI Deutschland) make Mrs. Feld-Türkis one of the most experienced and respected female leaders in the industry. In her last assignment for the TUI group she was Executive Director for the Business Unit Luxury and brought up Germany’s leading luxury travel brand airtours. Mrs. Feld-Türkis firmly believes that future travel trends will strongly relate with modern lifestyle models and values and it is her conviction that holistic brand strategies and business models will be tomorrow’s successful concepts. Mrs. Feld-Türkis is the founder of KFT•Brand&BusinessSolutions. Worshop speech: Five New Marketing Approaches to Connect a Growing Global Audience.
Sigurlaug Sverrisdottir is the founder & owner of ION Luxury Adventure Hotel in Iceland. Ms. Sverrisdottir is an Icelandic business woman with a wide range of experience in toursim, recreation, and hospitality. She owns a BSc in Business Administration & a diploma in Human Resource Management from Reykjavik University and has established companies in Lithuania, Switzerland and Iceland.
Kathrin Boerger-Bechtold is the Director of Business Development and a member of the Executive Board at Grand Resort Bad Ragaz. She has a background of more than 16 years of experience in the international luxury hotel industry as well as studies in Business Administration. Kathrin personifies the world of luxury hotel business and exalted guest service culture. Her simple mission is to contribute personally as well as through the experience of the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz to the individual happiness of the guests. She is strategically responsible for the development of the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz – the leading Wellbeing & Medical Health Resort in Europe. Her aim is to make the combination and integration of wellbeing, medical health, hospitality and destination perceptible for the guests and she strongly believes that this is the key to the sustainable economic success of the company.
Dr. Pergola, is an internationally recognized life guide, inspirational speaker, community development orchestrator, safari guide, yoga and meditation instructor. She is a voice sharing the indigenous healing wisdom of Africa with the world and has worked with traditional Maasai healers in East Africa for over ten years. Close to her heart is Terrawatu Tanzania, a pioneering NGO she co-founded in 2000. Terrawatu has initiated and managed dozens of projects, building lasting bridges between communities in Africa, the United States and Europe. She is the author of “Time is Cows: Timeless Wisdom of the Maasai”. Dr. Pergola also produced the DVD ‘Maasai Yoga & Meditation’ that was filmed on location in Tanzania.
Alla Sokolova is the co-founder and general manager of the first international wellness destination in Latvia, with a mission to expand the boundaries of understanding health. She is passionate about popularizing wellness culture and is actively involved in researching, developing and integrating holistic lifestyle concepts for urban and destination environments. During numerous relocations Mrs. Sokolova acquired international experience and developed an expertise in the Russian and Eastern European markets. She is an active member of the SPA and Wellness International Council expert league. Mrs. Sokolova speaks globally on the region’s health and wellbeing tourism industry and her book “Healing Sources Spas and Wellbeing from the Baltic to the Black Sea”, will be released in December 2014, available in English and Russian. She is a graduate of UCL University with a degree in Management with Russian Studies.Committment Session
For over 20 years, Mrs. Foster passion for wellness has led her on a journey through every aspect of today’s Spa industry. A proven manager, trainer, therapist, retailer, and one of Asia-Pacific’s most experienced spa consultants, Mrs. Foster has been blessed to work with many of the region’s top brands. Mrs. Foster mission is to “make the world happier and healthier”, and she sees the spa and wellness industry as an ideal vehicle to achieve this. Her company, DSM, specialises in setting up and managing custom-concept destination spas and integrated wellness centres. Mrs. Foster runs international courses in spa development and management, is a published author and popular speaker. She also has a passion for product development. Twice awarded for her leadership in the spa industry, Mrs. Foster is currently founding President of the International Health & Wellness Alliance, which seeks to “empower humanity to embrace health and wellness”.
Davide Bollati is an Italian entrepreneur, best known as chairman of the Davines family group companies, Davines and [comfort zone], high end skin- and hair care products.After a degree in Pharmacy from Parma University, Mr Bollati moved to the US to complete a Master’s Degree in Cosmetic Science at Farleigh Dickinson University. He also graduated in March 2008 from Harvard Business School where he enriched his educational background with the Owner/President Management Executive Program. His main inspiring factor in the business is the passion he has for sustainable beauty, a combination of technology and respect for the environment that is becoming the new mantra for the Davines Group. For him, beauty is the divine inside us.
Madeleine Marentette is the founder and CEO of Grail Springs Retreat Centre for Wellbeing, Canada’s leading holistic healing destination. Bestselling author, educator, soul coach and healer, she continues to illuminate the path for individuals seeking transformation and life fulfillment. For over twenty-five years Mrs. Marentette has dedicated herself to the study and processes of the human-soul-energy-connection, this awareness she feels, relevant more than ever to today’s changing and challenging world. A dedicated life of service to people, planet and our sacred animal kingdom, has her working relentlessly taking action, speaking and co-creating to raise awareness. Mrs. Marentette holds a series of lectures and retreats throughout the year both at Grail Springs and abroad. She is presently working on her next book on the human condition as it relates to the sacred, and the evolutionary track of soul consciousness and destiny.
Sonu Shivdasani, founder and CEO of Soneva Group which owns the luxury resorts, Soneva Fushi in the Maldives and Soneva Kiri in Thailand. He is also the founder and former CEO of the Six Senses Resorts & Spas across South East Asia and Europe, which he sold in 2012. Each Soneva resort remains true to Mr. Shivdasani’s original vision of five star luxury accommodation with a commitment to protecting the environment, respecting the local culture as well as the fragile eco system which is to remain undisturbed by the opening of any new resort. Workshop speech: Sustainable Trends and Global Charity Projects
Emily Dery co-leads the Global Health Track at the Clinton Global Initiative. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement private-public partnerships to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. She facilitates partnership and commitment development for stakeholders focused on strengthening health systems globally and addressing the rising prevalence of NCDs in low- and middle-income countries, including cardiovascular diseases, chronic lung diseases, cancers, and diabetes. Ms. Dery will be leading a session about how to make a purposeful commitment and hold a special lecture.Healer Panel
Patricia is the founder of Spirit Yoga, one of the largest and most successful yoga schools of Europe, and had been a yoga teacher in the USA and Europe for many years. She writes regularly for Yoga magazines, trains yoga teachers, has her own series of Yoga Audio-CDs and DVDs and offers Wellness-Yoga retreats in comfortable and beautiful resorts around the world. Patricia developed “Spirit Yoga”, a yoga style that builds a bridge between traditional and modern yoga forms. Spirited and free it is at the same time transformative, healing, challenging and meditative. Patricia is author of the books “Yoga in pregnancy” and “Balance Yoga”.
As CEO and founder of GOCO Hospitality, Mr. Ingo Schweder brings more than 30 years of experience from the fields of spa and hospitality. He has been involved with the design, development and worldwide operation of iconic hotels and wellness destinations. Ingo is considered to be one of the foremost hotel and spa experts in the world, and his experiences and accolades to date are a fitting testament. Under his guidance, Ananda in the Himalayas, the globally recognized destination spa, was established. During his tenure at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, he established 15 resort spas on four continents.
The breadth of experience Beth Galis brings to her practice is unique. After completing her BA in Education and Dance, she traveled around the world studying bodywork, energy work, shamanism, meditation, yoga, and other healing modalities. Integrating these disciplines, she has created her own unique and effective approach to health and wellness. Beth has a master in Traditional Shamanic Energy Medicine and is an extraordinary practitioner in this field.
Sharada Rumi is of a Thai origin from a tiny remote village in northern Malaysia, now residing in Melbourne, Australia. She was initiated into spiritual meditation at the age of 13. Surrounded and trained by ancient wisdom that was beyond modern comprehension, daily miraculous phenomena were accepted as a norm. She has a passionate lifelong quest for tools to reclaim an ancient power that maintains youthful bodies, opens the heart, stills the mind, heals on the deepest level and integrates the physical and spiritual self. In 2000 she found ThetaHealing®, today’s Quantum way of reprogramming your old limiting subconscious beliefs instantly. Every new discovery supports the next progressive steps in the evolution of humanity and group consciousness on this planet.