Judging

Guy Heywood’s career spans two continents over ten years, and in his role of Chief Operating Officer at the Alila corporate office, he brings a wealth of operational experience along with an innate knowledge of luxury services.

Besides strengthening the operational components of the business, Heywood enforces the brand promise and service delivery to ensure the business performance of each Alila hotel with good asset management practices.

Prior to Alila, Heywood worked with Aman Rsorts in various regional capacities, before joining Australia’s Voyages Hotels and Resorts to manage the brand’s top eight signature properties. His credentials also include a tenure as Head of Operations for Firstlight International in Australia.

Dutch designer Joris Angevaare is renowned for the typical minimalist design aesthetic associated with Dutch Design.

Graduating as Bachelor of Interior Architecture from the Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam, Angevaare has nearly 2 decades of experience in creating pragmatic solutions that bend rules and challenge dogmas. His background in business economics helps him to drill down to the core essence of the assignment or client's DNA to spark the creative concept.

Headquartered in Singapore, Angevaare attends to projects that span the globe, exploring diversity in cultures, philosophies and aesthetic juxtapositions to produce new ideas, concepts and inspirations.

Troy oversees hotels, hospitality and lifestyle development across the portfolio at Hong Kong based Galaxy Entertainment Group, whose footprint spans Macau to Monaco and into Las Vegas through stakes in other premium developer/operators such as Wynn Resorts and royally associated Societe des Bains de Mer (SBM), as well as active projects in Japan and the Philippines.

He has 25+ years of international hospitality leadership experience, from a dozen significant hotel pre-openings and a slew of hotel and entertainment development deals, since graduating from Swiss Hotel Association and Le Cordon Bleu colleges. He has a Masters Degree from Oxford Brookes University Business School, and has been elected a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality.

His background includes high profile and award-winning openings from small luxury and lifestyle hotels to mega integrated resorts with the likes of Peninsula Hotels; Four Seasons; Fairmont; Las Vegas Sands’s The Venetian® and Paiza; Design Hotels; Starwood; IHG; and Hilton's largest Conrad Hotel; before Asset Management roles overseeing Ritz Carlton, JW Marriott, Banyan Tree, and Okura hotels for Galaxy.

At the helm of The Mira Hong Kong, the city's then first member of Design Hotels, his term saw the team at the hotel receive a host of accolades in its opening year from Time Out Magazine's Best New Hotel, to a top billing in Travel+Leisure's online Destination Guide and even a spot on Conde Nast Traveller's Hot List. He went on to open and lead Conrad Macao to over 30 awards in its first 22 months, before it earned a Forbes 5 Star rating.

Recognised for his passionate pioneering of unique operating solutions and service experiences at complex and unconventional properties, culture building and leadership; he has appeared in National Geographic's specials on opening of The World’s Largest Casino in Macau, written for the International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC), and is on the advisory board of the Global Restaurant Investment Forum (GRIF).

Billie Khoo is currently the Senior Design & Project Director for Hilton Technical Services, Southeast Asia Pacific and India, a region that spans North Asia, Southeast Asia, Australasia, Pacific Islands and the Indian subcontinent.

Educated in Singapore and a trained and qualified architect with Masters in Architecture, Billie has worked with established regional and international hospitality design firms such as SCDA, Maps Design Studio and Wilson Associates during her career of 18 years. She has wide-ranging experience in both masterplanning, architectural and interior design aspects of hospitality creation.

Since joining Hilton in 2012, she has worked with the Technical Services team to deliver successful openings across all brands and has been intimately involved in key flagship hotels in gateway cities such as Hilton Saigon, Conrad Bengaluru, Conrad Osaka and WA Bangkok.

She is also responsible for design overview of all brands for both pipeline projects and capital expenditure projects in the mentioned regions. The brands include luxury, lifestyle, full-service and focus service for both managed and franchise properties. Billie’s role is to ensure that the hotels and resorts fulfill both brand standards and design narratives. This also includes a constant review of applicable brand standards for the regions.

At the same time, her portfolio includes being the design director for key Hilton luxury and lifestyle pipeline projects such as Conrad Kuala Lumpur, Canopy Kuala Lumpur, and Waldorf Astoria Maldives.

Being in a region of high growth in the travel industry, Billie assists development in the technical review of new opportunities in the constant drive to grow the number of new hotels and rooms with an operator that has one of the largest pipelines in the world.

Dharmali Kusumadi is the Senior Vice President, Projects and Business Development of Banyan Tree Group. He is responsible for the design and technical advisory services, projects and business development functions within the Group. As the principal architect and chief designer, he also heads the architectural design arm of the group based in Singapore Corporate office and oversees the regional design offices in Bangkok, Shanghai and Mexico.

Being with the group for more than two decades, Dharmali has helped to create numerous iconic award-winning architectural and interior designs, which are the hallmarks of Banyan Tree and Angsana hotels and resorts. He was personally involved with the different hotel projects in Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Maldives, China, Mexico, Morocco, Seychelles and other countries for the four hotel brands namely Banyan Tree, Angsana, Cassia and Dhawa. Key milestone projects include Asia’s first integrated destination resort - Laguna Phuket in Thailand, Laguna Bintan in Indonesia and Laguna Lang Co in Central Vietnam under the Banyan Tree Group.

Chris Lee is the founder and Creative Director of Asylum, one of the most respected creative companies in Asia. Since its inception in 1999, the creative company has focused on cross disciplinary projects that include interactive design, product development, environmental and interior design, packaging, branding and graphic design. Featured in numerous magazines from around the world, Asylum is defined as an unconventional maverick in the creative world.

Chris’ work in the creative industry is recognised with more than 100 international awards. He is the recipient for the Designer of the year and Design of the year in Singapore’s President Design Award. He has served as a juror for many of the top International creative awards such as D&AD, Red Dot and Perspective awards. His recent Project The Warehouse Hotel won Hotel of the year (Asia) at the AHEAD awards and FRAME awards.

Chris is also a founding member and President of The Design Society, a non-profit organisation that aims to promote visual culture through exhibitions, workshops and education.

Catherine Martin is Editor of Sleeper, the leading magazine for hotel design, development and architecture.

With a degree in journalism and a passion for travel and design, Martin joined Mondiale Publishing in 2007, starting as Editorial Assistant before progressing through the ranks to Editor. In her current role, she manages the day-to-day running of Sleeper and its affiliated website (www.sleepermagazine.com), guiding the editorial content and creative identity. She also finds time to review some of the most exciting hotel developments worldwide and interview those who designed them.

In recent years, Martin has led a major re-brand of Sleeper – the results of which were unveiled in 2014 – and moderated panel discussions at a number of international trade exhibitions and hotel investment conferences. She also supports Sleeper’s portfolio of events including Sleepover and the AHEAD Awards.

As the Head of Design & Technical Services at Next Story Group, Sun Mi translates the group’s vision of transforming urban spaces into thriving communities. She is responsible for conceptualizing, developing and building these spaces so that they provide the right environment for communities to flourish.

Next Story Group has a portfolio of 40 hotels and resorts, and three Kafnu properties which have the best elements of a boutique hotel, shared work space and a social club. It plans to have 50 Kafnu properties across Asia Pacific. Prior to Next Story Group, Sun Mi was part of Langham Hospitality Group managing their new development projects.

A graduate of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, with over 25 years experience in luxury hospitality, residential and commercial interior design, Ng founded AB Concept in 1999 with Terence Ngan.

AB Concept combines architectural precision with bespoke craftsmanship to create projects of enduring quality for developers, luxury hotel companies, restaurateurs and individuals. Clients include Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Rosewood Hotels, Mandarin Oriental and W Hotels, as well as select restaurateurs and residence from Hong Kong to Cote d’Azur.

Ng is an active participant in numerous international design forums and, as Vice President of the APHDA at Tsinghua University, a passionate advocate for developing and supporting design talent in China.

Jinou brings more than 20 years of experience in leading global brands. He started his career in the hospitality industry working for Intercontinental Hotels in the US HQ growing through the ranks of real estate finance and market planning before moving to Singapore as APAC Regional Director of Distribution Marketing and then onto Hilton as Area Director of Revenue Management & Distribution, M.E. & APAC.

His entrepreneurial zeal took him to a brief stint in Thailand to develop his own boutique mixed-use development after which he rejoined the corporate world with 'the happiest place on earth' - Disneyland Hong Kong as Head of Business Insight and Improvement. Currently, Jinou is APAC leader of Design Hotels which represents and markets curated selection of 300+ architecturally and culturally awe-inspiring hotels with focus on original and aspirational hospitality experiences.

Jinou was born in Seoul, Korea and has Master's of Management in Hospitality from Cornell Hotel School, Ithaca, New York. He is likely to be spotted curbside running marathon or enjoying reckless skiing.

Designer, traveller, and writer, Paul Matthew Wiste is one of Asia's foremost luxury hospitality design experts.

Paul currently leads a boutique Hospitality Design Consultancy providing bespoke solutions to discerning private owners and operators. He has previously worked for IHG as Head of Design and Engineering SEA+K and the Jumeirah Group as Vice President Development Design Asia Pacific. He was first professionally employed in the Asia Pacific region in 1996; and had his introduction to hotel design on Ian Schrager's Sanderson Hotel in London in 1998.

Paul has presented keynote speeches and. participated in panel discussions at various Hospitality and Architecture conferences within the Asia Pacific region. He is active in researching and publishing future trends and theory in design, drawing upon the professional experience he has accumulated across the globe. A true citizen of the world, his passion for design and the built environment is constantly being applied to the Asia Pacific portfolio of projects he leads.

As a partner of LTW Designworks, Su Seam is the lead design principal based in the Singapore office. She is primarily responsible for creating the unique vision and interior concept of each project to ensure that it meets the client’s brief, budget and schedule, and the operator’s brand requirements. Su Seam has tremendous experience in luxury hospitality design throughout the region, and works very closely with her teams in each phase of the project from initial concept through final installation on site.

Prior to joining LTW in 1994, Su Seam worked with renowned interior design firms in the US where she handled numerous notable projects before being recruited by Hirsch Bedner Associates in Singapore. At H.L.Lim & Associates, Su Seam oversaw a number of the firm’s landmark design projects across Asia and steered the company’s growth. She was named Partner in 2001.