Speakers
Prof Jonathan Reynolds
Jonathan Reynolds is one of the leading academic experts in the study of the retail sector internationally.
He is Academic Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management, Associate Professor in Retail Marketing and Deputy Dean at Saïd Business School. He is also Deputy Director of the ESRC’s Consumer Data Research Centre.
Jonathan’s teaching and research focus primarily on the retail sector. He is particularly recognized for his scholarship and expertise in the areas of electronic commerce and omni-channel retailing, innovation and entrepreneurship in retailing, retail productivity and skills, and the role of place in marketing and retailing.
His views are sought after by businesses, policy makers and the media. He is heavily committed to knowledge exchanger, actively seeking to ensure that his research can be widely disseminated amongst policy-makers and practitioners. While his academic expertise lies in marketing and geography, Jonathan’s research activities have also extended into science and technology studies and strategic management.
He is a founding member of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management, and has been its Academic Director since 1999. The Institute undertakes a range of both commissioned and public domain research with direct relevance to practitioners, but which is nevertheless grounded within rigorous academic scholarship.
Jonathan read geography as an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, and then took an MA in Environmental Planning at the University of Nottingham, and a PhD at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He returned to Oxford in 1985 to work on research for the British retailer Tesco on the application of new forms of technology and e-commerce, following a post at the University of Edinburgh as founding Research Fellow for the Coca-Cola Retail Research Foundation. He has also been Visiting Professor at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College.
He is a Governing Body Fellow at Green Templeton College, Oxford.
Mr. Russ Klein
Russell Klein has quarterbacked teams for many of the world’s foremost brand names—holding top marketing and advertising posts at Dr Pepper/7UP Companies, Gatorade, 7-Eleven Corporation, Burger King Corporation, and Arby’s Restaurant Group.
His Burger King body of work that was recognized by ADWEEK as “The Advertiser of the Decade” for the 2000s…a distinction belonging to Nike and Budweiser in previous decades. Klein was again recognized as a seminal influence behind Burger King’s recognition at this year’s Cannes ad festival as Creative Marketer of the Year in 2017, referencing a few of his most popular campaigns including “Subservient Chicken” and “Whopper Freakout.”
As CEO of the American Marketing Association, Russ is charged with the transformation of the AMA to become the essential community for marketers.
Alicia Orea-Giner
Alicia Orea-Giner is a lecturer at Rey Juan Carlos University and supervisor of master’s theses at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She holds a PhD in Tourism from Rey Juan Carlos University and a PhD in Geography from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She holds a Master in Sustainable Tourism and ICT from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and a master’s in management and Leadership of Cultural Projects from Rey Juan Carlos University. She is a member of the Openinnova research group and an associate researcher at the Équipe Interdisciplinaire de Recherches sur le Tourisme at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Prof. Crispin Coombs
Crispin Coombs is a Reader in Information Systems in the School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University, United Kingdom (UK). His research expertise concerns the effective management of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics to deliver business benefits. His work is highly cited and has been published in the top business and management journals including Journal of Strategic Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Information & Management, Information Technology & People, and Journal of Organizational Behaviour. He holds senior editorial positions at the European Journal of Information Systems, Information Technology and People, and International Journal of Information Management. He is the former Vice President of the UK Academy for Information Systems and a member of the Business and Management Studies sub-panel for the assessment phase of the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021.
Roland Rust
Roland T. Rust is the author (with Ming-Hui Huang) of the recently published book, The Feeling Economy: How Artificial Intelligence is Creating the Era of Empathy. He is Distinguished University Professor and David Bruce Smith Chair in Marketing at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, where he is founder and Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in Service. He is also Visiting Chair in Marketing Research at Erasmus University (Netherlands) and International Research Fellow of Oxford University’s Centre for Corporate Reputation, as well as VP of Publications for the European Marketing Academy. He has won numerous lifetime achievement awards and best article and book awards. He has consulted with many leading companies worldwide, including such companies as American Airlines, AT&T, Comcast, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Eli Lilly, FedEx, Hershey, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, NASA, NCR, Nortel, Procter-Gamble, Sears, Sony, Starwood, Tata, Unilever, and USAA.
Dr. Karen A. Holbrook
Dr. Holbrook was appointed regional chancellor at USFSM in January 2018. She previously served as USF’s EVP and senior advisor to the president of the USF system; SVP for global affairs and international research; and SVP for research, innovation and global affairs. Dr. Holbrook has served as the interim president at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; the president at The Ohio State University; SVP for academic affairs and provost at University of Georgia; VP of research and dean of the graduate school at University of Florida; and associate dean for research and professor at University of Washington School of Medicine. She serves on numerous boards, advisory panels and councils in education and health-related fields. Dr. Holbrook earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at University of Wisconsin and her doctorate at University of Washington School of Medicine.
Dr. Harry J. Holzer
Harry J. Holzer is the John LaFarge Jr. SJ Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings, and an Institute Fellow at the American Institute for Research in Washington DC. He is a former Chief Economist for the U.S. Department of Labor and a former Professor of Economics at Michigan State University. He was a founding faculty director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality. He is also an affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and of the Stanford Institute on Poverty and Inequality. He received his BA from Harvard in 1978 (graduating Summa Cum Laude) and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard in 1983. Holzer has authored or edited 12 books and several dozen journal articles, mostly on disadvantaged American workers and their employers, as well as on education and workforce issues and labor market policy.
Dr. Greg Smogard
Greg Smogard is the Assistant Vice President of Innovation and Business Development at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus. He is responsible for leading the campus’ business engagement efforts with a focus on creating and enhancing mutually beneficial partnerships with businesses by leveraging the university’s resources and innovation expertise. He joined the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus in the summer of 2018. Prior to that, he worked with the Center for International Business Education and Research at the University of Miami Business School, serving as director of Innovators for the Americas, an experiential entrepreneurship course that partnered Miami students and professors with their counterparts in four Latin American universities.
Dr. Damien Duchamp
Dr. Duchamp is the Assistant Dean for Online Education at the Wegmans School of Nursing at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY. In addition to his main function, Damien teaches marketing, hospitality, tourism and culinary courses at Frederick Community College and St. John’s University. In 2018 he founded TeachingMVP, a place to share his passion for online pedagogy. He has worked with hundreds of faculty as they tackle the many challenges of distance learning. When time permits, Damien works on global education and diversity, equity and inclusion projects through Hospitalented, Travel Unity, ICHRIE, and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
Dr. Rab-Nawaz Lodhi
Dr. Rab Nawaz Lodhi is an Associate Professor of Management at UCP Business School, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. He is also Visiting Research Scholar at M3 Center of Muma College of Business, University of South Florida, USA. He teaches MBA, MS and PhD programs. He has vast teaching, training, and research in Pakistan, Malaysia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Netherland, Indonesia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and United States of America (USA). He has numerous research publications in Impact Factor Journals of Emerald, Sage, John Wiley and Sons, Springer and Taylor and Francis. He is also a Guest Editor of Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology (SSCI, Impact Factor 2.796), Emerald, for a special issue on Qualitative Research in Hospitality and Tourism Management. He discovered his talent in research, training and consultancy activities. He conducted training sessions from lower level to top level staff in different Government and private organizations and also provided research consultancies to the different project teams including USAID and Harvard University USA funded projects. He is an international trainer of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, mixed methods design and data analytical tools e.g., NVivo, MaxQDA, Atlas-ti, Eviews, SPSS, STATA, AMOS, Smart PLS, MPlus, etc. QSR International Australia certified him in 2013 as trainer and consultant of QSR NVivo 9/10 in Asia Pacific Regions. He is also a trainer of Modern Learning and Teaching Skills, Outcome Based Education (OBE), ICT in Higher Education, Blended and Flipped Learning. More than 50 universities and research institutes have invited him for the different training programs and funded research projects. He is very friendly and down-to-earth who always willing and glad to lend a helping hand to make the world a better place.
Luke C. Bencie
Luke Bencie is the Managing Director of Security Management International (SMI) and the author of “Among Enemies: Counter-Espionage for the Business Traveler”, “Global Security Consulting: How to Build a Thriving International Practice”, “The Clandestine Consultant: Kings, Sheiks, Warlord and Dictators”, and “The CARVER Target Analysis and Vulnerability Assessment Methodology: A Practical Guide for Evaluating Security Vulnerabilities.”
Mr. Bencie has been a consultant to the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Defense, Fortune 500 companies, as well as foreign governments. He has worked in over 100 countries and has trained thousands of police, intelligence and military officers in the U.S. and abroad in the fields of counterterrorism, counterintelligence, crisis management and target analysis/vulnerability assessments.
Prior to establishing SMI, Mr. Bencie was a senior security consultant for Raytheon Company in the Intelligence and Information Systems Division. Mr. Bencie also previously served on the U.S. Department of State's Foreign Emergency Support Team. In this capacity, he was responsible for immediately responding to terrorist attacks carried out against U.S. targets overseas; subsequently serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and other global hotspots.
A popular speaker, Mr. Bencie has been a keynote for the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) in McLean, Virginia, the Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers (AIPIO) in Melbourne, Australia, as well as the International Spy Museum in Washington DC, along with various universities. He has lectured at the Pentagon, regarding the latest espionage threats facing military personnel during their overseas deployments. Mr. Bencie has also been a consultant to Paramount Pictures, where he trained Hollywood reporters about espionage and surveillance methods for the release of the movie, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
Mr. Bencie holds graduate degrees in National Security Studies from The George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs and The American Military University, as well as an MBA from the University of Sarasota. He received his BA from Michigan State University. He currently serves as the “Senior Advisor on Global Security and International Affairs” for the University of South Florida’s School of Business, as well as being an advisor to both the Florida Center for Cybersecurity and Ringling College of Art and Design. Finally, Mr. Bencie serves as a board member of the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida.
Dr. Marianna Sigala
Marianna Sigala is Professor at the University of South Australia and Director of the Centre for Tourism & Leisure Management. Prior to her current position she has been an academic staff at the Universities of Strathclyde and Westminster in the UK, and the University of the Aegean (Greece). Her academic credentials are combined with her professional experience in the tourism industry. Her interests include services and experience management, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in tourism and hospitality, as well as wine tourism. She is a widely published and multi-awarded authority: nine books, numerous papers in academic journals, and (keynote) presentations in international conferences. She has a long record of leadership and participation in international research projects funded by various entities such as the E.U. and the Council of Europe. She is a past President of EuroCHRIE and a past member of the executive board of ICHRIE and IFITT. She currently serves at the executive board of CAUTHE. She is the co-editor of the Journal of Service Theory & Practice, and the Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management. In 2016, she has been awarded the prestigious EuroCHRIE Presidents’ Award for her lifetime contributions and achievements to tourism and hospitality education. Since 2020, Professor Sigala is also appointed as Research Fellow of CAUTHE.
Dr. Levent Altinay
Dr Altinay is a Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Oxford Brookes University, Business School. Professor Altinay is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Service Industries Journal. Altinay was a member of the Business & Economics Panel in Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2014 and 2020 in Hong Kong. He is currently serving as a member of the Research Excellence Framework Panel in the UK. He sits on the editorial boards of more than twelve journals including Journal of Business Research, Tourism Management, Journal of Services Marketing and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. Altinay has a strong record of attracting blue chip external funding, including funding from the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council), Newton, the British Academy and British Council. Altinay has co-authored strategic management, entrepreneurship and research methods textbooks. Altinay’s research interests are in the areas of entrepreneurship and international business. He is particularly interested in how entrepreneurs start up and develop their businesses and also how firms establish partnerships internationally.
Jonilda Bahja
About the Workshop:
Service industries are continuously challenged by unexpected events. Information and communication technologies (ICT) and artificial intelligence (AI) can be used as an important recovery strategy for service businesses. Research shows that businesses will save $11.5 billion by 2023 if they use chatbots instead of traditional customer service center. Given that the number of users communicating and interacting through social media and apps has been increasing in the recent years, deploying chatbots in messaging environments is a strategy for businesses to connect with customers. In this hands-on workshop, participants will be introduced to chatbots in general and their architecture, how to use them for business purposes, and all the design criteria to consider when developing a chatbot based on the nature of the business.
About the speaker:
Jonilda Bahja is working on her PhD in Business Information Technology at Virginia Tech. She holds master’s degrees in Computer Engineering from Epoka Univesity, Data Analysis and Applied Statistics from Virginia tech, and Hospitality Management from University of South Florida. Her education background and industry experience in UX Design and Assessment in services developed her interest on studying conversational AI/chatbots in service industry and enhance customer experience. She has been teaching several courses over the scope of 10 years and enjoys sharing her knowledge and empowering young generations. Her passion is also reflected on the fellowship she holds with Virginia Tech Graduate Academy for Teaching Excellence. In addition to the main duties, Jonilda sits in the advisor board of Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference 2021.
Dr. Jay Kandampully
Dr. Jay Kandampully is a professor of service management at The Ohio State University, USA. He serves as the CTF International Fellow at the University of Karlstad, Sweden; International Fellow at the University of Namur, Belgium; and International Fellow at the University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China. Jay is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Service Management (JOSM) and serves on the editorial advisory board of 10 refereed international journals. He is the author of several service management text books and have published several articles in prestigious journals. He is the founder and chair of the Service Education, Research and Innovation (SERI-Initiative) an organization established to promote service research to the next generation of researchers.
Dr. Markus Rach
Dr. Markus Rach is a digital technology lecturer in Switzerland and China and former head of marketing of various multinational B2Bs. Markus completed his doctoral research at the Maastricht School of Management, researching the impact of marketing technologies on the marketing return on investment. Being passionate about the human to technology interface, Markus currently researches impacts on the brand to marketplace interaction and how these impacts change purchasing decision making processes. As an experimental scientist and marketing consultant, Markus runs various real-life experiments for data gathering and experience purposes. One being an over 540’000 follower strong TikTok account, that has led to the publication of 4 books and multiple award winning research papers in 2020 and 2021. Markus is married, has 2 kids and is a true nerd at heart, having been highly ranked as a gamer. Follow Markus on LinkedIn for more insights and news around digital technology: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markusrach/
Natalia Bayona
Natalia Bayona leads the innovation, education and investments strategy of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the United Nations specialized agency for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and accessible tourism worldwide.
With a diverse background on politics, destination management and business, she has become the first innovation director at UNWTO, has introduced entrepreneurship and education as key factors for tourism and development, and has positioned UNWTO as an innovation benchmark within the wider United Nations system as recognized in the UN 2020 Mapping of Innovation, Data and Digital Capacities. Her work consists of identifying the most disruptive startups and investment projects and matching them with Member States and leading corporations. As an advocate of youth and technology, she seeks to make entrepreneurs grow for a promising future in all regions.
During the last 3 years, Natalia has developed 7 UNWTO Startup Competitions and 6 Innovation Challenges with outcomes such as more than 74 million USD in support for entrepreneurs and pilots for safe travel. Moreover, she has designed the Tourism Tech Adventures innovation forums and co-created the UNWTO Tourism Online Academy, the pioneer platform for advancing skill development for the sector in collaboration with the most prestigious universities such as IE University, Cornell University and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, currently with over 10.000 students. Furthermore, she has created the UNWTO Technical Committee on Tourism Online Education and acts as its Secretary to ensure education is at the forefront of the global agenda. She has also opened the Multilateral Investment Cooperation area for tourism, has built a network of more than 290 investors interested in the sector and is currently working on high-impact projects to recover tourism, including the Investment Readiness for Green Finance Mechanisms in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) from the World Bank Group. In this same vein, she is a coordination member of the Global Tourism Crisis Committee (GTCC) where UNWTO Member States, UN Agencies and Private Sector Associations – IATA, ACI, CLIA, among others – gather to discuss actions to address current issues. Within this framework, Natalia has led the UNWTO Healing Solutions for Tourism Challenge and the UNWTO Jobs Factory as specific projects to support destinations and employment. Furthermore, Natalia has been awarded the IIPT (International Institute For Peace Through Tourism)’s 5th “Celebrating Her” prize for “Innovation & the Empowerment of Women Through Tourism” at ITB Berlin 2021, an acknowledgement that is only given to 3 women from all over the world each year.
Balaji Padmanabhan
Balaji Padmanabhan is the Anderson Professor of Global Management and Professor of Information Systems at USF's Muma College of Business, where he is also the Director of the Center for Analytics and Creativity. He has a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and a PhD from New York University (NYU)’s Stern School of Business. He has worked in the data science, AI/machine learning and business analytics areas for over two decades in the areas of research, teaching, consulting & business engagement, mentoring graduate students and designing academic programs. He has published extensively in data science and related areas at premier journals and conferences in the field and has served on the editorial board of leading journals including Management Science, MIS Quarterly, INFORMS Journal on Computing, Information Systems Research, Big Data, ACM Transactions on MIS and the Journal of Business Analytics.
Dr. Sertan Kabadayi
Sertan Kabadayi is a professor of marketing at Fordham University, Gabelli School of Business. He conducts research primarily in the Transformative Service Research field with an emphasis on improving well-being. Furthermore, he is doing research related to refugees and refugee integration into host countries. He has published in a variety of academic journals, including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Journal of Service Management, Journal of Services Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, and Psychology & Marketing. He serves as the Associate Editor for Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Consumer Marketing and Journal of Creating Value.
Dr. Destan Kirimhan
Destan Kirimhan, Ph.D. is an incoming Assistant Professor of Finance at University of Texas El Paso. She completed her Ph.D. in Finance at Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. She also serves as a research fellow at the Digital Euro Association, which is a think tank specializing in central bank digital currencies, stablecoins, crypto assets, and other forms of digital money. Her research focuses on traditional financial services, institutional investors, and blockchain technology in financial services. She made presentations at national and international conferences, including the Annual Meeting of Financial Management Association (FMA) and The Allied Social Science Association (ASSA). Her work has been published in scholarly journals.
Dr. Murat Kizildag
Dr. Murat Kizildag joined UCF’s Rosen College as an assistant professor in August 2013. Before joining UCF, Dr. Kizildag held an instructor of managerial finance position at Texas Tech University. Prior to his Ph.D. in Hospitality Administration with a concentration in Finance, Dr. Kizildag received his MBA with an emphasis in finance and his M.S. in Restaurant, Hotel, and Institutional Management from Texas Tech University. While getting his Ph.D. degree, he acquired Bloomberg Essentials Training Program Certification for Equity, Fixed-Income, Foreign Exchange (FX), and Commodity Essentials. He also worked in financial operations with the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company, LLC in Istanbul, Turkey, as a cost controller and as a credit agent responsible for the accounts payable contracts with suppliers such as, property, plant, and equipment (PP&E) vendors. Dr. Kizildag is intrigued by the depth of financial research. His research expertise span the areas of Security Valuation, Risk & Investment Analytics, Financial Modeling & Forecasting, Portfolio Management & Optimization, and Time-Series Analysis. Dr. Kizildag produced more than 30 academic articles and attended numerous academic and industry conferences. His recent articles appeared in business finance and hospitality business/management journals. Further, Dr. Kizildag worked on several different grant projects and contracts.
Dr. Teck Ming Tan
Dr. Teck Ming (Terence) Tan holds D.Sc. (Marketing) from the University of Oulu, Oulu Business School (AACSB), Finland. He is an Assistant Professor at the Oulu Business School. His research interests include blockchain, brand betrayal, brand equity, self-congruence, and construal-level theory. He is an external advisor at the Helsinki Blockchain Center. He is also the Oulu city representative of the International Token Standardization Association (ITSA) based in Berlin, Germany. He has been invited as a speaker at various international seminars related to the blockchain-based approach to marketing in the sharing economy. His paper has been published in the Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Electronic Commerce Research, and others.
Dr. Philip Gibson
Philip Gibson is an Associate Professor of Finance and Director of Certified Financial Planning at Winthrop University. He is also a Certified Financial Planner ™ and a Financial Advisor at Carroll Financial and Associates. In 2020, Philip was inducted into the InvestmentNews 2020 class of 40 Under 40. This recognition is given to young advisers and associated professionals who are building and expanding the financial advice industry. He was also inducted into the inaugural class of the Association of African American Financial Advisors 50 under 50, a program that recognizes and celebrates influential Black/African American licensed financial advisors, planners, consultants, and operations/ administrative executives in the financial services industry.
Mr. Chuck Brooks
Chuck Brooks, President of Brooks Consulting International, is a globally recognized thought leader and subject matter expert Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies. LinkedIn named Chuck as one of “The Top 5 Tech People to Follow on LinkedIn.” He was named by Thompson Reuters as a “Top 50 Global Influencer in Risk, Compliance,” and by IFSEC as the “#2 Global Cybersecurity Influencer.” He was featured in the 2020 Onalytica "Who's Who in Cybersecurity" – as one of the top Influencers for cybersecurity issues. He was also named one of the Top 5 Executives to Follow on Cybersecurity by Executive Mosaic. Recently, Chuck briefed the G-20 Energy Conference on operating systems cybersecurity.
He is also a Cybersecurity Expert for “The Network” at the Washington Post, Visiting Editor at Homeland Security Today, Expert for Executive Mosaic/GovCon, and a Contributor to FORBES. Chuck is Adjunct Faculty at Georgetown University’s Graduate Applied Intelligence Program and the Graduate Cybersecurity Programs where he teaches courses on risk management, homeland security, and cybersecurity. He has an MA in International relations from the University of Chicago, a BA in Political Science from DePauw University, and a Certificate in International Law from The Hague Academy of International Law.
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