Assistant Vice President, Airside Concessions Division, Changi Airport Group

Monet Aluquin joined Changi Airport in 2010, having held various senior positions in shopping centre management both in Singapore and overseas. She holds a double degree in Applied Economics and Marketing Management and also holds a certificate in Shopping Centre Management Course from the International Council of Shopping Centre. With over 10 years of retail experience, she now heads the Concession Operations-Airside Division under the Commercial Cluster.

The Concession Operations department at Changi aims to grow retail sales through active tenant management and excellence in airport service. Monet oversees the concession operations team in providing tenant support with the aim of engaging tenant partners in encouraging operational and service excellence. She is responsible for providing integrated tenant management ensuring end-to-end assistance from lease commencement, renovations, store operations and conclusion.

Every year Changi Airport welcomes tens of millions of passengers and it is CAG’s commitment to deliver the best experience for each of them, whether through airport operations or retail environment. CAG continues to engage its retail partners in implementing key initiatives such as the Instant Feedback System, Tenant Portal and Basic Service Training for all frontline staff, all overseen by the Concession Operations division led by Ms Aluquin.

Head of Consulting, Incheon International Airport Corporation

Sang J. Ahn is responsible for the overseas airport consulting projects conducted by Incheon International Airport Corp, with a focus on commercial activities as well as customer service. 

Before taking up this role, Ahn’s 18-year career at IIAC spanned corporate communications, terminal operations, passenger service, hub strategy and AirCity development to his most recent post as duty-free business manager at Incheon. 

During this time, Incheon Airport was transformed from a consolidated master plan to a US$2 billion retail airport of the highest service excellence, welcoming 40 million passengers annually. 

Ahn believes that his team has a lot to share with colleagues in the airport and travel retail industries worldwide. Currently Incheon’s non-aeronautical sector covers 63% of its annual revenue. 

His team provides consulting services from the perspective of a day-to-day airport operator, creating solutions for the sustainable and long-term growth of airports by increasing concession revenue and the quality of service. 

Ahn is an enthusiastic proponent of the exchange of ideas and experience to re-design the passenger experience at airports. He holds an in-house MBA from the Korea Aerospace University.

Chief Executive Officer, Heinemann Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

Before becoming CEO of Heinemann Asia Pacific, Steffen Brandt had been active within the travel retail industry for eight years. He has previously worked as Operations Manager and Category Consultant at Mars Inc/Masterfoods South Africa, and as Managing Director of Pitú, the cachaça brand owned by Underberg Group. Steffen left Underberg to join retailer Gebr Heinemann, where he became Area Manager Eastern Europe. After a spell in South Africa as Managing Director/Partner at Karoo Spring Water, he rejoined Gebr Heinemann in 2008 and now heads the company’s Asian business, based in Singapore.

President ETRC & Business Relations & External Affairs Director, World Duty Free Group

Sarah Branquinho is an active campaigner on duty-free and travel retail industry issues. After gaining industry support for the first Tax Free World Exhibition she served as TFWA Commercial Director until 1996, when she was appointed Secretary General of the European Travel Research Foundation, managing the ambitious research projects which underpinned the lobby to save intra-EU duty free, and the EU-wide consumer mobilisation programme. 

Sarah subsequently joined BAA and its retail company World Duty Free, extending her remit to sister company Aldeasa following Autogrill’s acquisition of WDF.  

She is chairman of the UK Travel Retail Foundation and a member of the Supervisory and Managing Boards of ETRC, of which she became President in 2012.

Chief Operating Officer, Duty Free Philippines

Lorenzo C. Formoso, or “Enchong” as he is fondly known, is one of the pioneers of the industry in the Philippines, having helped create the organizational and operational structure of Duty Free Philippines during the start-up of its operations in 1987.  

After 25 years of operations, with Enchong at the helm as the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Duty Free Philippines is enjoying a period of strong growth. In 2011, his first year as COO, DFP achieved a 16% increase in sales and 37.8% increase in operating income compared to the previous year. DFP also made the shortlist in the Best Marketing Campaign category of the Frontier Awards in 2011 and 2012. Enchong helped achieve this by harnessing the power of social media and hence creating new communications lines that bring DFP closer to its customers.

Under Enchong’s leadership, DFP’s flagship Fiestamall store and airport arrival and departure stores in Manila International Airport terminals 1, 2 and 3 have been renovated and new store outlets opened in tourist spots such as Laoag, Resorts World, Manila Ocean Park, Embarcadero de Legaspi and the Caticlan aiport.  And to further enhance benefits for DFP’s major market, the Overseas Filipino Workers and Balikbayans – or expatriate Filipinos returning home – the Kabuhayan (Livelihood) Shopping Program was relauched and an OFW Business Center (One Stop & Shop) was set up at the Fiestamall.  DFP has also aligned its advertising and marketing efforts in support of the Department of Tourism’s “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” campaign. DFP continues to grow, posting a 13% sales increase in February 2013 compared to the same period in 2012.

Enchong is a board member of the Philippine Retailers Association and of the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association.

Chairman of the China Reform Foundation, Director of the National Economic Research Institute

Fan Gang is the Chairman of the China Reform Foundation and Director of the country’s National Economic Research Institute. He is a Professor of Economics at Peking University and at the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He was awarded his Ph.D. in economics from the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in 1988, and was visiting fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and Harvard University, USA from 1985-1987. From 1992 to 1995 he was senior research fellow and Deputy Director of Institute of Economics, CASS, and held the role of chief editor of monthly economic research journal Jingji in 1992-93.

His publications include over 100 academic papers published in Chinese and English academic journals, along with 12 books on Macroeconomics and Economics of transition. He is an advisor to various departments of the Chinese Central government and provincial governments; as independent member of China Monetary Policy Committee during 2006-2010; as guest professor of number of universities and graduate schools; and consultant to The World Bank, UNDP, OECD, etc. He received Docteur Honoris Causa (Honorary Doctor) from University of Auvergne, France, and Royal Road University of Canada, in 2004 and 2011 respectively.

Fan Gang was named one of the World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals by Foreign Policy and Prospect, in 2005 and 2008 respectively, and listed as one of 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy in 2010.

General Manager Retail, Sydney Airport

Andrew Gardiner was appointed as General Manager of Retail at Sydney Airport in October 2011. He brings to the role over 30 years of international retail experience and a passion for customer service. 

With a focus on people at the core of everything he does, Andrew has implemented a range of initiatives at Sydney Airport that have already begun to significantly enhance customer service levels. 

In 2011 he established the Sydney Airport Customer Experience Committee; a unique multi-disciplinary forum that utilises a range of touch points to drive customer service holistically across the airport.

Andrew has also championed a research partnership with the Australian Centre for Retail Studies at Monash University that runs regular mystery shopping exercises and customer surveys. Data and results from the studies have already begun to inform improvements to the customer journey and experience at the airport. 

Prior to joining Sydney Airport, Andrew held a number of senior retail positions in South Africa and Australia, including Managing Director of DFS Australia, Franchise Entertainment Group General Manager and Edgars Stores Chief Operations Executive. 

Highly active in the business community, Andrew has chaired both the Consumer Credit Association in South Africa and the Australian Duty Free Association, and served on the board of the Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation in Australia. 

Outside work Andrew is an avid sports fan, playing golf, following rugby and coaching soccer. He is a long-term supporter of the Starlight Children’s Foundation.

Group Deputy Chairman and President Asia Pacific, DFASS

John P. Garner is the Deputy Chairman of the DFASS Group and President of DFASS’s Asia Pacific operations.  He is a veteran of the duty free business, having held key roles at Allders/Ocean Trading before joining DFASS nineteen years ago.

During his career with DFASS, John has headed the company’s Business Development division as well as holding roles as Director of Purchasing and Vendor Relations.  He pioneered the company’s creation of its own hand-held EPOS solution for its inflight business and the management of onboard pouring. Together with DFASS owner Benny Klepach, John has helped drive DFASS to the position of the world’s largest inflight concessionaire with inflight operations on board more than thirty airlines across the globe.

Key DFASS customers include American Airlines, Air Canada, Delta, Singapore Airlines and Garuda Indonesia.  

John started DFASS’s Singapore-based business nearly seven years ago. This company now employs teams in Malaysia, Japan, China and Indonesia in addition to its main hub in Singapore.

John was educated in the UK and attended grammar school in Yorkshire, completing his studies with an HND in Chemistry.  He lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, and still travels extensively on behalf of DFASS.

President, Diageo Asia Pacific

Gilbert Ghostine is President of Diageo Asia Pacific and a member of the global Executive Committee of Diageo plc, the world’s leading premium drinks company. He is responsible for all of the firm’s businesses in Australasia, Greater China, North Asia, South East Asia, India, the Middle East, North Africa and Global Travel. He also holds the following appointments:

• Chairman of GAPL Pte Ltd
• Director of UK-Japan 21st Century Group

During his 19-year career with Diageo, Gilbert has previously served as Managing Director, Continental Europe for Diageo Europe, President of US Major Markets and National Accounts for Diageo North America and Managing Director of Eastern/Central Europe, Middle East and Africa for Diageo Venture Markets.

Gilbert’s career has seen him take on leadership roles in Africa, Asia, the US and Europe, and he is now based in Singapore.  

Born in Beirut in 1960, Gilbert graduated from Saint Joseph University in 1985 with a Masters in Business Administration and a major in Marketing. He has been married since 1986 to Roula, with whom he has two children, Marc (23) and Maria (21). 

Recruitment & Employee Development Manager, Dubai Duty Free

Rachael Green began her career in 1988 with UK food retailing giant J Sainsbury, where she quickly found her calling in Training and became the Regional Training Manager for the group. In 1997 she joined the head office of the Co-Operative Retail Services Group, where she was responsible for management development across the company. She later moved to Coca-Cola and Schweppes as Regional Training Manager.

Rachael moved to the Middle East and joined the HR Department of Dubai Duty Free in 2000 as Training Manager. In 2001 she was appointed Recruitment and Employee Development Manager.

During her time with the airport retailer, Rachael has been responsible for the set-up of the training department and the implementation of several company-wide training and development programmes, including Cultural Diversity, Selling Skills, Service and Leadership Skills. She has also been involved with a number of other HR initiatives concerning employee engagement, performance management, e-learning and coaching.

President, Tax Free World Association

A founding member of TFWA and a member of its Management Committee since the inception of the Association, Erik Juul-Mortensen served as Vice President from 1986 to 1997, before being elected President in September 1999.

From 1987 to 1991 Erik was Vice President at Danish Distillers Ltd, in charge of the export and duty free division. In 1991 his promotion to Senior Vice President and Export Director followed, and in 1996 he was named Senior Vice President and International Director.

Following the acquisition of Danish Distillers by Stockholm-based V&S Group in December 1999, Erik transferred to V&S International Brands as Senior Vice President and Commercial Director. In 2003 he was promoted to President of V&S Absolut Global Duty Free, with responsibility for the entire V&S portfolio in the global duty free market. In the same period he also served as Managing Director of V&S Deutschland, the German domestic market subsidiary of V&S Group. From 2005 to 2010 Erik served as President of Maxxium Global Travel Retail, a highly successful division of Maxxium Worldwide which was a joint venture between V&S Group, Remy-Cointreau, The Edrington Group and Beam Global Spirits & Wine.

In addition to his responsibilities at TFWA, Erik is also a member of the Supervisory and Managing Boards of the European Travel Retail Council and a board member of the Middle East Duty Free Association and the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association.

Senior General Manager of Commercial Services, Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad 

Faizah Khairuddin graduated from the Université de Picardie, France and began her career as a Process Engineer in Thomson Electronic Parts Malaysia.  She spent 8 years in the manufacturing industry, rising to the position of General Manager at a local manufacturing company.  She moved to the banking industry during the Asian crisis in 1998.  During her ten years in banking, largely with multinational banks such as Standard Chartered and HSBC, her passion and ultimate focus had been in Retail Banking.  Her last position in the financial industry had been in Bank Islam as General Manager, Consumer Banking, before joining Malaysia Airports in October 2008.  

Since assuming her position as Senior General Manager, Commercial Services, Faizah has transformed MAHB’s approach towards developing Commercial Services with the core purpose of enhancing stakeholders’ value while improving core capabilities.  

Under her dynamic and pragmatic leadership, the Commercial Services division has re-strategised commercial development at airports with the introduction of Airport Commercial Models, under which airports are being developed according to lifestyle, leisure, community or corporate responsibility models with the objective of enhancing commercial revenue and the customer experience.  Faizah brought her wealth of experience and passion to the development of klia2, the new terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and the result will ultimately translate to premium value for the benefit of all parties – shareholders, customers, community and employees alike. Her efforts were recognised when Faizah was named The Moodie Report Personality of the Month for November 2011.

CEO, Sticki Digital Media 

Stephenie Rodriguez is the CEO of Sticki Digital Media, part of the Radar Group of companies. She is also one of Australia’s leading social media experts and an award-winning social media strategist, blogger and futurist. 

Over the past fifteen years Stephenie has influenced the evolution of the Internet and its usage in Australia and around the world. Today she works with companies to identify the roles and opportunity that digital, mobile and social media present for industries including travel retail, food and beverage, healthcare, beauty, fashion and entertainment. 

Stephenie also works with executive management, public relations and communications leadership to develop new strategies that enable business success in the convergent economy. At Sticki Digital Media, Stephenie works with businesses on new media strategies and frameworks to build communication infrastructure between companies and customers, stakeholders, employees and investors.  She also specializes in change management and helps businesses and leadership teams introduce new media resources, processes, governance and hierarchy to excel within the convergent ecosystem of digital. 

During her career Stephenie has built a global network of blue chip clients which includes SSP – The Food Travel Experts (including work with the Caffè Ritazza and Caviar House brands), Jamie Durie (JPD Media), Camilla Franks, Allhomes.com.au, Austereo, Transfield Services, Berocca, Nissan and many others.  Her expertise spans thought leadership on Web 2.0, social architecture and the connected consumer, social media planning, word of mouth campaigns, influencer and advocacy programs, mobile loyalty and online reputation management.

Managing Director, Counter Intelligence Retail

Garry Stasiulevicuis is the founder and Managing Director of Counter Intelligence Retail (CIR), a leading research and category development agency dedicated to travel retail. Having gained extensive experience in various senior positions working for some of the world’s leading retailers and brand owners, Garry then set up CIR. His vision was to provide the travel retail industry with the latest market intelligence, useable insight, clear strategic direction and retailing best practice techniques.

Counter Intelligence Retail has project experience in more than 70 airports across the world, face-to-face interviews with 300,000 passengers and shoppers and the insight from 170,000 detailed shopper observations.

Working directly with the leading brand owners and operators in all regions, the company has delivered wide-ranging category advice and leading insights that have laid the foundations for the creation of irresistible store environments while spearheading business growth in all categories for retailers and brands across the globe.

Vice President - Operations Dubai Duty Free and President, Middle East Duty Free Association

Sean Staunton is the Vice President for Operations Dubai Duty Free, and was elected President of the Middle East Duty Free Association in February 2013. 

Prior to joining Dubai Duty Free, he was employed with Aer Rianta for 10 years (1990-2000) working in such locations as Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Moscow, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria and Qatar. 

Sean is responsible for a team of 4,900 staff who handled a $1.60 billion turnover in 2012 as well as 64,000 sales transactions daily. 

Sean is Vice Chairman of the Dubai Irish Society and President of Dubai Celts Gaelic Athletic Club.

President, APTRA
Managing Director, King Power Group
(Duty Free and Travel Retail) Hong Kong

Managing Director, L’Oréal Luxe Travel Retail Asia Pacific

A graduate of the Hong Kong University, Eva Yu began her career in the cosmetics industry nineteen years ago, eventually joining L’Oréal in 2000. She was the General Manager, Luxury Division of L’Oréal Hong Kong before becoming the Managing Director of L’Oréal Luxe Travel Retail Asia Pacific in 2011, managing the company’s duty free business in airports, downtown duty free shops and airlines in 27 countries in the region, including Korea, Japan, Guam, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. 

L’Oréal, one of the world’s leading cosmetics companies, has catered to all genres of global beauty for over 100 years with a portfolio of 27 international, diverse and complementary brands, including Lancôme, Shu Uemura, Biotherm, Kiehl’s, Yves Saint Laurent, Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, Cacharel, Paloma Picasso, Guy Laroche, Viktor & Rolf, Helena Rubinstein, Stella McCartney, Clarisonic and Urban Decay. With sales amounting to €22.46 billion in 2012, L’Oréal is present in 130 countries with a total of 72,600 employees. 

In its 2011 ranking of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, Corporate Knights, a Globally Responsible Investment Network, selected L'Oréal for the 4th consecutive year.