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Confirmed presenter bios(in order of appearance)
Moderator
Michael Smith, Director, SeaMountain
Michael was formerly a board Director of British Airways Global Financial Services Limited. This included responsibility for developing mileage sales with partners such as American Express, GE Insurance, Avis Car Rental and bringing onboard all the brands within InterContinental Hotels and Resorts portfolio.Prior to joining BA, Michael was the Marketing and Administration Director for the Financial Services Division of Great Universal Stores plc (at the time, the UK’s largest mail order company with 6 million customers.)
Michael is a founding principal of AncillaryMarketplace + Partners, a wholly owned division of Airline Information, where he leads the development of ancillary revenue streams for the group's airline customers. He also runs his own consultancy business, SeaMountain. He is based in Glasgow, Scotland where he graduated with an MBA from the University of Strathclyde Business School as well as having professional qualifications in Marketing and Banking from the UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing and Chartered Institute of Banking respectively.
Keynote
Mukund Srinivasan,
Business Finance Manager Emirates Group IT,
Emirates Airline
Mukund is an experienced specialist in determining per unit loyalty tender cost for airlines and managing related implications. He is currently the Business Finance Manager at Emirates Group IT responsible for all revenues, costs and recharges of IT related costs.
Mukund was also the Finance Manager Head Office Commercial Support at Emirates, where he managed all financial aspects for Revenue Optimisation, Network Sales, Pricing as well as the FFP section. He has been a part of the launch team responsible for planning, developing and implementing financial, commercial and operating processes for the frequent flyer program since inception in 2000.
In 2002 Mukund was a member of the study group created by the International Association of Airline Internal Auditors set up to identify the various control issues and risks associated with frequent flyer programs.
Mukund began his career at Emirates in 1992 working in Internal Audit where his specialization was in audits related to Commercial Operations and In-flight Services.
In 1997 he moved to Systems audit and subsequently moved to Management Finance where he was entrusted with managing the budgeting and MIS reporting for the Emirates Group.
Doug is a Chartered Business Valuator and Deputy Chair of KPMG’s Global Valuation Services offering, comprising 900 dedicated professionals in 41 countries. He leads a dedicated team of professional business valuers based in London dealing with a full range of commercial and regulatory valuation issues in the context of mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, financing transactions, reorganisations and joint ventures and public fairness opinions.
Doug has extensive global valuations experience having acted for major public corporations in leading assignments based on the ground in Africa, Canada, Central Eastern Europe, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Russia, South Korea, Spain, the Middle East, the Ukraine, the UK and the US.
Clients in the aerospace and airlines sector have included BA, BAE Systems, Canadian Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Honeywell, Macquarie, Rolls-Royce, Smiths Group, SAS and SwissAir amongst others.
Doug has specific experience of the operation and valuation of frequent flyer programmes as well as experience of acting as independent valuation adviser for our non-audit clients in relation to identification and fair valuation of acquired intangible assets and busienss combinations (SFAS141 and IFRS3) and has spoken on the subject at various conferences and in the press. He was previously involved in Canada in the audit of airlines.
Doug holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree, University of British Columbia. He is a Member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators; Member of the UK Society of Share and Business Valuers, Member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants; Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.
Panel moderator
Roger Williams, Managing Partner, Consulting, Airline Information
Roger has developed groundbreaking concepts for (loyalty) currency management and in 2004 co-founded the "FFP" brand of conferences and publications.
Formerly Chairman of the 120-airline member ISMC organization and system manager for loyalty and alliances at Air Jamaica, Roger has solid senior management airline experience complemented by a 10-year progression of airline roles in: operations, customer service, sales, network planning, and marketing.
Roger holds degrees in International Relations and Intelligence from Florida International University and the University of Salford in the United Kingdom.
Panelist
Zubin Dastoor, Group Mileage Accounting Manager, British Airways
Zubin Dastoor is the group mileage financial/accounting manager at British Airways and manages BA's group mileage balance sheet valuation. He is responsible for implementing changes in mileage accounting policy at BA such as IFRIC 13 which BA adopted early from April 2008. Zubin also supports BA's marketing and loyalty teams and has worked closely with them to ensure that the BA Miles business has grown profitably over recent years.
Panelist
Jesús Buffa, Director Finance, ICLP
Since 2002, Jesús has worked with ICLP, a global full-service agency that has specialized in loyalty marketing for nearly two decades. Jesús leads the Controlling & Finance team at ICLP Switzerland, responsible for financial reporting and performance measurement of the frequent flyer programmes managed by ICLP, evaluation and negotiation of commercial terms for loyalty partners billing and credit control to marketing partners of the respective FFP’s.
Previous experience includes Yves Rocher SA(Switzerland) a leading company in the mail order business for cosmetic products. Where Jesús as COO headed the teams responsible for controlling (mail order and also retail business), statistics/client database, fulfilment/shipping and member service.
Jesús holds a bachelor degree in Marketing of the University of Applied Sciences in St. Gallen (Switzerland).
Panelist
Neil Morris,
Senior Manager,
Aviation & Transport Services,
Deloitte & Touche
Neil is a qualified chartered certified accountant with six years post qualification experience, including both IFRS, UK GAAP and US GAAP. He is a senior manager of the London Gatwick office where he also supports the national Aviation & Transport Services partner, Graham Pickett. Neil is also a member of the Aviation Club of the United Kingdom and further to managing his own portfolio of clients provides technical and marketing assistance to other aviation clients both nationally and internationally.
Among Neil’s audit clients are companies such as Monarch, SAS and European Aeronautical, although he has also provided technical support to clients such as Air New Zealand, BMI, silverjet and Flybe. Neil has also worked on various non-audit projects for British Airways, Flybe and Monarch.
Recently Neil has assisted Graham in his leading edge research in to the accounting for Airport Slots following the Open Skies Agreements being signed. This has led to significant press coverage through a number of articles that he has written on the subject, including interviews in the Observer and on CNBC news.
Neil is now working with Graham on a number of important industry initiatives including finance and reporting issues concerning frequent flyer programs and aircraft maintenance accounting.
Presenter
Robert Brunner, CEO, RBH Financial Group
Bob is currently the CEO of RBH Financial Group, Inc. RBH incorporated in 2006 to develop and market a business process designed to relieve the pressure on a company’s balance sheet due to the accumulation of unredeemed points in their loyalty program. This patent pending program enables companies with loyalty programs to improve their balance sheet, operating cash flow and operating results. He is also the president of B2 Consulting, Inc. which specializes in consulting related to the travel industry.
Bob’s an active member of the Board of Directors and is Treasurer of the British American Business Council. He is also an active Board Member for a Marketing Scholarship Fund which enables up and coming British Executives to attend a Marketing Certificate program at the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.
Bob Brunner had a diversified career at British Airways for 30 years and held executive positions in Sales, Marketing, Cargo, and Finance prior to starting his own businesses. His responsibilities ranged from restructuring their frequent flyer program including developing an ancillary revenue program, starting new routes, instituting a business to business loyalty program, developing a new revenue accounting system and finally as director of sales.
He also served as the Chairman of the Board of the British Airways Employees Federal Credit Union for 10 years, as a member of the Board of Directors for the World Trade Center, Denver, as a Board Member of the Chicago Fine Arts Building and was a member of the Executives Club of Chicago.
Moderator
Allan Carson, Loyalty Accounting Expert, Promethian
Allan has used the benefits of his accounting / auditing / and technical background to grow his own businesses over the last 15 years. He has been at the heart of business systems design and has been responsible for turning around many ageing and financially frigid companies. Allan’s expertise lies in finding radical and out-of-the-box solutions for businesses with a problem. His accounting experience has given him the ability to design and implement user-friendly business process models for several companies in the event, soft drink and advertising industries.
Allan is a family man; and he and his family have chosen Cape Town as the place where they want to live. His involvement as a founding member of Promethian has focused his attentions on the world-wide growth of frequent flyer and loyalty programs. He and his fellow directors are at the cutting edge of this industry; and their company’s unique business models give their clients the capability of turning their ageing loyalty programs into a mainstream revenue source.
