ROLLING HOSPITALITY

C. BORRELLY

Grounded in hospitality, Claudia have led multiple openings and implemented F&B projects in both the hospitality and railway industries. Claudia operationalizes concepts from the value proposition to customer service delivery, focusing on service excellence through people, unleashing individual and team's potential.

With 15 years of experience, Claudia have opened, set up, managed exclusive F&B concepts in Europe. This includes Les Jardins du Festival for Fairmont Montreux Palace and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the F&B venue of Admiralty House at Buckingham Palace for the Olympic Games, and the grand opening of a restaurant in a 5-star hotel in London Bridge in United kingdom. Subsequently, Claudia transferred hospitality best practices to the railway industry, leading the customer service team on board the Eurostar in London in charge 600 staff, operationalizing the opening of the new Eurostar base in Amsterdam (within political instability, Brexit), and participating in the setup of the New Orient Express with Accor.

As a permanent speaker at the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, my operational experience, complemented by an academic background, allows me to theorize and structure operations using academic tools. This approach enhances planning, increases efficiency, and reduces service failures, wastage, and costs. Methodical and synthetic,  Claudia adopts a customer-centric approach throughout operations.

U. BUCHERT

Ulf, a visionary hospitality professional with a rich 40-year journey, showcases unparalleled expertise in management, culinary arts and the establishment of luxury trains and river cruises. Recognised for his ability to reinvigorate and structure hospitality organisations. Ulf is a strategic leader adept at fostering and leading high-performance teams. His extensive experience includes successfully operating the Eastern & Oriental Express and various River Cruises.
In June 1992, Ulf joined Orient-Express Trains and Cruises, undertaking a pivotal role as a Senior Member of the Eastern & Oriental Express Train Project in Asia. Leading the operations of the historic launch of the Eastern & Oriental Express train in September 1993 and played a pivotal role as head of Passenger Services in the re-location of the E&O train operation from Singapore to Malaysia & Thailand.
Ulf has Directed the operational setup of the Road to Mandalay River Cruise Ship in Burma, and continued in re-defining Boutique River Cruises in Vietnam in association with Uniworld and in Europe with RiverAdvice.
Over two decades, he has demonstrated exceptional skills in setting up and structuring hospitality trains and cruise organizations. Ulf's illustrious career is a testament to his unwavering commitment to excellence, innovation, and the continuous pursuit of elevated standards and technologies in the hospitality and luxury travel industry.

Y. MARTIN

Yasmine is a distinguished executive with a 30-year track record in the tourism and hospitality sector. She has excelled in launching and managing train and river cruise operations in diverse markets like South Africa, Thailand, Burma, Singapore, and Peru. Yasmine's expertise lies in strategic business transformation, project development, and operational advisory. She is known for her proficiency in feasibility studies, revenue optimization strategies, and financial analyses.

W. ILLING

Concept Building - ‘turning ideas into viable business concepts’, strategic planning & execution, e-commerce, food logistics, customer experience, operational excellence & process optimization
With his roots in luxury hospitality, Wolfgang draws from over 16 years of international management experience working for leading hospitality brands, launching F&B concepts & businesses, advising startups and leading operations for major Tech firms. During his experience Wolfgang focused on how to assign measurable goals towards corporate strategies and breaking them down into specific actions enabling the teams to act in line with organisational needs. The key is to set operational incentives so that performance matches and drives the overall vision of the organisation.
Wolfgang’s key milestones throughout his career are having launched The Flying Elephant at Park Hyatt Chennai, the largest and most ambitious restaurant concept of Hyatt International, having co-founded a food-tech startup in Shanghai, which he successfully scaled over 6 years and then sold, and having launched and expanded the operations for Wolt (Finnish food tech unicorn now part of Doordash) in Germany.
The executive MBA from IMD Business School paired with his experience at Amazon give Wolfgang additional in-depth experience of using tools and data to analyse operational processes and drive continuous improvements.