Cadmus Delorme, a Cree and Saulteaux, is the former Chief of Cowessess First Nation in Southern Saskatchewan. Cadmus graduated from Cowessess Community Education Centre in 2000. He later moved to Regina to pursue a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Certificate in Hospitality, Tourism and Gaming Entertainment Management from the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv), and a Master of Public Administration from the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. He has also received an ICD.D. designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors and its affiliate institution, Kenneth Levene Graduate School of Business.

Under Cadmus's leadership, Cowessess First Nation prioritized economic self-sustainability and progressed renewable energy, agriculture, and land use efficiency initiatives to create current and future business opportunities.

Cadmus is the Chair of the Residential Schools Document Advisory Committee and the University of Regina Board of Directors, serves on the Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation Board of Directors and is a 2023 Banff Forum delegate.

​David has over 30 years of experience in the restaurant industry. He began his career in restaurant management after graduating with an honours business degree from Queen’s University. From 1990-1997, David held various senior management positions within some of Toronto’s top restaurant companies. In 1997, David joined SIR Corp. to lead the financial/accounting department of one of their most profitable divisions, Signature Restaurants. During his 5 years with SIR Corp., David reconstructed the division’s information processing into a centralized accounting department and helped the division grow from 4 restaurants to 9, each with sales of over $4 million annually. 

In 2001, David left SIR Corp to form The Fifteen Group Inc., one of North America’s leading hospitality consultancies. With offices in Toronto and Vancouver, they have over 30 industry experts who cover all aspects of restaurant operations, from developing new restaurant concepts to maximizing restaurant profits through effective sales generation and disciplined cost control management. The Fifteen Group’s clients range from owner/operated establishments to multi-unit restaurant corporations.

In his capacity as Owner Relations Director, he works closely to manage and develop relationships with 46 key partners to align strategies and provide support through various interactions. 

Prior, he was with a team in Brand Performance where he was responsible for 50 full-service hotels.  He was also a Hilton General Manager for 10 years where him and his teams won numerous Hilton awards. 

While in school, he got his start in the hotel business as a bartender and graduated from the University of North Carolina Charlotte. 

In his spare time, he enjoys flipping houses, fishing, skiing, boating and spending time with his family traveling.

Jonathan Holliwell is an accomplished and experienced Hotel Operation Expert. He has 25 years of experience spanning managing in the Fairmont and Delta organization and joined Marriott 11 years ago.

During his time with Marriott he has become a two-time General Manager in the Seattle and Toronto markets. He also spent 5 years as Area Director of Operations for Canada responsible for Operational Excellence at multiple Brands from Luxury to Select service. This also included the opening operations lead at the Delta Thunder Bay, Marriott Toronto Markham and the conversion of the St. Regis Toronto. His region improved all operational metrics every year during this time.

Recently, He began a new role overseeing Operations across Marriott Canada’s 200+ Properties.

With more than 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry in both Canada and England, Jonathan Lund is the Regional Vice-President at the InterContinental Hotels Group and Resorts (IHG®), Canada. Jonathan leads the Franchise Performance support Organization driving Commercial performance, Brand and Guest satisfaction initiatives and building hotels and owner relations. He also in oversees Company Managed Hotels in Canada and acts as the senior leader for IHG. Growth through acquisition and repositioning has strengthened IHG”s Canadian portfolio of 191 hotels and eight Brands including Intercontinental Hotels. Kimpton, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood suites and soon to open Avid. In addition to the Canadian estate Jonathan oversees a region in Washington state along with assets owned by Canadian owners in the USA bringing the total portfolio to over 250 Hotels. Jonathan was the previous Chairman of the IHG Owners Association Canada and is the current chair of the Hotel Association of Canada (H.A.C).

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Born in Yorkshire, England, Jonathan is a graduate of Huddersfield University in Hotel Administration. His career started with Kingsmead and Trust House Forte Hotels in England. He later immigrated to Canada to join Commonwealth Hospitality. He held progressively senior roles with IHG Company managed hotels until he joined Fortis Properties in 2003 culminating in his role as Director of Hospitality Operations. 

Leonard Gooz serves as Global Brand Head of Hilton Hotels & Resorts. In this role, Gooz is responsible for global brand strategy, portfolio-wide execution, customer experience, and the overall financial and commercial performance of the company’s flagship brand.
 

Gooz has been with Hilton since 2016 and moves to his new role from his position as Global Brand Head of Home2 Suites By Hilton. Under his leadership, Home2 Suites expanded into new global markets, became the #1 brand in guest experience relative to its compset, the #1 brand in the US hotel construction pipeline, and has earned several awards, including being recognized as the #1 extended stay brand by the Entrepreneur magazine. In his previous roles at Hilton, Gooz led the Customer Experience and Innovation function where he was responsible for brand prototype and product development, food & beverage, brand innovation, brand service delivery, communications, and events for Hilton’s Suites and Focused Service brands with a distribution of 4,700 hotels globally.
 

Prior to Hilton, Gooz served as the Market Leader at Ernst & Young (EY) where he led go to market strategy, quality and execution in EY’s Mid-Atlantic market and as a Senior Managing Consultant with Gallup Consulting, where he led client engagements with Fortune 500 organizations, including Hilton. His insights have guided organizations in enhancing internal systems, processes, and produced top industry benchmarks in customer loyalty and related earnings growth.
 

Gooz’s studies include an M.B.A. from American University’s Kogod School of Business in Washington D.C., Asset Management from Cornell University, and a B.A. from Dordt College, IA, in Political Science.

Marina serves as Director Brand Management. In this role, she supports the brand strategy creation and portfolio-wide strategy implementation for Hilton's flagship brand.

Marina joined Hilton in 2018, holding various strategy positions on the Customer Experience & Innovation and Brand Innovation & Planning teams. In these roles she was responsible for updating and scaling the meetings & events product for Full Service brands, creating and launching the enterprise strategy for electric vehicle charging, and developing brand pillars for the newly introduced Signia by Hilton brand.

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Prior to her time at Hilton, Marina worked in program strategy roles. At WeWork she led the company’s female founder and real estate development initiatives and supported the rollout of the company’s Veteran founder program. She is also an experienced digital communications strategist, having worked in digital communications for the Public Affairs & Crisis practice at Burson-Marsteller (now Burson Cohn & Wolf) and as the Digital Director for the Indiana Republican Party.

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Marina holds an MBA from Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business, in Washington, D.C., as well as a BA from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where she majored in History and Spanish.

Mark has spent 25 of his 33 year career in the business of the hospitality experience with IHG.  Over this time Mark developed his acumen in Revenue Management for several Holiday Inn’s across Ontario, and further in revenue and sales as Director of Transient Sales specializing in the wholesale and crew segments and leading transient sales efforts with a team of call center agents representing 6 hotels in Ontario. In 2010 Mark joined IHG’s Revenue Management for Hire Department as a Portfolio Revenue Manager with the Comprehensive Revenue Management team, leading a diverse portfolio including luxury and mid-scale multi-segmented hotels in Toronto and in Pittsburgh. Over the last 10 years, Mark has been a pivotal part of the Franchise Performance Support team offering his expertise, building trust, and engaging in purposeful interaction supporting Owners and Operators across Canada and the USA in achieving superior asset performance in the areas of Service, Sales and Revenue.

Prior to IHG, Mark started his career defining his discipline in front office/room division operations including creating on line training programs for Delta Hotels and Resorts and moved on to Rooms Division and General Management positions with several Choice Hotels across Ontario with recognition for superior guest service excellence, optimizing housekeeping efficiency, and negotiating collective agreements/union contracts.

​Sarah Wells, an Olympian and dynamic keynote speaker, is a leader in the field of cultivating excellence. With more than a decade of competition at the highest level, along with a master’s degree in leadership & innovation from the Smith School of Business, Sarah delivers powerful, research-backed insights that unlock potential both personally and professionally. Sarah’s philosophy centers on the idea that excellence isn’t about perfection—it’s about breaking free from limiting beliefs and constantly striving to outperform who you were yesterday.

She believes that when you dare to break the blueprint, chase crazy ideas, and focus on doing the small things exceptionally well, excellence becomes contagious, elevating not just your life but those around you. Renowned for her practical strategies and compelling storytelling, Sarah empowers audiences to find their own excellence, transform challenges into opportunities for growth, and achieve lasting success.

Stephanie Smith developed Cogwheel Analytics, a business intelligence (BI) tool that consolidates data from various sources, enabling companies to discern trends and providing them with a benchmarking scorecard. Her team assists management companies in identifying marketing discrepancies between the brand and hotel levels, aiming to boost incremental revenue for their Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and Hyatt properties.

Stephanie actively participates as a member of the HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board, where she has chaired committees focusing on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and Rising Leaders, in addition to holding a CHDM certification. A regular speaker at numerous hospitality events and conferences, she is also a partner and consultant at Cayuga Hospitality Consultants.

She holds an undergraduate degree in Hospitality Tourism Management from Virginia Tech, an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas, and an Advanced Revenue Management Certificate from Cornell.