The Consulting Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 Travel and Hospitality Consultants and Leaders of 2024. In an industry where customer experience is paramount and market dynamics can shift with the seasons, travel and hospitality consulting requires a unique blend of strategic foresight, operational expertise, and cultural sensitivity. As the travel and hospitality sector continues to grow and evolve in a post-pandemic environment, consulting services become increasingly important in helping businesses reduce expenses, manage risk, and adapt to shifting consumer behaviors.
From advising on M&A and restructuring within the travel sector to leading technology-driven transformations in hospitality operations, these leaders play a crucial role in optimizing revenue management, enhancing guest experiences, and navigating the complex regulatory landscapes of global tourism. Their work impacts millions of travelers each year, making travel safer, more efficient, and more enjoyable for people around the world.
Among this year’s awardees, Jim Miller, Partner at Arthur D. Little, is recognized for his 35 years of expertise in guiding airports, airlines, and other key players in the travel, transportation, and hospitality industry through complex financial transactions and strategic planning. Gonzalo Fortuny, Partner at EY, is noted for his leadership in driving digital transformation across global hotel chains, leveraging AI and advanced technologies to enhance operational efficiency and customer experiences. Teresa Long, Industry Leader for Retail, Leisure, and Hospitality at Willis Towers Watson, is celebrated for her strategic approach and innovative solutions in risk management.
This year’s awardees were selected through a methodical evaluation process and thorough consideration of each candidate’s career track record and industry contributions. Please join us in celebrating The Top 25 Travel and Hospitality Consultants and Leaders of 2024.
1. Vik Krishnan
Firm: McKinsey and Company
Title: Senior Partner
Vik Krishnan is a Senior Partner at McKinsey and Company, a global management consulting firm serving as a trusted advisor to the world's leading businesses, governments, and institutions. With over 20 years of consulting experience across multiple functional areas in travel, logistics, and infrastructure, Krishnan advises organizations on designing networks, improving pricing sophistication, driving better on-time performance, and scheduling crews efficiently.
Previously, Krishnan was a Partner and Global Aviation Sector Lead at Oliver Wyman. Krishnan holds an MBA in operations, information management, and strategic management from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an undergraduate degree in economics from Dartmouth College.
2. Emily Weiss
Firm: Accenture
Title: Senior Managing Director, Global Travel Industry Lead
Emily Weiss is the Senior Managing Director and Global Travel Industry Lead at Accenture, a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize operations, accelerate revenue growth, and enhance citizen services.
3. Jon van der Veen
Firm: Bain and Company
Title: Partner
Jon van der Veen is a member of Bain and Company’s Retail and M&A and Divestiture practices, and also leads the firm’s Travel and Leisure sector in the Americas. Bain and Company is a global consultancy that collaborates with clients across 65 cities in 40 countries to achieve results, gain a competitive edge, and drive industry change.
4. Andreas Scriven
Firm: Deloitte UK
Title: Partner
Andreas Scriven is a Partner and Head of Hospitality and Leisure for Deloitte UK and Deloitte North South Europe. Based in London, Scriven has extensive consultancy and M&A experience across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the USA. He plays a key role in shaping the Hospitality and Leisure agenda as a member of both the UK Travel, Hospitality, and Services Executive and the Consumer NSE Executive, while also collaborating with Deloitte’s global network.
5. Caroline Lombardi
Firm: Egon Zehnder
Title: Global Head of Hospitality, Travel and Leisure
Caroline Lombardi is the Global Head of Hospitality, Travel, and Leisure for Egon Zehnder. Her work spans executive search, board search, and leadership advisory. Lombardi has particular expertise in CEO, customer experience, commercial, and operational roles. A trusted advisor for founders, high-growth startups, and Fortune 50 companies, she is known for building strong relationships with her clients and candidates. Lombardi’s ability to deeply understand her clients and candidates enables her to identify the best matches for long-term success.
As a former hospitality operator, Lombardi knows the challenges her clients face and brings a pragmatic approach to talent advisory. She believes that placing the right leader in the right role can have a significant impact on the company, the industry, and the broader economy. Before joining Egon Zehnder, Lombardi held executive roles with Carnival Cruise Line, Toys “R” Us, MGM Home Entertainment, Arthur Andersen, and several startups. Lombardi holds a BBA in marketing and finance from the University of Miami and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
6. Gonzalo Fortuny
Firm: EY
Title: Partner
Gonzalo Fortuny is a Partner at EY Technology Consulting, with a specialization in the hospitality sector. His focus on digital transformation and artificial intelligence has helped several hotel chains advance their technological capabilities. EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction, and advisory services, aiming to foster trust and confidence in capital markets and economies worldwide.
7. Mike Cremin
Firm: Alvarez and Marsal
Title: Managing Director
Mike Cremin is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal’s Corporate Performance Improvement’s Travel, Hospitality and Leisure practice and is based in Washington D.C. His expertise is centered around empowering clients to leverage technology to enable new business capabilities and models, improve customer and employee experience, increase operating performance and reduce cost to serve.
With more than 25 years of consulting experience, he sits at the intersection of business and technology. His primary areas of concentration include growth strategy, customer experience, loyalty, digital transformation, operating model development, spend optimization, process improvement, innovation and business enablement. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.
Privately held since its founding in 1983, Alvarez and Marsal is a global professional services firm that provides advisory, business performance improvement, and turnaround management services to companies, investors, and government entities globally.
8. Zahara Kassam
Firm: FTI Consulting
Title: Managing Director
Zahara Kassam is a Managing Director at FTI Consulting with nearly 20 years of hands-on experience as a hotel real estate investor, asset manager, and brand partner. Kassam leverages her strategic, financial, and operational expertise to assist clients with a wide range of real estate bankruptcy, restructuring, litigation, valuation, transaction, and asset management advisory engagements.
9. Ryan Gilmour
Firm: Slalom
Title: Managing Director
Ryan Gilmour is the Managing Director of Slalom, a consulting firm specializing in business and technology and providing tailored solutions across various industries. The firm works closely with clients to address complex challenges and deliver practical outcomes. Gilmour brings 26 years of experience to his current role, where he is responsible for scaling successful strategies from previous roles to a larger geography and more diverse account portfolio.
10. Gee Lefevre
Firm: Teneo
Title: Senior Managing Director
Gee Lefevre is a Senior Managing Director in Teneo’s Management Consulting division, where he leads Teneo’s work in Travel, Leisure, and Hospitality, as well as providing broader advisory on economics, demand, and consumer behaviour to a wide range of industries and public bodies. He is an expert on how macroeconomic, geopolitical, and cultural factors influence consumers’ behaviour, movement, and demand for products and services.
Lefevre’s work in the Travel sector includes extensive experience in aviation, heavy rail, bus, and broader mobility. He specialises in travel demand analysis to inform revenue recovery and growth strategy, and investment decisions. Lefevre has advised some of the world’s largest airline CEO’s, as part of high-profile engagements focused on recapitalisation and central government support for the aviation sector. He publishes a bi-annual global aviation forecast which is among the most detailed and robust available in the market. Outside of aviation, Lefevre has supported multi-billion dollar international rail franchise bids, and has led engagements involving the future of transportation, bus operations, and the impact of industrial action and disruption on rail and bus demand.
In the Hospitality and Leisure spaces, Lefevre supports major global chains and franchises in understanding the relationship between consumer attitudes and overall demand and revenue growth. A vast majority of this work has focused on how major events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, rapid economic flux, and structural demographic change have impacted consumers’ movement and demand for these products. Lefevre is an expert in the innovative use of cell tower data to map consumer movement patterns, complex economic forecasting, and scenario modelling.
11. Scott Kamenick
Firm: Protiviti
Title: Managing Director
Scott Kamenick is the Managing Director of Protiviti, a global consulting firm providing IT consulting, risk and compliance, digital transformation, and internal audit services. Kamenick has over 26 years of experience in consulting and public accounting, specializing in risk management and audit services for the hotels, motels, and resorts segment of the hospitality industry. Kamenick has extensive expertise helping hospitality companies manage enterprise risks, including cybersecurity, third-party risks, privacy, operational continuity, regulatory compliance, financial reporting, and fraud prevention.
12. Manuel Bremont
Firm: Ankura Consulting Group
Title: Managing Director
Manuel Bremont is a Managing Director and leads the Hospitality & Leisure Group at Ankura based out of Dallas. He brings over 20 years of experience in real estate, hospitality, tourism and other leisure products across the US, Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. His advisory expertise is broad and includes market and feasibility analysis, strategic planning, performance improvement, interim/asset management, due diligence, restructuring, litigation support and M&A. During his career, Bremont has advised public entities, multinational development companies, financial institutions, PE firms, law firms and international lodging
companies.
Bremont’s professional experience includes the interim management of an 8,000-acre, master planned resort development and his participation as part of the team that managed the Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. bankruptcy estate, which included approximately $5B in hospitality assets, and the real property settlement negotiations and claims evaluation process associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He has also been active in the M&A space working in different capacities across transactions involving Aimbridge Hospitality, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, Two Roads Hospitality, Belmond Hotels, Sage Hospitality, Grupo Hotelero Prisma (Mexico) and Hoteles GHL (Colombia). His contributions also extend to litigation matters including wrongful contractual termination claims, HMA disputes and company valuations, among other.
Bremont has authored articles on lodging market trends across various destinations in the Americas and has served as panel moderator and/or speaker at the Hospitality Law Conference, the ULI Hotel Development Council for North Texas, the Dallas Hotel Conference and the IMN Forum on Real Estate Opportunity & Private Fund Investing. He has also participated as guest lecturer for the Conrad N. Hilton College’s undergraduate and graduate programs in numerous occasions. Bremont earned an undergraduate degree in Hotel & Restaurant Management at Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership (Magna Cum Laude)
13. Alex Rhodes
Firm: Grant Thornton LLP
Title: Partner
Alex Rhodes is a Partner at Grant Thornton LLP. Rhodes has over 22 years of experience serving publicly held and private clients in accounting, auditing and advisory services, focusing on hospitality, restaurants, and real estate. Grant Thornton LLP is a licensed, certified public accounting firm that provides audit and assurance services.
14. Ken Greger
Firm: August Leadership LLC
Title: Travel and Hospitality Partner
Ken Greger is a leading Partner in the global Travel and Hospitality Practice with August Leadership LLC, an international executive search and leadership advisory firm based in New York. As a highly trusted thought leader and advisor to the travel and hospitality industry, Greger brings global experience and a practical, client-focused approach, recognizing each client’s unique needs.
Greger’s impressive track record throughout the US and beyond spans over 30 years and includes high-level work with foreign governments developing their travel and tourism sectors, multinational public hotel companies, independently owned trophy properties, startups, and more. He is known for his immersive approach to understanding clients' businesses, strategic objectives, and company DNA, then crafting tailored search or long-term talent strategies to achieve optimal business outcomes.
His portfolio includes significant assignments for C-suite leaders on large-scale projects, such as a $68 billion development in Saudi Arabia. His trusted advisory role extends to discussing long-term strategy, brand and culture, talent requirements, succession planning, and competitive challenges with key industry leaders, earning him a reputation as a trusted strategic advisor across the industry.
Greger started his career with Deloitte and Touche, now Deloitte. From there, he entered the world of executive search and consulting, including several years with KPMG in Los Angeles. He has worked for three global search firms and previously also achieved success with his own firm, Greger/Peterson Associates, Inc., a highly regarded retained search firm.
15. Tausif Khiani
Firm: Capgemini
Title: Vice President
Tausif Khiani leads Capgemini’s Hospitality Industry Portfolio. He is a business and technology transformation thought leader and subject matter expert, with more than 15 years of experience working with Fortune 500 companies and leading industry players across the cruise lines, casinos, hotels, travel, and entertainment segments.
Khiani has helped drive double-digit results for his clients through his work with the industry’s top innovators and disruptors and his approach to enabling connected experiences through all lenses of the business. He and Capgemini offer a unique understanding of how to build future-proofed solutions adapted for the challenges, trends, and nuances in hospitality businesses and for their consumers.
16. David Trunkfield
Firm: PwC UK
Title: Partner
David Trunkfield is a Partner of PwC United Kingdom. PwC is a network of firms in 151 countries with over 364,000 professionals committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory, and tax services. He leads PwC's Travel, Hospitality and Leisure practice in the UK, and is the global leader of the Betting and Gaming practice. He has over 20 years of experience in the hotels and leisure sector, working across a wide range of sectors including pubs and restaurants, betting and gaming, travel and tourism, hotels, and leisure.
17. Scot Hornick
Firm: Oliver Wyman
Title: Partner
Scot Hornick is a Partner at Oliver Wyman and head of the firm’s Pricing, Sales, and Marketing practice for the Americas. With 30 years of experience as both a consultant and operating executive in the travel industry, Hornick helps clients improve profitability through analytic approaches to segmentation, customer relationship management, loyalty programs, pricing, revenue management, and distribution channel management.
18. Jim Miller
Firm: Arthur D. Little
Title: Partner
Jim Miller is a Partner at Arthur D. Little, where he leads the firm’s Travel and Transportation practice in the USA. Arthur D. Little is a management consultancy that links strategy, innovation, and technology to help clients succeed. Miller is a leading expert in the economic and financial analysis of transportation issues and opportunities for airports, airlines, ports, and rail. His capability stems from over 35 years of experience as a consultant as well as an investment banker specializing in transportation related financial transactions.
19. Steffen Wagner
Firm: KPMG
Title: Partner and Global Head, Transport and Leisure
Steffen Wagner is a KPMG partner and leads KPMG’s global transport and leisure sector. KPMG is a global network of independent professional services firms offering audit, tax, and advisory services. Operating in 143 countries and territories, KPMG employs over 265,000 partners and staff across its member firms worldwide.
20. Paul Newman
Firm: RSM UK
Title: Partner, Head of Leisure and Hospitality
Paul Newman is an Audit Partner and RSM’s Head of Industries. He is responsible for developing the firm’s industry strategy in the UK and leading its team of sector specialists. Newman oversees the development of the firm’s industry activity, ensuring it provides valuable insights to clients and works to spread industry knowledge across the business for future sector leaders and strengthening the firm’s capabilities.
21. Simon Foster
Firm: Spencer Stuart
Title: Partner
Simon Foster a Partner at Spencer Stuart’s search efforts in the restaurant sector and is a core member of the firm’s Hospitality and Leisure and Consumer and Financial Officer practices. Simon is a former CEO, entrepreneur, board director and trained accountant with over a decade of search experience.
22. Vinodh Sunderarajan
Firm: HCL Tech
Title: Senior Vice President
Vinodh Sunderarajan is the Senior Vice President of HCL Tech, a global technology company with more than 219,000 people across 60 countries, specializing in digital, engineering, cloud, and AI solutions. Sunderarajan oversees delivery excellence, customer satisfaction, and organizational success. He is also responsible for program and project management, drafting technology road-maps, solving business problems with technology solutions, driving business growth and process maturity, implementing continuous improvements, and developing organizational talent.
23. Kumar Paramasivam
Firm: Infosys
Title: Vice President
Kumar Paramasivam is a Vice President at Infosys, where he leads client services for professional services, travel and hospitality, education, and business services. Infosys is a company specializing in next-generation digital services and consulting, helping clients in over 50 countries navigate their digital transformations. With more than three decades of experience, Infosys guides global enterprises through their digital journeys with expertise.
24. Faith Marshall
Firm: Cognizant
Title: Director, Travel and Hospitality
Faith Marshall is the Director of Business Development in the travel and hospitality vertical at Cognizant. In this role, she is responsible for promoting Cognizant's offerings, representing the company through thought leadership, and acquiring new clients for Cognizant's Travel and Hospitality portfolio. Marshall has more than 20 years of hospitality and travel technology experience, including global sales, relationship management, and corporate strategy.
25. Teresa Long
Firm: Willis Towers Watson
Title: Industry Leader, Retail, Leisure and Hospitality
Teresa Long is the Industry Leader for Retail, Leisure, and Hospitality of Willis Towers Watson (WTW). At WTW, she focuses on providing specialist industry insight and tailored solutions to help clients manage and mitigate risks. With over 30 years of experience in the insurance industry, Long brings a strategic approach and innovative solutions to complex situations.
