Linda is a proud alumna of Stenden Hotel Management School, Leeuwarden. She was born in the Netherlands and left the country at the age of 25 to pursue her dream of working and living abroad, exploring different cultures and working in an international environment.

Her employer HILTON has sent her subsequently to Belgium, Thailand and Malaysia, where she has now been for the last 5 years, first in KL and the last two years in Penang, preparing the opening of the DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Penang as General Manager.

Linda is married, with two young children, founder of Lean In Penang and was recently awarded Dutch Hotello of the Year Award 2017, in recognition of her contributions to the hotel industry. She is an active promoter of diversity within Hilton and is passionate about developing young hospitality talent and creating leadership opportunities for them accordingly. She enjoys travelling around South East Asia and has recently taken up the sport of rugby.

Parichat joined Booking.com back in 2007 as the first Thai employee based out of Singapore as an Account Manager for Thailand, when Booking.com was very new in the APAC region. In 2010, she led the pioneering team to open the first Thailand office in Bangkok.

As Booking.com’s Regional Manager for Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, Parichat is responsible for connecting properties in the region to the Booking.com platform and advise properties on strategies to optimize revenue on Booking.com. Parichat is managing a team of 100+ employees across 8 offices. Before joining Booking.com, Parichat spent 3 years with the Accor group in the Sofitel and Novotel brands, gaining experience in both sales and operational roles.

Parichat has a Bachelor of Arts degree. She speaks Thai, English and German. Parichat is based in Bangkok with her family. Although she’s frequently on the road for work, she enjoys travelling, cooking and joining running events during her free time.

With over 15 years’ experience in the spa and wellness industry, Tara has worked with some of Asia’s key hotel brands. She started out as a therapist, working in a local Day Spa and her career blossomed from there. Her passion for the industry has meant she has studied many different modalities, including naturopathy, reiki, reflexology, lymphatic drainage, cupping, gwa sha, and shiatsu.

Tara has lived and worked in India, China, and Maldives, managing different spa operations in the hospitality and hotel sector. For the past seven years, she has been based in Thailand. As the Group Director of Spa for Centara Hotels & Resorts, she oversees 35 spas throughout the Asian region and is busy opening a few more in the Middle East.

Tara is very passionate about passing on her knowledge to new and upcoming managers.
Working in the ‘touchy-feely’ world of spa, trying to influence senior management who are from perhaps a more traditional hotelier background, and often being the only female senior executive, has meant she has developed quite a few techniques for how to bridge the gap, be assertive and how to speak confidently, even if you don’t feel it! She looks forward to sharing these with you.

Rami came to Thailand 10 years ago where she started with Compass Hospitality, a Bangkok based hospitality group, in eDistribution and eMarketing. 5 years later she moved to take on the role of General Manager at the President Palace Hotel, followed by the Park Plaza Sukhumvit and most recently moved to Solitaire Bangkok, Sukhumvit Soi 11, as General Manager of the opening team.


Rami has worked with a local organization to provide training and jobs, in the hospitality industry, to abused women. She is married with two teenage boys and loves exploring Bangkok and travelling further afield when she can. She is also passionate about Muay Thai and has been training in the art of Muay Thai for several years.

Chiedza is Lecturer in International Relations at Stenden Thailand, a branch campus of Stenden University The Netherlands. She is also a migration researcher working on the precarious situation of the urban refugee population in Bangkok.

After hours, she is Cofounder and current Director of Bangkok Rising. Emerging from the global ‘One Billion Rising’ campaign, Bangkok Rising is a volunteer women's organisation whose members are diverse women in the community who together organise awareness-raising campaigns and events for the elimination of violence against women and girls, for International Women’s Day in Bangkok as well as other arts, poetry, music and drama events to both entertain and raise awareness on Gender based Issues in the community.