Eric Gummers – Corporate Partner, Howard Kennedy

Eric Gummers is a corporate partner at Howard Kennedy, London where he heads a leisure and hospitality group.  His expertise includes mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, shareholder agreements and commercial contracts. A high proportion of his work is international.

He is recognised for his specialised work in the leisure and hotel sector, particularly membership clubs, loyalty programmes, fractional, shared ownership and condo-hotels.

Eric is consistently rated in the top tier for his work in the hospitality and leisure sectors by both Chambers and Legal 500. He is a fluent French speaker and a graduate from Cambridge University. Eric is also a committee member of City of London lawyers commercial law sub-committee.

Nick Turner – Vice President & Head Of New Business Development, The Registry Collection, Europe

Nick Turner was appointed by Group RCI in September 2006 as managing director for the Middle East region. His responsibilities included overseeing the regional expansion of affiliated resorts high-yielding Leisure Real Estate asset classes including hotels, vacation ownership and timeshare, fractional models and Buy-to-Use-and-Let real estate.

Currently, Nick is vice president and head of New Business Development – The Registry Collection, Europe, where he is heading a dedicated team with the primary goal of working closely with existing and new leisure real estate developers. His aim will be to provide step by step support and guidance to deliver increased sales and maximise profits through new programmes and solutions.

With more than 20 years’ experience in the international hospitality, travel and leisure sectors, prior to joining Group RCI, Nick held various leadership roles with several hospitality and leisure companies based in Europe, including the De Vere Hotel Group, Forte & Le Meridien Hotels & Resort and the Intercontinental Hotel Group.

Among his many career accomplishments is the development of worldwide hotel sales and distribution channels to 60 countries, the development of new hotel brands and the project management and delivery of new-mixed use hotels and resorts.

Nick was recognized by Hotel & Caterer magazine in 2001 with an Acorn Award for ‘Top Industry Achiever Under the Age of 30′ and again in 2003 at the National Sales Awards as a ‘Sales Leader of the Year in UK Industry Winner’.

Philip Watson – Managing Director, Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket

Philip Watson is the Managing Director and driving force behind Europe’s leading resale company, Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket.

Educated to degree level at Goldsmiths College in London he has been involved in Timeshare for over 30 years and is experienced in a range of successful sales and marketing techniques and started his current company over 12 years ago. As well as being Managing Director of Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket he is also a director and shareholder of the parent company Worldwide Leisure Group Limited who, amongst many other ventures, have the very successful Moness House Hotel & Country Club within its port folio, giving Philip extensive developer experience to compliment his vast knowledge of the resale industry.

Despite Philip’s many business commitments he still finds time to be an active member on the board of Resort Developer Organisation and The Timeshare Council as well as supporting TATOC the consumer organisation.

Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket is synonymous with the word quality, and was probably the first timeshare company to advertise on National Television and the number of happy customers demonstrates the open and honest way in which it conducts its business.

Mark Cushway – Managing Director, Resort Properties

Mark began his career in the Timeshare industry when he joined an II affiliate resort as a salesperson in 1989. He rapidly progressed to opening his own offsite sales centre and telemarketing operation which ran successfully throughout the early nineties.

In 1993 he made the move to Tenerife and joined Resort Properties where he quickly became part of the management team.  During this time as a sales manager, he personally closed over $90million in Timeshare sales winning him the coveted title of RCI Sales Manager of the Year.  He also won a Five Year Special Management Award.

In the following decade, Mark worked as Sales Director under Paul Stewart and in 2006 took over the reins at Resort Properties as Managing Director of both the Malta and Tenerife operations.  Mark is on the board of the Radisson Golden Sands in Malta and also currently represents Resort Properties on the Resort Development Organisation Board (RDO).

In the course of his career at Resort Properties, Mark has managed over 70,000 transactions totaling nearly $600million.

Having always had a passion and flair for training, Mark has, over the last three years, introduced Life Coaching programs throughout the Resort Properties Group and is personally thrilled at the transformation that this initiative has produced both in the individual employees and the company as a whole.

The FORUM Conference Gets Ready To Release Delegate Places

The FORUM Conference, 9-10 December 2009 to be hosted by Generator Systems and Perspective Magazine at the luxurious Sofitel London Heathrow Hotel has maintained an air of mystery around its format and choice of speakers but today is giving the industry a first glimpse of its schedule as they launch the event website at www.perspectivemagazine.com/forum and  www.generator-systems.com/events 

The FORUM is predominantly based around panel sessions that will allow delegates to address the current hard times. Panellists will share their experiences, both good and bad in order to provide information that will help developers, marketers and suppliers operate more efficiently and profitably as we get ready to enter a new era.

Next week, just 200 delegates will be given the opportunity to confirm their attendance for what will certainly be a new style of conference, arranged with the expertise of, and hosted by two of the industry’s most innovative companies.

Delegates from around the globe will to attend, covering all aspects of timeshare and fractional ownership from development, design, sales, marketing, legal, financial and related products and services. Delegate rates are just £395 (+VAT where applicable) which includes access to all sessions, coffee breaks , lunch for two days, invitation to the Gala Dinner and the legendary Generator Party!

Limited sponsorship opportunities are still available – for details email paul@perspectiveinternational.com or cheryl.stevens@generator-systems.com

For up to the minute details on the event, including venue, speakers, sponsors, and schedule we recommend you regularly visit www.perspectivemagazine.com/forum  and  www.generator-systems.com/events 

Robin Mills – Chairman, Communications Council, Resort Development Organisation (RDO)

Robin Mills is somewhat a veteran of the European Timeshare Industry, having been working within it since 1985. Robin started with a developer, Imperio, in Portugal and then went on to hold a number of positions within Interval International over a ten year period at a European level, culminating in the role of Group Sales Director.

In 1999 Robin joined RMI Consortium, here he was responsible for designing and implementing the now well known Infiniti Points programme and developing a retail division for RMI. In 2002 Robin became Managing Director and then continued in that role through the sale of RMI to what it currently is today, Petchey Leisure.

Robin left Petchey Leisure earlier on this year and currently works alongside a couple of organizations here in Europe. Robin is also Chairman of the RDO’s communications council, also sits on both the Executive committee and board of RDO.

Lisa Migani – Director, Business Development Europe, Middle East & Asia, First National Trustee Company (FNTC)

Lisa Migani took on the role of Director, Business Development Europe, Middle East and Asia with FNTC after having worked for the firm for a decade in Italy where she is based.  Before joining FNTC Lisa worked for Interval International, heading up their Italian operation for 7 years. 

FNTC has been market leader in designing flexible legal structures for the shared ownership industry for more than 30 years. Part of a public company, IFG Group plc, quoted on the London and Dublin stock exchanges – FNTC manages a global portfolio of more than £2.5bn of property assets as well as providing a range of services and facilities to organizations that outsource part of their operations to them and, in so doing, considerably cut their fixed costs. FNTC is able to tap in to the capabilities of a 200 plus team of professionals in the IFG International Division whose expertise adds considerable value to their clients’ businesses.

Lisa sits on the board of Assotrusts, an Italian trade organization which promotes the use of trusts in Italy.

Peter Booth – Board Director, Group Pestana

Peter Booth is an economics graduate from the University of Natal in South Africa. He joined Unilever, the consumer goods multi-national group, as a marketing trainee and rose to become Marketing Manager during a 5 year working period. Peter’s friendship with the Pestana family in South Africa resulted in him moving to Portugal and joining the family business in 1983.

Peter Booth is a Board Director of Group Pestana, the largest hotel group in Portugal with 90 hotels on four continents and is directly responsible for its timeshare, golf and real estate divisions. He launched Pestana’s first timeshare development in 1985 and today Pestana has 12 timeshare resorts with an owner base of 30,000 families. The real estate division in the Algarve gained strength with the acquisition of Carvoeiro Gold in 1996 and Peter has been responsible for the development, marketing and sales of 500 holiday homes. Also falling within his remit are 5 golf courses that Pestana own and manage in Portugal. Pestana will open a 218 room hotel in London in March 2010, and Pestana is marketing and selling 66 rooms using the condo hotel concept.

Peter has been the Honorary Consul of South Africa in Madeira, Portugal since 1995.

Darren Ettridge – Vice President Resort Sales and Service (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Interval International

Darren Ettridge is responsible for managing Interval’s sales and service operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa. In this role he directs sales and resort marketing strategies and oversees the operations of Interval’s offices in the region.

In addition, Ettridge is responsible for the European resort affiliation, servicing and marketing of Preferred Residences, a membership and exchange programme for luxury shared ownership properties.

Ettridge joined Interval International in 2000 as Director of Sales and Service with responsibility for the UK and Scandinavia. He has extensive experience within the vacation ownership sector initially gained with his previous employer, First National Bank (FNB). While holding various positions during his seven-year tenure with FNB, immediately prior to joining Interval he was manager of sales and operations for the company’s vacation ownership division. This department provided consumer lending for the purchase of timeshare.

During his time with FNB and Interval, Ettridge has become an established and respected figure within the European timeshare industry. He is based at Interval’s London office.

Ettridge serves on The Executive Committee and Main Board of the Resort Development Organisation in Europe.