Archives: Speakers

Hishan Singhawansa oversees Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts in bringing the vision of ‘bringing the best of Sri Lanka to the world with style and elegance’ to life across hotel operations. Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts is a part of the Leisure industry group of John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH), Sri Lanka’s largest listed conglomerate, operating over 70 companies in 7 diverse industry sectors.

With more than 17 years of experience in business and operational efficiencies, Hishan is responsible for bringing people and capital together to support the company’s growth objectives by moving Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts through a journey of emotional hospitality, curated experiences, and empowering community development.

He currently leads the brand at a pivotal moment of strategic growth and regional expansion. The Group’s landmark development, Cinnamon Life, a US$1.2 billion investment, is a key milestone in the trajectory of positioning Colombo as a premier MICE and leisure destination in South Asia.

Hishan began his career in 2008 by joining JKH and its Retail sector, which overlooked multiple business units spanning supermarkets, logistics, and manufacturing. Following a progressive career path, he headed Category Management and Supply Chain before moving into the Leisure sector of the Group in 2017.

He holds an MBA from the University of Wales, London and a BSc Engineering (Hons) Degree from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.

Radhey Tawar specialises in strategy and execution of commercial performance and has diverse experience in various commercial functions. His professional career was built on Hospitality Management studies from Mumbai before the start of his career, followed by an on-site Revenue Management Certification from Cornell University, USA in 2005 and an MBA from the London Business School in 2012.

His career started with experience in uber-luxury brands like Rajvilas – an Oberoi Hotel in Jaipur and Burj-Al-Arab in Dubai. Expanding his experience within hospitality, Radhey ventured out to Revenue Management and other commercial roles with IHG in Dubai and India. Apart from Rooms, F&B and C&E Revenue Management with different IHG hotels based in UAE, his most notable roles were to lead the commercial function for new hotel openings for IHG hotels in India, the Middle East and Africa. From 2011 to 2015, he was involved with 15+ new hotel openings across different brands.

As the Chief Commercial Officer of Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, Radhey Tawar oversees the development and execution of the company’s integrated commercial strategy, including the identification of new products and markets, revenue growth across all lines of business, brand marketing, global corporate reputation through public relations, the extensive digital ecosystem as well as establishing a global sales network.

In collaboration with the other executive leadership team members, Radhey is involved in all Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts customer experience touchpoints. He plays an integral role in the brand’s transition to being a luxury operator.

Besides spending quality time with his wife and three boys, Radhey loves outdoor running and is always up for a challenge participating in half or full marathons.

Theresa is a data scientist specializing in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) for healthcare data. With a background in mathematics (B.S.) and data science (M.S.), she brings deep technical expertise in Python and SQL to the development of scalable, production-ready models. She currently leads a team of data scientists focused on building NLP and ML solutions that extract clinical insights from unstructured and semi-structured text within the Veradigm Network EHR (VNEHR). Her work supports Real World Evidence studies and client-facing analytics by transforming complex clinical narratives into structured, actionable data.

Jordan is a registered nurse with a master’s degree in nursing informatics. She began her career as a surgical nurse before transitioning into healthcare technology. Throughout her informatics career, she has leveraged her clinical background to bridge the gap between patient care and health IT. Jordan has led the development of physician and nursing content and reporting within EHR systems, supporting workflows across ambulatory, emergency department, and inpatient settings. At Veradigm, she broadened her impact by serving as a clinical resource across multiple products, contributing to therapeutic area code reviews, clinical guideline evaluations, workflow assessments, and reporting. Currently, she leads cross-functional teams of clinicians and data scientists—managing efforts to extract meaningful clinical insights from unstructured and semi-structured data, and driving the application of real-world evidence to inform healthcare decision-making.

Nital Patel brings over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, specializing in commercial strategy, real-world data, and innovative product solutions. As Vice President of Solutions Management at Veradigm, she leads cross-functional teams in developing and executing product roadmaps, go-to-market strategies, and post-launch initiatives, driving adoption and value for clients. Her career spans leadership roles at organizations such as IPM.ai, Signant Health, Diaceutics, and Symphony Health, where she partnered with top pharmaceutical brands across oncology, immunology, rare disease, and other therapeutic areas to optimize data strategy, product launches, and market access initiatives.

Nital holds an MBA in Pharmaceutical Business and an MS in Pharmacy Administration from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, as well as a BS in Chemistry from the University of Houston. She is recognized for her ability to blend strategic vision with data-driven insights to deliver measurable business impact.

Emma Sturdee recently graduated from King’s College London with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences with a particular focus on Neuroscience and Pharmacology.  Emma joined GlobalData in 2023 and focusses her research on how different technologies impact the healthcare sector.

Liisa Palmer, PhD, is the Portfolio Leader for the Real-World Data, Research & Analytics team at MarketScan. In that role she oversees the researcher and statistical services teams who execute analyses on behalf of pharmaceutical, biotech and device customers. Liisa has more than 20 years of experience working with real-world data and helping sponsors leverage data to support regulatory requirements and payer and clinician conversations. She has co-authored numerous publications in a variety of therapeutic areas and holds a PhD in Health Policy and Administration from The Pennsylvania State University.

Megan Richards, PhD, is a researcher in the Real-World Data Research & Analytics team at MarketScan. In this role, she has experience working with large, observational datasets to investigate disease burden, healthcare utilization and costs, and treatment patterns in a variety of disease areas. Prior to joining Merative, Dr. Richards worked in the field of perinatal and pediatric epidemiology. She has published numerous peer-reviewed studies in prestigious journals and holds a PhD in Epidemiology from Indiana University Bloomington and an MPH from Drexel University.

Brenna L. Brady, PhD, is a Practice Leader in the Real-world Data Research and Analytics group at Merative, where she works with large pharmaceutical clients to identify research needs and conduct analyses to generate real-world evidence. She has worked with both retrospective and prospective data sources to execute studies in a wide variety of disease states. Brenna transitioned from biomedical research to the health economics and outcomes research space over a decade ago and has numerous publications in both fields. She holds a PhD in immunology from the University of Pennsylvania.