As Vice President of Digital Experience at The Ascott Limited (Ascott), Dennis plays a pivotal role in shaping and optimising the company’s digital ecosystem to amplify brand awareness and drive revenue through direct channels. He spearheads the development and enhancement of Ascott’s MarTech stack for marketing automation, ensuring that the global hospitality company with over 950 properties in more than 40 countries remains at the forefront of digital innovation.
Dennis brings to Ascott a wealth of technological and business expertise, honed during his tenures at Accenture, Bank of America, and CapitaLand, and through his entrepreneurial venture. This distinctive blend of skills has empowered him to successfully execute many large-scale projects and greatly contribute to business profitability. Under his leadership, Ascott has successfully implemented app strategies that have significantly fuelled user acquisition and revenue growth.
Dennis is particularly passionate about harnessing emerging trends to revolutionise the hospitality industry and envisions a future where personalisation becomes intuitive and seamless, elevating the guest experience to unprecedented heights.
Pollen Projects is a non-alcoholic venture studio based in Essex, where Jack heads up the research and development of new projects. Their first project; seasn, aims to bring uniquely flavoured LIGHT and DARK cocktail bitters to the industry without alcohol.
The second project; Sylva is a love letter to the core of what makes dark spirits so alluring, namely the exploration of grain and wood, whilst utilising super modern culinary techniques to extract unique flavours unseen in traditional spirits.
Jack has been a part of the drinks industry for the past decade, working in many parts of the sector from world-leading high-end wine cocktail service, spirits brand advocacy, RTD development and project consultancy. He was part of the Dandelyan team to win both World’s Best Bar from Tales of the Cocktail and No.1 at 50 Bets Bars, he created Auchentoshan’s Bartender’s Malt edition one and was the liquid development lead for Whitebox Cocktails series of canned cocktails.
With 17yrs’ experience in FMCG, 10 of these in the non-alcoholic Beverages Category, Lucy has strong expertise on what it takes to develop winning beverages, aligned to consumer needs. Her current role sees her focusing on developing portfolios that are not just tasty and refreshing – but also permissible. She has consistently strengthened Lipton’s category-leading position on sustainability, making products that are more sustainable by design for both People & Planet across their entire lifecycle.
Cesare is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Oncoheroes Biosciences Inc., a Boston-based biotech company focused on pediatric oncology drug development. Cesare has more than 20 years of experience in the drug development field, in both scientific and commercial roles. Previously, he held senior positions at AMRI, Aptuit Laurus, ThalesNano and Auxiliis. Cesare started his career as research scientist in a pharmaceutical company (Eisai, London) and in academia (Institute of Enzymology, Budapest).
Following the death of his first daughter Laura to cancer, Cesare set up aPODD Foundation, a London-based charity focused on accelerating paediatric oncology drug development. As aPODD’s chairman he is actively involved on a pro-bono basis in drug repurposing projects, advocacy efforts and research collaborations.
Cesare holds an MSc in Applied Molecular Biology and a PhD in Neurosciences from UCL, University of London, as well as an MBA from the Central European University, Budapest.
