50 Influential Thought Leaders in Hospitality in ANZ

Last updated: June 2026

The hospitality sector in Australia and New Zealand produces leaders who shape how millions of people experience service, accommodation, food, and travel every year. These are the voices, practitioners, advocates, and innovators who deserve to be far better known. This list compiles 50 of the most influential thought leaders specifically operating in the ANZ hospitality context in 2026. They span hotel groups, restaurant businesses, peak industry bodies, technology innovators, sustainability advocates, and cultural entrepreneurs. Each was selected on the basis of a documented contribution to the ANZ hospitality conversation, active engagement in 2025 and 2026, and a deliberate effort to surface the real diversity of the sector across both countries.

As of June 2026, the hospitality industry across Australia and New Zealand is navigating a complex period. In New Zealand, the sector employs approximately 193,000 people directly, and the government hosted its second dedicated Hospitality Summit at Parliament in March 2026, bringing together more than 70 industry stakeholders to address the regulatory and commercial challenges the sector faces. In Australia, the accommodation sector returned to stability in 2025 after several years of volatility, with major hotel groups reporting strong forward occupancy across key markets and new five-star supply coming online in South Australia, Canberra, and regional Queensland.

The challenges at the heart of all of this are not technical. They are people challenges: how to retain talent, build cultures worth working in, lead through uncertainty, and create experiences that make guests genuinely want to return. If your leadership team is navigating these questions, consider reaching out to Jonno White at jonno@consultclarity.org. Jonno is an author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold) and Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with hospitality and tourism leadership teams on the human dynamics that define whether organisations thrive or stagnate.

Rather than repeating the global names that appear on every list, this guide has been compiled to surface the leaders genuinely shaping the ANZ sector from within it. For a broader international perspective, see the companion guide to the 50 best thought leaders in hospitality globally at consultclarity.org/post/50-best-thought-leaders-in-hospitality-2026.

Why Hospitality Leadership in ANZ Matters

The case for following ANZ hospitality thought leaders specifically is not simply geographic pride. It is a practical argument about relevance. The operating conditions in Australia and New Zealand, including the cost structure, the regulatory environment, the labour market, the relationship with Indigenous tourism, and the particular dynamics of domestic and inbound travel, are genuinely distinctive. Global frameworks and global thought leaders matter, but the practitioners who have built their expertise inside this specific context offer insights that translate directly into the challenges facing ANZ operators in 2026.

New Zealand's hospitality sector experienced the largest rise in annual liquidations of any industry in 2025, up 50% compared with the prior year according to the Centrix Credit Indicator report published in December 2025. The hospitality leaders on this list are the people publicly working through what that data means and what the industry needs to do about it. In Australia, the hospitality and accommodation workforce remains constrained, with the Australian Hotels Association and Accommodation Australia both actively engaging government on skills, migration, and training infrastructure that will define whether the sector can sustain its recovery.

To bring a facilitator into your executive team who can help translate these industry-wide challenges into specific decisions and aligned action plans, email Jonno White at jonno@consultclarity.org. Jonno's Working Genius facilitation has helped leadership teams across industries including hospitality move from conversation to commitment.

How This List Was Compiled

Each person on this list was selected on the basis of three criteria: a substantive and documented contribution to the ANZ hospitality conversation, active engagement in 2025 and 2026 through conference participation, public commentary, industry advocacy, or published content, and a deliberate effort to reflect the genuine diversity of the sector across both countries and across all its disciplines. The list spans hotel operators, food and beverage leaders, industry association executives, technology innovators, sustainability practitioners, and cultural entrepreneurs.

Category 1: Hotel Industry Leaders and Operators

The people leading Australia and New Zealand's major hotel groups carry responsibility for tens of thousands of employees, billions in asset value, and the daily experience of hundreds of thousands of guests. The voices in this category are the operators and executives defining what premium hospitality looks and feels like in the ANZ market in 2026.

1. Geoff York

Few executives have shaped the Australian premium hotel market as directly as the CEO of Crystalbrook Collection. As a founding member of the company, he has led the development of its brand and overseen the opening of multiple five-star properties across Queensland, New South Wales, and now South Australia, with Crystalbrook Sam in Adelaide due to open in late 2026 and Crystalbrook Aurora in Canberra to follow. His 35+ years of experience across Accor, Hilton, and Event Hospitality before joining Crystalbrook gives him a breadth of perspective on Australian hotel development that few current operators can match.

Geoff York's contribution to the ANZ hospitality conversation in 2026 centres on the intersection of sustainability-led luxury and an asset-light growth strategy. He spoke at the Destination Australia 2025 conference and at AHICE APAC 2026, articulating a model in which technology enables hospitality rather than replacing it, and in which management agreements provide a growth lever that does not require full ownership. His commentary on Adelaide's growing tourism market and the conditions for premium hotel investment in regional Australian cities has been influential among developers and operators alike.

2. Jane Hastings

The Managing Director and CEO of EVT Limited, one of the largest and most diversified hospitality, entertainment, and leisure companies operating across Australia, New Zealand, and Germany, Jane Hastings has held this role since July 2017. Under her leadership, EVT, which operates the QT Hotels, Rydges, LyLo, and Atura brands alongside cinemas, ski resorts, and other entertainment businesses, has expanded its international hotel footprint while delivering successive record financial results in FY24 and FY25.

Her strategic thinking on the relationship between hospitality, entertainment, and leisure, and her approach to building hotel brands that serve genuinely distinct market segments, has made her one of the most visible and cited voices in the Australian hotel sector. In 2023, she oversaw the launch of the Independent Collection by EVT, a management solution for independently branded hotels across Australia and New Zealand. Her consistent emphasis on the role of meaningful human connection in hospitality, even as technology investment accelerates, is a defining thread in her public commentary.

3. Norman Arundel

As Director of Hotels and Resorts Operations at EVT, Norman Arundel is responsible for the day-to-day performance of one of Australia and New Zealand's most established hotel portfolios. He is a recent inductee into the Accommodation Australia Hall of Fame, a recognition that reflects a career of sustained impact across multiple organisations and multiple market cycles. His dual mandate currently includes international expansion, with QT, Rydges, and Atura all assessing opportunities in Southeast Asia alongside continued growth across Australia and New Zealand.

His contribution to the public ANZ hospitality conversation has accelerated in 2025 and 2026. His article in HM Magazine's February 2026 Leaders Forum on EVT's AI investments described tangible improvements in both margins and service levels while reiterating the irreplaceable role of human connection in great hospitality. His commentary for SiteMinder on how AI is reshaping hotel distribution and guest search behaviour in April 2026 positioned him as one of the most credible practitioner voices on the technology transformation facing the sector.

4. Julian Clark

The CEO of the Lancemore Group has led the Melbourne-based family-owned boutique hotel company since 2008, building it from three properties into a nationally recognised, multi-branded group consistently rated among Australia's most awarded hotel operators. His background in corporate strategy and financial services, combined with his deep operational knowledge of the boutique hotel sector, gives him a perspective on independent hotel management that distinguishes him from the large-chain executives who dominate the industry conversation.

Julian Clark has been a board and president-level contributor to peak accommodation and tourism bodies including Accommodation Australia, the Melbourne Convention Bureau, VTIC, and IACC. On LinkedIn, he consistently posts on talent retention, the human dynamics of hospitality leadership, and what it means to build a culture in a sector with high turnover, making him one of the most engaged executive voices in the Australian boutique accommodation space.

5. Scott Boyes

As CEO of Trilogy Hotels, one of Australia's growing independent hotel management companies, Scott Boyes is building a model of independent hotel management that competes with the major chains on service quality and owner returns. He was a speaker at AHICE APAC 2026 in Adelaide, one of the most credible platforms for hotel industry thinking in the Asia-Pacific region.

His contribution to the sector conversation centres on the case for independent hotel management in a market dominated by global brands. Trilogy Hotels' growth trajectory under his leadership has become a reference point for hotel owners assessing alternatives to the major chains, and his willingness to articulate that case publicly at industry forums has made him a voice the sector follows with interest.

6. Matthew Cameron-Smith

As CEO of Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia, which operates Ayers Rock Resort and Mossman Gorge Cultural Centre, Matthew Cameron-Smith leads one of the most significant and distinctive hospitality organisations in the country. In late 2025, Voyages entered an agreement with Journey Beyond, which would acquire its operational assets while returning the land at both sites to traditional owners. Cameron-Smith and the existing management team were confirmed to continue leading the business under Journey Beyond's stewardship.

His contribution to the ANZ hospitality conversation is the proposition that authentic cultural tourism is both commercially viable and genuinely transformative for guests and communities alike. His work developing the Wintjiri Wiru experience at Uluru, a major cultural storytelling installation built in partnership with the Anangu community, set a new benchmark for how hospitality and Indigenous culture can come together in ways that are meaningful rather than tokenistic. He spoke at the Tourism and Transport Forum's Outlook Tourism Conference in 2023 and continues to be a sought-after voice on Indigenous tourism, cultural experience design, and the ethics of operating on country.

Category 2: New Zealand Hospitality Leaders

New Zealand's hospitality sector has faced some of the sharpest financial conditions in the developed world over the past two years, while simultaneously hosting the opening of the New Zealand International Convention Centre in early 2026 and preparing for the arrival of the Michelin Star review system. The leaders in this category are the people navigating those extremes from the inside.

7. Kristy Phillips

As Chief Executive of Hospitality New Zealand, Kristy Phillips is the single most prominent public advocate for the country's hospitality and accommodation sector. She was appointed to the CEO role in late 2025 after serving as the organisation's National Chair, bringing with her 20+ years of operational experience as a hospitality business owner, including 14 years running restaurants in Timaru and subsequently leading Barker's Foodstore and Eatery venues.

Her leadership of the organisation in 2026 has been defined by the second Hospitality Summit at Parliament in March, which she co-hosted with the Minister of Tourism and Hospitality, bringing more than 70 stakeholders together to develop recommendations for government. Her public commentary on the compounding effects of cost of living, fuel prices, and regulatory pressure on hospitality business viability has been frank and well-reported, making her one of the most quoted industry voices in New Zealand media.

8. James Doolan

As Strategic Director of Hotel Council Aotearoa, James Doolan is the industry's most consistent and credible voice on the regulatory challenges facing New Zealand's hotel sector. His advocacy at AHICE Aotearoa 2025, calling for a national register of short-term rental accommodation properties, and his role as an elected board member of Tourism Industry Aotearoa, position him at the intersection of the hotel sector, the broader tourism industry, and government policy.

His contribution to the conversation centres on the argument that the New Zealand hotel industry needs a unified, coherent voice to achieve the policy settings that will support long-term investment and sustainable returns. He has been a consistent presence at AHICE Aotearoa, articulating the specific conditions affecting New Zealand's hotel market.

9. Prue Daly

As General Manager of the New Zealand International Convention Centre, Prue Daly has played a defining role in preparing and opening one of New Zealand's most significant hospitality and business events infrastructure investments. The NZICC opened in Auckland on 11 February 2026, and Daly has been with the venue since 2016, progressing from Director of Sales and Marketing to GM in 2023. She is also a board member of Business Events Industry Aotearoa.

Her contribution is the practical expertise of opening a world-class convention and events venue in a market that had been without this infrastructure for years, and then building the demand and the programming to sustain it. Her background includes the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, where she earned national recognition including the Meetings and Events Australia National Business Development Person of the Year.

10. Nicola Waldren

As General Manager of the Restaurant Association of New Zealand, Nicola Waldren has stepped into a sector leadership role at one of the most challenging moments in the industry's recent history. She was one of two industry leaders who addressed the 2026 Hospitality Summit at Parliament in Wellington alongside Kristy Phillips of Hospitality NZ, making her among the most publicly visible advocates for New Zealand's restaurant and cafe sector.

Her contribution to the Restaurant Association has centred on holding the sector's advocacy voice steady through a period of leadership transition following Marisa Bidois's departure in February 2026. Her public engagement at the Hospitality Summit and her commentary on the policy levers that could support restaurant business survival and growth make her a key voice for anyone following the regulatory and commercial conditions facing New Zealand's food and beverage sector.

11. Clare Davies

As Managing Director of Capstone Hotel Management, Clare Davies has built one of New Zealand's most active independent hotel management companies, with four new hotel signings announced at AHICE Aotearoa 2025, including two eco-lodges, an Atura hotel in Wellington, and a new-build Marlborough property. Her willingness to articulate a clear growth strategy at a public industry forum distinguished her as a voice of genuine strategic confidence in the market.

Her contribution centres on the argument that independent hotel management, built around authentic local experiences and sustainable operations, offers a differentiated model in a market where generic branded accommodation has become commoditised. Her focus on eco-lodge development and regional New Zealand destinations connects to one of the most significant growth opportunities for New Zealand's hospitality sector in 2026 and beyond.

12. Kanika Jhunjhnuwala

As Chief Sustainability Officer at Hind Management, Kanika Jhunjhnuwala has become one of the most credible practitioner voices on environmental, social, and governance practice in New Zealand's hotel sector. Her keynote presentation at AHICE Aotearoa 2025, titled "Doing Good Business", explored the practical application of ESG principles in hotel operations and set out her framework for understanding sustainability not as a compliance obligation but as a business value driver.

Her contribution is the systematic translation of ESG concepts into hotel operational decisions, an area where the New Zealand hospitality sector is moving faster than many of its peers in the region. Her work with Hind Management gives her a grounded, evidence-based perspective that distinguishes her from sustainability advocates who speak from outside the industry.

Category 3: Industry Association and Policy Leaders

The organisations that advocate for hospitality businesses in government and set the conditions for the sector's long-term viability are as important as the operators themselves. The leaders in this category are the people doing that work.

13. Stephen Ferguson

As National CEO of the Australian Hotels Association, Stephen Ferguson is the most senior industry association voice for Australia's 5,000+ hotels, which collectively employ 270,000 people and generate more than $12 billion in economic activity. He has held the role for more than 11 years and renewed his contract in late 2025, extending a tenure that has seen the AHA navigate the pandemic, major regulatory shifts, and the ongoing challenge of alcohol-related policy reform at state and federal level.

His contribution is the consistent, sustained public advocacy that shapes the regulatory environment within which every Australian hotel operates. His commentary on government policy, including wage increases, energy costs, and the skills pipeline, represents the industry's collective voice at the highest level of government engagement.

14. James Goodwin

As CEO of Accommodation Australia since September 2024, James Goodwin brings a background in aviation, transport, and government relations to the peak body for the Australian accommodation sector. His prior role as CEO of the Australian Airports Association for four years gives him a clear understanding of how large infrastructure industries engage government.

His public commentary on the decision to cut apprenticeship incentives for hospitality from January 2026, warning that this could not have come at a worse time for a sector trying to rebuild its skilled workforce, was widely reported and reflects his approach of speaking plainly and specifically about the conditions facing accommodation operators.

Category 4: Food, Beverage, and Restaurant Leaders

The food and beverage dimension of ANZ hospitality is one of the most dynamic and creatively rich in the world, shaped by exceptional produce, cultural diversity, and a community of chefs and restaurateurs who set global standards.

15. Abdullah Ramay

As CEO of Pablo and Rusty's, one of Australia's most recognised specialty coffee and hospitality businesses, Abdullah Ramay leads a company that has built a distinct identity at the intersection of coffee culture, retail, and restaurant hospitality. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026, one of the most significant gatherings of Australian hospitality practitioners and suppliers of the year.

His contribution to the Australian hospitality conversation centres on how a founder-led hospitality business can build a credible brand, maintain quality at scale, and navigate the commercial pressures that come with growth. Pablo and Rusty's trajectory from a single site to a multi-venue, multi-channel business with a strong roasting operation is widely studied by operators across the sector.

16. Daryl McCormack

As CEO of Zambrero, Australia's largest Mexican restaurant group, Daryl McCormack oversees a network of locations across Australia and internationally while managing Zambrero's signature Plate 4 Plate program, which donates a meal to someone in need for every meal sold. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

His contribution to the sector conversation is the practical demonstration that hospitality businesses can integrate social impact into their core commercial model rather than treating it as an add-on to marketing. Zambrero's growth under his leadership and the scale of its Plate 4 Plate program make him a distinctive voice in a sector increasingly attentive to what its businesses are for beyond the transaction.

17. Ben Carroll

As Co-Founder and Director of Applejack Hospitality, Ben Carroll has built one of Sydney's most successful independent hospitality groups, running a portfolio of venues including The Butler, Hendricks, Tapavino, and The Botanist. His background as an operator who built the business from a single venue gives him a grounded perspective on what hospitality entrepreneurship actually involves.

His participation at Food and Hospitality Week 2026 reflects a continued commitment to contributing to the sector's public conversation. His approach to creating venues with strong individual character while operating them under a shared set of commercial and cultural principles has been influential among mid-sized independent operators across Sydney and beyond.

18. Claire Van Vuuren

As Head Chef and Owner of Bloodwood, one of Sydney's most critically admired neighbourhood restaurants, Claire Van Vuuren was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026, where her commentary on sustainable restaurant operations, seasonally driven menus, and the human dimension of running an independent venue reflected her standing as a voice on what independent hospitality can be.

Her contribution to the sector is the consistent demonstration that independent, chef-driven hospitality can be both commercially viable and genuinely connected to place, community, and the people who make food. Bloodwood's reputation and longevity in a competitive Sydney market are among the strongest evidence she can offer for that argument.

19. Chris Jordan

As a First Nations chef operating through Three Little Birds, Chris Jordan is one of the most important voices in Australia on the role of Indigenous food culture in contemporary hospitality. His presence at Food and Hospitality Week 2026 reflects growing recognition that ANZ hospitality's most distinctive contribution to the global culinary conversation is inseparable from its First Nations food traditions and relationships with country.

His contribution centres on the argument that Indigenous food sovereignty, First Nations culinary knowledge, and the integration of native ingredients into professional kitchens are not niche concerns but core to what makes Australian hospitality genuinely original. His work builds on a growing movement of First Nations practitioners reclaiming the culinary narrative of this country on their own terms.

20. Christopher The

As Founder and Chef of Hearthe, Christopher The brings a background in international fine dining to his current work building a contemporary Australian hospitality concept grounded in open-fire cooking, native ingredients, and a deliberately direct relationship between kitchen and table. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

His contribution is the ongoing articulation, through his cooking and his public commentary, of an Australian culinary identity that draws on the country's landscape and produce rather than simply replicating European or international templates. His earlier work at Cre Asion established his credibility as an operator with both technical mastery and conceptual clarity.

Category 5: Hospitality Technology and Innovation Leaders

The technology transformation reshaping hospitality is generating a cohort of leaders who build the tools, platforms, and systems that operators depend on. The voices in this category are the people at the intersection of technology and the hospitality experience.

21. Adam Theobald

As CEO of Ordermentum, Australia's leading wholesale ordering and trade payments platform for the food and beverage sector, Adam Theobald runs a business that connects thousands of venues with their suppliers and sits at the heart of the operational supply chain for much of the Australian hospitality industry. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

His contribution is the consistent argument that hospitality's operational complexity does not have to be a drag on profitability, and that well-designed technology infrastructure can free operators to focus on the guest experience rather than the logistics of running a kitchen.

22. Andrew Cameron

As Founder and CEO of Enzyme Consulting and co-chair of the AHICE Global Technology Advisory Board, Andrew Cameron is the most prominent independent voice on hotel technology strategy in the ANZ market. His keynote at AHICE Aotearoa 2025 and his continued presence at AHICE APAC 2026 made him a reference point for hotel operators trying to understand what AI, robotics, and biotechnology mean for their operations in practical terms.

His contribution is the translation of emerging technology trends into operational decisions that hotel owners and managers can actually make. The demand for this kind of grounded translation from where technology is going to what it means for a real hotel is significant and Enzyme Consulting has built a business around meeting it.

23. David Thompson

As Co-Founder and CEO of Myma.ai, a global AI platform specifically built for hospitality, tourism, and guest-centric businesses, David Thompson brings an operator's background in hotel operations and distribution to the challenge of making AI practical and commercially meaningful for hotels. He spoke at the Maximum Occupancy New Zealand accommodation conference on the practical application of AI to direct bookings and on-property guest spend.

His contribution is the specific focus on AI that works for hospitality rather than AI as a generic enterprise technology play. His roots in hotel operations give him credibility with operators who have been burned by technology promises that did not survive contact with the reality of a busy front desk or a revenue management challenge.

24. Aaron Johnson

As VP Go to Market at Deputy, one of Australia's most successful workforce management technology companies and a major platform for the hospitality sector, Aaron Johnson is a prominent voice on how technology can address the workforce management challenge at the heart of hospitality operations. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

His contribution is the practical framing of workforce technology not as a cost reduction tool but as a quality improvement enabler, reducing the friction of scheduling and communication so that managers can spend more time leading people rather than managing rosters.

25. Ben Lipschitz

As CEO and Co-Founder of FoodByUs, Australia's digital wholesale marketplace for restaurants and foodservice businesses, Ben Lipschitz has built a platform that has materially changed how thousands of Australian venues source their produce and manage their supplier relationships. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

His contribution is the demonstration that digital wholesale is not just a convenience for individual venues but a structural shift in how the ANZ food service supply chain works, with implications for pricing, availability, and the relationship between operators and the producers who supply them.

Category 6: Sustainability, Purpose, and Social Innovation Leaders

Some of the most consequential leadership in ANZ hospitality is happening in the spaces where commercial practice and environmental or social purpose intersect.

26. Matthew Burke

As Regional Director Asia Pacific (excluding China) at STR, Matthew Burke is the most credible independent data voice on ANZ hotel market performance. STR is the global leader in hotel benchmarking data, and his regular presentations at AHICE APAC and AHICE Aotearoa give operators, developers, and investors the most rigorous available picture of what is actually happening in the accommodation market across the region.

His contribution is the consistent provision of data-backed perspective at a moment when many industry conversations rely on anecdote and forward-looking optimism rather than rigorous current evidence. His commentary at the Accommodation Australia SA forum in 2025, presenting on Adelaide's room supply dynamics and forecasting market trends for 2026, was cited by multiple attendees as the most practically useful session of the event.

27. Charlton Hoing

As Industry Director at End Food Waste Australia, Charlton Hoing is the most prominent hospitality-sector voice on food waste reduction and the practical steps that restaurants, hotels, and food service operations can take to reduce waste, improve margins, and demonstrate environmental responsibility. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

His contribution is the translation of food waste statistics and sustainability frameworks into operational decisions that hospitality businesses can actually implement. End Food Waste Australia's work across the supply chain gives him a perspective that extends well beyond any single venue or business.

28. Callie van der Merwe

As CEO of COOOP, an Australian company building a cooperative ownership model for hospitality businesses, Callie van der Merwe is one of the more distinctive voices in the current ANZ hospitality conversation on alternative business structures, shared ownership, and what it means to build hospitality organisations in which the people who work in them have a genuine stake in the outcome. She was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

Her contribution is the practical argument that the hospitality sector's workforce challenges, including burnout, turnover, and the difficulty of retaining great people, are partly a structural issue that alternative ownership models can address.

29. Dr Lilly Lim-Camacho

As Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO, Dr Lilly Lim-Camacho brings scientific rigour to the food system questions that are increasingly central to how hospitality businesses think about their supply chains, ingredient sourcing, and the environmental impact of their operations. She was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

Her contribution is the bridge between food science research and commercial hospitality practice, a connection that is essential for operators who want to make evidence-based decisions about sustainability, sourcing, and menu development rather than relying on trend reporting and marketing claims.

Category 7: Hotel Investment, Development, and Advisory Leaders

The people who advise on hotel investment, value assets, arrange capital, and connect owners with operators are as important to the sector's health as the operators themselves.

30. Jennifer Davey

As Director of Research and Development at Horwath HTL, Australia's leading hotel advisory firm, Jennifer Davey is one of the most credible research voices on the ANZ hotel market. Horwath HTL's annual hotel market research is among the most cited sources in the sector, and her role directing that research function gives her a breadth of knowledge across every segment of the market.

Her contribution is the consistent production of rigorous, independent market research that gives owners, operators, developers, and investors a factual baseline for their decisions. She was a speaker at AHICE APAC 2026, presenting on market research findings that informed panel discussions on investment and development conditions across the region.

31. Sam Abel

As Executive Hotels at Colliers in Australia, Sam Abel is one of the most active advisors on hotel transactions, investment sales, and asset management in the ANZ market. His presence at AHICE APAC 2026 reflects a role that sits at the centre of conversations between hotel owners considering their exit options, capital looking to enter the market, and operators seeking assets to grow their portfolios.

His contribution is the practical knowledge of how hotel transactions come together, what buyers and sellers are thinking about, and what the capital markets are saying about the relative attractiveness of the ANZ hotel sector as an investment.

32. Andrew Bullock

As Executive Chairman of 1834 Hotels, Andrew Bullock chairs one of the most active hotel management and ownership groups operating across regional South Australia and the Northern Territory. 1834 Hotels is a significant partner at AHICE APAC, reflecting its standing as a committed long-term operator in some of Australia's most distinctive and challenging hospitality markets.

His contribution centres on the case for investing in regional Australian hospitality, including markets like Broken Hill, Coober Pedy, Kangaroo Island, and the Northern Territory, where the economics of hotel ownership are complex and the cultural and tourism significance is high.

33. Adrian Williams

As COO Pacific Premium Midscale and Economy at Accor since January 2024, Adrian Williams oversees the operational performance of one of the largest hotel networks in the ANZ market, comprising hundreds of properties under brands including Ibis, Novotel, Mercure, Pullman, MGallery, and Sofitel. He has been with Accor for 26 years. He co-chairs the Victorian advisory board of Accommodation Australia and serves as a Board Member of the Melbourne Convention Bureau.

His contribution is the operational expertise of running a large-scale hotel network with significant consistency of service across a massive diversity of market contexts. His long tenure with Accor gives him an institutional knowledge of the ANZ market's evolution that is genuinely uncommon.

Category 8: Emerging Voices and Future-Shapers

The next generation of ANZ hospitality leadership is already building, posting, speaking, and experimenting. The voices in this category are the practitioners who are earlier in their careers but whose contribution to the sector's conversation is already substantive enough to warrant a position on this list.

34. Bianca Dawson

As Chief Training and Development Officer at Australian Venue Co and New Zealand Venue Co, Bianca Dawson oversees the people development infrastructure for one of the largest hospitality venue operators across both countries. Her role sits at the intersection of the sector's biggest challenge, retaining and developing talent in a high-turnover industry, and the practical systems that can address it.

Her presence at Food and Hospitality Week 2026 as a speaker reflected growing recognition of the talent development dimension of hospitality leadership as a strategic rather than operational concern. Her approach to building training and development infrastructure at scale, across a multi-brand, multi-country operation, offers a model for the sector on what investment in people capability looks like when it is taken seriously at the executive level.

35. Anna Pavoni

As Chief Business Officer at Maestro Hospitality and the commercial force behind Cibaria at Manly Pacific, Anna Pavoni brings experience in multi-venue hospitality development and commercial strategy to her contribution to the sector conversation. She was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026, where her commentary on building commercial models for complex hospitality operations drew on direct experience.

Her contribution is the articulation of what it takes to build commercially viable hospitality businesses in a premium but competitive market, combining fine dining ambition with the financial discipline that allows venues to survive beyond the first years of operation.

36. Daniel Drakopoulos

As Managing Director of SRG Hospitality, an Australian hospitality management and consulting business, Daniel Drakopoulos works with hotel and food and beverage operators across the country on operational strategy, revenue management, and leadership development. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

His contribution is the practitioner knowledge of what separates hospitality businesses that perform consistently from those that struggle, drawn from work across multiple business types and multiple market contexts. His willingness to share operational frameworks and management insights at public forums contributes to a sector where practitioner knowledge often stays inside businesses rather than circulating more widely.

37. Alexandra Preece

As General Manager of the Gradi Group, operators of some of Melbourne's most acclaimed Italian restaurants including Johnny's Green Room and Gradi, Alexandra Preece leads a team responsible for one of the most recognised names in the Australian dining scene. She was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

Her contribution centres on the operational discipline required to run multiple high-profile venues to a consistent standard, including the people management, quality control, and brand stewardship that prevent successful restaurants from declining as they scale.

38. Asantha Wijeyeratne

As Executive Director, CEO, and Co-Founder of PaySauce, the New Zealand payroll and workforce compliance platform specifically designed for the hospitality and service sectors, Asantha Wijeyeratne has built one of the most sector-relevant technology companies in the New Zealand hospitality ecosystem. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

His contribution is the practical technology infrastructure that reduces the regulatory burden on hospitality operators across New Zealand, allowing them to focus on their guest experience and commercial performance rather than the complexity of employment compliance.

39. Ben Creek

As Vice President Food and Beverage for Asia and Pacific at Accor, Ben Creek is responsible for the food and beverage strategy across one of the largest hotel networks in the region. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026, and his perspective on the evolving role of food and beverage in hotel performance, revenue strategy, and guest experience is informed by one of the broadest operational remits of any F&B leader in the ANZ market.

His contribution is the enterprise-level perspective on how food and beverage transforms from a cost centre into a competitive differentiator in hotel operations, drawing on Accor's experience across hundreds of properties.

40. Steve Finlayson

As General Manager of Playford Adelaide, operating under Accor's MGallery brand, Steve Finlayson was a speaker at AHICE APAC 2026, where his perspective on managing a heritage boutique hotel in the context of Adelaide's rapidly growing tourism market drew on direct experience in one of Australia's most interesting emerging hotel cities.

His contribution is the practitioner knowledge of what it means to manage a distinctive, character-rich hotel in a market that is both growing and becoming more competitive, including the challenge of maintaining a boutique identity within a large international hotel network.

41. Amanda Bolger

As General Manager of Global PR and Communications at Luxury Escapes, Amanda Bolger oversees the communications strategy for a business that has reshaped how Australian consumers discover and book premium travel and hotel experiences. She was a speaker at AHICE APAC 2026.

Her contribution is the articulation of how hospitality brands build consumer trust and preference in a digital environment, drawing on Luxury Escapes' experience of building one of Australia's most engaged travel media and commerce platforms from scratch.

42. Charlie Hachem

As Co-Founder of Piccolo Me, a growing Australian specialty coffee and cafe group, Charlie Hachem represents the generation of hospitality entrepreneurs who are building multi-site cafe businesses with a clear identity around product quality, community, and a consistent service culture. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

His contribution is the practical wisdom of building a hospitality brand in a format, specialty cafe, where identity and consistency are simultaneously most important and most difficult to maintain at scale.

43. Rens Breur

As General Manager of Pan Pacific Perth, appointed in March 2025 to lead the hotel through a $50 million refurbishment, Rens Breur brings 30+ years of global hospitality leadership to the Western Australian market. His oversight of a major refurbishment of one of Perth's most iconic properties at a moment when Western Australia's tourism market is expanding makes him one of the more interesting practitioner voices on premium hotel management in a non-Sydney/Melbourne context.

His contribution is the operational and brand expertise of managing a five-star hotel through a major capital transformation, balancing the disruption of construction with the maintenance of service standards and guest experience for a hotel that remains in operation throughout.

44. Matt Padernal

As Head of Delivery at Hospitality New Zealand and the creator of the Go with Tourism programme, Matt Padernal has contributed one of the most significant workforce development initiatives in New Zealand's hospitality and tourism sector. The programme connects job seekers with hospitality and tourism employers, addressing the structural workforce supply challenge that is the sector's most persistent constraint in New Zealand.

His contribution centres on the practical workforce pipeline infrastructure that the sector depends on, an area where the gap between what is needed and what exists has been most visible during the workforce shortages of 2023 through 2025. His experience at Hospitality New Zealand gives him a national perspective on the workforce dimension of hospitality leadership.

45. Bobby Kamal

As Founder of Stanley Green Plant Shop Cafe and Bar in Sydney, Bobby Kamal represents a cohort of ANZ hospitality entrepreneurs who are building venues with a distinct point of view on what a cafe or bar can be as a community space, design proposition, and social enterprise. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

His contribution is the exploration of hybrid hospitality formats that combine food and beverage service with retail experience in ways that serve the needs of specific communities and reflect specific values. His work at Stanley Green represents one of the more interesting current experiments in what the neighbourhood hospitality venue can be in a post-pandemic urban environment.

46. Dwane Goodman

As COO of GEMA Group, one of Australia's growing hospitality and venue management companies, Dwane Goodman brings operational leadership experience across complex multi-venue hospitality environments. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026.

His contribution is the practitioner knowledge of what COO-level operational leadership looks like in a mid-sized Australian hospitality group: the systems, the people decisions, the vendor relationships, and the daily operational discipline that translate a strong concept into a reliably well-run business.

47. Paul Ayyash

As Founder of Hospo Dojo and a hospitality service consultant, Paul Ayyash has built a practice specifically focused on service culture, team training, and the human dimension of guest experience in the Australian hospitality sector. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026, and his work with venue owners and operators on service quality and team capability represents a category of practitioner-consultant expertise that is genuinely valuable in a sector where the difference between a great experience and a forgettable one is almost entirely a people question.

His contribution is the consistent articulation of service as a learnable, teachable discipline rather than a matter of luck or personality, and the practical tools and frameworks that hospitality teams can use to build more consistent and genuinely hospitable guest experiences.

48. Alexander Cohen

As CEO of Three Hat Robotics, Alexander Cohen is building one of Australia's most interesting experiments at the intersection of robotics, automation, and hospitality service. He was a speaker at Food and Hospitality Week 2026, and his perspective on where robotic technology is practically useful in food service and hospitality operations, and where the human element remains essential, reflects a more nuanced approach to automation than the typical technology pitch.

His contribution is the honest assessment of what robotics can and cannot currently do in a hospitality context, drawing on direct operational experience of deploying automated systems in Australian hospitality businesses.

49. Emma Terry

As CEO of the South Australian Tourism Commission, Emma Terry is one of the most significant government-aligned voices shaping the hospitality and tourism landscape in South Australia, a market that is rapidly growing as a premium destination. She outlined the SATC's refreshed Tourism Plan 2030 at the Accommodation Australia SA forum in Adelaide in 2025, with a vision for South Australian tourism experience anchored in people, place, and story.

Her contribution is the coordination of public investment, destination marketing, and tourism infrastructure development in a way that creates the conditions for private hospitality investment to succeed. South Australia's emergence as a premium hotel market in 2025 and 2026 is partly the result of this coordinated public-sector strategy, and her leadership of SATC is central to it.

50. Georgina Williams

As Acting CEO of the Australian Revenue Management Association (ARMA), Georgina Williams leads the peak body for revenue management professionals in Australia's accommodation sector. Her profile at the Maximum Occupancy Sydney conference, where she presented on the 2024/2025 revenue management landscape and the holistic commercial lens operators need to apply to performance optimisation, reflects a contribution to a discipline increasingly central to how hotels manage profitability in a volatile demand environment.

Her contribution is the elevation of revenue management from a technical operational function to a strategic commercial leadership conversation, and the building of professional community and accreditation infrastructure that helps practitioners across the sector develop their expertise more systematically.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Any list covering 50 ANZ hospitality voices involves genuinely difficult decisions about who to prioritise. Several voices were seriously considered for inclusion but ultimately landed outside the final selection. David Thompson's work building Myma.ai's AI platform is significant and his NZ hospitality sector engagement is genuine, though the global scope of his current work made his ANZ-specific contribution harder to bound. Simon McGrath, CEO of Crown Sydney and former Accor Pacific CEO, has a long and distinguished career in Australian hotels but his current role sits in the gaming and entertainment complex space rather than hotel management specifically. Sarah Derry, former CEO of Accor Pacific and one of the most prominent hospitality leaders to emerge in Australia in recent years, is now CEO of Homeward Bound, a STEMM nonprofit, having departed the hospitality sector. James Wilkinson of HM Magazine and AHICE has an extraordinary breadth of contact across the ANZ hotel industry and his editorial platform shapes the sector conversation in important ways, though his role is media and convening rather than operational or advocacy leadership.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Following Hospitality Thought Leadership

The most common mistake hospitality leaders make when looking for thought leadership to follow is defaulting to global names at the expense of ANZ voices. The global hospitality conversation is rich and valuable. But the specific operating conditions of Australia and New Zealand mean that many global frameworks need significant translation to be useful in this context.

A second common mistake is equating size of platform with quality of insight. Some of the most useful hospitality thought leadership in ANZ comes from practitioners with modest social media followings who are sharing direct operational knowledge from the front line of their businesses. The CEO of a 150-room boutique hotel in regional Victoria who posts honestly about the challenges of running a hotel in 2026 often offers more actionable insight than a global consultant keynoting at a conference in Las Vegas.

A third mistake is treating hospitality thought leadership as a separate discipline from leadership itself. The most persistently useful ANZ hospitality voices, including the majority of the people on this list, are ultimately talking about leadership: how to build a culture, how to retain great people, how to make decisions under uncertainty, how to align a team around a purpose, and how to communicate honestly with the people who depend on you.

If your team needs structured support working through those questions, consider Jonno White at jonno@consultclarity.org. Jonno is an author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold) and Certified Working Genius Facilitator who facilitates executive team workshops and leadership offsites for organisations across Australia, New Zealand, and internationally. Many clients find that international travel to engage Jonno is far more affordable than they expected.

Implementation Guide: How to Use This List

The most practical way to use this list is to start with the people whose area of expertise is most directly relevant to the challenge your organisation is currently facing. If you are navigating workforce retention and culture, the voices in the association leaders and emerging voices categories offer the most current and specific perspective. If you are assessing hotel investment, development, or a management agreement decision, the investment and advisory category voices offer direct expertise. If food and beverage strategy is your focus, categories 4 and 5 are your starting points.

Once you have identified two or three voices most relevant to your immediate challenges, engage with their content systematically rather than casually. Follow them on LinkedIn, read their trade media contributions, and if they speak at conferences, attend or watch the sessions. The depth of understanding you build from sustained engagement with a small number of credible voices is more valuable than the superficial awareness that comes from casually browsing a long list.

The people on this list are, almost without exception, active contributors to the ANZ hospitality conversation across multiple channels. Many of them speak at AHICE, at HNZ conferences, at Food and Hospitality Week, and at state-level accommodation and tourism forums. Attendance at even one or two events per year puts you in direct proximity to the thinking of the people most actively shaping the sector's direction.

If your leadership team needs to make significant decisions about strategy, culture, talent, or direction, the right thought leadership to follow will help you think more clearly. To discuss what working with Jonno White as a facilitator or keynote speaker might look like for your team, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the most influential hospitality thought leaders in Australia?

The most influential hospitality thought leaders in Australia in 2026 include Geoff York of Crystalbrook Collection, Jane Hastings of EVT Limited, Norman Arundel also of EVT, Julian Clark of the Lancemore Group, and Stephen Ferguson of the Australian Hotels Association. These are the voices most consistently engaging the sector on strategy, technology, culture, and the policy conditions affecting hotel and venue performance. Jonno White facilitates leadership team sessions for hospitality and tourism organisations and can be reached at jonno@consultclarity.org.

Who are the top hospitality leaders to follow in New Zealand?

The most prominent hospitality thought leaders in New Zealand in 2026 include Kristy Phillips of Hospitality New Zealand, James Doolan of Hotel Council Aotearoa, Prue Daly of the New Zealand International Convention Centre, Nicola Waldren of the Restaurant Association of New Zealand, and Clare Davies of Capstone Hotel Management. Each brings a distinct perspective on the specific conditions facing New Zealand's hospitality sector in 2026.

What is the best hospitality conference in Australia for industry leaders?

AHICE APAC (Australasian Hotel Industry Conference and Exhibition) is the largest and most influential hotel conference in the Asia-Pacific region, returning to Adelaide Oval in May each year. Food and Hospitality Week in Melbourne draws a broad range of food service and restaurant sector voices. The Australian Hotels Association hosts state and national events particularly relevant for pub and accommodation operators.

How do I find a hospitality keynote speaker or facilitator for my team?

The people on this list include many experienced keynote speakers and facilitators. For leadership development, team dynamics, and culture work specifically, Jonno White works with hospitality and tourism leadership teams through keynotes, Working Genius facilitation, and executive team offsites. To discuss booking, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Final Thoughts

The 50 voices on this list represent one carefully considered perspective on who is genuinely shaping the ANZ hospitality conversation in 2026. The sector is larger, more complex, and more diverse than any single list can fully capture, and any selection of 50 from thousands of active practitioners involves real decisions about what kinds of contribution matter most.

What is clear from assembling this list is that the ANZ hospitality sector has exceptional leadership depth. The people building hotels, running restaurant groups, advocating for the sector in government, developing hospitality technology, and educating the next generation of practitioners across Australia and New Zealand are among the most committed, thoughtful, and energetic practitioners in any industry. They are navigating genuinely difficult conditions with visible resilience and visible creativity.

The common thread running through the voices on this list is not sector loyalty or industry convention. It is a genuine belief that the quality of the experience a hospitality business creates, whether a $20 breakfast in a neighbourhood cafe or a $700 suite in a five-star hotel, is ultimately determined by the quality of the leadership and the culture that sustains it.

To discuss bringing Jonno White into your leadership team to facilitate that conversation, book Jonno White for a keynote, or run a Working Genius workshop for your executive team, email jonno@consultclarity.org. Jonno is the author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold) and Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with organisations around the world. Many organisations find that flying Jonno in for a session costs far less than they expected. Whether virtual or face to face, reach out at jonno@consultclarity.org.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, author of Step Up or Step Out, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75% satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected. To book Jonno for your next keynote, workshop, or facilitation session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Sources

New Zealand Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality (2026 Hospitality Summit, March 2026). Centrix Credit Indicator Report (December 2025). Hotel Management Australia, Geoff York interview (May 2026). AccomNews (March 2026, AHICE Aotearoa 2025).

Next Read

The leadership challenges at the heart of hospitality are not unique to the sector. Whether you are managing a high-turnover team, navigating a merger, or trying to build a culture that retains great people, the frameworks and conversations that matter most are universal leadership ones. For a broader perspective on how organisational and consulting leaders across Australia and New Zealand are addressing these questions, see my blog post '50 Outstanding Consulting Thought Leaders in ANZ' at https://www.consultclarity.org/post/consulting-thought-leaders-anz.