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Scott Gillespie

Principal
KSG Holdings

Scott Gillespie, Principal of KSG Holdings, focuses on building intellectual capital for the travel industry. He is currently working on a book describing best practices in travel procurement.

Scott founded Travel Analytics in 1999 to provide strategic sourcing services to major corporate travel buyers around the world. TRX acquired Travel Analytics in 2006. Scott ran the Travel Analytics unit within TRX for a year, and then took on responsibilities for TRX’s global strategic initiatives.

Scott is regarded as the industry’s leading expert in the field of strategic sourcing of travel suppliers. Prior to founding Travel Analytics, Scott spent eight years with A.T. Kearney where he was the firm’s global expert for travel sourcing projects.

He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS from Arizona State.

Sherie Hermann
Global Project Manager
Hotel Consulting
CWT

As global project manager for the CWT Solutions Group’s hotel consulting practice, Sherie Hermann helps clients develop and optimize managed hotel programs of all sizes. She uses her expertise to assist with rate auditing and hotelier sourcing, and helps client drive ongoing program improvements with a focus on driving improvements in savings, data integrity, and traveler service.

Sherie has more than 15 years of sourcing experience and has been with Carlson Wagonlit

Travel for more than five years. Prior to joining CWT, Sherie worked for General Electric (GE) Capital Fleet Services, and was focused on sourcing, supplier management, six sigma/process improvement, and customer service.

Sherie is based in Minneapolis and holds a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications from

Minnesota’s St. Cloud State University.

Lana K. Yoshii

Vice President, Research 

Smith Travel Research

Ms. Lana K. Yoshii is Vice President, Research for STR (Smith Travel Research), the leading authority on lodging industry performance trends. STR benchmarks hotel occupancy, rate, and revenue through its STAR program. In 2007, STR expanded their benchmarking efforts outside of North America with the creation of STR Global and now receives data from over 37,000 hotels worldwide. Their commitment to confidentiality and accuracy has set the industry standard for over twenty years.

Ms. Yoshii is responsible for developing new products to supplement STR’s current offerings as well as heading the hospitality industry research team.  Her current projects include a market forecast product and other industry research.

Ms. Yoshii has 22 years of global lodging industry experience. She has a broad background which includes internal audit, finance and accounting, market analysis, performance metrics, competitive intelligence, custom and syndicated research, and customer satisfaction metrics. Prior to joining STR, Ms. Yoshii was Senior Director of (Global) Research for Hilton Worldwide. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Christian Brothers University.