Prakash Krishamurthy

Prakash Krishnamurthy is the Director Transactions & Asset Management for Europe at IHG®, one of the world’s leading hotel companies. He is responsible for the development and growth of IHG’s brand portfolio across Europe, with a focus on priority markets within the region.

Alex Kuhl

Alex Kuhl serves as Regional Senior Vice President of Development for IHG Hotels & Resorts, leading growth for the Luxury, Lifestyle, and Premium portfolio across the U.S. and Canada. With more than 22 years at IHG, Alex has held senior roles spanning development, operations, and commercial functions. His career also includes experience with Millennium & Copthorne Hotels and Starwood Hotels & Resorts. He holds a BA in History from Denison University and a Certificate in Hotel Real Estate Investment and Asset Management from Cornell University. Based in IHG’s New York office, Alex brings deep industry expertise and a strong track record of success across all chain scales and several international markets.

Nishant Kumar

Nishant Kumar is the Director of Development for South West Asia at IHG®, responsible for the development and growth of IHG’s brand portfolio across the region.

Nishant has over 18 years of experience in Real Estate, Infrastructure and the hospitality industry. Since joining IHG in 2017, he has been instrumental in expanding IHG’s brand footprint across the South West Asia region. His key signings include the debut of the Staybridge Suites brand in Bengaluru, the ‘Silicon Valley of India’, InterContinental Bengaluru, and relaunching the InterContinental brand in Sri Lanka with the signing of InterContinental Colombo. He also led the signing of a four-hotel portfolio deal under Holiday Inn brand family, which uniquely positions IHG as the first international operator in the Buddhist Circuit of India.

Prior to IHG, Nishant was with Starwood Hotel & Resorts where he was a key member of its i100 plan to induce strong growth momentum for its brands in SWA region.. Before joining Starwood, Nishant was with DLF Limited, where he represented the ownership core team to form the DLF-Hilton joint venture in India, as well as the acquisition of Aman Resorts portfolio in 2007.

Nishant holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, majoring in Finance with a minor in Economics and received his PGDBA from IMT Ghaziabad.

Shi'ai Liang

Shi'ai Liang is the Senior Development Director for South East Asia & Korea at IHG^®, one of the world’s leading hotel companies. She is responsible for the expansion of IHG’s brand portfolio across South East Asia & Korea, particularly in Malaysia, Maldives and Cambodia.

Shi'ai joined IHG with over 14 years of experience in hotel development. Prior to IHG, she was Vice President, Head of Development APAC for Blueground, the world's leading flexible living operator. During her time with Blueground, she signed strategic partnership agreements for Blueground's entry into Japan and Thailand. Before Blueground, she held hotel development roles with Marriott International, Rosewood Hotel Group, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and Pan Pacific Hotels Group.

Shi’ai holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture degree from the National University of Singapore and a Master of Management in Hospitality from Cornell University, with a concentration in real estate finance.

Alex Mai

Alex is responsible for setting the strategy, planning, negotiating/executing hotel deals and managing the growth and expansion of all brands for IHG Hotels & Resorts in Latin America & Caribbean countries. Alex has more than 25 years of practical, hands-on experience with hotels, resorts, brand management, real estate, and operation. He has worked on hundreds of hotel assets, negotiations, and hotel performances across the United States, Latin America & Caribbean.

Prior to joining IHG, Alex was the Head of Development and Vice President of development for Latin America & Caribbean for Choice Hotels International and Radisson Hotels Group Americas, where he was responsible for the growth of all brands. Alex was also President & Founder of ALBA Hospitality from 2020 to 2022, where he was responsible for strategic asset positioning, management contract negotiations, and hotel real estate transactions. Prior to that, Alex worked for Hilton Hotels Corporation from 2007 to 2020 holding various Management positions in Development, Brand Management for Full & Focused Service, Owners Relations, and Training. In his free time, Alex enjoys exercising outdoors with his wife and Siberian Husky and watching European Soccer matches. 

Miguel Martins

Miguel Martins is the Head of Development for Northern Europe at IHG®, one of the world’s leading hotel companies. He is responsible for leading and developing IHG’s brand portfolio across Northern Europe, covering 17 countries, and identifying new business opportunities.

Miguel and his team work collaboratively with development partners to deliver value for both franchised and managed hotels across luxury, upscale and mainstream brands. In his tenure with IHG, he has since signed over 40 new deals across the Northern Europe region.

With extensive international experience in hotel development and hotel operations, he has been involved in over 20 projects in Europe, including Portugal, Spain and Poland. Prior to joining IHG in 2015, Miguel co-founded Polish Hotel Company, a strategic growth Partner, responsible for the roll out of some of IHG’s most well-known brands in Poland, such as Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo and Crowne Plaza.

Miguel also worked as a Senior Consultant at an international hotel & asset management company based in Portugal where he was involved on various projects under local and international brands and experienced several functions in hotel operations.

Elena McGarry

Elena McGarry is the Development Manager for DACH at IHG®, one of the world’s leading hotel companies. She is responsible for the development and growth of IHG’s brand portfolio across the DACH region, particularly in Germany and Austria.

Mudassir Naqib

Mudassir Naqib is the Development Director for South West Asia at IHG®, one of the world’s leading hotel companies. He is responsible for the development and growth of IHG’s brand portfolio across the region.

Ram Narayanan

Ram Narayanan is the Senior Development Manager for Indonesia at IHG®, one of the world’s leading hotel companies. He is responsible for the expansion of IHG’s brand portfolio across Indonesia.

Ram brings over 14 years of real estate and project experience across Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Prior to IHG, he was with Pomeroy Studio in Singapore as property & real estate associate. Prior to that, he was Head of Business Development and International Sales at Sinar Mas Land in Indonesia, where he specialised in negotiations for international joint ventures and managed property development cycles, with some exposure to hotel resort planning and management contracts.

His past experience also includes roles in the proptech sector with Cloud Kitchens, management consulting with Deloitte, and with the Malaysian Government as a public transport regulator. 

Ram holds an Honours degree in Economics from the University of Durham and has lived and worked across 5 countries.