New Strategy Chairs to Join HTNG’s Global Strategy Team

HTNG announces two new Strategy Chairs to join its Global Strategy Team and lead the Staff Recruiting and Engagement Pillar, and the newly launched Distribution Pillar.

Hyatt Hotel Corporation’s Director of IT – Hotel Openings, Mark Retnam, and VP of HR ASPAC, Katie Carter, have been elected to serve as Strategy Chairs for HTNG’s Staff Recruiting and Engagement Pillar. The mission of this pillar is to improve technology and its use to increase staff engagement, to make staff members’ lives easier and to generate greater productivity while also making careers in hospitality operations and IT more attractive.

Retnam and Carter state, “We are truly honored to have been chosen as co-chairs for the HTNG Staff Recruiting and Engagement Strategic Pillar. People are at the heart of our industry and the thoughtful application of technology can have a very positive impact on colleague engagement, their quality of life in the workspace and their productivity. We are very excited to work with the HTNG community and the larger hospitality industry to bring this vision to life.”

HTNG has grown their partnerships with the OpenTravel Alliance and the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association (HEDNA) to now facilitate joint workgroups which support improved distribution strategies. The first two efforts include the recently launched Open Payments Alliance (OPA) and Unique Global Identifier (UGI) working groups.

These groups align to a new Strategic Pillar between HTNG and OpenTravel which focuses on distribution. Oracle Hospitality's Senior Director Distribution Strategy, Tom Coulthurst, has been elected to serve as the Strategy Chair for the Distribution Pillar.

Coulthurst shares his vision for the new pillar, “I find it very important for the industry to provide both hotel chains and other travel verticals a seamless way to represent their products and brand identity to easily activate and manage all distribution channels. I’m excited to be able to lead this effort by HTNG and OpenTravel.”

For more information on HTNG’s Strategic Pillars, please visit: http://ow.ly/eYFn30onAF4