JAN D. FREITAG AND ANDREW GIBSON

Mr. Jan Freitag (pronounced: "Fry-tog") is a Vice President - Global Development at Smith Travel Research (STR), the recognized leader in Lodging Industry benchmarking services. In his capacity Mr. Freitag is a frequent public speaker and is quoted in trade publications and the general news media such as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Associated Press, Reuters, Forbes, etc.  He also writes a monthly column for Lodging Magazine, the official magazine of the AH&LA.

At STR he oversees a variety of projects, all charged with the accumulation and interpretation of global lodging data. Prior to joining STR, Mr. Freitag was the Director of Content Integrity at hotelreports.com in upstate New York and a hospitality consultant with Ernst & Young in Phoenix. Mr. Freitag holds a Bachelor Degree, with distinction, from the School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University, and received his Executive MBA, with honors, from Vanderbilt University.  Mr. Freitag resides in Nashville, TN.

Andrew Gibson is the Group Director of Spa for Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, providing global support to the design, development and operation of Mandarin Oriental Spas.

He is a well known and respected spa professional with twenty-five years of luxury and diversified hotel and leisure services experience.

Andrew has covered almost every part of the spa service industry. He has worked for a construction company specializing in building health facilities. He has raised money, conceptualized and built his own luxury resort spa. He has helped to establish Six Senses as a major spa trend and worked with Raison d'Etre to help leading hotels define their spa concept.

He holds a B.A. in Recreation Management and Environmental Conservation and sits on the board of Global Spa Summit and International SPA Association.