As Chief Financial Officer, Tony Hounshell brings 25 years of executive leadership experience to work in guiding Forbes Travel Guide's overall financial strategy. His department oversees a breadth of functions, including accounting, finance, treasury and tax; financial planning, analysis and corporate development; human resources; and investor relations.

Hounshell began his career in public accounting at a Big Four firm, later moving into advisory services at that firm and other global consultancies. His advisory experience spans forensic, transaction, risk management and performance improvement services. He regularly assisted boards of directors, audit committees, management and their legal counsel to address significant and complex matters. Hounshell has worked in more than 25 countries across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He is a Certified Public Accountant and an active member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

As Director of Ratings, Kaitlyn Jahelka oversees the compilation of Ratings data that determines the annual list of Star Award winners and manages global expansion planning, determining the best new properties and destinations to be Star Rated. Working alongside the Vice President, Ratings, Jahelka is responsible for providing recommendations and input to the President of Ratings. Jahelka also plays an integral role in the annual standards revisions process and provides expertise and consultation on standards applications.

Beginning at Forbes Travel Guide in 2012, Jahelka held various roles in Evaluation Operations and Reporting, including as a full-time evaluator, before joining the Ratings team in 2018. She has stayed in more than 200 luxury hotels across 40 countries and six continents, developing a deep understanding of trends in the global hospitality industry and today’s luxury guest.

For more than 20 years, Hervé Houdré has been one of the foremost advocates of sustainable hospitality, a term that he coined in the early 2000s. Houdré established the model for sustainable luxury during his time managing distinguished properties such as Hôtel Plaza Athénée, New York; Hôtel de Crillon and Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris; Willard InterContinental in Washington, D.C.; and during his tenure as the chief operating officer for Kempinski Hotels.

Houdré’s efforts and passion to promote sustainability in his industry have been highlighted across a wide spectrum of media in the U.S. and abroad. He was recognized as the 2006 Independent Hotelier of the World by HOTELS magazine readers, and his leadership earned him the 2009 Condé Nast Traveler World Saver Award, the D.C. Downtown Citizen honor and the D.C. Chamber of Commerce 2009 award.

Matthieu Yamoum serves as Forbes Travel Guide's Global Ambassador of Wine, sharing his deeply informed perspective in the wine and hospitality industries.

Raised among the vines in France’s Champagne region, Yamoum applied his innate passion for champagne to his career. As the wine director of Baccarat Hotel New York, he curated one of the world's most extensive champagne menus.

Yamoum released his own champagne with Piper-Heidsieck in 2020 and launched an innovative concept wine store, Maison MURA, in Miami in 2022 to rave reviews.

He is a member of the Jurade of Saint-Émilion, the Confraria do Vinho do Porto and the Sommelier Society of America, and is certified by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.

An industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in the travel and hospitality industry, Richard Lebowitz is building awareness of Star Rated hotels across the global luxury travel advisor community.

Lebowitz spent nearly 25 years with Hyatt Hotels & Resorts in various leadership positions, including his last role as regional vice-president of luxury, lifestyle and leisure of North America for the global sales office. He later served as senior vice president, hotel and resort program at Signature Travel Network, a member-owned travel agency cooperative serving more than 7,000 travel advisors and 1,000 hotel and resort global partners. Most recently, Lebowitz was vice president of strategic partnerships at Sharecare and rolled out the VERIFIED™ health security program to the hotel and travel industry.

During his 15-plus-year career in luxury hospitality, Francisco Almeida served as the communications and hospitality manager at Aveleda Winery, global brand and sales manager at Monnet Cognac, and brand home manager at Bacardi. He also directed Forbes Travel Guide’s Center for Excellence in Cognac, France. In his latest role, Almeida oversees markets in Southern Europe, including France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. 

William Avitia’s passion for the hospitality industry led him into human resources and training early in his career. He has worked for Starwood Hotels & Resorts properties across the United States. As Director of Human Resources at The St. Regis Aspen Resort, Avitia developed an intensive seasonal staffing and training strategy thoughtfully aligned with brand and luxury standards. Most recently, Avitia worked with IHG Hotels & Resorts developing branded and operational service solutions that scaled across 16 brands globally.

Avitia is a certified Property Service Culture Trainer, and has certified other trainers as Service Culture Champions as well as led leadership simulations in region. He holds a degree from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, where he focused on special operations. Avitia plays an active alumnus role for the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality. He trains in both English and Spanish.

Josh Santos is a dynamic service culture evolution facilitator with over 25 years of hospitality experience and a strong emphasis on hotel operations and training. Having served extensively in leadership roles across a broad spectrum of brands and property types, he has developed a deep-rooted understanding of what it means to own the guest relationship and keen insights on how to effectively approach individual hotel training needs.

His career began at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, and then he joined Starwood Hotels, leading within rooms and food and beverage divisions and overseeing hotel department openings. While there, Santos eventually became a service culture trainer. Later, he took positions like director of rooms for The Beverly Hilton and regional director of training for Loews Hotels.

Since joining Forbes Travel Guide in 2017, Santos has trained in more than 20 countries across five continents. As the Manager, Learning and Development, he oversees the integration of new trainers and implements programs for the continued advancement of the Learning and Development team.

He is fluent in English and French.

With over a decade of luxury hotel experience, and two years as an Executive Trainer at Forbes Travel Guide, Summer Xiang has demonstrated her impressive ability to inspire properties to create exceptional experiences for guests and achieve their goals.

Driven by her dedication to delivering exceptional guest service, she became the Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong's youngest management team member after only one year of management training. She attributes her strong product knowledge, frontline service and management skills to the rotation experiences at this flagship property.

Xiang transferred to Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai and transitioned into the learning and development field ––– leading successful corporate and tailor-made, local-focused training programs and employee recognition activities. During her tenure as the quality assurance manager, Xiang focused on operational training while overseeing the guest experience team, significantly improving the hotel's key guest experience metrics. She eventually moved back into food and beverage operations and held the role of food and beverage manager in charge of six outlets. Xiang held the same role at Fairmont Chengdu before joining Forbes Travel Guide.

Glenda Barnatan is a seasoned hospitality professional with substantial experience developing and leading teams at luxury hotels and resorts. Her background covers all aspects of food and beverage, as well as rooms division departments including housekeeping and guest services.

Barnatan began her career at The Ritz-Carlton, Naples working in conference services and banquets, and later became food and beverage supervisor at The Ritz-Carlton, Fort Lauderdale. For more than a decade following, she led in food and beverage and other management leadership roles at glamorous properties including 1 Hotel South Beach, Acqualina Resort & Residences on the Beach, Baccarat New York, and The Hermitage Hotel. She is a passionate coach; stays upbeat, positive, and shares a warm smile. Barnatan is trilingual in English, Spanish, and Hebrew.

Samira Charbonnier has built long-standing relationships in the hospitality industry by consistently demonstrating strong influence skills and success in coaching multi-cultural teams. She spent a decade offering expertise in advisory, operations and international training efforts while serving as director of learning and development for global hospitality consulting firm Minds in Motion SA.

Charbonnier worked with international consulting and real estate investment banking firms PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Eastdil Secured as an adviser focused on hotel development, marketing and sales. Prior to that, she spent four years as food and beverage manager at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in the United States and Canada. Charbonnier has a deeply-rooted passion for coaching and is a certified Quality Coach for the Swiss Tourism Federation, a qualification based on Six Sigma principles.

Susan Wang brings more than 15 years of hospitality experience at Marriott International and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts to her role as an executive trainer. She attributes her success to her passion for creating memorable customer experiences, training and developing staff service standards, and driving strategic execution plans to achieve goals.

Beginning her career as a front desk trainee, Wang was soon leading in various room division roles at hotels in Sydney. At Four Seasons Hotel Sydney, she earned the highest room upsell revenue globally. Her critical achievements at Pier One Sydney Harbour, Autograph Collection include increasing staff engagement by more than 30 percent.

In 2018, Wang took on the position of director of loyalty operations in Marriott International’s Hong Kong corporate office, launching the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program across 24 brands and more than 800 hotels in Asia Pacific. As director, she facilitated multiple in-person and virtual training workshops to deliver a shared vision and mindset on the new loyalty program and encourage member engagement across 16 markets. Wang’s involvement in this program led the continent to attain No. 1 in new member sign-ups globally while maintaining the highest member appreciation satisfaction score across all continents.

Before joining Forbes Travel Guide, Silvia Nauta worked in some of the best hotels in the world. Nauta began her career at the iconic Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane and held various management roles in both housekeeping and front office departments. She later took the front office manager position at Acqualina Resort & Spa in Sunny Isles, Florida, where she concentrated on standardizing quality delivery in the division and developing a service program for the residential component of the resort.

Nauta served as guest relations manager on the pre-opening management team at Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas. Later as learning and development manager there, she focused on the hotel’s vision of obtaining three Forbes Travel Guide Five-Stars, which was achieved in 2012. As director of training at The Breakers Palm Beach, she was integral in establishing the training department and company service quality cycle and restructuring the overall service focus. Nauta’s latest appointment was at The Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, where she held the role of director of human resources and strategic planning. 

As Senior Vice President, Evaluation Operations, Theresa Tellock oversees the quality, execution and delivery of evaluations. She supervises Forbes Travel Guide’s international team of evaluators, is responsible for upholding the integrity and accuracy of the evaluation process and manages the complex logistics behind the global evaluation schedule.

With the company since 2011, Tellock held several operational roles related to producing reports reflective of the luxury guest experience. She developed custom standards for clients across a variety of verticals, including airlines, golf courses, private residences, medical practices and luxury retail. Tellock personally executed hundreds of evaluations at hotels, restaurants and spas around the world, making her an authority on global luxury standards and the evaluation process.

As the vice president/executive editor at Forbes Travel Guide, Jennifer Kester oversees the editorial department. Kester covers everything that touches upon luxury travel — food and drink, culture, wellness and, of course, hotels. She has visited hundreds of luxury hotels, and her travels have brought her everywhere from Toronto to Tallinn to Tokyo to Tasmania during her more than two-decades-long career. One of the leading hospitality journalists, Kester has been an editor and writer for Forbes Travel Guide since 2008, serving as executive editor since 2015.

As the Director of Client Success, Amy Zeller is focused on driving client experience and engaging with Forbes Travel Guide clients to address their needs. She also oversees the team and systems FTG uses to communicate with clients.

Zeller is a PMI-certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with an extensive background in partner engagement, sales and marketing, operational systems, and product and project management. She has been with Forbes Travel Guide for more than seven years and has shaped all aspects of supporting clients with the graciousness, expertise and responsiveness for which FTG is known.

Before overseeing Forbes Travel Guide’s Center for Excellence at Le Logis, Philippe Abraham spent 10-plus years in the cruise and hospitality industries. Abraham rose through the ranks of Club Med, serving as general manager for properties in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Japan. He then advanced to his position as director of product and development for Club Med China, successfully integrating the brand into the Chinese market and working with the local government to develop tourism in the region.

In Abraham’s following role as the director of the Club Med Cruises Department, he oversaw all operations, ensuring the passenger experience met luxury hospitality standards.

Afterward, Abraham, a passionate enologist, lent his expertise to the wine and spirits industry as a consultant.

Ksenia Mauxion supports guests and groups planning to visit Le Logis and Forbes Travel Guide's Center for Excellence. Prior to FTG, Mauxion served for four years as team leader at Le Logis for Grey Goose (the Center for Excellence’s predecessor), overseeing the property’s operational and commercial sectors. She was previously a trilingual tour guide and then manager of the team at The Royal Chateau of Cognac.  

Bastien Gardrat offers 10 years of experience in the spirit industry, working for brands like the Martell cognac house. The bartender and educator served in client-facing roles—crafting cocktails and leading tastings and hosting events as Bacardi’s Head Bartender—and as a consultant for a variety of spirit companies, designing drink and spirit digital marketing strategies and growing brand awareness. Learn more about the Center for Excellence at Le Logis here.