Our Ambassadors

Jane Pendlebury is CEO of HOSPA | The Hospitality Professionals Association. Her relationship with HOSPA was first as a sponsor and member, then - after volunteering her time assisting with the annual conference HOSPACE - she was taken on to run the Membership and Events office before being promoted to CEO in early 2016. 

Kickstarting her career with a degree in hotel management, Jane worked with both chain and independent hotels. Thereafter, she spent many years assisting hotels and restaurants with their technology decisions around Property Management, Point of Sale and Revenue Management. This culminated into a role as VP and General Manager covering Europe for a global hospitality software house.

Jane is an enthusiastic supporter of hospitality and always remains a positive advocate for the industry!

Sarah Duncan is a Sustainability (ESG) consultant, and author of The Sustainable Business Book and The Ethical Business Book.

Through training and consultancy, she helps businesses understand the commercial and moral benefits of sustainable and ethical business practice.

She advises on how to make sustainability a genuine part of your business culture and day-to-day practice, not just a tick-box exercise (or race to be the ‘least bad’).

She started life in luxury hotels in London, before moving to Asia to work on various dining/country club and spa projects. She set up her own consultancy Sleeping Lion (now a certified B Corp) in 2005.

Peter Hancock is a professional conference & events host and after-dinner speaker (www.hancockspeaks.co.uk)

He is also an ambassador for James Hallam (insurance) and was Chief Executive at Pride of Britain Hotels from 2000-2021, Group Publishing Director of Johansens from 1988-2000 and a hotel general manager in his early career, starting as a waiter in the late 1970s.

Peter is an Honorary Master Innholder and St Julian Scholar, a fellow of HOSPA, a fellow of the Institute of Hospitality, a fellow of the Tourism Society, an ambassador for the Gold Service Scholarship, a member of the Professional Speaking Association and a fellow of the Guild of International Professional Toastmasters.

Petra Clayton is Creator and CEO of hospitality marketing consultancy CUSTARD, which she launched in 2007 to deliver creative, strategic, and measurable marketing and communications solutions to the hotel, venue and hospitality supplier industry.

The current chair of the Hotel Marketing Association, a board member of the Hoteliers’ Charter and trustee of The Victory Services Club, Petra has her finger on the pulse of the industry’s challenges and commercial pressures, as well as innovative marketing strategies and the emergence of the new generation of both business and leisure consumers. Petra has also relished the opportunity to share her teaching and marketing expertise with the industry and is a trainer for the Master Innholders Aspiring Leaders Diploma.

Kalindi Juneja is CEO at PoB Hotels, the UK marketing consortium for British independent luxury hotels. Since taking on the reigns at PoB Hotels, Kalindi has strategically repositioned the brand with a new visual and verbal expression, including a new website, online magazine, gift range and annual coffee table book. This new direction builds on PoB Hotels' growing appeal to a wider, affluent audience strategically targeted by the brand, whilst underpinning its core values and equity of 40 years.

A passionate hotelier with over 20 years in the industry, Kalindi has worked with some of the most renowned privately owned hotels globally including instrumental roles at Relais & Chateaux where she was International Director, overseeing Regional Directors in Europe, South & Central America and South Pacific with an emphasis on her home market of UK & Ireland. She understands the luxury independent hotel sector and has a strong commercial focus, having worked on property, within an agency and also for luxury consortiums, she brings a unique blend of expertise to the role.

Su is a foremost provider of business and media communications in the international hospitality sector. She founded her company, ESP Business Development, 25 years ago specialising in working with architects, designers, developers and others seeking to make a measurable difference in the world of hotels and resorts.

Since then, Su has assisted her clients in becoming spokespeople in their sector and their practices in becoming award-winning, sought-after firms delivering one-of-a-kind hotels and resorts in the UK and internationally. In the course of this work, Su has regularly written for leading publications about such issues as the changing attitude to luxury in hospitality, ethical travel and the power of design to affect experience, as well as the growing demand for hospitality thinking in adjacent spaces.

Su has also been a pioneer in the development of several industry events and initiatives, and right now is part of a collaboration to mentor and recognise Ukrainian students of architecture and design who are interested in a future in hospitality design.

Robert Richardson FIH MI is the Chief Executive Officer of the award-winning Institute of Hospitality (IoH), the world’s largest professional body of almost 16,000 hospitality professionals worldwide, and a registered charity. IoH is dedicated to driving the recognition of the hospitality profession and uplifting its membership through lifelong learning, mentorship, and network-building.

A long-time member of IoH, Richardson built his career in the hospitality industry. Working his way up through the ranks from hotel floor staff to hotel General Manager, and now as CEO of IoH, he has a deep belief in making the hospitality industry open, inclusive, and accessible to all who seek to join it. In 2021, Robert led the Institute to win the Chartered Governance Institute UK&I “Diversity & Inclusion Strategy of the Year” award in recognition of these efforts.

Prior to joining IoH, Richardson served in senior management positions at major hotel chains including Hilton Worldwide, IHG and Ramada Jarvis, before applying those industry best practices to a few of England’s best independent hotels. For the last 12 years, Richardson served as General Manager across two independent, luxury properties, including a luxury boutique hotel and golf resort in the Kentish countryside, and a grade 2 listed coastal heritage property.  

A true people champion, Richardson believes that for organisations to succeed and thrive, people must feel they belong regardless of background or position. To this end, he regularly speaks on his efforts in the international and U.K. conference circuit and trade press, as well as contributing frequently to radio and podcast conversations in both his home country of the U.K. and abroad. 

Richardson was recognised by Hotel Designs on their 2020 Brit List as “one of the top 25 hoteliers operating in Great Britain” and on Boutique Hotelier’s “2022 Power List” as an “Industry Titan”, “one of the top 50 inspirational and influential hospitality professionals operating in the world today”. In 2022 Richardson was made an “Honorary Master Innholder” by the Worshipful Company of Innholders and was recognised in the USA produced “Global Hospitality” Magazine as “one of the 100 Most powerful People in Europe’s travel and Hospitality Industry” in both 2022 and 2023.

Additional recognition includes: Southern Enterprise Awards’ Boutique Hospitality Manager for two years running, the Shaw Trust Employer of the Year Award, for his work developing hospitality employment strategies for people with disabilities, Boutique Hotelier’s “2020 Power List” as a “Young Trailblazer”, and the Institute of Hospitality Judges’ Special Achievement Award. 

Richardson is also a trustee for the registered charity “Room to Reward”, a unique volunteer-recognition charity created to say ‘thank you’ to the inspirational volunteers who give up their time to make a difference to those who need it most.

Brenda Collin serves as Executive Vice President of Europe for Preferred Hotels & Resorts, overseeing the company’s growth and evolution in the region, as well as ensuring the retention and success of nearly 200 member properties across 25 countries in the region.  

Since joining Preferred in April 2013, Brenda has been instrumental in generating significant awareness of the Preferred brand among trade and industry audiences. In addition to strengthening engagement among existing member hotels, she succeeded in tripling the size of the company’s footprint in the region during a seven-year timeframe by spearheading representation of acclaimed hotel companies such as Nordic Hotels & Resorts and signing more than 50 new member hotels such as The Beaumont (London, England); Old Course Hotel (St. Andrews, Scotland); Pulitzer Amsterdam (The Netherlands); and Hayfield Manor (Cork, Ireland).

A Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality and Chair of the organization’s London branch, Collin holds a B.A. in Hotel & Catering Management from Galway & Mayo Institute of Technology, as well as a Certificate in Hotel Real Estate Investments and Asset Management from Cornel University’s School of Hotel Administration.