Jag Ram

Founder and CEO/CTO of IMS.

Jag pursued a degree in Computer Science and after graduating he has spent more than twenty years being largely involved in international start-ups and global enterprises delivering precedent setting, sector leading systems and transformations in travel, retail and finance sectors. Jag has a strong track record of delivering ecommerce and multichannel ecommerce solutions for new disruptive business models.

Jag has held senior IT roles within Cendant Corporation at Resorts Condominium International and Interval International creating worlds disruptive innovations in the sector. Jag is most renowned for developing the world’s first one-stop- shop system, points based global vacation club and branded super club concept.

For Cendant at Galileo also known for their world leading flights GDS, Jag participated in the creation of the low cost carrier GDS platform and unification. It was also during this period Jag contributed to creating the Universal API SDK kit and scaling up the Galileo fee manager rules engine. Jag also launched cheapflights.com in USA.

At Gladstone MRM he created the world’s largest health and fitness system and member company to become the Expedia of the sector.

At Lastminute.com Jag created the world’s first B2C, B2B & B2-Travel shops system from inception as part of Holiday Auto’s reengineered Last minutes’ hotel system and supplier extranet.

Jag was at Autoquake backed by Silicon Valley VC and sister company CarMax. Jag played a key role in transitioning from eBay sales business model to worlds first online used car retail channel known as autoquake.com. This business model is now being replicated by most major players across the world including new car sales companies by optimizing through consolidated delivery and sales centres.

At Fourth.com Jag helped to create the world’s leading business critical SaaS provider to the hospitality sector now used by Pizza Express, WagaMama, Café Nero, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Strada, Gordon Ramsy’s restaurant chain, Carluccio’s, Jamie Oliver’s restaurant chain, Travel Lodge and so forth.

At Toyota GB Jag created ‘Toyota Computer Services’ company and optimized supply and logistics technologies to launch the Lexus franchise.

Paul Dean

As a veteran in the hospitality industry, Paul Dean has over 30 years involvement with international resort development and recreational real estate, with an emphasis on mixed-use resorts. He has extensive experience of working with global hospitality brands including Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Jumeirah, Kempinski, Mandarin Oriental, Marriott, and Starwood. In addition, Paul has worked with boutique and regional brands such as Banyan Tree, Gleneagles, Isrotel, Onyx, Savoy Madeira, Six Senses, Soneva and Yoo.

He has worked on hospitality projects in the Caribbean, China, Europe, the Middle East, south-east Asia, the USA plus Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. He has also had hands-on involvement with the setting up of resorts and product legal structures in more than 20 jurisdictions. Besides, he is the co-author of Encyclopaedia of Forms & Precedents Vo; 41A - Shared Ownership published by Lexis-Nexis.

Paul is an expert in the industry, with rich experience in all forms of Recreational Real Estate including Branded Residences, BTUL, Condo-hotels, Fractional Interests and Private Residence Clubs plus vacation ownership. His expertise also includes feasibility analysis, financial modelling, concept development and product design, product legal structuring, usage plan design, preparation of operating budgets, reserve funding, marketing and sales strategies and subsequent implementation.

Paula Woodgate

A senior executive in the Resort Hospitality Industry with over 25 years leadership experience in Vacation Ownership and Fractional sectors, Paula Woodgate provides independent advisory services in resort sales and marketing; feasibility; product definition and product development; member acquisition, engagement and retention; property acquisitions; business start-ups and business turn-arounds; and team recruitment, training and development.

Paula has a proven track record in strategic delivery at CEO, VP and Consultant/Advisor level via her results-driven collaborative leadership style, coupled with an intense customer focus and a deep understanding of key business drivers. Her direct delivery experience to date has been predominantly in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the USA, and she has spent over 20 years of her career working in Global Hospitality/Resort Leisure Corporations such as Marriott, Interval International and Sunterra.

Over the course of her career, Paula has provided advisory services to resort developers in locations such as Bulgaria, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, UAE and the United Kingdom. Her consultative practice builds upon her extensive expertise, gained by working in senior leadership roles for some of the world’s top hospitality brands.

Prior to offering her services in an advisory capacity, Paula held the position of Regional Vice President for Sales and Marketing for Europe and the Middle East at Marriott Vacation Club International (MVCI) from 2005 to 2009. Based at the Marriott London HQ, she had overall S&M responsibility for MVCI’s European and Middle Eastern operations. Annual S&M sales budgets were in excess of €110m and she was responsible for a team of 300+ Associates with offices in London, Spain, Dubai, Milan, Paris and Cork. She was hired to turn around a failing S&M operation and successfully brought the operation into profit with the support of a re-focused and re-motivated team. She surpassed her budget and her operation achieved World Class category of Marriott’s Associate Engagement. During this period with Marriott, she was a member of the European Leadership Team, the Executive Committee for the EME region.

A decade prior to her taking on the RVP Sales & Marketing role with MVCI, Paula, as a then independent consultant, prepared MVCI’s European market entry feasibility study and she was subsequently invited to join the MCVI start-up team when Marriott entered the European vacation ownership market in 1995. During this initial three-year term with MVCI, Paula was initially responsible for setting up the lead generation programmes and then joined the development team with responsibility for feasibility and development planning, due diligence analysis for new resorts, and managing new projects through MVCI’s internal approval process.

From early 2002 to end 2003, Paula was CEO of Sunterra Europe (now Diamond Resorts), the largest developer-owned Points Club in Europe and a subsidiary of the Sunterra Corp., USA. She was responsible for all aspects of the Groups European Business. That included responsibility for 34 leisure resorts in 9 countries, approximately 84,000 club members and 2,500 staff throughout various European offices.

Paula spent a total of 8 years with the Miami-based international exchange organisation, Interval International, and from 1998 to 2002, she held the post of Managing Director for Interval’s European and Middle East regions. She was responsible for overseeing the servicing of Interval’s 400+ leisure resorts and 200,000+ individual members.

During her resort hospitality career, Paula also worked in a general management capacity with Four Seasons Resorts in the UK, Spain and Portugal. and with La Quinta Club, located within the highly successful integrated resort development of La Manga Club in Spain.

Paula served on the Resort Developers Organisation (RDO - previously OTE) as Member of the Board, Executive Committee, and on the Membership and Ethics Councils. She regularly attends and speaks at RDO, ARDA - American Resort Developers Association, Interval International and other EME hospitality conferences.

Prior to joining the resort hospitality industry, Paula worked in Brussels for 7 years as Archivist in the Personal Cabinet of the Irish Commissioner to the EU. An Irish native, she now lives and works in East Sussex, UK.