Board of Directors

Our board represents leaders in the gay and lesbian tourism industry and come from all over the world. If you are interested in how our board operates or want more information about becoming a board member, please e-mail iglta@iglta.org.

Click here to review the Board of Directors meeting agendas.

Click here to review the IGLTA Bylaws.

Felipe Cardenas, Chair

Colombian LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce

Felipe is the Co-Founder & CEO of the Colombian LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce where he leads the board & operations for 160+ members and 15+ corporate partners in Colombia. He represents the organization internationally and ensures the consolidation of its portfolio geared at membership, partnerships, events, and certifications. Felipe has more than 10 years of experience leading high performance teams, both in physical and virtual environments at the local, national and international level. He is also an advisor to different entities in Latin America and Europe about growth, organizational development and foreign trade. He is an entrepreneur interested in senior management, business development & LGBTQ+ initiatives. He speaks three languages and was recognized with an IGLTA Honor - leadership in Networking - at the 2015 Annual Global Convention in Los Angeles.

Shiho Ikeuchi, Vice Chair

Sorano Hotel

Ms. Shiho Ikeuchi, General Manager, Sorano Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, is a world-renowned hospitality industry professional with over 25 years of experience and an extensive and diverse background in hotel management and restaurant operations, international sales, and marketing. Over the past several years, Ikeuchi has been aggressively involved in the development of LGBTQ+ tourism in Japan, and steadfastly works to increase the number of national IGLTA members. In 2014, Ikeuchi was instrumental in creating same-sex wedding packages that are now becoming available through major Japanese hoteliers. However, same-sex marriages are currently not legally recognized in Japan, and the number of wedding venues that accept ceremonial same-sex couples is limited. As the direct result of Ikeuchi’s efforts, Hotel Granvia Kyoto was the very first hotel in Japan to officially announce the offering of same-sex wedding packages in 2014—a true feather in the cap of the hotel, which has been highlighted by numerous international and domestic media outlets. In November 2018, she established Pink Soleil, a forward-thinking company that focuses on consulting work for hotels and tourism professionals worldwide. One of her primary clients, The Thousand Kyoto—the signature hotel of Keihan Hotels and Resorts—announced that they have now launched a new wedding campaign for LGBTQ+ couples from around the world.

Norma Dean, Treasurer

Delta Air Lines

Norma Dean is a 37-year Delta veteran who began her career in New Orleans Delta Reservations Sales. Since that time, she has held jobs of increasing Field Sales responsibility including Account Manager in Baltimore, and District Sales Manager in SW Florida. From her field experience, Norma came to Delta's headquarters in Atlanta and was promoted to National Account Manager, overseeing association sales in Washington, New York City and Chicago.
Thereafter, she held the position of Global Account Manager- Corporate Sales and then went on to serve as General Manager - Corporate Sales for the Northeast region and General Manager of Specialty Sales. In her current role as Director- National Specialty Sales, Norma manages (Pre-COVID) $2.5B in Delta segmented and leisure revenue, including Military & Government, Meetings, Convention & Incentive Sales, Sports & Universities, and Leisure/Tour Operator/Cruise/Ski Sales. She is an active industry leader serving on several segmented advisory boards and committees.
 
Norma was named GBTA WinIt GBTA Female Mentor of the year. She is a native of New Orleans, LA. She is a graduate of Louisiana State University. So it should come as no surprise she loves food,LSU and NO Saints Football!

Richard Kreiger, Secretary

Sky Vacations

A native new yorker, Richard enjoys a travel industry career spanning more than 20 years. Having worked in leadership roles in both the retail and wholesale spaces, his experience brings insight into development and distribution of travel products. In his current role as director of sky vacations, Richard now manages two sky vacations teams, Usa and Mumbai. sky vacations’ parent company is sky bird travel & tours, an indian-owned company that is the largest airline consolidator in north america and the leader for travel to india. Richard's early career was spent as a retail travel advisor in New york city. from there, he moved into agency management and relocated to south florida. during these years he opened prideworld, an LGBTQ+ tour operator/travel agency. post september 11, he also did consulting and management work focusing on agencies that were looking to evaluate their position in the market and expand, merge, sell or close. in 2008 he was asked by the owner of the isramworld portfolio of brands to move back to New york to work with him on expanding into new markets and destinations as well as placing a fresh focus on prideworld; he eventually became company president before moving to his current role with sky vacations

Jon Muñoz,  Past Chair

Booz Allen Hamilton

Jon G. Muñoz is chief diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) officer and leads Booz Allen’s diversity management practice, working with leaders and teams across the firm to develop strategies, programs, and processes to drive its DEI mission. Jon has successfully led and integrated a holistic DEI strategy and best practices across all talent management processes in a broad range of industries, including hospitality, wireless communications, and financial services.

Jon’s professional experience spans more than 20 years in diversity, equity, and inclusion, public affairs, community engagement, multicultural and LGBTQ+ marketing, sales, and human resources. Before joining Booz Allen, he was vice president of global diversity and inclusion at Hilton where he directed the company’s comprehensive diversity and inclusion management practice focused on culture, talent, and marketplace initiatives. Under Jon’s leadership, Hilton’s DEI commitment garnered many industry awards and recognition, including from DiversityInc, Great Place to Work Institute, Fortune and Forbes.

In addition, Jon is actively involved in several national and global nonprofit organizations. He currently serves on the Chairman’s Advisory Council for the Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino and is a co-founder of the National Hispanic Corporate Council Corporate Executive Development Program, which is dedicated to advancing Hispanic managers to executive positions in corporations

Albert Herrera, Board Member

Internova Travel Group & Global Travel Collection

Albert m. Herrera has an innate understanding of the luxury travel market and his impressive career spans more than 30 years. He has now joined internova travel group and global travel collection as chief commercial officer. in this role, he leads various strategic relationships and partnerships for the brands to maximize offerings to the organization’s premium leisure, corporate and entertainment travel advisors and travelers. He joined global travel collection from virtuoso where he held one of the most prominent executive positions: senior vice president of global partnerships. Having joined virtuoso in july 2004, Albert served in various leadership roles where he directed key relationships with the network’s product portfolio and elite advisor membership. Albert’s past roles also include sales & marketing director for the carlyle in New york; as well as sales & marketing director at the Oriental and director of sales at the regent, both in Singapore. additionally, he has held sales posts with Four seasons hotels & resorts in San francisco and New york, and the peninsula manila in the Philippines.

Uwern Jong, Board Member

Outthere Publishing

Uwern Jong (he/him) is Experientialist-in-Chief and co-Founder of global luxury and experiential travel journal rooted in diversity, discovery and discernment, OutThere magazine. He was the 2020 Winner of “Editor of the Year” at the Campaign Publishing Awards and is a vocal advocate for a more inclusive and intersectional tourism and travel industry. He is the Founder of the LGBT+ Travel Symposium series, co-Founder of Stockholm LGBT (a members-based Destination Marketing platform), runs the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s landmark “Go Thai Be Free” outreach campaign.

Meg Ten Eyck, Board Member

EveryQueer

Meg Ten Eyck is an award-winning LGBTQ+ travel content creator and consultant. A travel writer and digital nomad at her core, Meg spent the last nine years traveling the globe and writing about her experiences for her hugely popular LGBT travel site EveryQueer. Meg is the recipient of International Woman of the Year for Facebook’s initiative with Girl Gone International and is cited as a leading expert in travel by Forbes, The New York Times, Afar, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel and Leisure, The United Nations, and the European Travel Commission. Meg is a brand ambassador for OutAdventures, Contiki International, and is on the LGBT advisory board of Belmond Hotels and Resorts. Meg has visited 60+ countries, spoken at LGBTQ+ conferences on five continents, published her first book, and had her content read by more than two million people.

Sandi Robinson, Board Member

The Godfrey Hotel Chicago

Sandi Robinson serves as director of sales at the Godfrey hotel chicago, overseeing the events and the sales team at the property, as well as day-to-day operations. robinson joined the hotel team prior to the property’s opening in 2014 as the senior events manager and was then promoted into her current role. in 2017, Robinson was awarded hsmai’s director of sales and marketing of the year, which recognizes excellence, creativity, and leadership in hotel sales. with more than 20 years in the hospitality industry, robinson has mastered the craft of executing successful events and finds the most joy in her work when her clients are happy with their celebrations and meetings.

Before joining the godfrey team, robinson served as the executive events manager for the dana hotel and spa. in her four years at that property, sandi focused on corporate events for vertigo sky lounge, where she increased sales by 60 percent during her first year. prior to the Dana hotel, she worked in event sales for several brands, including the four points by sheraton chicago, holiday inn hillside, and spirit of chicago.

Robinson prides herself on being an integral part of the chicago community in hospitality and beyond. She is a board member emeritus for the lesbian gay bisexual & transgender chamber of commerce, serves as a choose chicago ambassador, and is a co-chair of the greater north michigan avenue association lights festival committee.

Apoorva Gandhi, Board Member

Marriott International

Apoorva Gandhi is vice president for multicultural affairs for Marriott international, and a dedicated and proud straight ally to the LGBTQ+ community. at Marriott, he shapes and executes an externally focused global strategy to build loyalty and preference from all diverse customers for the Marriott portfolio—including all of their diverseLGBTQ+ guests, families and friends.

His responsibilities bridge most of marriott’s business units and he often engages with the company’s public affairs stances and their steady support for LGBTQ+ equality and inclusion. Marriott’s consistently earns a 100% perfect score on the hrc corporate equality index, a signal of its strong global policies. this year, significantly, Marriott was among the first companies—and the first global hotel leader—to endorse the historic united nations LGBTQ+ standards of conduct for business, aimed to tackle discrimination globally against lesbian, gay, bi, trans and intersex people. Apoorva recently served on the board of directors for pflag—advocating for the families, friends and co-workers of LGBTQ+ people everywhere and twice was named the co-chair for the annual pflag straight for equality gala held in New york city.

Oriol Pamies, Board Member

Queer Destinations

Oriol Pamies, CEO of Queer Destinations, is a spanish entrepreneur, LGBTQ+ activist and LGBTQ+ tourism expert. in 2014, he attended his first IGLTA annual global convention in madrid just as he was beginning his online startup, an LGBTQ+ social network that he wanted to connect to the LGBTQ+ tourism industry.

Now, with Queer Destinations, Pamies develops innovative marketing strategies for tourism destinations around the world, particularly in latin america, and spends his time speaking at conferences and consulting on lgbtq+ tourism.  He wants to focus on IGLTA's latin american expansion, connecting the organization and its members to the latest online marketing trends and reinforcing the association’s b2c value.

Antonietta Varlese, Board Member

Accor

Antonietta Varlese, with over 20 years of experience in communications works for Accor Group since 2008 as SVP of Communications, Institutional Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility, LGBTI+ Leader for South America. She currently manages the strategy for 9 countries and 400 hotels across the region and recently awarded one of the Top 10 Communications Person in Brazil by Aberje Association.
Prior to joining Accor, she was with British American Tobacco as Global Head of Strategy and Planning, based in the HQ in London. Antonietta also worked in Italy with BAT as Head of Communications and Integration. Prior to that Antonietta also worked with other companies such as Citibank, Dow, LDC among others. Antonietta holds a degree in Journalism, MBA in Marketing and extensions from
University of Syracuse and University of the Arts London.

John Tanzella, Ex Officio Board Member

IGLTA

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