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Michelle Bevan is Chief People Officer at TFE Hotels, leading the global People and Capability agenda across a diverse international hotel portfolio. With more than 25 years’ experience spanning hospitality, information technology, financial services, customer service and human resources, Michelle brings a strong commercial lens to people strategy and a deep understanding of how culture, leadership and service excellence shape hospitality performance.
Joining TFE Hotels in 2014, Michelle has played a pivotal role in strengthening the organisation’s people foundations through service culture development, leadership capability, learning and development, talent and career pathways, employer brand, reward and recognition, employment policy, safety and workforce strategy. Her leadership is grounded in creating practical, people-centred solutions that enable teams to deliver exceptional guest experiences while building inclusive, high-performing and collaborative workplaces.
A significant focus of Michelle’s recent work has been the successful implementation of a global HRIS platform across seven countries. This enterprise-wide transformation modernised TFE Hotels’ people, payroll, workforce management and talent processes, creating a single source of truth for employee data, improving compliance and risk management, reducing manual administration, and enhancing the experience of leaders, candidates and team members across the business.
Michelle is recognised for leading complex change with clarity, collaboration and care. She has contributed to major business transformation initiatives including operator transitions, systems implementations, workforce planning, diversity and inclusion, leadership development and service excellence programs. As a senior executive, she continues to shape TFE Hotels’ people strategy by connecting business growth with culture, technology and the ongoing development of leaders and their teams.
Stephanie (Stef) Lopesi is an accomplished People & Culture leader with over 15 years of experience in the hospitality industry, driving transformative HR strategies and cultivating inclusive, high-performance cultures. Stef leads strategic workforce planning, leadership development and organizational design across a diverse portfolio of brands and hotels for Hilton Australasia, ensuring people and performance thrive in unison.
Throughout her career, Stef has held key HR leadership roles including her current as Head of HR – Australasia for Hilton, prior to this serving a decade across luxury, premium, midscale and economy brands for Accor with a foundation built on hotel operations at The Grace Hotel Sydney and Meriton Suites.
A passionate advocate for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Stef is particularly committed to advancing opportunities in the All Abilities space - championing accessibility, representation, and belonging across all levels of the workplace and currently sits as the Chair for the Inclusion Council APAC for Hilton. Known for her authenticity, strategic vision, and ability to build genuine connections, she continues to inspire others to create workplaces where every individual can reach their full potential.
Helen has almost 30 years’ experience working within the superannuation sector, predominantly in leadership, consultancy and client facing roles both in the UK and Australia. Helen joined Hostplus, an industry superannuation fund with deep roots supporting the hospitality sector, 12 years ago and currently leads the national employer and member facing teams in her role as Executive Manager Client Relationships and Business Growth
Helen is passionate about championing consumer access to meaningful financial education, guidance and advice to support the achievement of retirement goals and to improve financial literacy. Her passion for the Hospitality and Tourism sector is born from a family history of ownership of travel and hospitality businesses.
Outside of work Helen enjoys family and friend time, good food and wine, travel, walking and tennis.
A dynamic and strategic leader with experience as an Executive and Non-Executive Director. A skilled communicator with a background in media, communications, government relations, public policy and corporate affairs. A history of working in the transport, infrastructure, tourism, travel, aviation, automotive and education sectors.
James joined Accommodation Australia as their new CEO in September 2024 and looks forward to nurturing and building on the strong relationships already created with key stakeholders, both in government and accommodation industry leaders.
Prior to his role with AA, Mr Goodwin was the CEO of the Australian Airports Association (AAA) for more than four years and before that was Chief Executive of Australia’s leading vehicle safety advocate, the ANCAP Safety from 2015 to 2020. James has held senior government relations, communications and stakeholder relations roles at industry associations and government agencies following a career as a journalist, including in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery.
He has served on a number of Boards and is currently Chair of St John Ambulance ACT and a Board Director with the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) Solutions.