He is a recognised expert and visionary on creating sustainable destinations through multi stakeholder collaboration and co-creation. In 2015 Guy launched the Global Destinations Sustainability Index to accelerate the development and performance of sustainable business tourism destinations.

From 2006 to 2018, Guy was the Sustainability Director of MCI, the world’s largest association management, communications and events agency. He launched a CSR program across the corporation’s 60 offices, developing a business strategy that positioned MCI to be an award winning sustainability champion, and the organiser of over 1000 events about sustainable development, Smart Cities and energy.

Guy is a passionate and outstanding communicator, who has delivered over 440 keynote presentations and facilitated workshops engaging over 40,000 participants in more than 40 countries. He teaches Regenerative Leadership at Esade Business School, and is a visiting lecturer at various universities around the world.

Previously, Guy was the Managing Director of MCI in Spain, on the management board of MCI Group, President of the Green Meeting Industry Council and worked for HP as a Technology Consultant for 11 years.

When not working, you can find Guy cycling or climbing in the Pyrenees, planting vegetables in his organic garden in Barcelona, cooking up a feast for friends or dancing Swing.

She fuels her mission with wisdom acquired by working in Danish business and leisure tourism for 11 years. During her time with VisitAalborg and Inspiring Denmark she naturally migrated towards sustainability. This journey was further nurtured by her employers’ participation in the GDS-Index. With a renewed and enlivened career focus on people and planet, Inge went freelance. For the last 2,5 years she supported SMEs and destinations with sustainability certification. This is a boon she brings to GDS-Movement and the GDS-Index in particular. Having been through the benchmarking process herself, Inge knows first-hand what destinations experience in their progressive journey towards greater regenerative destination management, and how to help them get there.

In her spare time, Inge enjoys her garden, cooking, good food, family, and friends. Her biggest wish is for green fuel to become readily available so she can travel long-distance again.

A professional with a hybrid profile, she divides her working days between her sessions as a lecturer-researcher at the Faculty of Tourism of several universities and professional training sessions both for tourism technicians of public administrations and private companies. She is a keynote speaker at congresses for the tourism sector.

She also works as a consultant and her main aim is to help to build bridges connecting all tourism stakeholders, facilitating the dialogue between them, looking for meeting spaces for exchange, and the promotion of innovation.

She advocates for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), focusing on the social aspects of destination sustainability, where universal accessibility – which she is an expert in – plays a vital role.

An endless learner, Mònica is currently focused on the role of digital transformation in the tourism industry, particularly Blockchain technology that she feels will be to tourism what the Internet was to the 90s – a total gamechanger.

Born and raised in Barcelona, she is fluent in Catalan, Spanish, English, and French. A lifelong traveller from the age of one, she enjoys her family and friends as much as she does socialising with people from all walks of life.

In her spare time, she mixes her role as beach fan, traveller, wine lover, reader, tireless dancer, and techie explorer.

Mònica joins the GDS Movement team as a senior consultant to contribute her broad vision on the different aspects of social sustainability, bringing her expertise to both consulting and training.

With a full bundle of qualifications under her belt (ISO 20121, ISO 14001, GSTC, Travelife Auditor, GRI, Biosphere, Sustainable Event Alliance accreditation) and experience in providing sustainability trainings, Rebecca is well equipped to guide the full range of destination stakeholders in their mission to develop and implement a sustainability strategy.

As a multilingual Brit (Spanish, French, German, Catalan) Rebecca has been living in Barcelona for 16 years and working in events for 20. She has thrived in the international Event Management sector, where her roles in Trade Fair Management, Event Production, Meetings, Incentives and Congresses have all allowed her endless opportunities to learn, grow and meet people from different cultures and backgrounds.

Rebecca supports the GDS-Index with a mission to drive the sustainability performance of destinations.

In her spare time Rebecca enjoys recharging batteries with good food, good company and the great outdoors.

• Claudia, founder of Sustained Impact, helps businesses in both for profit and nonprofits companies, organizations and destinations advance the transformation to conscious and regenerative businesses to create a thriving world and value for everyone.

• Claudia designs and facilitates awareness-based organizational strategies, programs and workshops where she incorporates a conscious leadership, regenerative thinking and Design Thinking approach.

• Claudia is a senior consultant with the Global Destination Sustainability Movement (GDS Movement) to help enable the co-creation of regenerative strategies, skillsets and mindsets that will support destinations of the future.

• Further areas of expertise include event design (CED), management and marketing, meeting design, marketing communications and measurement (ROI Methodology).

• She has been a long-time dedicated advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals, and volunteers as a Climate Reality Leader and Mentor.  Claudia returns for a second term to serve as a member of the Events Industry Council (EIC) Sustainability and Social Impact Committee.

• Claudia is passionate about human transformation, co-creation, empowering others, entrepreneurial thinking, and is a graduate of Robert Holden’s Conscious Leadership Program Success Intelligence.

• Peruvian-Austrian, raised in three different continents, she lives, works and play in English, Spanish and German. Claudia loves nature, people, food and travel.

Having graduated from The University of St Andrews with a MA in Sustainable Development, he worked for the GDS-Index, and now the GDS-Movement, since 2019.

He has spearheaded our marketing and sales arm, managed the development of our online data platform (OMNI), and is the main contact for benchmarking queries. From helping to run workshops, and co-facilitating our online webinar series (Feeling the Pulse), to speaking and representing the GDS-Movement at international events (e.g. of the UNWTO and UNFCCC), Noah is core to both internal management and external outreach.

If you are a destination that wants to participate in the GDS-Index, or wants to be part of the GDS-Movement, get in touch with Noah. Chances are he will be able to help you with most of your questions.

In his personal life he is passionate about nurturing the people around him with good food, and himself by practising yoga and listening to Jazz.

Previously, Khalisah was a Digital Project Manager and Digital Editor at Dubai Tourism (DTCM) in their MICE and Retail Festivals teams and has worked in various tech startups in Dubai such as Namshi.com and Tajawal. 

Growing up between the US, Malaysia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, Khalisah has developed a unique worldview and set of interpersonal skills and brings a multicultural approach to her work with travel actors and Destination Management Organizations. She enjoys co-creating a more regenerative future by greening travel and tourism with the GDS-Movement team and expanding her knowledge at this intersection of travel, sustainability, and policy. 

When she’s not at work, you can find her boxing, reading, or waxing poetic over her love of croissants.

Prior to joining GDS-Movement, Bella ran her own travel agency providing hospitality services in Armenia and Georgia. She also worked in Beijing for 2 years. This gave her indispensable experience in understanding intercultural communication and gaining interpersonal skills. In fact, she is fluent in Armenian, Russian, English, French, and Spanish.

Her dream is to realise the regenerative revolution of the tourism industry by helping destinations implement more sustainable strategies.

When not working, you might find her dancing, writing, or enjoying the beautiful landscape of Catalunya!

Her time as a meeting professional has led her to her current position as Changemaker and Event Manager at the GDS Movement where she is able to combine her passion for sustainability & events to support the mission of the GDS Movement.

During her career, Milda was working as Strategic Project Manager at TNW (A Financial Times Company), navigating the ever-changing tech & start-up environment. Prior to that, Milda played an integral role in planning and implementing education and sustainability projects at the IMEX Group for their two leading exhibitions, IMEX America and IMEX in Frankfurt.

Born and raised in Lithuania, Milda has travelled the world and lived in Norway, Denmark, and the UK. She currently lives in Amsterdam, where she fully embraces her love of yoga, sustainable living and volunteering opportunities that nurture her professional and personal interests.

Her portfolio features creative work used in a broad range of media and applications, from print to pixel, mobile to video. With a focus on clarity and originality, her speciality is compelling messaging; her advantage is that she cares.

She cut her teeth as an arts journalist covering live, original music with authenticity and integrity (which is not always easy when there’s whisky around). She moved into supporting the creative arts more strategically, dabbled in events coordination, and broadened her focus to regenerative and responsible tourism.

Along the way she learnt how to bend algorithms and blend best practice and combines it all with natural networking to share good ideas with good people.

If the medium is the message, she manages both with the certainty that positive engagement is key to growth, health, and balance, in any organisation or ecosystem.

She is the Global Destination Sustainability Movement’s Marketing and Communications Manager.

She is also an experienced event creator and content curator specialised in conceptualising and presenting at transformation events about sustainability and regeneration. Examples of her work include co-creating Sustainable Brands Cape Town 2016, event host and presenter at Sustainability Week South Africa and being MC at the inaugural Sustainable Brands Oceans event in Porto, Portugal in 2019.

During her career Melissa was the editor of Green Home magazine, The Green Economy Journal and is the founding publisher of South Africa’s first conscious lifestyle publication and website – Life in Balance.

Melissa is a published poet, inspiring presenter and lecturer, editor of business books, academic papers, opinion pieces and an expert in crafting sustainability strategies and narratives relating to social, environmental, and economic regeneration.

Currently a master’s student in Tourism Management with the Faculty of Tourism at the University of Girona, Jun is the newest addition to GDS-Movement’s communication team. He aspires to using his creativity and bad, bad humour to transform sustainability into a fun and sexy practice.  

Jun started his journey in tourism as a travel writer, crafting stories to inspire fellow wanderers to explore the better parts of Southeast Asia. He then upgraded his craft to visual and digital marketing to better promote his content. But, most importantly, he is an award-losing photographer, and drone pilot; taking and editing pictures is his favourite way to escape reality. 

His current focus is delving deeper into sustainability storytelling, studying the sustainable development goals, and producing meaningful photography – while trying to graduate from his master’s programme! He loves to connect with like-minded people who can inspire him to be better. If you are one of them, his email is just one click away (see the bottom left corner of this window). 

In his free time, you can occasionally find him gasping for air after a long hike or sneaking into some unknown alley to take photos – but most of the time, he is thinking about what he should cook or read next. 

Alejandra is a pioneer of sustainable events in the Latin America region.

• She is currently working on her Master Degree thesis on Sustainable Tourism at UCI, the University of International Cooperation of Costa Rica.

• Over 18 years experience in the tourism sector, working in DMC agencies in Cancun, Riviera Maya and Los Cabos. Additional experience in ecotourism with Tour Operators and in the hospitality industry for large hotel chains like Hilton, JW Marriott, and Fiesta Americana.

• Since 2017, she has trained more than 300 people in the region as an instructor of the first Sustainable Events Certificate Course (CES) in Spanish.

• Sustainability Consultant for the GDS-Movement. Recent sustainability projects include the ICCA Annual Congress in Houston.

• Certified Sustainable Events Professional (SEPC) by the Events Industry Council.

• Following the call of her indigenous roots, she began to study Herbal medicine & Phytotherapy (science-oriented traditional medicine). Her continuing education also includes: Environmental Education, Regenerative Tourism, and Spiritual healing.

• She is an active member of MPI Mexican Caribbean Chapter Board as a Sustainability Director.

Her ethos comes from a place of personal experience. Although she graduated from Simon Fraser University, she found her best education has been her life experiences of global travel and working abroad in Africa, Colombia and the Philippines. Tourism is a very powerful tool to help solve global inequality and enact environmental change. But can be detrimental to communities and the environment if not managed properly.

Therefore, she co-founded ConnectSeven Group – a project management firm focused on social and sustainable tourism projects including sustainable tourism development, social procurement, environmental analysis, sustainable event production and destination development.

She graduated from Simon Fraser University with honours from the Bachelor of Business Administration program with majors in Finance and Management Science. She is based in Vancouver, BC, Canada and is the North American GDSM Changemaker.

When not working, you can find her sailing, at the dog park or on trying to pull together a last minute international trip.

Emma is the co-founder of ConnectSeven Group – a project management firm primarily working with social and sustainable development projects that enact global positive change. They focus on social enterprise supply chain integration, environmental analysis, sustainable event production, destination development, and producing large conventions enacting social and sustainable change. They work with the likes of the United Nations, TED, Buy Social Canada and Destination Canada, and integrate the Sustainable Development Goals into everything they do. The close alignment between ConnectSeven and the GDSM, have made Emma a great representative for the Movement in North America.

With over 15 years experience in the event world, previously Emma was the Director of Operations for MCI Canada and worked with the global Sustainability Director to implement sustainable policies into their North American events and operations. She was also a key member of the TED production team, and was a lead project manager on the Dalia Lama’s Canadian tour. She has been on the board of MPI and ILEA and was recognized as top 40 under 40 in North America by CollaborateMeetings.

Emma lives on beautiful Vancouver Island, and in the rare moments she has to herself you can find her doing yoga or on her paddle board – followed by a local craft beer or glass of wine.

In 2020, Jessica launched her own consultancy The Tenth Letter to support the tourism, events, and business events sector with developing and implementing strategies for achieving tangible and measurable social change. She believes the future of the tourism regeneration relies on our ability to demonstrate impactful change in communities. Recognition and attribution of social, environmental, and cultural impacts provides much greater value to the tourism sector than economic impact alone.

Jessica is teaching faculty for the Meet4Impact’s ‘Impact Strategy and Management Masterclass’ in the GDS-Academy.

In August 2021, Jessica joined the GDS-Movement team to support and grow our presence in the Asia Pacific region.

He is the author of ‘Only Planet – a flight-free adventure around the world’ a book about his circumnavigation of the globe without getting on a plane. Ed’s core talent is to take the complex, interconnected, interdependent nature of the many urgent challenges the world faces, from climate change to disruptive innovation, and make common sense of them for non-specialist audiences in a pandemic world.

He started his career as a marine biologist and has worked and lived all over the globe, including in Jamaica, the Orkney Islands, Australia and New Caledonia.

Professionally Ed is known for his own unique brand of authentic ‘insultancy’ – being strategically and playfully cheeky to clients, with judicious wit and wisdom to inspire them to greater heights and aspirations.

As well as the Resident Futurist at the GDS-Movement, Ed is a facilitator with the Forward Institute for responsible leadership, a Director of Greenpeace UK, a Trustee of Ecolibrium, co-founder of the pioneering Change Agency Futerra, and a founder investor and former Chair of pioneering online rail ticketing business ‘Loco2’ now rebranded as Rail Europe. He is also an investor in pioneering slow travel agency Byway and deep work start-up Flown. Ed co-hosts Itunes chart-topping podcast ‘Jon Richardson and the Futurenauts’ and ‘The Great Humbling’. He is a regular media contributor from the BBC to the Guardian (for whom he wrote a regular column during his flight-free navigation of the world – ‘The Slow Traveller’) to Conde Naste (‘How to embrace a travel mind set while staying at home’)