Our Leadership

Tim Hentschel is the Co-Founder and CEO of HotelPlanner, a leading travel technology company that combines proprietary artificial intelligence capabilities and a 24/7 global gig-based reservations and customer service network. Tim oversees HotelPlanner's family of brands which include its flagship site HotelPlanner.com and its business-focused site Meetings.com. Tim is a third-generation hotelier and a graduate of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration with a degree in hotel management and concentration in micro-computing. In 2018, his alma mater awarded him their prestigious Innovator of the Year Award. Tim created the annual American Group Travel Awards which donates its proceeds to St. Jude's Hospital. Tim currently resides in Singapore overseeing Asia-Pac operations and has plans to return to the company's London office in 2022.

John Prince graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northeastern University with a degree in Computer Science and minor in Mathematics. For the few years of his career, John worked as a Software Engineer for IBM and Capital One.

In 2003, John co-founded HotelPlanner with Tim Hentschel and was the sole software developer for the first few years of the product. John is responsible for the product roadmap and all the technology developed and deployed by HotelPlanner. He has over 20 years of experience in designing one of the world's best group lead management and response systems.

In 2016, John was awarded CIO of the Year in South Florida as well as South Florida's 40 under 40 list.

John is married to Jessica Prince and has 3 children. John is also a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO).

Bruce Rosenberg has over 30 years of senior management experience in the travel industry working for world class companies with a focus on Internet development, distribution and group sales. He worked at Hilton Hotels for 13 years and held the title of Senior Vice President of e-Business. In this role, Bruce was responsible for the websites for all brands in the Hilton family. These responsibilities included booking engine technology, group services, hotel content, marketing programs and more. Bruce also worked at Hotels.com/Expedia, Continental Airlines, and Marriott. Bruce holds a degree from the University of Massachusetts /Anna Maria College in History, Political Science & Management.

Joe Groglio has over 35 years of financial experience, with several Fortune 500 companies and a Public Accounting background, with 24 years spent in the travel industry. Joe served as Group Vice President & Controller for the Hertz Corporation, Car Rental Division, where he worked for 23 years, from 1991 to 2014, in various financial roles of increasing responsibility for the U.S. and International operations. Joe also worked for PepsiCo, Inc., in management roles at corporate headquarters, in the financial reporting and planning areas. He holds a degree in Accounting from Villanova University and an MBA in Finance from Pace University. Competencies include strategic planning, analysis, execution, operational finance, cost control, cash flow & capital expense management.

Pioneering the travel tech scene, Bryce Fosdick embarked on his journey in 2006 at a travel startup, which later thrived and was acquired by Hotel Planner in 2020. With a track record of success, Bryce has spearheaded many concepts to market with best-in-class architecture designs and principles. His passion lies in leveraging cutting-edge technologies to build scalable, distributed, and cost-effective solutions to optimize business operations and create seamless customer experiences.

With a background as a full-stack engineer, cloud architect, and data scientist with a thirst for innovation, Bryce brings over 18 years of experience to the team. He graduated cum laude from the Missouri State University Honors College in 3 years with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and minors in both Math and Physics. Bryce started strong and hasn't stopped since.

As Chief Legal Officer, Leticia Piloto-Rodriguez manages the day-to-day legal needs of both HotelPlanner.com and Meetings.com. She possesses over 16 years of expertise as a practicing attorney, has maintained an AV Preeminent Rating since 2016 and was awarded Business Lawyer of the Year - USA by the Women in Law Awards 2017. Prior to her appointment as Chief Legal Officer of Lexyl Travel Technologies, Leticia owned and managed her own practice with domestic and international clientele consisting of corporate and individual clients. She holds a Juris Doctorate Degree from Nova Southeastern University - Shepard Broad Law Center and a Bachelors of Science in Broadcast Journalism from Florida International University.

Nick DiGiovanni is the Chief Information Officer at HotelPlanner.com. A graduate of Arizona State University, Mr. DiGiovanni has over 27 years' experience designing, developing, and implementing mission critical software applications, IT support infrastructure and providing direction and leadership to various development teams. He has been with HotelPlanner for over 10 years and currently resides in Palm Beach with his wife Thayna and their dog Zoey.

Neil Valentine is the newly appointed Chief Strategy Officer for HotelPlanner, a leading travel technology company powered by proprietary artificial intelligence. Reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer, Neil will oversee HotelPlanner's growth strategy and market focus to align the company's approach to technology, reservations - online/voice, sales, marketing, global partnerships, and new program creation to accelerate growth and profitability.

Neil began his career as an U.S. State Department attaché in Milan, Italy before launching his 20-year sales & marketing career. After a few years with smaller firms in roles of increased responsibility, Neil served as the Chief Marketing Officer from 2011-2018 at Partner Fusion, Inc., a full-service digital marketing agency, incubator, and technology innovator. From 2008-2018, he also became a Founding Team Member and Chief Strategy Officer for TravelPass Group, a travel distribution platform, helping to grow the company to $3.5 billion in sales.

Since 2014, Neil has served as an advisor to several e-commerce companies that are focused on hyper growth within the digital ecosystem. Neil has spent the past three years as Chief Revenue Officer for Lucency in Salt Lake City, a provider of contact center SaaS solutions. Neil has also spent nearly 25 years as a professional snowboard coach, trainer, and instructor at the Sundance Mountain resort in Utah.

Neil has a bachelor's degree from Excelsior College and currently resides in Salt Lake City, Utah with his wife and four children.

With more than 22 years of experience in the travel and hospitality industry, Mr. Bas Lemmens is the Co-founder of Booking.com and has served in various roles within the online hotel business including Ebookers.com, Isango.com, Easytobook.com, Hotelchamp.com, Redigo.ru. A graduate from the University of Twente in Holland with a Master in Industrial Engineering and Management Science. Now he is the CEO of Meetings.com and president of Hotelplanner.com EMEA.

Perry currently serves as our Vice President of Finance and Head of Investor Relations. Perry has over 30 years of finance experience in both Public and Private companies. He most recently served as CFO of a publicly traded NASDAQ company. Perry's primary background is in the hospitality industry, which includes over 22 years with Hertz Rent A Car. He also worked for three years as a Controller with Fulcrum Hospitality, a hotel asset management company. He has a proven track record as being a strategic finance business partner and building teams. In addition to his extensive background in accounting and auditing, he has expertise in financial analysis, strategic planning, and decision support. Perry earned his MBA degree from Montclair State University and CPA while an auditor with Deloitte & Touche.

As Chief Communications Officer, Philip Ballard oversees HotelPlanner's internal and external corporate communications, public relations and investor relations, and manages all related outside agency support. Philip has more than 20 years of experience supporting senior government and military officials and C-suite executives at Fortune 200 companies including L-3 Harris Technologies, Booz Allen Hamilton, PepsiCo, Ameriprise Financial and Raytheon Technologies. Philip holds a bachelor's degree in Government from Cornell University; a Master's degree in Strategic Security Studies from the National Defense University; and an MBA from the Virginia Tech Pamplin School of Business.

April Grantham currently serves as the Vice President of Operations at HotelPlanner, based at the company's global headquarters in West Palm Beach, FL, and reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer. April joined the company in 2013 as a Call Center Operations Manager. Since then, she has been given increased levels of responsibility overseeing larger teams. She now oversees the company's entire Customer Service department including multiple overseas call centers, contracting teams, escalations and fraud teams, hotel support teams, as well as special projects and event management. On the Sales side, April is a frequent contributor to affiliate sales calls and ongoing affiliate relationship management. She also manages the day-to-day business of running the West Palm Beach office.

April began her career as a child entrepreneur selling her handmade hair accessories to local businesses and hair salons, then onto Starbucks as an ASM and running the 2nd highest producing store in the state of Florida. April resides in West Palm Beach with a family history extending more than 100 years as settlers to South Florida area.

Tim Gunstone graduated from John Moore's University in Liverpool with a B.Sc. degree in Maritime Studies. He spent four years in Africa, first as an Expedition Mechanic driving across the Sahara, followed by voluntary work for the World WildLife Fund on a Rhino relocation project, and finally as a rafting Guide on the Zambezi River below the Victoria Falls.

In 1995, Tim joined First Conferences and was head of HR as the company grew from 7 to 250 people. He also founded Eyefortravel Ltd which published news and research and ran business conferences all over the world for the fast changing Online Travel industry. In 2018, Eyefortravel was sold and is now part of Reuters.

Tim joined HotelPlanner in 2018, first as the EVP Marketing and Advertising, and in 2019 he became the Managing Director of HotelPlanner LTD UK.

Tim is married to Lou Gunstone, has two children, is a very keen surfer and is based in beautiful Devon and London, UK.

Ben Knosby is the VP of Sports & Events for Lucid Travel, part of the HotelPlanner family of brands. Lucid Travel is a travel management software company that serves universities, sports teams, and event directors. The company's software is currently used by more than 150 universities and 10,000+ teams. Under Ben's leadership, Lucid Travel has experienced triple-digit growth year-over-year, which is a testament to his ability to employ software solutions at scale to increase conversion and drive more business. Lucid Travel helps thousands of event directors source and book hotel hotels using group room blocks and hotel contracts. Ben began his career as a data scientist and product manager for the pharmaceutical industry before launching Lucid Travel in 2018 with co-founder Nick Karagiannis. Ben holds a bachelor's degree in chemical & biomolecular engineering from North Carolina State University. Ben resides in Charlotte, NC.

Nick Karagiannis is the VP of Sports & Events for Lucid Travel, part of the HotelPlanner family of brands. Lucid Travel is a travel management software company that serves universities, sports teams, and event directors. The company's software is currently used by more than 150 universities and 10,000+ teams. Under Nick's leadership, Lucid Travel has experienced triple-digit growth year-over-year. For nearly a decade, Nick has held various engineering and business roles with a passion for entrepreneurship. At a young age, Nick founded Wooden Classic Collection, an e-commerce store specializing in eco-conscious wooden watches and sunglasses. In 2015, Nick joined Corning as a process/production and applications engineer in their optical fiber division. In 2018, Nick co-founded Lucid Travel with Ben Knosby. Nick holds a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering from East Carolina University, and a chemical & biomolecular Engineering degree from North Carolina State University. Nick resides in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Michael Kranitz is the Executive Vice President for Eventsquid, an event registration platform and part of the HotelPlanner family of brands. Michael has more than 30 years of experience launching companies and innovative software solutions. He is also an award-winning business writer, author, public speaker, and mentor. Michael spent the first 12 years of his career as a corporate reorganization lawyer before pursuing entrepreneurial ventures. Kranitz created the first fully online automotive buying and leasing sites, which was acquired by Microsoft and Ford in 1999. Michael designed and wrote custom software for RCUniverse.com, then the world's largest online community for radio control hobbyists. He then created Kaango, a syndicated newspaper classified ad platform which was acquired by Hearst and MediaNews Group in 2007. He served as the company's CEO until 2010. In 2012, Michael launched Eventsquid which now serves a broad range of public, private, and non-profit sector clients. Michael holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Florida and a law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law. Michael resides in Colorado and enjoys building and flying turbine-powered, radio-controlled helicopters, as well as racquetball, chess, and software development.

Joe Conti is the Vice President of Operations for Eventsquid, an event registration platform and part of the HotelPlanner family of brands. Joe has more than 30 years of consulting experience in the software, data and analytics industry helping clients navigate and understand their technology ecosystem to meet their business needs. At Eventsquid, Joe works with a wide variety of clients to train them on event registration software and guides the software engineering team to continuously improve the product. In the first half of his career, Joe worked at Nielsen and IBM where he led Client Success, Advanced Analytics and System Engineering teams to design and implement solutions for companies like Kraft Foods, Unilever and M&M Mars. Joe holds a bachelor's degree in Marketing from the University of Connecticut. He resides in Colorado where he enjoys the outdoors and coaches rugby.

Christopher Lee serves as President of Asia-Pacific Region at HotelPlanner. Christopher has more than 20 years experience in hospitality & travel and is also the Co-founder of Venuexplorer, a HotelPlanner brand and online venue marketplace for Asia. Christopher has also held various management roles with Intercontinental Hotel Group. Christopher is based in Singapore.

Jean-François Pieri serves as the President & CEO of Cleverdis, one of the largest trade show content and media providers in the world. In November 2023, Cleverdis joined the HotelPlanner family of brands while continuing to operate as an independent company.

Jean-François joined Cleverdis in 2009 as a Marketing Manager. In 2012 he became their Managing Director where he developed and executed new strategies and innovations to improve the company's service offerings to the trade show ecosystem. In 2020, Jean-François became the full owner of the company and assumed the role of President & CEO.

Jean-François hold a bachelor's degree from St. John's University in New York and obtained an MBA in International Management from ISEG. Jean-François resides in south France.