IAAPA Asia Pacific Summit

Aaron Glade has spent the past decade developing and optimizing entertainment in both the USA and abroad in Asia’s hottest entertainment destination; Macau. After a decade of working with Cedar Fair DBA Valleyfair Amusement Park, Aaron moved to Macau to help launch new Entertainment Operations for Studio City, Macau where he currently oversees Attraction Operations and Attraction’s Retail.

Aaron has presented on the topics of Entertainment and Attractions for; State University of New York (Buffalo), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, McNally Smith College of Music, and Macau University of Science & Technology’s East-West Institute for Advanced Studies.

Alan has worked in operations for the theme park industry for the past 35 years, the first 10 years with the Village Roadshow Theme parks in Australia, then the past 25 years based in Asia. During his time in Asia Alan has overseen the development and operations of industry leading projects including Atlantis Resort Sanya, China; Chimelong Water Park, Guangzhou, China;  Beijing Watercube Waterpark, Beijing, China; Sunway Lagoon, KL, Malaysia; Ramayana Water Park, Chonburi, Thailand. Alan is currently the Vice President, Marine & Waterpark Operations at Atlantis Resort Sanya where he has successfully lead the Lost Chambers Aquarium & Aquaventure Waterpark to be the first facilities globally to reopen after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Anna is Managing Director of Hospitality Intelligence LLC, a safety, operations, and guest service consultancy company in the amusement & attractions industry. She has been living in Vietnam for the past four years, delivering training to Attractions clients in Asia to boost safety standards, improve training methods, execute world-class operations, and bring about cultural awareness.

Projects in Vietnam include ICE! at Saigon Centre, ICE! at AEON Mall Tan Phu, Sanrio Hello Kitty Ice Town, Just Kidding Family Entertainment Center (includes outdoor rides, indoor playground, a restaurant, events, and group classes), The Family Fun Fair @ SC VivoCity Shopping Mall (includes outdoor rides, games, and F&B), among others. Additionally, Anna represents International Ride Training LLC in the Asia-Pacific region, where she teaches courses in safety schools and conducts safety audits.

Furthermore, representing Mobaro Park, Anna works with clients across Asia, empowering their teams to use technology to improve safety, maintenance, and operations.Prior to her career in Attractions, Anna carries eight years of global affairs & international business experience across a variety of entities, including the U.S. Department of State. Missions of previous employers span from international government development, diplomacy, intelligence, security & defense, to food & travel. She served as the Japan Strategy Manager for Northrop Grumman's Global Business Development Organization and as a Consultant/Global Context Analyst to other international offices. In these roles, she provided market, customer, and competitive intelligence analysis to support business development efforts. Moreover, Anna trained the new international offices on the application of cultural awareness, historical context, and current global environment issues to strategy design. She now applies her intelligence and international business backgrounds to the international attractions industry. 

Anna is certified in Levels I & II SCIP (Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professional) certifications, and a graduate of the Thunderbird Global Business Executive Program. She holds a bachelor's degree in International Affairs/Sociocultural Anthropology from The George Washington University and a master's degree in Foreign Service/Security Studies from Georgetown University.

David Rosenberg is the Vice President, Monterey Bay Aquarium. In his role, he chairs the Visitor Experience Steering Committee, which is responsible for the strategic planning and implementation of all aspects of the aquarium experience. David is credited with transforming the aquarium’s guest experience into the industry benchmark for excellence. Hosting over 2 million visitors annually, the Aquarium is recognized throughout the world as both a leading attraction and a global force for ocean conservation. The aquarium is applauded for its outstanding exhibits and live programming, which are key to communicating its mission to inspire conservation of the ocean.

After graduating from the University of Arizona, Mr. Rosenberg’s career began at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  He then rose to the executive ranks of Hyatt Hotels Corporation at some of their top properties in the United States.  In 2007, Mr. Rosenberg returned to the attractions industry and took on his newly created position at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. 

Mr. Rosenberg is the 2019 Chairman of the Board of Directors for IAAPA. He has also served on several of IAAPA’s committes including the Global Membership Committee, the Zoo and Aquarium Committee and several other constituency committees.  He is an IAAPA Certified Attractions Executive. In 2015, he was awarded IAAPA’s prestigious “Outstanding Service Award” for his contributions to the global attractions industry.  He is highly involved in the hospitality community and served on the Executive Committee for Monterey County Hospitality Association, an organization representing attractions, golf courses, hotels and resorts throughout Northern California.  Additionally, he sits on the Academic Advisory Committee for California State University, Monterey Bay, is an active member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and recently finished his term on the Board of Directors for “Voices for Children”.   He has authored articles on methods to drive the visitor experience and has been a featured speaker at industry conferences and symposiums throughout the world. His hobbies include SCUBA Diving, triathlons, marathons and mountain biking throughout Monterey County.

Trained as an architect, Evi has 15 years of experience in leading multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural creative processes. She has held senior production design management roles in the Chinese film and theatre industries, and currently leads all creative aspects of Nickelodeon Experience Design in Asia, including the development of theme parks, lands, and attractions, for Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN).

Nickelodeon, one of the world’s largest brands for kids, creates experiences in partnership with premier leisure developers worldwide. Currently, there are Nickelodeon attractions, resorts and touring shows on nearly every continent around the globe.

Before joining Viacom, Evi served as senior Creative Director for Thinkwell Asia, delivering heritage attractions, theme parks and resorts for clients such as Lionsgate, Cartoon Network, BAIC Ferrari World China, Geely Volvo Automotive, Evergrande Group, MGM China and China Merchants Group.

Evi also served as Senior Creative Director for Tim Yip Studio, the Oscar-winning production design team behind “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” directed by Ang Lee. With Tim Yip Studio, Evi worked on projects such as” Red Cliff”, a John Woo & China Film Group production, the Netflix series “Marco Polo” and “The Han Show” by Franco Dragone & the Wanda Group.

Hani Salama was born in Cairo, Egypt and a native speaker of Arabic. However, he spent most of my working life in Middle East countries before he moved from Oman to Hainan in June last year, and became bilingual both in Arabic and English for working with team members from all over the world.

In 2003, he started his career in waterpark operations in Dubai. Since then, he has worked for different waterparks in different countries for more than 15 years, including Hainan R&F Ocean Paradise for now, and the previous Hawana Aqua Park in Oman, Al Montazah Amusement & Waterpark in Sharjah, Lost Paradise of Dilmun Waterpark in Bahrain, and Wild Wadi Waterpark in Dubai. It is a process of getting more and more skills and experience, which includes communication and problem-solving skills, ability to work in a fast pace office environment, organization and project management skills as well as the ability to manage and complete multiple tasks at a time. Daily on-site operation and hard trainings contribute a lot to my profession and confidence of taking lead of his team in right ways. By professional trainings, he achieved Ellis & Associates Certificate, National Pool Lifeguard Instructor Qualification, Al Montazah Swimming Team Instructor of UAE Lifeguard Championship, etc.

He is plainly a down to earth type of person with a fire to succeed in everything that he does. With a strong sense of professionalism and responsibility, he likes to handle challenging tasks, and enjoy meeting and working with people of all levels. His prospect is always providing a safe, efficient and happy operational environment for the guests.

Scott Deisley has been the Managing Director of Safety Skills Training and Jeff Ellis International for the past six years, now serving clients in over 40 countries. Prior to that Scott served in senior roles with Atlantis the Palm, Palace Entertainment, Jumeirah International, Schlitterbahn and the Morey Organization dating back to 1987. In these roles he has led teams to open expansions as well as full world class parks, been on teams that have added nine world’s first rides. and led Wild Wadi, Atlantis the Palm and SST/JEI to ISO certifications.

Scott Serves on the IAAPA Waterpark Committee. He has also held roles with Ellis & Associates including Instructor, Instructor Trainer, Auditor, National Faculty, International Aquatic Safety School Director, Program Development Committee Member, and Program Review Committee Member. In 2016 Scott was awarded the WWA Al Turner Commitment to Excellence Award.

With almost 30 years experience at Village Roadshow Theme Parks (VRTP), in various capacities of managing, operating and marketing their signature portfolio of Theme Parks and Attractions around the world, it’s safe to say Selena Magill loves her job!

Her career has spanned across countries around the world including Warner Bros. Movie World Australia, Wet‘n’Wild Gold Coast, Sea World Australia, Warner Bros. Movie World Germany, Australian Outback Spectacular, Paradise Country, Wet’n’Wild Phoenix, Las Vegas, Sydney, Haikou, and now Lionsgate Entertainment World, Zhuhai, Hengqin China.

Selena has been experiencing the evolution of the Theme Park industry first-hand having started her career at Warner Bros. Movie World Australia in 1991 in Show & Entertainment and working in almost every department as she made her way through the ranks from Front Line to General Manager.   

It’s only fitting that she now finds herself in China, in the role of General Manager for Lionsgate Entertainment World, part of the Lai Sun Hengqin Novotown project, designed and conceptualised by Thinkwell. This new vertical indoor park, operated by VRTP, brings alive Lionsgate Studio film franchise favourites such as: The Twilight Saga, The Hunger Games, Now You See Me, Divergent, Escape Plan and Gods of Egypt.  Filled with signature dining, themed retail and interactives and high tech, first of their kind interactive and immersive rides and attractions, this new park is truly the future of themed entertainment.  

Tenniel Chu is a pioneer in the China sports and leisure tourism industry. He has been at the forefront of ground-breaking ventures across golf, tennis, football, basketball and more, driven by a mission to bring China to the world and the world to China.

Born in 1976 in Hong Kong, Tenniel is the Vice Chairman of Mission Hills Group, the owner and operator of the world’s largest golf and tourism facility, with luxury resorts in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Haikou, Yunnan and Chongqing and a profile that is global in its reach.

Upon graduating with a degree in economics from the University of Toronto in Canada, Tenniel pursued his passion for golf by studying Professional Golf Management at Humber College. On completing his studies, he was recruited by the US PGA TOUR, the world’s most famous professional golf tour, to head up operations at their TPC Sawgrass headquarters in Florida.

In 2001, he joined the family business and now oversees the overall operations and development of Mission Hills. Under Tenniel’s leadership, the organisation has both met and exceeded international standards to become the benchmark for golf, football, basketball, tennis, boxing and marathon, building sports empire in China.

Yik has over 10-year experience in Integrated Hotel Resort with over 9 years of managerial experience in the hospitality industry with the past 12 years in Macau.

Yik began his career as Fitness Instructor in a rebranded hotel with a large club house operating the recreational facilities in 2008. He worked as a Supervisor, Pool and Leisure in Hard Rock Hotel Macau in 2009 for preopening team in the Spa and Resort. In late 2010, he took on a Manager role in Resort Services department in Galaxy Macau for 1st phase opening with the company. During the fast progression of integrated resort project development in the company, Yik was promoted to Executive Manager during the 2nd phase opening and current position Assistance Vice President since late 2016 working on-going development with the company expansion for over 8 years.

Yik is an experienced young leader in the hospitality industry in Hong Kong and Macau. Currently, he is one of our members serving the IAAPA APACS Education Subcommittee.