Mandarin Oriental CIO Monika Nerger Elected as New President for HTNG

New Leadership Also Includes Several CIO-level Additions to its Board of Governors

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. November 20, 2014

CHICAGO - November 20, 2014 - Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG), the membership association that unites the world's hospitality companies and technology innovators to solve industry challenges, announced a planned succession of its volunteer leadership, as well as several high-profile CIO-level additions to its Board of Governors.

Monika Nerger, Chief Information Officer of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, succeeds Jeremy Ward as President of the association. Nerger has served on the Board of Governors since 2012 and as Vice President since 2013. She has been active in HTNG for more than ten years, having previously served as a forum and workgroup chair. "Monika Nerger has been a great evangelist and supporter of HTNG, and no one is more qualified than she to take on the leadership role," said Douglas C. Rice, Chief Executive Officer of HTNG, who continues to manage HTNG's day-to-day operations. Richard Tudgay, Vice President of IT for Omni Hotels & Resorts, was elected as Vice President to fill the vacancy created by Nerger's appointment. Tudgay has served on the Board of Governors since 2009.

The succession plan was triggered by the departure of former President Jeremy Ward from his position as Senior Vice President of IT at Kempinski Hotels. Ward accepted a senior executive role with a technology provider, and HTNG's by-laws do not permit vendors to serve on its Governing board or as officers. "Jeremy Ward provided outstanding leadership to HTNG during his tenure as President, and he has been an active board member since 2007. We wish him well in his new role, but we will miss his leadership in the HTNG boardroom," said Monika Nerger.

Five New IT Leaders Elected to HTNG Board of Governors

In addition to the new officers, five hospitality industry IT leaders were elected to HTNG's Board of Governors. This volunteer group provides oversight, strategic direction and governance to the association. The five new Governors are:

•Emmanuel Clave, Group IT Director of Rocco Forte Hotels
•Laurent Idrac, Chief Information Officer of Accor
•Edward Malinowski, Chief Information Officer of Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts
•Bryan Steele, Head of IT for the Royal Automobile Club
•David Velasquez, Vice President of IT at Best Western International

"We are delighted with our continued progress in engaging industry leaders from every segment of hospitality and all major geographic regions," said Douglas Rice. "Each of the new Governors is the senior-most IT executive at his respective company, and increases HTNG's influence over the future of core technologies in our industry. This allows our members to focus their efforts on innovations that can provide competitive advantage, rather than reinventing the wheel on basic technologies." HTNG's global reach continues to expand, with more than half of its Board members now based outside the US.

For more information about the newly elected Governors, as well as about the eleven others that they join, visit http://htng.org/leadership/board-of-governors.

About Hotel Technology Next Generation

The premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry, HTNG is a self-funded, nonprofit organization with members from hotel and hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality and other industry members including consultants, media and academic experts. HTNG's members participate in focused workgroups to bring to market open solution sets addressing specific business problems. HTNG fosters the selection and adoption of existing open standards. Where necessary, it also develops new open standards to meet the needs of the global hospitality industry.

Membership in HTNG is open to hotel and hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, consultants, academics, press and others. Currently more than 400 corporate and individual members from across this spectrum, including most of the world's leading hotel companies and technology vendors, are active HTNG participants. HTNG's Board of Governors, consisting of 19 top IT leaders from hotel companies around the world, itself has responsibility for about 2.9 million guest rooms. HTNG publishes workgroup proceedings, drafts and specifications for all HTNG members as soon as they are created, encouraging rapid and broad adoption. HTNG releases specifications into the public domain as soon as they are ratified by the workgroups. For more information, visit www.htng.org.