Marisa Dimitriadis
Marisa Dimitriadis heads up South Africa’s leading spa design, development and consultancy business. Having created some of South Africa’s award-winning spas, Marisa prides herself in her ability to create profitable and sustainable projects with systems to be reckoned with. Marisa also created and developed her own spa range for manicures, pedicures and body treatments. As an ambassador and visionary to the South African spa industry, Marisa has launched the very first Post Graduate Beauty Business School, a much needed and welcomed part time school for the industry.  She also serves as vice president for the BHSEA.
   
Andrew Gibson
Andrew Gibson, Group director of Spa for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, provides global support to the design, development and operation of Mandarin Oriental Spas internationally. He is a well known spa professional with 25 years’ of luxury and diversified hotel and leisure services experience. Having covered almost every part of the spa service industry, he has worked for a construction company specialising in health facilities, and built his own luxury resort spa. Andrew also helped to establish Six Senses as a major spa trend and worked with Raison d’Etre to help leading hotels define their spa concept. Andrew sits on the board of the Global Spa Summit and International SPA Association.
   

Keith West-Harrison

Due to illness, Keith will not be able to join us. Professional Beauty wishes him a speedy recovery and all the best for the future.

Keith West-Harrison is a sought after motivational speaker on wellness and healthy aging. He has been featured on numerous television and news channels. His articles published on the AOL website reaches 24 million people each month. Based in Albuquerque, he works with skincare clients at his new store Great Face & Body, and manufactures his label skincare as My Sacred Fig. Keith has over 20 years’ experience in the spa industry as a product retailer, management consulting team, educator and day spa operator. He works closely with some of the world’s top day spas, resort spas, and medical spas, and can show clients how to get the most out of their business without sacrificing quality, ethics, or professional satisfaction.
   
Adam Horler
Adam Horler charted a highly successful career path through the likes of P&G, L’Oreal, red earth (Esprit), AS Watson and Molton Brown (Kao), before he decided to launch his own business with Osmosis Ventures in 2008. His corporate travels have taken him all over Asia – from Japan to New Zealand to India – all in search of what makes Asian consumers tick. Osmosis Ventures’ company mission is “Promoting conscious living”, and works with consumer brands, retailers and hotel groups to promote and source brands that meet consumers’ needs, while leaving minimal impact on the environment. Adam is the Asian figurehead and spokesperson for the Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS)movement, which aims to bring business and consumers together to enable commerce in an environmentally-sustainable manner.
   
Kirsty Ratcliffe
Kirsty Ratcliffe started Source Management in the beginning of 2006, aiming to create a foodie hub of creative services to the culinary industry. Source Management is a food consultancy focusing on events, promotions and the development of culinary concepts. Its services include project management, events, culinary placements and training, as well as food styling and recipe and menu development, to name a few.
   
Kurt Peterson
Kurt Peterson is the owner of Matis Cresta, and is primarily involved in the financial aspects of the business. He specialises in studying the connection between therapists’ personalities, the way they feel about themselves in respect to the world, the types of clients they attract and the range of services they feel comfortable offering. As the owner of a beauty salon, this defines Kurt’s passion for the industry, which is the journey of the therapist’s connecting with others and themselves, and finding a trust that enables them to match personal actions to their expectations from a career and their lives.
   
Keryn Hayes
Keryn Hayes is one of the pioneers in the day spa business; having created Skin Sense Day Spa 12 years ago, with its uniquely Balinese styled building. Her professionalism has ensured that Skin Sense Day Spa has won the prestigious Professional Beauty Best Day Spa Award for the past five years running.
   
Ian Fuhr
Ian Fuhr’s working career is lined with a number of entrepreneurial start-up businesses, including a retail chain, a recording company, a human relation and customer service consultancy, and now a venture into beauty. During his years as a consultant, Ian consulted to public companies such as Nedbank, Lonhro Mining, Murray and Roberts, Pick n Pay, Budget Rent-A-Car, Firestone Tyres, Anglo American and more. His main areas of expertise lie in HR, race relations, the development of a community culture, and customer service. Ian launched the Sorbet chain of beauty salons and nail bars in 2005. The aim is to develop this chain into a national brand. Sorbet currently has 25 outlets in Johannesburg.
   
Jeanine Andro
Jeanine Andro studied Home Economics (Ed.) at the University of Stellenbosch. Food and nutrition was her main field of interest, and furthered her studies at the Institute of Culinary Arts in Stellenbosch. Jeanine worked as a chef thereafter, and started a small business developing and marketing a range of deli products. For the past seven years, she has been a part-time lecturer at the Institute of Culinary Arts in Nutrition and Culinary French. She strongly believes in the importance of nutritional food, and places much emphasis on health issues in her lectures, equipping young chefs with the necessary knowledge and recipes to offer healthy options.
   
Alison Caroline Ng’ethe
Alison Caroline Ng’ethe, Director of The Alison Caroline Institute, trained as a beauty therapist at the Champneys Health & Beauty College, United Kingdom, fitness instructor and sports therapist at Premiere, which advanced into study leisure management. Afterwards, she worked in Bermuda, USA and the UK, and returned to Kenya to manage the health clubs and spas of a five-star hotel chain. Alison opened the Alison Caroline Institute in 2003, and in 2006 set up Spa Concepts. Here, her consultancy work became part of a new company called AKA Spa Dynamics. Alison also lectures in anatomy and physiology, reflexology, spa therapies and massage.
   
Debbie Merdjan
Debbie Merdjan, CEO of the Camelot Group, a wellness company that encompasses training, product distribution, franchising, spa consultancy and treatment centres, has 27 years industry experience, as well as CIDESCO and BABTAC diplomas and a diploma in Business Management. Camelot International boasts seven schools locally, while Camelot Spa has 18 spas countrywide, as well as a spa consultancy and franchise division.
   
Mark Kaeting
Mark Keating is the CEO of Sales Guru magazine, South Africa’s most used monthly sales coaching resource. His experience comes through 17 years of selling, leading sales teams in South Africa and abroad, and having started three companies. Mark interacts with many of South Africa’s largest sales forces and shares his experiences from top performers through to leading sales directors. His mission is to uplift the sales profession and share how best to acquire, retain and grow businesses.
   
Karen Morris
Karen Morris is a registered professional accountant, and is a member of the South African Institute of Tax Practitioners. Karen is the owner of Kevjar Business Solutions; an accounting practise that specialises in the SME market, where she is considered an expert in offering financial business solutions within the wellness environment, and also facilitates corporate financial training for non-financial managers.
   
Shana Sandri
Shana Sandri is a highly motivated and experienced business owner, and a specialist at men’s grooming centre, Mens Executive Grooming (M.E.G) in KZN, South Africa. She has four years experience as a regional manager, post graduate trainer and business consultant for The International Dermal Institute of South Africa – Dermalogica, driving sales, new business development and post graduate training. Shana is passionate about the skin care industry, and is a respected manager and team leader, skilled multi-tasker with great savvy for innovative marketing ideas.
   
Nico Thirion
Nico Thirion, who has been involved with training in the health, beauty and wellness industry for the last 10 years, is currently the national training manager for adult skin care for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Specialised Division, and presents training nationally for RoC, Neutrogena, Ambi, Clean and Clear and Johnson’s Healthy Skin. Nico is an internationally renowned teacher, trainer, coach, seminar leader and body works therapist. He is a natural medical and etnopsycological practitioner, an executive life coach, accredited journey practitioner, accredited body works therapist, and has been awarded an Academic Honorary Doctorate by the Commonwealth Open University.
   
Karen Thomason
Karen Thomason has been involved with the Health & Skin Care industry for the past 15 years. Over the past 3 years she has been actively involved with the Beauty Health & Skin Care Employers Association (BHSEA). Karen has first hand knowledge of the basic day-to-day running of spas and how therapists perform their duties, as well as what is expected of employees and employers. Karen serves on the BHSEA, and represents the Health and Skin Care Industry at the Service SETA Chamber.
   
Luisa Farelo
Luisa Farelo, a foodie genius and styling guru, handles all of Source Management’s recipe development and food styling. She has cooked for the rich and famous for so long that finding perfect produce and turning it into delectable dishes comes as naturally as making toast. She loves experimenting with new flavors and creating simple food with the freshest, local ingredients.
   
Sheila Otieno-Osanya
Sheila Otieno-Osanya obtained a tertiary education in Hotel Management in Switzerland, where she attended the Swiss Hotel Association Hotel Management School, Les Roches. After which, she returned to her home country, Kenya, where she specialised in restaurant management and hotel operations. In 2004, Sheila decided to devote her career exclusively to spa management, and gained valuable experience as spa director at Misty Hills, spa manager at the Arabella Sheraton Grand Hotel, and later, as a management consultant for the Business for Wellness. In 2008, Sheila decided to form her own spa consultancy, and set up The Spa People, which offers clients the benefits of her considerable experience in the industry.
    
Tanya Lopes 
Tanya  Lopes is a qualified and highly experienced beauty and 
body therapist. Tanya  has had vast international spa experience from Portugal 
to London where she held the position of Retail and Product Development Manager 
for The Sanctuary, the biggest spa in London. On  returning to South Africa, 
Tanya joined The Spas of Distinction as Operations  Manager of Life Day Spa, 
Octavias Sensorium and Renaissance Day Spa.Today  Tanya and her partner 
Phillipa head up a consultancy company called Spa Sense covering all aspects 
relating to set up of a spa from recruitment, design,  management systems to 
operations.
    
Idalette de Villiers 
Idalette de Villiers graduated as a qualified skin and body therapist, coming top 
of her class and  achieving  an International(ITEC) and National diploma. 
On completion of  her studies, Idalette worked as a skin therapists for three 
years, before  joining  the leading international skin care company called 
Dermalogica.  Idalette started working as an educator focussing on post 
graduate training.  Since joining the company 5 and half years ago, she 
has been promoted to senior  instructor and in October 2007 got 
promoted to regional education manager.
    
Wayne Phillips
Wayne Phillips is  a Director of International Leisure Consultants, a specialised 
consultancy  and management company with extensive experience in the 
leisure industry  and clients in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australasia. 
Wayne specialises in sustainable business growth strategies and has 22 
years'  experience in the service industry. 

He a qualified Chartered Marketer  who is also a member of the 
European Marketing Confederation and Chartered  Institute of Marketers (UK).  
www.ilc-world.com