TravelConnect

Scott Kirby is president of United. In this role, Scott is responsible for United’s operations, marketing, sales, alliances, network planning and revenue management.

Prior to United, Scott was president of American Airlines, since the company merged with US Airways in 2013. Scott is a well-known industry veteran, with a broad and accomplished three-decade airline career with senior leadership roles at America West and US Airways, where he was named president in 2006. Kirby started his career at the Pentagon and in the technology sector.

Scott has bachelor degrees in computer science and operations research from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a Master of Science in operations research from George Washington University. He is married and has six children.

Bonny Simi is the President of JetBlue Technology Ventures, the Silicon Valley innovation hub for JetBlue Airways’ investment and incubation of emerging startups at the intersection of technology and travel.

Bonny joined JetBlue in 2003 and brings more than 25 years of experience in human resources, customer service, aviation, industrial engineering, operations, broadcast journalism and design thinking experience to her role.

Bonny is also an active JetBlue pilot and three-time Olympian in the sport of luge. She graduated from Stanford University with three degrees, including a Master of Science in management, a Master of Science in engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in communications.

Amy Webb is a quantitative futurist. She is a professor of strategic foresight at the New York University Stern School of Business and the Founder of the Future Today Institute, a leading foresight and strategy firm that helps leaders and their organizations prepare for complex futures. Founded in 2006, the Institute advises Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, government agencies, large nonprofits, universities and startups around the world. Amy’s special area of research is artificial intelligence, and she has advised three-star generals, White House leadership and CEOs of some of the world’s largest companies on the future of AI.

Amy is the author of three books, including The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream, which explains how to forecast and manage technological change. Her latest book, The Big Nine: How The Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Will Change Humanity, is a call-to-arms about the broken nature of artificial intelligence and the powerful corporations that are turning the human-machine relationship on its head. Amy’s future-forecasting work has been featured in the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, CNN, NPR and more.

Jeffrey G. Katz is the founder and chief executive officer of Journera, the technology company that has developed the first software platform to create more seamless travel journeys.

Prior to this, Mr. Katz served as chairman, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Orbitz Worldwide. He was also president of Sabre’s Travel Information Network and chief executive officer of Swissair, as well as president and chief executive officer of Leapfrog. He also held several senior leadership positions at American Airlines and Northwest Airlines. He has served on the boards of both Friendster.com and City of Hope National Cancer Research Institute.

Mr. Katz received a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Davis, and holds master’s degrees in science from both Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dave Harvey has been with Southwest Airlines since 1999 in various roles across technology, corporate strategy, commercial planning, network planning, business development, corporate sales, and currently serves as vice president of Southwest Business. Dave is currently on multiple boards and appointments related to the travel industry, including being a representative member of the U.S.

Department of Transportation’s National Advisory Committee on Travel and Tourism Infrastructure (NACTTI), chairing the Solutions to Barriers in Improving Critical Infrastructure (SBICI) subcommittee. Additionally, he holds advisory positions with Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) and Business Travel News (BTN).

He received his BBA from UT Austin in management information systems and both his MBA in operations management and MS in organizational strategy from UT Dallas. He has five sons that keep him active outside Southwest and a beautiful wife that is an educator and writer.

As chief economist for Visa Inc., Wayne Best keeps close watch on emerging opportunities in the trillion-dollar payments industry. An active participant in the World Economic Forum’s Future of Consumption community, he identifies economic trends shaping the future. His unique presentations explain the impact of these trends to company and client executives as well as government leaders around the globe.

Frequently quoted in the trade and business media, Best brings economic theory and analysis to life with compelling stories and data from the largest payment provider in the industry. Because he stays close to the underlying dynamics of the business, his insights provide a clear perspective on the consumer's ability to spend, save and pay down debt. His passion for business and engineer's logic turn mathematical models and technical jargon into business intelligence that enables future-oriented business decisions.

Before joining Visa in 1990, Best worked as a consultant performing cost-benefit analyses for the power industry. In addition to his MBA, Best holds a degree in nuclear engineering and has participated in the Stanford University and Kellogg School of Management executive programs.

Rafat is the CEO and founder of Skift, the largest industry intelligence and marketing platform in travel, providing news, information, data and services to all sectors of the world’s largest industry. Previously, he was the founder and CEO of paidContent and ContentNext, which he sold to U.K.'s Guardian News and Media in 2008, and left in 2010. Prior to that, he was managing editor of Silicon Alley Reporter.

Rafat was the Knight Fellow at Indiana University, where he completed his Masters in Journalism, 1999-2000. Prior to that he completed his BSc in computer engineering from AMU in Aligarh, India.

Jackie Lamping oversees all marketing efforts for the Sojern brand. A 10-year veteran of growth marketing, programmatic, social media and PR, Jackie is a thought leader in branding and innovation. Prior to Sojern, Jackie held leadership roles in growth and product marketing, branding and digital media at AdRoll, Twitter, Apollo Group and Wells Fargo. Jackie holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts degree in human biology from Stanford University.