I see the pattern early. Then I build it. That's been the job for four decades, under different titles.
These days I'm an independent director and strategic advisor, working with founder-led and family-owned businesses on AI strategy, governance, and the long-horizon decisions that don't come with a playbook.
From May 2021 to February 2026 I chaired the Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO), the statutory regulator responsible for consumer protection across 2,400 registered travel businesses. I was the first ministerially appointed Chair in TICO's history… and I took the chair at the height of COVID, reporting directly to the responsible Minister. Governing a regulator while its entire industry was shut down teaches you things a calmer term never would.
Before governance, I ran hotels. In 1985 I took over the Albert at Bay Suite Hotel in Ottawa — an apartment building at the time — and turned it into a TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice property. In 1990 I opened Best Western Plus Ottawa Downtown Suites out of a bankrupt construction site and built it into a Best Western "Best of the Best," a designation fewer than 2% of 2,400-plus North American locations hold. I sold both in 2020.
In 1996, I founded BookDirect — one of the first online hotel reservation platforms globally. I integrated it with the Amadeus Global Distribution System, scaled it across hundreds of properties including Delta Hotels and Westmont Hospitality, and ran it for 18 years. The internet was a fad, a hotelier told me at the time. It wasn't.
I write about governance, AI strategy, and technology disruption — from the seat of someone who operated through three distribution revolutions and is now watching the fourth arrive. My Hotels × AI series looks at how AI-mediated booking is reshaping hotel distribution, and what operators and boards need to understand before the transition finishes deciding for them.
Early on the internet. Early again on AI. The pattern holds.
