Global Expertise
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Meet the Team
Minaz Abji
Global Asset Management | Visionary | Value Creation
Minaz Abji’s distinguished career in leadership exemplifies adding value and developing talent. His entrepreneurial underpinnings lend him a unique advantage in suggesting progressive strategies. A self made leader he is consistently acknowledged for anticipating trends and suggesting valuable disruption while not losing sight of goals. Minaz’s engaging approach of collaborative inquiry has been instrumental in enlisting support for several positive changes in the organizations he has led. As a strong proponent of technology he believes that every business is a tech business. His early recognition of this disruption allows him front row seats in the Boardroom and as an Angel investor for start-up companies. He is in a position to witness and shape the next generation of technologies that will change the hospitality experience and impact several other industries.
With an extensive background in the Hospitality industry, Minaz served for 14 years as the Executive Vice President of Asset Management with responsibility for global asset management, portfolio analysis and revenue management at Host Hotels, the largest hotel REIT in the world with an enterprise value of approximately US$17 billion.
Prior to joining Host Hotels, Minaz served as the President of Canadian Hotel Income Properties REIT (“CHIP REIT”) and worked for Starwood Hotels and Resorts and Westin (until its acquisition by Starwood) in various senior management positions. Minaz’s global experience allows him a unique edge in negotiations, he and his team successfully acquired, disposed and integrated several joint ventures in Europe and Asia, in addition to the United States.
Minaz was Chair of the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Foundation. He was also Board member and Chair of the Audit Committee for the American Hotel and Lodging Association and a Board member for the U.S. Travel Association. He was recently awarded the 2016 Above and Beyond Hotel Industry Humanitarian Award at the 22nd Annual The Lodging Conference.
Minaz served on the board of American Hotel Income Properties REIT and was a member of the Audit Committee, Compensation Committee and Chair of the Cyber Security Committee from 2017 to 2020. He currently serves on the board and chair of IREAD (Institute of rural education and development) USA and Visit Seattle. He serves on the advisory boards of Afiniti, Mobierge, HCN, MicroMetrics and World Relief Seattle. Minaz’s recent Humanitarian contributions in rural Tanzania extend his mission of promoting Education for the underprivileged.
Minaz graduated in Hotel Administration from George Brown College, Toronto, ON, an MBA from Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO and an Advanced Management Program (AMP) from Harvard University, MA.
Trine Ackelman
Sales | Strategic Marketing | Public Relations
Trine has 20-plus years of hospitality experience consistently exceeding targets and running successful sales and marketing teams in flagship luxury and lifestyle hotels in New York City, San Francisco and Orange County. She gets a kick out of strategizing and collaborating to uncover untapped opportunities, closing a sale, finding new revenue streams and marketing opportunities. She specializes in top line revenue, marketing, customer and owner relations and team cohesiveness. Ever resourceful, she will quickly cut through the clutter and create and execute immediate strategies for sustainable change.
Trine graduated with honors from Les Roches Hotel Management School in Switzerland and Hawaii Pacific University. She has lived in six countries and speaks five languages. When Trine is not working she enjoys exploring new places, the culinary and viticulture world and spending time with family and friends.
Jose Acosta
Finance | Negotiations | Acquisitions
Jose’s career includes more than 38 years of hands-on hospitality industry experience at the property and corporate level encompassing operations, finance, accounting, asset management and investment acquisitions. Extensive experience with opening new hotels, transitioning hotel ownership, handling renovations and stabilizing hotels on behalf of owners, investors and management companies. Worked with condominium developers on preparing construction budgets, condominium HOA and Hotel condo rental pool. Managed residential accounting and several development projects to include the responsibility for all leasing functions, which may include reviewing and negotiating lease transactions and agreements. Served as Chief Financial Officer for Z Capital Hospitality division, a private equity fund who manages both opportunistic, value-oriented private equity and credit funds.
Worked as Corporate Director of Finance for Starwood Hotel Group, Regional Director of Finance for Bench Mark Hospitality, Vice President of Finance & Accounting Operation for Grand Heritage Hotel Group, Chief Operating Officer of priZem international, Corporate Controller for Tishman Hotel Corporation, Corporate Director of Finance for KSL Recreation Corporation, Regional Corporate Controller for GF Management, in addition to 13 years of experience with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company as part of the opening team for all domestic and international hotel as well a Director of Financial for several hotels. Hold a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Baruch College and Finance from New York University.
Elisa Gois
Global Market Intelligence | Cashflow Optimization | Business Strategy
Elisa is a diverse business and analytics executive with extensive experience in driving operational, financial, and real estate optimization. She is a strong believer in leveraging business experience with data analytics and technology to deliver actionable, sustainable, and measurable insights and strategies. This was the approach she followed when serving as Chief Analytics Officer at MGM Resorts International where she led multiple interdisciplinary departments that drove hundreds of millions in incremental cash flow by optimizing revenue streams, ensuring the most effective marketing strategies, identifying and implementing labor and operating efficiencies and instituting a disciplined approach to capital investments.
Prior to joining MGM, Elisa served as Senior Vice President of Global Business Strategy & Analytics at Host Hotels & Resorts. Over her 17-year career at Host, she led the underwriting of billions of dollars of portfolio and single asset acquisitions, dispositions and return on investment projects. She developed the Business Intelligence function that drove hundreds of millions in incremental revenue generating and cost savings opportunities, and she played a key leadership role in the development and implementation of the company's global strategy.
She received her Master’s from the University of Maryland and Bachelor’s from Towson State University.
Tai Mei Gordon
Business Transformation | Revenue Analysis | Communications | Sales
Tai Mei is a hospitality professional with over 30 years’ experience in driving topline results and building world-class teams. A self-proclaimed “fixer”, Tai Mei enjoys the challenge of overcoming insurmountable odds and thrives in fast-paced environments.
She is highly skilled in developing strategies and solutions that mix the art and science of sales to overcome significant budget and pace deficits. She achieves goals and influences change through creative thinking, strategic planning, collaborative decision-making, transparent communication, servant leadership, and attention to detail.
Most recently, Tai Mei served as the Sr. Director of Sales, Marketing, and Digital Global Solutions & Support at Marriott International. She has held various leadership roles at the property and corporate levels in sales, marketing, communications and change management, program and project management, event management, and food and beverage operations.
Tai Mei received her BS in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management from Penn State
Richard Gordon Jr.
Intelligent Automation | Cultural Change | Business Transformation
Richard has over 35 years of leadership experience in all aspects of business transformation in diverse settings. During the past 23 years, he has been designing business processes, programs, and systems for large, complex, and a myriad of government and private sector clients. He helps clients enhance their ability to respond to business challenges and conflicts using reliable, data-informed approaches to decision making.
Richard helps drive value for our large and small clients using intelligent automation technologies to unify, manage, prioritize, and automate tasks using data drawn from every relevant system, application, and platform. These modern technologies connect applications inside the client organization and beyond – for proper end-to-end optimization. Drawing on his unique experiences, he helps our clients quickly identify changes and drill down for deeper analysis to predict the future better.
Having served as the Legislative Director to a United States Congressman, National Director for the Air Traffic Controllers Union, and a business executive and owner, he is sought after for his astute investigative and problem resolution skills. Richard has delivered experiential training in strategy implementation to over 3,000 executives, managers, and supervisors. His unique training experience and subject matter expertise in business transformation and cultural change make him a great addition to our team.
Helen Horsham-Bertels
Customer Service I Customer Experience I Customer Communication
Helen is a service-driven, customer-focused partner with a demonstrated track record of establishing and integrating service and communication protocols that enhance the overall employee and customer experience. She’s a firm believer in the service-profit chain, prioritizing the overall experience and psychological wellbeing of customer-facing employees. She spent 16 years at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, over which time she held global leadership roles for Customer Care, Guest Experience, Guest Communications and Guest Service. She is data-driven but seeks direct input from key stakeholders in uncovering challenges and obstacles to delivering great customer experiences. She also applies diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as a lens through which to assess her clients’ service delivery models, build awareness and drive behavioral change.
Helen’s career spans several industries, including Publishing and Consumer Packaged Goods, before moving to Hospitality. She recently added Healthcare and Residential Real Estate to a growing list of industries served.
Helen is product development and strategic planning advisor to Fetch│Digital Staff & Guest Engagement. She served on the Board of Directors of SOCAP International and currently serves on the Board of Trustees and as DEI Committee co-Chair for Trailblazers Camps. She is a volunteer facilitator with The Coalition for the Homeless First Step Program in New York and a founding member of the Town of Mamaroneck New York Racial Equity Task Force.
Bruce McNish
Openings and Transitions I Resort and Hotel Operations I Planning & Logistics
Bruce is a hands-on business professional with more than 40 years of hospitality leadership with Starwood Hotels and Resorts and Marriott Vacations Worldwide. He has held operations oversight roles for assets from Hawaii, French Polynesia and New York to the Virgin Islands, Colorado, and the deserts of California and Arizona. He understands the unique challenges remote locations present in a property’s success or failure.
With a focus on strategy development, planning, and implementation for the short and long-term, he coaches teams to avoid the pitfalls of losing perspective while fighting the fires of the day-to-day. Bruce has worked at every level of hotel and resort organizations, bringing a unique vantage point to property problem-solving that allows him to get to root causes quickly and achieve stakeholder buy-in on solutions. Bruce thinks like an Owner, recognizing the importance of asset appreciation through great performance.
During his career, Bruce has overseen portfolios of world-class assets across multiple brands and countries. He has led over 15 openings and conversions in challenging locations and, therefore, understands the critical role planning and logistics play in successful execution.
Bruce graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.
Benoit Racle
Transformation | Brand Management | Global Operations
Benoit brings operational soundness and marketing sophistication to global consumer businesses for over 20 years, in extraordinary lifestyle and luxury customer-centric industries, at both startups and highly matrixed Fortune 500 companies. He specializes in transforming organizations from a product-centric to a customer-centric mindset, creating and delivering unique consumer experiences.
A French native, he is also fluent in English and Spanish in addition to practicing several other languages, learned during his assignments across five continents.
Analytical, strategic and relentlessly creative fixer, he is also an approachable, hands-on leader, who inspires teams to “live the brand”, while being highly effective at influencing key stakeholders and delivering financial results in a fast-paced, complex environment
In addition to his full-time job, Benoit provides consulting services to various clients and functions as Advisory Board Member for startups with multidisciplinary and multicultural teams, providing thought leadership in best-in-class business practices to entrepreneurs and creative minds.
Timothy Wiersma
Commercial Strategy | Revenue Optimization | Channel Planning | Profit Enhancement
With more than two decades of experience in the hospitality industry, Tim Wiersma is recognized as a leader in revenue management. Specializing in property and portfolio revenue management, sales, marketing, distressed-asset turnaround, and asset assessment, he consistently delivers results for properties around the world.
Before joining GlobalLink Hospitality Advisors, Tim was a vice president with Host Hotels and Resorts, a Fortune 500 company and the largest premiere real estate hospitality company in the world. He has also held a vice president position at TPG Hospitality, a private equity firm with over 60 full-service hotels representing all major markets and brands, and he was vice president Red Roof Group where he oversaw the Revenue Strategy of over 650 economy hotels. He has held other corporate-level positions with Starwood Hotels and Resorts and Canadian Hotel Income Properties and has been a key advisor for Marriott International in sales and revenue management.
Over the course of his career, Tim has worked with all major brands and independent properties and has developed top line business intelligence tools, dashboards, and business configurations to assist hotels in driving optimal results. He thrives on finding innovative ways to turn around underperforming assets while motivating sales and revenue teams.
Tim holds a BA in Business Administration and Finance. He is an active member of HSMAI (Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International) and is currently serving on its board as chair of the Revenue Optimization advisory board.
In his spare time, Tim enjoys spending time with family, his friends and flying a Cessna 172.