Welf J. Ebeling has been part of the luxury hotel industry for over 35 years and has worked on three continents managing some of the most iconic hotels in Europe and Asia. His working life has been associated with brands such as Mandarin Oriental, Regent International and Rafael Hotels. During his time as COO of The Leading Hotels of the World, Mr. Ebeling was instrumental in transforming the company from a not-for-profit club into a highly profitable organization, as well as establishing a number of subsidiary companies, such as Leading Interactive Reservations, Leading Group Sales and Leading Quality Assurance. Furthermore he established Leading Spas and laid the foundation for The Leading Green Initiative, the first carbon-offset program for the hospitality industry. He is a board member of Interexchange, Inc. New York and on the advisory board of Les Concierges, San Francisco. Past responsibilities include being a Member, Advisory Board of Tourism of State of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany and Board Memberships with The Leading Hotels of the World and the Selection of German Luxury Hotels.

Geerd-Ulrich Ebeling has a background of more than 20 years in Finance and corporate development. As an entrepreneur he successfully started several companies in the field of IT, Hospitality and Real Estate. His areas of expertise cover corporate restructuring, financial controlling and business management. His IT capability covers all operating systems Microsoft, MAC OS, UNIX and other, as well as SQL database platforms like Oracle / Informix. He is also a specialist in the field of ERP systems and their implementation into existing company structures including all kind of organization and process management. He holds a EU-FCL pilot license.