Keynote Speakers

T.C. Edwin ChengT.C. Edwin Cheng is Dean of PolyU Business School, Fung Yiu King - Wing Hang Bank Professor in Business Administration, and Chair Professor of Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He obtained a B.Sc.[Eng] (first class honors) from the University of Hong Kong; an M.Sc. from the University of Birmingham, U.K.; and a Ph.D. and an Sc.D. from the University of Cambridge, U.K. He has previously taught in Canada, England, and Singapore. Prof. Cheng’s research interests are in Operations Management and Operations Research. He has published over 850 SCI/SSCI papers in such journals as California Management Review, Journal of Operations Management, Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Operations Research, Organization Science, and Production and Operations Management. He has co-authored 15 books published by Chapman and Hall, McGraw-Hill, and Springer. He received the Outstanding Young Engineer of the Year Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers, USA, in 1992 and the Croucher Award (the top research award in Hong Kong) in 2001. He was elected Academician of The International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences in 2016 and Fellow of Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences in 2018. According to Google Scholar, he has received over 46,000 citations and his h-index is 101. A registered professional engineer and a seasoned management consultant, Prof. Cheng has over the years secured more than US$5 million in research funding from both public and private sectors to support his diverse research programmes.


Professor Fevzi OkumusProfessor Fevzi Okumus is the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association (CFHLA) Preeminent Chair Professor within the Hospitality Services Department at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. He was the Founding Chair of the Hospitality Services Department at UCF Rosen College. His main teaching and research areas include strategic management, leadership, hospitality management and lodging. He has over 270 academic publications (over 180 refereed journal articles, four books, 12 book chapters and 90 conference presentations and reports). As of June 22,2022, his publications have received over 16,228 citations, and he has an h-index of 59. He has chaired/co-chaired and served on numerous PhD dissertation and master thesis committees. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (IJCHM) (IF: 6.514) and the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights (JHTI). He is a frequent speaker at international conferences. He has received numerous prestigious research awards and recognitions including “The Michael D. Olsen Research Award” in 2016; “The University of Central Florida Scroll & Quill Society Award” in 2017, the “CFHLA Preeminent Professor” again in 2017 and the John Wiley & Sons Lifetime Research Achievement Award from ICHRIE in 2018. Finally, Prof. Okumus was recognized as a “Highly Cited Researcher” for 2021 by Clarivate, based on data from Web of Science. The Highly Cited Researchers rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science™ citation index.