In 2004 Chris Hartley was one of the pioneers behind the launch of Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), and since 2006, has led its growth, forging a unique joint venture, which enables independent, privately-owned hotel brands to compete with the world’s largest hotel companies. GHA’s shareholders are hotel groups Minor, Pan Pacific, Corinthia, Kempinski, tech-giant Oracle and social media company, ASMALLWORLD.

As GHA celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2024, it now represents a collection of 40 brands with 800 hotels in 100 countries and offers a shared loyalty platform, the award-winning GHA DISCOVERY, to 26 million customers, which in 2023 generated US$2.3 billion in annual revenue to the participating hotels.

Chris has spent his entire 34-year career in the hospitality industry, starting out in marketing with Forte Hotels in the early 1990s, he headed sales and marketing at Kempinski for ten years, which evolved into the GHA role when Kempinski became a founder member of the alliance in 2004. Chris has always been passionate about travel and languages, having studied French and German at London University before doing post-graduate studies in hospitality at Manchester University, and an MBA at NEOMA in France. He has lived and worked around the world and has now settled in Dubai where GHA is based.