Khem Lakai is a visionary leader in sustainable hospitality. He currently serves as Chairman of the PATA Nepal Chapter and is a former Board Member and Trustee of the PATA Foundation. He also serves on the boards of EUHOFA International and APacCHRIE, underscoring his global influence in hospitality education. Lakai is the Founder of the Global Academy of Tourism & Hospitality Education (GATE College), which has been honored twice at the prestigious World Hospitality Awards in Paris.

He is best known for pioneering the integration of experiential learning into mainstream university education in Nepal. Under his leadership, GATE College became the first institution in Nepal to offer Australia’s national qualification, TAFE NSW, allowing Nepali youth to earn a globally recognized Australian Commercial Cookery certification locally. Further elevating the standard of education, GATE College is also certified by the world’s No. 1 ranked hospitality school—EHL (École hôtelière de Lausanne), Switzerland—making it the only EHL-certified academy in Nepal.

Through his work, Lakai has played a pivotal role in positioning Nepal as a regional hub for world-class hospitality education and training. GATE College became the first institution of its kind in Nepal to welcome international students from 23 different countries.

A strong advocate for conscious tourism, Lakai’s vision extends beyond traditional hospitality. He champions an industry model that is environmentally responsible and economically empowering. For over two decades, his leadership has inspired a new generation of hospitality professionals and entrepreneurs across Nepal and beyond.

Deepak Raj Joshi, CEO of the Nepal Tourism Board, is a passionate tourism professional with over 23 years of experience and expertise in the industry. He has a strong network across public and private sector stakeholders at national, regional, and international levels. A well-recognized thought leader in the global tourism fraternity, he specializes in tourism planning, marketing, promotion, policy formulation, destination management, collaborative partnerships, project development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, tourism resilience, and crisis management.

Sharanjit has brought you the news from Asia on BBC World News, Bloomberg Television and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for a quarter of a century. She spent eighteen years with BBC World News, covering business and politics, anchoring from its Asia bureau and from London's Broadcasting House. She regularly anchored live on location on breaking stories from the Asia Pacific region, while contributing to BBC World Service radio and the BBC news website. A Singaporean native, she's produced and presented documentaries on TV and radio about her city on the BBC. Educated in North America with undergraduate degrees in Journalism and a Masters in English, Sharanjit has lived and worked in Washington DC, London, Tokyo, Vancouver and Singapore, bringing a truly global perspective to her work. She now regularly moderates high-level debates for the United Nations, the ADB and other multilateral and financial institutions while balancing a board career and advising companies and educational institutions on diversity, inclusion and media strategy. In May 2024, she was installed as the Chancellor of Bath Spa University, succeeding her predecessor, Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons and is the first Singaporean ever appointed to such a role at a UK university. As a result, she divides her time between her homes in Singapore and Bath. 

• Senior Broadcast Journalist & Presenter BBC News 2003 – June 2021 (18 years) Sharanjit spent eighteen years with BBC World News. She anchored and produced Asia Business Report and Newsday from the channel’s Asia bureau in Singapore and also presented several BBC World News programmes in London, filed reports for radio on the BBC World Service and written for BBC news online. She’s reported for domestic BBC programmes such as Breakfast, the One and Six ’clock news and regularly anchored live on location on breaking stories in the region such as the Hong Kong protests, the Sri Lankan Easter Sunday bombings, the Christchurch shooting, the Trump-Kim summits among others. She’s interviewed heads of State from Canada, New Zealand , Australia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and, Singapore, the chief executives and chairpersons from various Fortune 500 companies and the Presidents of the World Bank and IMF. Sharanjit was highly commended as best presenter at the Asian TV Awards in 2017 and an episode of Newsday she anchored won Best News Programme the same year. She is now such a familiar face for viewers in Asia that she is regularly invited to moderate high level debates for international organisations and companies. 
• Anchor Bloomberg Television 1999 – 2003 (4 years) Sharanjit was one of the main anchors from Bloomberg's Asia Pacific headquarters in Tokyo, presenting a three-hour rolling news programme, "On The Money Asia" and reporting on breaking financial stories as well as major news events such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
• Financial Correspondent Bridge Information Systems (acquired by Reuters) 1998 – 1999 (1 year) A multifaceted role at that involved filing market updates for TV and radio as well as writing newswires on Asian foreign exchange movements at the height of the Asian Financial Crisis (before being poached by Bloomberg). 
• Freelance Reporter, Canadian Broadcas ng Corpora in 1996 – 1998 (2 years) Reported for the award winning show ‘Pacific Rim Report’. Sharanjit started off in Vancouver, B.C. covering the student protests at the APEC summit in 1997 and several other stories, then moved to Singapore to file reports during the Asian Financial Crisis.