Election Committee

Stephen Busch, asr / VNT, President/Chairman

Stephan Busch is the President of asr – alliance of independent travel traders e.V. and the Chairman of the VNT – Verband neue Touristik e.V in Germany. These Associations he represents are well interlinked to the German tourism source market and the German Government. He has a large experience in “main stream” Tourism and started in 2008 the Initiative “green travel bridge” together with German GTZ. He is dedicated to represent member’s interests of asr and VNT towards the Government, the German politicians and the market participants in tourism. Furthermore the counseling of members in developing new market strategies, particularly in sustainable tourism and the green travel bridge project.

The Members of both Associations produce a Volume of more than 3.5 Billion Euro tourism turnover per year.

Stephan is a Lawyer graduated in the Georgia Augusta University Göttingen, Germany and is practicing in the Law Firm Mattfeld, Busch & Friedrichs in Bremen. He is specialized in travel law and a member of the German Association of Travel Law. He is founder of a travel agency and owner of a tour operator named “images of tourism GbR”.

Luigi Cabrini, UNWTO, Director, Sustainable Development

Luigi Cabrini (Italy) holds a degree in Political Science from the University of Pisa and has completed postgraduate courses in International Law, History and Economics.  From 1978 to 1982 he worked as a journalist and editor in Rome. In 1982 he joined the United Nations assuming responsibilities in cooperation for development and refugees programs in Mexico, Pakistan, Somalia, Switzerland, Poland and Spain. Luigi Cabrini joined UNWTO in 2002 as Regional Representative for Europe. Since June 2007 he is the Director of the UNWTO Sustainable Development Programme, whose mission is to promote the sustainable development of tourism in line with the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism with special focus on the Millennium Development Goals. The Programme undertakes research, develops manuals and provides guidance and training to member States and other tourism stakeholders on sustainable tourism policies and their application to tourism destinations. Luigi Cabrini speaks fluently Italian, English, French and Spanish and has a basic knowledge of Polish and Russian. He is the author of various articles, speeches and papers.

Melissa Teates, ASTA, Director, Research

Melissa has over 15 years experience in business research, analysis, and development. She has held the positions of International Economist at the Association for Manufacturing Technology, Director of Industry Information and Research at the Paperboard Packaging Council and, currently, is the Director of Research for the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) as well as the Project Manager for ASTA’s Green Program.

Melissa received a B.S. in Political Science from James Madison University, where she spent a lot of time programming SPSS programs to analyze political data. She also has begun coursework towards a Master in Economics. She received her Certified Association Executive certification from ASAE in 2007.

Melissa is a strong believer in community service and is the leader of two Girl Scouts troops. She serves as Treasurer for the Falls Church Village Preservation and Improvement Society (501c3), which has a primary mission to plant trees in urbanized areas and enhance landscaping in the city. Melissa leads the Falls Church Habitat Restoration Team, which removes invasive vegetation and plants natives in local parks. Additionally, she is the Chairman of the local Planning Commission and involved in updating the zoning code to enforce sustainable building and increase efforts to meet Chesapeake Bay watershed standards.

C B Ramkumar, Our Native Village, Founder and Managing Director

Ram, as he is popularly known, has been an advertising and marketing professional for two decades. He has spent most of his professional career outside India in the Middle East.

Ram returned to India after a 17 year stint abroad in 2006 to follow his dream and passion and started Our Native Village-an eco retreat fro holistic health. Our Native Village follows a 100% eco principle, where all the major pillars of sustainability – energy, water, waste management, architecture and the food chain – are on sustainable platforms.

Our Native Village has been awarded a Responsible tourism award, listed as the number 1 eco resort in India by Asia Geographic magazine, listed as one of to 10 eco resorts in India by MSN, India Today, Outlook traveller and the BBC.

Ram was invited by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India to serve on the Planning Projects committee for Tiger conservation in the country, and on the Global Sustainable Tourism committee. He is a Core Committee member of the KTF (Karnataka Tourism Forum), and a member of the special committee on tourism of the BCCI (Bangalore Chamber of Commerce and Industry). Ram is a regular speaker at most eco, sustainability and environment related workshops, conferences and seminars, and a visiting faculty member at the some of the colleges in Bangalore. He is also a faculty member for the training of the Indian Forest Officers that is held in Karnataka.

Ram has been part of the consultative process of the GSTC (Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria), a global criteria for sustainability in tourism ventures. Our Native Village is a Network member at the GSTC. Ram has worked with UNEP and the UN Foundation to bring this criterion into India. A successful national launch of this took place in New Delhi in July 2010. Ram now serves a three year term as a member of the Election Committee for electing Board Members for the GSTC.

Ram now lives in Bangalore with his wife Lalitha and kids, Aakanksha and Akshay.