Accor

Curating and launching Accor’s flagship Supreme-luxury lifestyle brand in North America

Brand Build | New to the World Luxury Hotel Brand

Sienna Senior Living

Led Marketing, Brand Strategy, and Business Intelligence at Sienna Senior Living. Architected the company’s first enterprise BI platform—now a cornerstone of strategic decision-making.

Commercial Strategy | Vice President - Marketing, Brand Strategy & Business Intelligence

Brought a new brand to life. Launched Aspira—a fresh Active Retirement Living experience built for today’s aging population.
As VP of Marketing & Brand Strategy at Sienna Senior Living (TSX:SIA), I led the full brand development and go-to-market launch across Canada.

Brand Build & Launch | Vice President, Marketing & Brand Strategy

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

A global role leading the Distribution strategy and execution, Distribution operations and Call Centre, B2B Sales and support for the group.

Key responsibilities included

✅ Turnover of $500 million business segment
✅ Manage $25 million expense budget
✅ B2B marketing, sales, contracting, and management 
✅ Responsible Distribution Channel technology and strategy
✅ Responsible for the Global Call center
✅ Lead a global team of 100+ team members

Commercial Strategy | Senior Director, Global Distribution & Channel Strategy (Marketing)

Shangri-La Group

Based in Corporate Headquarters of Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, Hong Kong.
The role entails managing Corporate Reservations, Customer Contact Centers & Distribution for the group.
Established a new contact centre in Guangzhou, China, to support inbound and outbound interaction in Mandarin and Cantonese.

Commercial Strategy | Director Distribution Management & Corporate Reservations (Marketing)

Based in Corporate Headquarters of Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, Hong Kong.
The role entails developing new Marketing concepts
Establishing and opening new hotels; Led Brand and Marketing to open hotels in Brisbane, Singapore, Puteri Harbour (Malaysia), Abu Dhabi, Muscat, amongst others

Brand Build & Launch | Director of Sales & Marketing - pre-opening hotels (new markets development)

Based at Shangri-La Hotel, Doha, Qatar
Hotel Pre-opening Executive Committee member
Leading Sales & Marketing

Brand Launch | Director of Sales & Marketing

Based in Traders Hotel Dubai
Leading the Sales & Marketing Department
Responsible for Revenue, Sales, Distribution, Events & Public Relations teams.

Director of Sales & Marketing

Based at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok
Leading the Revenue Management Department
Responsible for Revenue Management of all revenue-generating areas of the hotel, Pricing and Optimising yields.

Director of Revenue Management

InterContinental Hotels Group

Based in Holiday Inn Silom, Bangkok
Marketing Plan
Revenue Management & Pricing
Budgetting & Forecasting

Revenue Manager

Taj Hotels

City Revenue Manager

VP-Marketing & Brand Strategy | On a mission to make Strategic Marketing your superpower, so you can add value, drive commercial success, get unstuck and grow. I do this 1 post, 1 conversation, 1 mentee at a time.🏍

Building Brands That Drive Growth and Command Loyalty

I’ve spent my career at the intersection of luxury hospitality, brand strategy, and commercial leadership, working across global markets from India to Thailand, Dubai, Doha, Hong Kong, China, and Canada. With over two decades of experience in revenue management, brand positioning, and customer experience design, I’ve had the privilege of building strategies that not only drive revenue but also strengthen brand equity and customer loyalty across diverse cultures and business environments.

My journey took an unexpected turn during the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted my career’s upward trajectory and gave me the chance to step outside hospitality into the retirement living sector. That experience, combined with my pursuit of an MBA at Kellogg School of Management, helped me realize that my core strength lies in connecting customer insights, brand identity, and revenue strategy into a cohesive, competitive advantage.

Today, I leverage my global leadership experience, strategic mindset, and customer-first philosophy to help organizations align brand promise with business performance, ensuring they remain customer-obsessed, commercially smart, and future-ready. Whether repositioning a brand, driving market growth, or building high-performing teams, I believe great brands are built at the intersection of people, profit, and customer experience.

Contact: arvind.bala@kellogg.northwestern.edu

Arvind Bala

🌊 The Quiet Stall
2021 was oddly calm.
No clients left my agency, but no fresh ones walked in either. I kept telling myself the mid-pandemic lull would pass - right after we onboarded a few shiny, big-logo accounts.

Six months later I was drowning in mis-alignment: mission creep, late pay, and toxic patterns of entitlement. I clung to them (and an oversize team) out of guilt… until the day I admitted the obvious: “steady” isn’t the same as sustainable.

I slashed the roster, right-sized the team, and promised I’d never let momentum masquerade as growth again.

⚡ The Lightning Weekend
I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember - scribbling on scrap paper, blogging while friends still battled dial-up. 
I watched three tectonic shifts: dot-com, social, and now generative AI. 
I spectated the first two.
Not this time.

When OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, I spent one weekend testing prompts and saw lightning. If small businesses learn to direct the models instead of fear them, we replace guesswork with leverage. 

I went all-in:

🏗️ Built an AI-forward agency for founder-led teams
🌀 Launched the Marketing Power Circle mastermind
🎓 Started teaching AI-driven marketing at York University

💪 Fuel That Shaped Me
One time in grade 9, my mom once faced down a teacher accusing me of cheating - and won. And learned the value of reputation. She reminds me whenever I wobble: “If they don’t support your jump, it’s because they don’t know you can fly.”

My dad - gone a decade - showed the other side of courage: kindness loud enough to adopt the lost (animal and human). And an undying commitment to inclusion (boomer girl dads in India did not have it easy).

From them I learned:

🛡️ Defend what matters - clients, values, reputation - with fire if needed.
🤝 Lead with generosity; it compounds faster than any algorithm.

🚀 Today, Here’s What I Do

🤖🔧 Done-for-you AI Integration – audits, workflows, and automations that cut execution from weeks to hours

🌀 Marketing Power Circle – a small-group mastermind where founders leave each session with something DONE

🎤 Keynotes and Workshops – translating AI buzzwords into daily revenue engines

📣 Let’s Connect
📌 Follow for 5×-weekly prompts, templates, and behind-the-scenes AI experiments

📩 DM “MPC” for the next mastermind cohort

📧 Need a speaker or custom implementation? DM me

If serendipity brought you here, stick around - lightning tends to strike where preparation meets a little wild courage.

Susan Diaz

What did your planning for this year look like?
Mine looked like two focused sessions with my B2B buddy Gabby Zuniga MIR, CHRL at the vibey Verity Club, her ein Toronto.

Session 1: a 2025 retrospective. AI did the heavy lifting. We pulled from calendar, invoices, CRM, and marketing analytics. 

Then we asked:
What made money? (by offer, by channel, by client type)
What felt easy and energizing?
What created outsized downstream effects?
What looked busy but delivered little?

Result: clear patterns. Do more of what compounds. Retire the “high-effort/low-return” stuff without guilt.

Session 2: peer review. We brought our one-page plans and received advice and notes from each other. We traded intros, resources, tool stacks, and risks to watch. We did it over long, delicious lunches - with white space built into the day so decisions could breathe.

I’m excited for what’s ahead because the inputs are better: data, discernment, and the right room.

Tell me your planning story in the comments.

Susan Diaz 🎙️

🤖 I help teams implement practical AI to double their results 👩‍🏫 Instructor and AI Trainer | 📕 Author | 🎤 Speaker

No alternative text description for this image

Who are the early AI adopters inside of your organization? Who has access and training and space to experiment? Is there equity in the process? Or are we creating another version of the wage gap on cr^ck?

Heather Cannings of StrikeUP Canada joins me for a vital conversation about women and AI? Heather leads one of the largest online events for women entrepreneurs and the last time I spoke for the event, there were 3,500 registrants. So she knows a little something about the thing.

Catch the convo here https://lnkd.in/geA7vV5C 

This episode is a part of my 30 day podcast to book sprint where I'm writing my next book 'Swan Dive Backwards'. If you'd like access to an early copy, drop me a comment or DM and follow me Susan Diaz 🎙️

taplio

The Battle

Arvind Bala

Susan Diaz

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreSusan Diaz's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Arvind Bala

Susan Diaz

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Susan Diaz's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreSusan Diaz's LinkedIn Performance