Meet the Hapi Revenue & Growth team: people who've worked the other side of the desk

When you talk to someone on the Hapi sales team, there’s a good chance they’ve been on your side of the conversation.

Between them, our team has run hotel operations, planned corporate meetings, managed revenue, worked casino and cruise floors, waited tables, and spent years in hospitality technology. Along the way, they’ve seen the same challenges come up again and again: systems that don’t always connect, data spread across too many places, and teams left filling the gaps by hand.

That experience shapes how we work with hotels and technology partners. We understand the day-to-day realities behind the technology decisions, we like finding practical ways to make them easier, and we get that one size doesn’t fit all.

Here’s a closer look at the people behind the conversations.

Ryan leads Hapi’s global strategy across sales, accounts, marketing, and partners. Early in his career, he worked on-property in hospitality, giving him firsthand experience of what it’s like to run a hotel and make decisions with the data available at the time.

Since then, he’s worked across different sides of the hospitality technology industry, seeing the same challenges from different perspectives. He’s been in roles where systems couldn’t connect to each other, and he’s been on the hotel side trying to get the data he needed in a way that could actually be used to make decisions and take action.

Those experiences shaped his perspective on what hospitality technology should look like. Ryan understands that connectivity isn’t just a technical challenge—it directly affects how hotel teams work, the decisions they can make, and ultimately the guest experience.

Today, he brings that perspective to Hapi, working with customers and partners to make it easier for hospitality systems and data to work together in ways that are practical, useful, and built around real hotel needs.

Mary has spent more than 25 years in hospitality, moving from hotel operations to corporate meeting planning and eventually technology sales. That journey gave her a deep understanding of the industry and a passion for using technology to solve real hospitality challenges.

For Mary, the best technology is often the kind you barely notice, even though you can clearly see what it makes possible: intuitive experiences, happier teams, and more time for the moments that matter to guests.

Her vision for hospitality is high-tech behind the scenes and high-touch everywhere else, with a healthy dose of old-school hospitality along the way.

Mary brings that same commitment to her Boston community. She serves on the Board of Boston HSMAI and is a Past President of the Boston Club of SKAL International.

‍Ryan brings more than 20 years of hospitality technology sales experience, working with some of the industry’s most complex operations, from hotels and resorts to cruise lines and casinos.

He understands the technical side of hospitality, but just as importantly, he understands the people behind it.

Ryan describes his approach as relationship-first. He enjoys getting to know the people he works with, jumping in to help, and bringing a calm, steady presence to the conversation, with plenty of room for some fun along the way.

Ask him what he’d change if he designed his own hotel, and he’ll start with one of hospitality’s oldest rules: checkout.

Why should a guest who arrives at 9 p.m. check out at the same time as someone who arrived six hours earlier?

In Ryan’s hotel, check-in time would have a say in checkout time. More flexibility can mean a better experience for the guest, and it’s the kind of question worth asking at any property.

Steve has worked in hospitality since he was 14, starting at Little Louie’s in Northbrook, Illinois, and the industry never really let him go.

Since then, he’s worked across restaurants, clubs, hotels, and hospitality technology, with experience spanning operations, sales, marketing, and revenue management.

Steve has a memorable way of describing what technology should do:

“Technology should be there to enable people to look, not just see, and to listen, not just hear.”

For Steve, that means technology can help teams notice the little things that make a guest experience feel personal. Maybe a room attendant notices that a guest has moved the feather pillows aside. Maybe a server knows that someone who orders French fries will probably want ketchup.

It’s a simple idea, but an important one: let technology handle more of the complexity so people have more time to take care of people.

Preben brings more than 15 years of hospitality technology experience, backed by nearly a decade of hands-on experience in hotel operations and revenue management. Before moving into hospitality technology, he held roles including Front Office and Revenue Manager, Cluster Revenue Manager, Hotel Manager, and Sales & Revenue Manager across different hotels.

Today, working with hotels across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Preben helps teams turn real operational challenges into practical, data-driven solutions. His conversations with hotel groups often come back to a few familiar themes: better integration, a stronger guest data strategy, and getting the tech stack to work more like one connected ecosystem instead of a collection of separate tools.

Having worked both on-property and in hospitality technology, he brings a practical, hands-on perspective to those conversations, with a clear understanding of how technology decisions affect hotel teams and day-to-day operations. For Preben, that same people-first approach extends to the guest experience: if he could create his own hotel, it would be highly personal, with a team that knows who is staying and makes each guest feel genuinely recognized. And when he’s the guest, he’s an early check-in person who prefers a high-floor room away from the lift.

Christian brings extensive experience across hospitality technology, sales, business development, and revenue growth. Before joining Hapi, he held sales and business development roles with hospitality technology companies including STAYmyway and Newmarket International, working with hotel teams across the U.S. and Caribbean.
‍
At Hapi, Christian leads global business development, bringing a customer-focused approach to helping hospitality companies navigate technology, connectivity, and data challenges. He is passionate about building strong teams, creating meaningful customer experiences, and finding practical ways to turn technology into business growth.
‍
With years spent working at the intersection of hospitality and technology, Christian understands that great solutions need to work for both the business and the people using them. He also knows exactly what makes a good hotel stay: a quiet floor, a comfortable bed, a firm pillow, and, ideally, a late checkout. If he could design his own hotel, it would be optimized entirely for sleep… with soundproof hallways, brown noise machines, and the most comfortable beds money can buy.

Cindy brings a unique mix of sales, marketing, and operations experience to her role as Revenue Operations Manager at Hapi, giving her a broad perspective on how teams can work together more effectively. With about seven years in hospitality, she’s grown from project manager to sales operations manager and now revenue operations, building a strong understanding of both the numbers and the people and processes behind them.

Cindy is an Achiever at heart, with Responsibility, Strategic, Learner, and Relator rounding out her top five strengths. 

Outside of work, Cindy is based in Los Alamitos, California, where she spends her time baking, gardening, skiing, riding her e-bike, and keeping a close eye on the birds and squirrels in her backyard. She’s also passionate about dogs, so naturally, her dream hotel would be one where four-legged guests get their own concierge, room-service menu, and bed menu. And if you’re ever looking for a cocktail recommendation, she’s the person to ask.

Let’s talk

Whether you’re a hotel group working across a mixed technology estate or a technology provider looking to connect with more properties, there’s a good chance someone on our team has been in your shoes.

We’d love to hear what you’re working on, what’s getting in the way, and where better connectivity could make a difference.

Let’s start a conversation.