Our Team

A seasoned professional, whose experience includes over 30 years with some of the biggest names in hospitality, Michelle Anseeuw most recently served as the Regional Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Highgate Hotels. In her role, Michelle has overseen the largest full-service properties in her portfolios, with her territory encompassing independent as well as branded assets throughout the Southeast USA and the Caribbean.

Prior to working with Highgate, Michelle’s experience included Regional Sales Management positions with Hersha Hospitality Management, as well as with the world-famous Eden Roc Resort Miami Beach and Morgans Hotel Group, in addition to her experience with Valorem Group and InterContinental Hotels Group.

Michelle is fluent in Spanish & French. She has a B.S. in Hospitality and an MBA in International Business, Michelle is also a Certified Meeting Planner (CMP) and a Certified Hotel Sales Executive (CHSP) and a graduate of the FBI Citizens’ Academy. She enjoys scuba diving, motorcycles, orchids and of course, travel.

Victor Bao is a versatile executive with over 30 years of experience in driving growth and operational excellence across hospitality, franchising, and consulting. Known for his expertise in leveraging data and analytics, he designs strategies that align with corporate goals, optimize performance, and foster innovation.

As Interim President at International Equity Partners, Victor implemented strategic initiatives across biotech, technology, and B2B sectors, focusing on market research, customer-centric solutions, and operational efficiency. In his previous roles, including Chief Marketing Officer at Retro Fitness, he developed scalable systems, integrated advanced technologies, and guided high-performing teams to success.

Victor’s consulting background includes crafting growth and performance strategies for global brands like General Motors, Ford, and Burger King, blending technology and innovation to meet complex challenges. He also has extensive experience in marketing strategy, teaching, and cultural leadership, which complements his data-driven approach to achieving business transformation.

Victor holds a J.D., an MBA in International Business, and multilingual capabilities, providing him with a global perspective and the ability to deliver impactful solutions.

More than 25 years ago, Joely embarked on a journey she never imagined would become the launching pad to a successful and life enriching career in the hospitality industry. Starting in the operations side of the business – reservations, front desk, accounting, where hard work, resiliency and a results-oriented mindset supported her determination to consistently deliver what was promised! Integrity has and always will be an attribute that defines her.

With operations under her belt and a strong belief that every team member is a salesperson, she transitioned into sales where her passion and love for the business lies. Her robust and diverse background allowed her to pioneer in the International marketplace by trail blazing partnerships that yielded profitable and residual business opportunities for luxury resorts located in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Istanbul, Vienna, and Budapest with the North American segment. She has also been influential in sales and leadership roles for Omni Hotels, Morgan’s Hotel Group and Marriott Luxury Brands – Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, W Hotels, and the prestigious Ritz-Carlton, Reserve.

Prior to becoming a Principal for Valorem Group, she led a fully remote team of highly competitive and seasoned sales professionals where communication, mentorship, teamwork, and creative use of technology were forged by a foundation based in trust, and consistently provided a substantial return on investment for all stakeholders!

Joely is fluent in Spanish and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Florida Atlantic University and an MBA from Palm Beach Atlantic University. She enjoys yoga, being a cheerleader for her boys when they play golf, following real estate trends and 80’s music!

Harald Bindeus is an experienced hospitality and tourism professional with a proven track-record in Revenue Management, Sales & Marketing leadership.  He is a strategic thinker who is never  content with the status quo and always finds new ways to improve profitability of the business and efficiency of processes. He has been successful in opening and repositioning hotels and improving Revpar growth.

Harald started his hotel career with Hilton Hotels in Hawaii before moving to South Florida, where he directed Revenue Management and Sales & Marketing for branded and independent resorts in Ft. Myers and Miami.  He opened several hotels and created the Sales & Marketing, Distribution and Revenue management culture for the Grand Beach Hotel Group in Miami Beach and is currently consulting for hotel owners and management companies in his areas of expertise.

Harald is fluent in English and German and comfortable living and working in diverse environments.  He received his undergraduate degree in Marketing and Organizational Behavior from the University of Linz/ Austria and a Masters in Travel Industry Management from the University of Hawaii in Manoa.  He has also taught courses at Florida International University (FIU).

Benjamin Caban is a Sales & Marketing professional with over 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry.  He has previously held positions as at Thesis Hotel Miami, Isla Bella Beach Resort in the Florida Keys, Hotel Colonnade in Coral Gable, Marenas Beach Resort and Sonesta Coconut Grove among others. Benjamin also has extensive experience working with brands such as Marriott and Hilton.

Caban was born and raised in Puerto Rico and is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico, Carolina Campus, where he earned a Bachelors in Business Administration degree in Hospitality Management.

He was the past president of PROFESA (Puerto Rican Professionals in South Florida). He’s been married for 19 years to his college sweetheart. They have two kids -Kiara 13 years who plays softball in her varsity high school team and Liam 11 years who plays travel baseball with the Pembroke Pines Cobras. Among other things, Benjamin loves to cook, football & golf, the beach and spending time with his family.  Ben’s best kept secret is that he also has a twin brother who is also named Benjamin and is only older by 3 minutes!

As a seasoned revenue management leader with proven success in delivering revenue and profit gains in highly competitive environments, Maurice has been instrumental with utilizing unmatched revenue strategies and action plans with passion and quality performance.

Maurice hinges on the ability to gain insights from data and improve business outcomes across luxury, select service, full service, extended stays or resort properties that he manages. He strives to identify risks and opportunities and deliver unique solutions that transform business goals into profitable results. Maurice specializes in turning around distressed properties as well as implement best practices and proven techniques for each distribution channel.

Nara Azevedo has proven results in Sales for over 15 years.  Nara knows what it takes to be successful and is best known for her charismatic personality and excellent customer service.  She is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese and she can easily connect to clients and understand their travel needs from the get go.

After graduating with a Masters Degree in Business Administration and Clinical Psychology, Nara entered the travel industry in Miami, focused on international markets which is her specialty. Her years with Highgate Hotels, Hard Rock Intl and Goldman Properties have given Nara the deep understanding of the sales process. Nara has received many accolades and Sales awards and continues to excel in this field.

Nara has traveled to over 25 countries on various sales missions and industry events, and continues to promote her partner hotels and destinations; her database is impressive! She loves going above and beyond for her clients, as she is a firm believer that by providing her clients with a good customer service experience, they will always have her in mind whenever needed.

Meet a former sky-diver, scuba-diver and bike racer, some have said, “adrenaline was his best friend”. Alex Batista has been personally racing and professionally taking teams on winning streaks for over 20 years. 

Before becoming a Principal at Valorem Group, Alex spearheaded various sales and marketing teams in the U.S. and Internationally for Auberge Resorts Collection, one of the world’s top leading luxury hotel companies. 

Throughout his extensive career, he has been a trusted advisor, a brand builder and revenue generator to several managed and franchised brands including Hilton, Kimpton, The Ritz-Carlton and Marriott. While holding various executive positions in sales & marketing, Alex has successfully created programs, campaigns and strategic partnerships contributing to their revenue and market leadership successes.

Under his guidance and strategic brand positioning, hotels have constantly received international recognition winning various global awards and accolades. Alex is well-versed in executive leadership, strategic channel distribution, total asset revenue management, effective leisure, business and group channel management, optimizing public relations, social and digital media channels.

Alex graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from Miami Dade College and later, completing executive certificates from Cornell University and Florida Atlantic University. Currently resides in Miami with his wife and daughter, still enjoys jumping on a bike from time to time.

Rosita is currently based in Miami. She was born and raised in Thailand, and has lived, worked and studied in different counties. This extensive global experience allows her to effectively negotiate on behalf of her clients with both domestic and international hotels.

Rosita entered the hospitality industry in 2000, working for various Luxury hotels such as Ritz Carlton, Marriott International, Royal Sonesta, JW Marriott and Maritim Hotels. Rosita has earned a reputation for excellent customer service, repeatedly winning the prestigious Golden Circle award for the Top Sales professional. This level of passion and professionalism translates into the highest commitment to her clients, always.

Her diverse background in the travel industry includes Marketing, Group sourcing, luxury Leisure accounts as well as Corporate Meetings and Incentives.  Rosita has earned the respect of her clients as well as that of her peers in the Hotel Industry.

Daniel is an experienced hotelier and meeting planner with almost 20 years in the industry working with some of the best hotel chains in the world such as InterContinental and Starwood, in addition to Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and Yo Planner, based in Mexico City.

The bulk of Daniel’s experience is centered around the Mexico market and his specialties are . MICE and Entertainment.  He is a seasoned online marketer, a leader in his industry who thoroughly enjoys his family and travel.

Having Daniel on our team gives Valorem hotels and DMC´s partners increased global coverage in the Mexican market.

With over 20-year travel industry experience Angela Nappa has worked for worldwide UK and International Wholesalers and Tour operators, specializing in Europe and the Middle East markets. She started her career in the Tour Operator sector; from FIT reservations, she progressed into Groups Reservations and then to more Sales, Business Development, and Hotel Contract Negotiation roles. This experience enabled her to forge long-lasting business relationships across the travel industry and a deep understanding and knowledge of both the Tour Operators and that of the clients/hotel needs.

Angela is fluent in English and Italian and has a Master’s Degree in Tourism Management. She has a broad experience in the Luxury Travel Sales and Contracting sector and she particularly enjoys traveling and liaising with people from different countries.

Kristin Barret is the creative strategist for the agency. She has yet to experience a shortage of ideas and takes every opportunity to doodle her concepts on any available scrap paper. Kristin combats her lousy drawing skills with highly conceptual and very artistic ideas and pulls most of her inspiration from her own creative mind.

Kristin effectively marries her concepts with her skill to write creative brand stories and build an entire brand platform. Working closely with the art team Kristin inspires creativity to bring entire campaigns to life. She finds positivity in almost everything, an opportunity not far behind.

Passionate about the statement “what if…”, Kristin starts most days with a passion to inspire with her creativity and relentless optimism to bring big ideas to life.

Alex entered the hospitality industry by chance while working through his college years.  He is known for his authentic and unequivocal desire to service his clients.  Alex’s passion is to drive results and facilitate business processes, for his internal hotel clients, owners as well as his guests.   He is not afraid to “roll up his sleeves” and get the job done, regardless of what department he needs to get involved in.

His background showcases his development in Guest Services, Banquets, Conference Services, Catering as well as Sales departments.  He is strongly strongly committed to his excellence and, and determined to move forward by growing in the business for any of his stakeholders.

Alex is an alumnus of Florida International University, and obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration in International Business. He is also fluent in Spanish as well as English.

Xiaoli has over 30 years professional experience with a diverse domestic & international hospitality and mixed-use project portfolio that ranges from the early phase of Visioning, Strategic planning and Due Diligence study to Conceptual Master Planning, through the integrated Architecture, Interior, Landscape, Lighting and Place-making design until the final implementations.

Xiaoli  leads a dynamic team of talented professionals including Urban Planners, Architects, Landscape and Interior designers, Branding and Graphics Specialists. Xiaoli has also assembled a supporting team of professional consultants that include Geotech, Civil, Structure, MEP, and Sustainable Design disciplines who are guided by well known advisory boards with leadership experience in Land acquisition and Entitlement, Financing, Development Strategy and Implementation. Through close collaboration with her clients in an integrated process from the Visioning Session to Due Diligence, from Master planning to individual building design, she delivers exceptional design concepts.

Xiaoli’s team is always ahead of the game, helping clients navigate through all the local jurisdictions regulations and restrictions and always accessible at every major turn in this changing world, leading her projects to success.

A creative powerhouse, Sean has done it all creatively over the course of his career.  With a key focus being client service and award-winning creative. Sean single handedly knows every trick, shortcut, and Adobe sneak invented, and is the master of bringing ideas to life.

The creative process is in good hands with Sean’s keen eye for detail, responsive nature and tenure in the hospitality industry. From the days of launching resorts in Palm Springs (between the Rat Pack era and the current renaissance) to leading a national hotel brand roll out, you will find his innovation and willingness to help endless.

Jomary is an experienced Social Media Marketing Specialist with a demonstrated history in the hospitality industry. Skilled in developing Social Media strategies ,reputation monitoring, crisis management,  defining target audiences, content creation and storytelling.

With over 15 years of experience in the Revenue Management discipline, Julie has held responsibilities of driving top line revenue for full service hotels and resorts in urban and leisure destinations. Julie has successfully outperformed the competition, exceeding market share growth projections, for both branded and independent properties through creative and strategic pricing capitalizing on market segment performance

Julie effectively implements total asset revenue management to drive profit through all revenue generating channels including maximizing function space, food and beverage, golf and spa.

Julie holds a bachelors degree from Cornell University Hotel School and has been an adjunct professor of a Revenue Management course at New York University

International multi-lingual Hotel sales & marketing executive with over 25 years experience in branded and independent business, convention and resort properties.  Jose’s background includes most international destinations, with expertise in Latin America, Caribbean and US markets.

Skill Set: Direct sales; Group & Catering. Sales and sales leadership recruitment, team creation and building. Creating sales & marketing budget, business plans, strategy by segment E-commerce, goal setting, sales career development & core competency programs.

Voted one of the 8 Coolest Female Entrepreneurs, Dana Rhoden is a long-time partner of Valorem Group and the founder and president of The Dana Agency Public Relations.  Dana is a veteran publicist with over 20 years of experience working in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. She has managed the reputations of more than 500 luxury lifestyle brands, including many Fortune 500 companies.  The Agency’s largest practice is hospitality with experience working with some of the biggest brands in the industry throughout the U.S. and the Caribbean. With offices on both coasts, the agency offers clients the reach of a larger, more expensive firm but with the media expertise, responsiveness and nimbleness of a specialized boutique agency.

Every day brands compete for visibility in a media landscape that is both shrinking (print magazines and newspapers) and gaining momentum (digital media). Dana’s style traverses these obstacles through ever-evolving publicity tactics spanning media relations and creative events, cause marketing, strategic brand partnerships and influencer outreach.

Recognized as a leading boutique public relations agency, Dana has been named to the Top 20 PR Agency list by South Florida Business Journal for the last four years in a row, and the firm placed #49 in the annual Gator 100 Awards, which recognizes the fastest growing companies run by University of Florida alumni. The agency is also ranked #26 in the country for Food & Beverage PR by O’Dwyer’s.

Maria graduated with a dual Master’s in Hotel Administration from Universidad Europa de Madrid (Spain) and Les Roches International School of Hotel Management (Switzerland). Maria brings her multicultural and bilingual experience having worked in hotels since she was seventeen in her native country – Ecuador including the Galapagos Islands and forming her career later in the USA including Baltimore, New York City and Miami Beach.

Maria has held various sales roles for brands such as Doubletree, Indigo, Hilton, Accor, Hyatt and Pestana Hotel Group based in Portugal. Her work in boutique properties has led her to acquire knowledge across the spectrum of market segments and geographies.

Ruben G. Rodriguez has held a variety of national and international positions as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, most recently leading the historic Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. to success.

Ruben’s career in the luxury hospitality industry spans over twenty years where most recently, he served as Area Director of Sales & Marketing for Melia Hotels International in Miami. In this role, he acted as the corporate liaison for hotels in both the U.S. and English Caribbean regions. Prior to his experience with Melia Hotels, he had successful stints as The Director of Sales & Events with properties within the Destination Hotels/Two Roads Hospitality Group, including Lansdowne Resort & Spa in Leesburg, VA, La Cantera Resort and Spa in San Antonio, TX, and Eden Roc Resort in Miami Beach, FL and also spent several years as regional head of sales for over 20 properties within Starwood Hotels and Resorts SSB Brands.

Rodriquez began his career in 1998,  growing and working at a number of hotel chains across the caribbean, US and LATAM, including Disney Resorts, Wyndham Hotels, The Seaway Group and Hilton Hotels & Resorts.

Expertise: Direct sales; Business Transient, Group, Catering, Event & Conference services. Sales and sales leadership recruitment, team creation and building. Creating sales & marketing budget, business plans, strategy by segment, SMART plans, marketing calendars, goal setting, incentive programs, business development, sales career development & core competency programs.

Over two decades of experience managing marketing campaigns, building brands, and generating millions in revenue for countless tourism businesses. Jessica has a special knack for developing creative problem-solving strategies for businesses that drive real results. From directing destination brands internationally, to working for Fortune-500 hotel companies in some of the most popular tourism destinations in the world, Jessica has the well-rounded mix of business and creative knowledge that makes our marketing click. Her expertise lies in tourism and hotel marketing while additionally providing full business consulting solutions for hotels and tourism brands. She gets the big picture and is always focused on the end goal. Jessica started her career representing tourism boards in the US and UK before building Voyage Travel Marketing where she has assembled a talented army of hospitality marketing rock stars. Voyage currently represents luxury hotels and resorts spanning the four corners of the United States, along with tourism businesses in the United Kingdom. Despite having a wide reach, Jessica takes pride in keeping the agency boutique so that she can impact every account. Voyage specializes in driving revenue through highly targeted marketing solutions using digital marketing, advertising, PR, branding and largely social media solutions.

Jessica hails from Plant City, Florida and has a Master’s Degree in Mass Communications from the University of South Florida with specialism in digital media studies. She also received revenue management training from Cornell University’s eCornell program. Jessica shares her time between Florida and England, hiking her way along the Jurassic Coast.

Suzanne is a seasoned hotel sales executive, with extensive experience in key United States markets to include California, Florida, North Carolina and New York, with an eclectic mix of equal years of Operation and Sales in all types of Hospitality Venues- branded, independent, on University Campus, Conference center and more.

Suzanne’s work ethic is unrelenting “that change, and diversity is a good thing”. With a calm and direct approach even among chaos, Suzanne is fearless, and ready for the next journey. She is adept in most CRM systems, Delphi, CITY, Opera, OnQue, Micros, Visual One, Room Master, and more.

Suzanne is a seasoned hotel sales executive, with extensive experience in key United States markets to include California, Florida, North Carolina and New York, with an eclectic mix of equal years of Operation and Sales in all types of Hospitality Venues- branded, independent, on University Campus, Conference center and more.

Suzanne’s work ethic is unrelenting “that change, and diversity is a good thing”. With a calm and direct approach even among chaos, Suzanne is fearless, and ready for the next journey. She is adept in most CRM systems, Delphi, CITY, Opera, OnQue, Micros, Visual One, Room Master, and more.