Dermot Davitt is one of the most experienced editors and commentators working in the travel retail media.
He joined The Moodie Report in April 2006 as Deputy Publisher, becoming President (and Co-owner) of The Moodie Davitt Report from August 2015. The company is today part of UK-based publishing and events business Mark Allen Group.
Davitt plays a key management role across the company’s operations, from its flourishing Print Division to the industry’s leading business intelligence website, www.MoodieDavittReport.com, The Moodie Davitt e-Zine and other titles.
Based in Galway, Ireland, Dermot is also a highly experienced conference moderator. He has chaired and moderated many of the travel retail industry’s leading events over the years, including The Trinity Forum, the Airport Food & Beverage Conference & Awards, the MEADFA Conference, the TFWA Asia Pacific Conference, the Nordic Travel Retail Seminar and many others.
Paul Topping has been in the duty free business for over 25 years. During this time he has held a number of senior roles, including Managing Director at Alpha Retail International, Managing Director Alpha Asia, President Asia for Aldeasa and Director South East Asia for Gebr Heinemann.
He played a very important role in the public listing of Alpha Airports Group on the UK stock market and was responsible for creating Alpha International’s retail business in the USA, Europe and Asia. This included the first PPP (public private partnership) airport in India, at Cochin, and Orlando Sanford Airport in the USA.
Alpha was the first international retailer to operate in India and Paul was instrumental in creating awareness of the country’s potential by running two successful conferences. He was one of the two founders of the Travel Retail Tsunami charity, supported by the travel retail industry, which built a new village in Sri Lanka to house people made homeless by the December 2004 tsunami. Paul is currently running the “Educate to Protect” campaign to help children to overcome barriers of race, religion and economic hardship.
Paul is an independent main board director of Flemingo International; he is also the part-owner & director of Bangalore Soma Winery and CEO of Tractopping, a travel retail consultancy. He is known as The Wine Man in Sri Lanka, given his involvement in the wine industry in the country over the last ten years. Paul also writes under his pen name, the Whinging Pom.
Sherif Toulan serves as the Chief Executive Officer of IDF in Egypt. In this role he oversees the company operations including its diverse subsidiaries. Mr Toulan’s combined efforts have played an integral part in diversifying the operations of IDF and growing the business vertically and laterally thereby establishing IDF as a nationwide benchmark in the industry.
During his tenure, Mr Toulan succeeded in acquiring a number of airport retail concessions for IDF. In 2010 he founded Global Brands, a subsidiary of IDF the with a focus on the local market In 2013, he established Heinemann -Egypt, of which he is currently Chairman. Heineman Egypt is a joint venture between Global Brands, Global Trading and Technology and Gebr. Heinemann who are now operating its Duty Free Shops in Sharm El Sheikh Airport.
Mr Toulan joined IDF in 1997 as Business Development Coordinator responsible for Business Development and Strategy implementation and since then he has held a number of positions with increasing responsibility.
Part of the MEADFA Board since 2009, Mr Toulan served as Vice President (2019-21) before being elected President earlier this year. He also serves on a number of boards and associations. He is currently a Member of the Board of International Duty Free (IDF) and Global Trading and Technology, one of the subsidiaries of IDF with core focus in tobacco machinery and spare parts. In addition he is an active member of both the American and German chambers of commerce in Egypt.
Sherif Toulan holds a BA from the American University in Cairo and an Executive MBA from North Western University.
Sean Staunton is responsible for the retail outlets of Dubai Duty Free, having joined the company in 2000 in the position of Retail Sales Manager. In 2004 he was promoted to the position of Operations Manager and was named Vice President for Operations in July 2011.
Prior to joining Dubai Duty Free, Sean worked with Aer Rianta International for 10 years working in such locations as Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Moscow, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria and Qatar. He was responsible for the set-up of Damascus Duty Free and Qatar Duty Free during that time and has been working in the Middle East since 1994.
In September 2016, Sean was named Dubai Duty Free Senior Vice President for Retail Sales.
Sean is presently the President of the Middle East & Africa Duty Free Association (MEADFA), former Chairman of the Dubai Irish Society and President of Dubai Celts Gaelic Athletic Association.
