Former US ambassador to speak at Cannes conference

Print Article E-Mail Article

Tax Free World Association (TFWA) has signed up Richard Holbrooke, former US ambassador to the United Nations, to deliver the keynote address to the TFWA World Exhibition conference in Cannes next month

Tax Free World Association (TFWA) has signed up Richard Holbrooke, former US ambassador to the United Nations, to deliver the keynote address to the TFWA World Exhibition conference in Cannes next month. Holbrooke will give a speech entitled This World: Foreign Policy and Business, focusing on changes in inter-governmental relations since the Iraq conflict and how these will affect global commerce.

Holbrooke was US ambassador to the UN from 1999 to 2001, the final two years of the Clinton administration. Through the mid to late 90s he served as a key policymaker to president Clinton, and helped to engineer the Dayton peace agreement that brought the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina to a close.

The Cannes conference, to be held in the Palais des Festivals during the morning of Friday October 24, will be opened by TFWA president Erik Juul-Mortensen, who will talk about the state of the travel-retail industry. Following Holbrooke's address, TFWA conference and research director Linda Hopkins will make a presentation entitled The Future As We See It, based on an opinion poll of industry executives.

In addition to the conference, TFWA is to organise a forum addressing recovery, growth and development in the Asia/Pacific travel-retail market at 9am on Saturday October 25. The scheduled speakers are American Express head of global travel services Brendan Walsh, Pacific Asia Travel Association president and ceo Peter de Jong, TFWA ceo Andrew Ford plus a representative from the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.