Speakers - European Conference on Club Management 2026. Online registration by Cvent

The CMAE is delighted to announce that experienced broadcaster and presenter Alison Walker will serve as the official European conference facilitator, guiding delegates through the event and helping maximise their overall experience.

As facilitator, Walker will play a key role in shaping the flow and energy of the conference — connecting sessions, introducing speakers, and ensuring delegates remain engaged and able to extract maximum value from the programme. Her experience and presence will help create a seamless and dynamic conference environment, enhancing both learning and interaction throughout the event.

Her distinguished broadcasting career includes covering ten Olympic Games, two Ryder Cups, and numerous Open Golf Championships, experience that has given her a deep understanding of both elite sport and global audiences.

Led by CEO Torbjörn “Toby” Johansson, This opening business session will provide delegates with an overview of the Association's latest developments, achievements and priorities, while looking ahead to what is next for CMAE and its members. The session will include the recognition and celebration of newly achieved certifications, highlighting the continued growth and professional development of club managers across Europe and beyond.

Toby will also share updates on CMAE's education and professional development strategy, including new initiatives designed to support members throughout their careers.

CMAE and Club Benchmarking EMEA have joined forces to deliver the first pan-European Food & Beverage Benchmarking Survey, creating a unique dataset exploring how clubs across Europe deliver and manage their F&B operations. In this session, the findings will be unveiled for the first time, providing valuable benchmarks and insights across in-house, outsourced and hybrid service models. Discover what the data tells us about F&B performance across Europe and how these insights can support more informed budgeting, operational decision-making, service model reviews and board reporting.

This session will feature a timely and thought-provoking panel discussion exploring one of the industry’s most pressing topics: people strategy.

Facilitated by Michael Herd, Head of International Search & Consulting at KK&W, The session will bring together an experienced panel of industry leaders and talent experts to discuss how clubs can attract, develop, and retain exceptional people in an increasingly competitive employment landscape.

Bringing together perspectives from executive recruitment, club operations, human resources, and leadership development, the panel will feature:

Tom Wallace, Managing Partner at KK&W, who brings extensive experience in talent development and executive search across many of the premier clubs in the United States.
John Blanch, General Manager of Loch Lomond Golf Club, whose distinguished international career includes leadership roles at Wentworth Club and senior management positions across Asia.
Scott Semple, Director of People at St Andrews Links Trust, who leads the organisation’s people strategy, recruitment, and talent development functions.
Nick Taylor, Managing Director of GreyCircle and leadership development specialist, who works with leading clubs and organisations to strengthen culture, engagement, and leadership effectiveness.

In today’s rapidly evolving workplace environment, leadership requires more than experience alone. It demands ambition, courage, adaptability, and the ability to create cultures where both people and performance can thrive. In his session, Nick Taylor will challenge delegates to think bigger, lead braver, and embrace the role leadership plays in shaping organisational culture and long-term success.

Designed specifically for club managers and industry leaders, the session will explore practical leadership strategies that help organisations strengthen engagement, improve retention, and build high-performing teams.

In this session, Sarah will share insights from her 17-year journey leading one of the most significant golf developments in modern times, transforming a windswept stretch of arable links land into a multi-award-winning, world-class golf destination. Delegates will gain a rare and personal perspective on what it takes to deliver a bold vision in the Home of Golf, navigating complexity and long-term development challenges.

Sarah Malone has spent over 25 years spearheading the design, development, and delivery of international events and major capital projects across the sectors of culture, sport, and tourism. Appointed by President Donald J. Trump in 2009 to lead his first European investment, she has overseen both construction and operations, as well as the long-term, multi-phase leisure and real estate development of the business, and played a central role in establishing the resort as one of the world’s leading golf destinations.

Goudsmet will challenge conventional thinking around leadership, arguing that most organisational challenges are not rooted in strategy, but in human behaviour. Drawing on decades of experience working with boards, CEOs, and elite teams, he will explore the often-overlooked behaviours that quietly drain energy, limit accountability, and block execution within organisations.

Rather than focusing on theory, the session will provide a direct and practical examination of what leaders do, avoid, and tolerate — and how those choices ultimately shape culture, decision-making, and results. Delegates can expect a candid and thought-provoking experience designed to bring clarity, challenge assumptions, and strengthen leadership effectiveness.

Participants will leave with practical insights and a renewed sense of responsibility for how they lead, along with tools they can immediately apply within their own clubs and organisations.

Leadership within today’s club environment is increasingly complex. Managers are expected to deliver strong commercial performance, maintain exceptional member experiences, lead teams, and oversee operations — often while navigating significant demands on their own time and capacity.

Brennand’s keynote introduces a leadership approach grounded in the framework presented in her book Balancing Act: Mastering Work, Wealth and Wellbeing: The Calibration Model. The model explores how leadership effectiveness is shaped by the interaction between Money–Mission, Mental–Physical Health, and Work–Life balance.

Drawing on two decades of experience working with senior leaders across demanding sectors, alongside insights from performance psychology and real-world leadership environments, delegates will leave with a practical framework for navigating the realities of modern club leadership. More importantly, the session challenges leaders to think differently about how performance, energy, and direction are managed — ensuring success is shaped with intention rather than left to chance.

Andrew Minty will explore how videography and storytelling can transform a club’s brand, elevate marketing strategy, and unlock new revenue opportunities — drawing directly from his experience at Langland Bay Golf Club. Delegates will discover how capturing the beauty and character of their course can create powerful emotional connections both online and offline.

The session will offer practical, actionable strategies to help clubs turn everyday moments into compelling visual content that attracts new members, engages sponsors, and drives bookings. From showcasing course aesthetics to building authentic narratives around club culture, Minty will demonstrate how purposeful storytelling can move a brand from vision to visibility.

Jeremy King has spent fifty years pioneering London’s dining scene, hosting everyone from Princess Diana and Mick Jagger to Andy Warhol and Laurence Olivier. Over the decades, he has opened some of the city’s most iconic and era-defining restaurants, including Le Caprice in the 1980s, The Ivy in the 1990s, The Wolseley in the 2000s, and more recently Arlington, The Park, and Simpson’s in the Strand in the 2020s.

Owing to the curious intimacy between restaurateur and guest, Jeremy has witnessed countless heartbreaks, failures, challenges and celebrations. His advice has been sought widely over the years, and here he gives a series of valuable reflections on everything from the art of a quick ‘no thanks’ to trickier dispute resolution. Restaurants are microcosms of life, and the skills learnt in hospitality – such as communication, empathy and discipline – can be profoundly beneficial for everyone.

Uncertainty has become a constant in club leadership — shifting expectations, rising operational pressures, competition for talent, and teams stretched by ongoing change. Yet while every organization has its own cultural norms and expectations, the human experience of navigating uncertainty follows recognizable patterns.

In this practical and interactive session, leadership expert Sarah Noll Wilson will explore what people need from their leaders during times of change and how to adapt these tools to the unique culture of your club.

As artificial intelligence rapidly evolves, its role in club management is shifting from experimental tools and chatbots to practical, action-oriented solutions that can enhance operations, decision-making, and member experience. This dynamic session is designed to help club leaders move beyond the hype and focus on realistic, high-impact applications of AI within their organizations.

Attendees will gain hands-on experience with the latest AI models, develop new skills, and leave with a practical toolkit they can immediately take back to their clubs—along with the confidence to build AI capability within their teams.