Mario Hardy was appointed CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) on November 1st, 2014, having joined the organisation as Chief Operations Officer on January 15th, 2014. Mario is also past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PATA Foundation, a non-profit organisation with a mission to contribute to the sustainable and responsible development of travel and tourism in the Asia Pacific region. His previous experience includes 14 years at UBM/OAG where he held several leadership roles in London, Beijing and Singapore.

He began his career with People’s Express Airlines in 1985 and moved to Canadian Airlines in 1987 where he spent 12 years in a number of sales, marketing and operational roles, leading to his appointment in a senior management role heading the Group Sales & Charter division in 1997.

Mario is an entrepreneur and serial angel investor with close to 30 years of combined leadership, corporate development and change management experience.

He is also a true global citizen who has lived in seven countries on three continents. He is passionate about travel, innovation, design and technology and you will often find him reading FastCompany, TechCrunch, Mashable and National Geographic or searching for the latest innovations on Kickstarter or Indiegogo.