Liz Ortiguera
Managing Director of Asia-Pacific and
Senior Advisor to the CEO
World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)
Senior Advisor to the CEO
World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)
Liz Ortiguera is a global industry leader, business builder, and former scientist/engineer. She has over 25 years of experience in various industries, including pharmaceuticals, digital start-ups, payments, and most predominantly in recent years travel and tourism.
Liz had her first career as a scientist/engineer with Bell Labs then Merck Pharmaceuticals – at one point conducting breast cancer research. She then worked with American Express for 18 years spanning three divisions – card, merchant, and travel – including leadership of Amex’s Travel Partner Network across 28 countries in Asia-Pacific. Liz left Amex to venture into the start-up world and worked with a luxury ecommerce/SaaS digital start-up, a mobile-first edtech start-up, and piloted her own travel social enterprise.
Liz had her first career as a scientist/engineer with Bell Labs then Merck Pharmaceuticals – at one point conducting breast cancer research. She then worked with American Express for 18 years spanning three divisions – card, merchant, and travel – including leadership of Amex’s Travel Partner Network across 28 countries in Asia-Pacific. Liz left Amex to venture into the start-up world and worked with a luxury ecommerce/SaaS digital start-up, a mobile-first edtech start-up, and piloted her own travel social enterprise.
Liz was then appointed the first female and only the second Asian CEO of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) in its 70+ year history. During her two-year tenure, she expanded the global footprint of the network, expanded the membership base, launched the World Bank-PATA Recovery Insights Forum, the Tourism Destination Resilience Program, the Visa-PATA SME Enablement Initiative and numerous other initiatives.
In June 2023, Liz was appointed Managing Director of Asia-Pacific and Sr Advisor to the CEO for World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). Concurrently, she founded her own consultancy firm called Bridge XP Advisory which focusses on strategy, marketing and business development advisory.
As a travel industry thought leader, general manager, and mentor, Liz shares her experience and expertise across various forums. She’s adept at developing strategies and leading them to implementation and is passionate about innovation, sustainability, diversity/equity/inclusion, education and social impact. She believes in driving business growth and innovation while using ethical and sustainable business strategies.
She has lived and worked in NY, Tokyo and Singapore – with the past 25 years based in Asia.
Liz is an alumni of four universities – Stanford, Columbia, NYU, and The Cooper Union. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including an MBA scholarship from Merck, Amex Leadership Awards, and a TDG Humanitarian Award.
In her personal time, she launched Stanford GSB Women’s Circles in Asia, conducted disaster relief for Typhoon Haiyan, and raised funds to build both a charity hotel and restaurant school in Cambodia and two villages for impoverished families in the Philippines.
Liz is Filipina-American, currently resides in Singapore, and is the mother of a young adult son.
In June 2023, Liz was appointed Managing Director of Asia-Pacific and Sr Advisor to the CEO for World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). Concurrently, she founded her own consultancy firm called Bridge XP Advisory which focusses on strategy, marketing and business development advisory.
As a travel industry thought leader, general manager, and mentor, Liz shares her experience and expertise across various forums. She’s adept at developing strategies and leading them to implementation and is passionate about innovation, sustainability, diversity/equity/inclusion, education and social impact. She believes in driving business growth and innovation while using ethical and sustainable business strategies.
She has lived and worked in NY, Tokyo and Singapore – with the past 25 years based in Asia.
Liz is an alumni of four universities – Stanford, Columbia, NYU, and The Cooper Union. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including an MBA scholarship from Merck, Amex Leadership Awards, and a TDG Humanitarian Award.
In her personal time, she launched Stanford GSB Women’s Circles in Asia, conducted disaster relief for Typhoon Haiyan, and raised funds to build both a charity hotel and restaurant school in Cambodia and two villages for impoverished families in the Philippines.
Liz is Filipina-American, currently resides in Singapore, and is the mother of a young adult son.