Peter SemoneThe PATA Foundation is pleased to announce the election of Peter Semone as Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Mr Semone replaces Mario Hardy who has served as Chairman since June 2012. Mr Hardy was appointed the Chief Operating Officer of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) in January 2014. He will continue to support and advise the PATA Foundation as needed. Mr Semone currently serves as Chief Technical Advisor of the Lao National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality (Lanith), a project being implemented under the auspices of bilateral cooperation between the governments of Lao PDR and Luxembourg. Lanith, headquartered in Vientiane, Lao PDR, seeks to improve the quality and competitiveness of tourism sector human resources in Lao PDR. Prior to Lanith, he served as Team Leader of the Asian Development Bank-funded Mekong Tourism Development Project (MTDP) in Vietnam. MTDP focused on small-scale infrastructure development and capacity building measures in support of the tourism sector. Mr Semone also served as Vice President of PATA where he was responsible for directing its regional offices in Europe, the Americas, the Pacific and China and providing strategic leadership to PATA's many regional and global initiatives. Early in his career, Peter founded a destination management company, which managed shore logistics for major cruise ship visits to ports in Indonesia.