August 2009 Archives

PrivateFly,the online private jet broker, has announced the appointment of former Lastminute.com managing director John Bevan as a non-executive director.

The Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) has announced the appointment of a new secretary general. He is Barbadian Hugh Riley who has been the organisation's interim secretary general for the past several months.

As the organisation's chief executive officer he will oversee the CTO's offices in Barbados, North America, the UK and Europe, succeeding the late Arley Sobers and the Hon. Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace. He will also lead the organisation's initiatives to strengthen relations with its strategic partners, including the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) and the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA).

 

Royal Brunei Airlines has announced the appointment of Robert Yang as new chief executive officer. Yang started his career with Singapore Airlines and in his last role with the airline he worked in New York as vice president, Eastern USA and South America. Yang's aviation experience also encompasses freight management, business development, marketing, sales and product development, airport operations and general management.

 

Elegant Hotels Group has named Simon Sherwood as non-executive chairman. Sherwood joins Elegant Hotels Group having previously served as president and CEO of Orient-Express Hotels (OEH), which owns and operates luxury hotels and brands throughout the world.

 

Midlands Co-op Travel has appointed Nicci Harper as its new senior learning and development adviser. Harper will oversee colleague development for Midlands Co-op Travel, which incorporates Ilkeston Co-op Travel, and will be based at its Business Support Centre in Lichfield. 

Harper started work in travel with Thomas Cook where she worked her way up from YTS to senior travel consultant specialising in cruise and long haul holidays. She then worked for Beeches International Travel in Birmingham, where she was shop manager for three years and then moved to Holiday Hypermarkets and First Choice. Most recently she worked for Harvey World Travel as training manager. 

Eurostar has confirmed plans for senior management changes that will take place in early 2010 at the same time as the launch of a new, single corporate entity that will replace the current joint venture structure.

Richard Brown, chief executive of Eurostar since 2002, will step up to become non-executive chairman of Eurostar, replacing Guillaume Pepy who has been non-executive Chairman of Eurostar since 1998 and who became president directeur general of SNCF (French Railways) in February 2008.

Nicolas Petrovic, who joined Eurostar in 2003 and is currently chief operating officer, will take over as chief executive.

The planned changes are expected to coincide with the 'go-live' date for the single Eurostar company at the beginning of next year, and were announced to Eurostar staff last week.

 

Directline holidays has made new appointments to provide a renewed focus on key product areas including ski, holidays, long-haul and city breaks.

Danielle Andrews has been promoted from within the business to head of product and trading. Liz Brown will assume responsibility for key development areas of long haul holidays and city breaks as product manager. Veronique Watson retains her role as product executive supporting our product team.

Kelly Chown (pictured above) has joined from lastminute.com to the newly created role of product manager - beach and ski. In addition Kim Astwood has joined from Travel2 and Travelbag to the new role of trading analyst.

Cheapflights Ltd has announced changes to its leadership team. Francesca Ecsery, formerly Cheapflights' UK general manager, has been promoted to global sales director.

Meanwhile, Meredith Hanrahan has joined Cheapflights in the newly created role of chief marketing officer. Hanrahan joins Cheapflights from Salary.com.

 

Alison Jared has been appointed business development manager at BP Travel Marketing Services. She was most recently key account manager at Advantage Travel Centres and previously at Hayes and Jarvis. She replaces Brenda Williams.

Virgin Atlantic has appointed Phil Maher as its new director of engineering. Maher takes over from Steve Griffiths, who was appointed as Virgin Atlantic's chief operating officer in March. Maher has been acting director of engineering for six months.

 

Jumeirah Group has announced the appointment of Clive Doble as its new director of sales for the Group in London. Prior to joining Jumeirah, Doble has been working with British Airways, most recently as a sales manager in London.

Gail Kenny Executive Search has promoted Jayne Peirce to the newly created position of account director. Peirce will head up leisure travel recruitment across both the Gail Kenny brand and the online focused Puregenie brand. She is tasked with expanding the recruitment division.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has appointed Lindsay Dixon as its new national accounts manager to head up its trade relationships with major distribution partners TUI, CTTG and Hays Travel. Dixon was formerly head of sales for the First Choice FlexiTravel and Thomson Cities TUI UK brands and head of sales for Island Cruises.

Travelodge has announced the appointment of Charlie Herbert as e-commerce director. In this newly created role, Herbert will oversee the company's new e-commerce function incorporating the marketing and IT functions. Herbert has been working with Travelodge on a consultancy basis since March 2009 until this week when his new role takes effect. 
As part of the restructure, two new roles have been created within the e-commerce team: Stephen Welham, former senior marketing manager, has been promoted to the role of head of marketing and Neil Milner, former trading systems manager, has been promoted to the role of head of e-commerce development.  

Travelport GDS has appointed Tim Wright in the newly created role of UK and Ireland commercial director. Wright joins Travelport GDS from HyperTech, a software provider for the leisure travel industry. Wright previously spent 15 years working for Worldspan (now merged into Travelport GDS) where he held a number of senior roles including vice president for business development and e-commerce in EMEA.

 

Klaus Lohmann has joined the German National Tourist Office UK and Ireland (GNTO) as its new director. Prior to his new position, he was head of sales and tourism at Wolfsburg's car-themed Autostadt attraction. With a background in cruise travel, he has also worked for Peter Deilmann and cruise operator Transocean Tours in sales and for German tour operator Studiosus in product management.

 

Experience provider DoSomethingDifferent.com has expanded its team by recruiting a new head of trade sales support, Natalie Wong, who joins the company with immediate effect. Wong has previously held positions at Club Med, Argo Holidays and Gullivers Pacific.
Wong will report to DoSomethingDifferent.com commercial director, Ian Coyle and be responsible forleading the trade sales support department, supporting agents' bookings and helping to further develop trade sales for the company. 

 

Tim White has joined public relations agency McCluskey International as director of trade.
Previously White headed the product and marketing departments at TUI Travel - Worldwide Scheduled Division, Quest Travel and Getaway Vacations having previously worked in sales and marketing roles with Thomas Cook, BA Holidays and lastminute.com. He joins after spending six months in Dubai with DNATA.
White replaces Elaine Barrett who left the agency in May to relocate to Africa.