Movers and shakers in the travel industry.
Godfrey to leave GTMC for CIM
Anne Godfrey is to step down as chief executive of the Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC) to front the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). Godfrey leaves GTMC after three years in the role, where she has boosted its lobbying profile in Westminster, increased membership and restructured several arms of the organisation. “Naturally I am very sad to be leaving the GTMC as I have enjoyed working in an industry that is full of such great personalities and challenging issues,” said Godfrey. “However, I came here to do a specific job, which was to help the GTMC build on a strong brand and network and move the organisation’s lobbying on to the next level and delivering an organisation that truly represents the voice of the business travel community”.
Debbie Moran has been named Tourism Ireland’s Great Britain trade sales team as industry activation account manager. Moran will cover all offlien trade sales and engagement for the south of England and Wales, including attending industry events. She has worked for Tourism Ireland since 2009 in New York and Dublin.
Stéphane Aita has been appointed vice president for Western Europe at Sabre Travel Network. Aita will start his newly-created role on 1 June following his positin as global services director EMEA at Oracle.
Danie Davids has been appointed sales and marketing manager at Tsogo Sun’s Seychelles properties, Paradise Sun and MAIA Luxury Resort & Spa. Davids has previously worked across other Tsogo Sun hotels and takes his new role after Elke Menz took the position of head of global leisure sales for the group.
Fernando Val has been promoted to chief operating officer at Vueling. Former Clickair and Thomsonfly employee Val was previously director of quality and safety in-flight at Vueling and will now oversee its complete operations. Julio Rodriguez has also been promoted at Vueling, to the newly-created role of networking planning, revenue management and distribution director.
Austin Frost has joined Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts as vice president of sales and marketing, Europe. Frost previously held the same role at Shangri-La and has had more than 20 years with the hotel chain across the UK, Asia, US and Middle East.
Martin Sedlacky has been named chief operations officer at airBaltic. Sedlacky joins the airline from the Boston Consulting Group, where he fronted transportation consultancy projects including airBaltic’s ReShape programme.
