Staff appointments 31/05/12

See who has got a new job in the travel industry, including Advantage, Rocky Mountaineer and Travelport.

Victoria Jones has joined Advantage as commercial manager. Jones will report to John Sullivan and has previously held roles at Kuoni and Wendy Wu Tours.

Hazel Mansell has been named national sales manager UK at Rocky Mountaineer. In the newly-created role, Mansell will be based in Scotland and lead the growth of UK revenue at the company. She will start her new role on 11 June.

Sinead Reilly has been promoted as the new country manager for Ireland at Travelport. Reilly has been working at Travelport for 10 years and will take up her new role on 25 June. David Conlon has also joined Travelport as key account manager, while Neville Firth has been made commercial analyst.

Gary Speakman has been appointed finance director at Shearings. Speakman joins the operator from Ainscough Crane Hire, where he was finance director from 2008. He has also held roles at Acceleris, Sportech, Littlewoods Gaming, Gallaher Group and Leyland.

Janis Kong is to join TUI Travel PLC’s board as a non-executive director. Kong has replaced Bill Dalton, who served on the board for five years until announcing his retirement. Kong has previously held several roles at BAA where she worked for 33 years, including managing director of Gatwick Airport.

Graham Kingsmill has been named managing director at Egencia UK. Kingsmill previously served as chief executive of Netstore and Maxima for five years and has 20 years’ experience in senior roles in the technology industries.

Sunaina Jagtiani (pictured) has been promoted to vice president customer support at RateTiger. In addition, Cristina Blaj has been appointed sales manager for the UK with experience in travel agency sales, while Cristina Hernandez has been named regional sales manager for Spain and Germany. 

James Ramage has been named assistant vice president, global sales at Dusit International. Ramage was most recently regional director of sales and marketing for Starwood and has also held positions at Marriott in London and Florida.

Mark Payne has been promoted to general manager of The Bristol Hotel. Payne was previously rooms division manager at The Doyle Collection property and has also helped redevelopments at Clarion Hotel, Dublin and Jurys Inn Aberdeen.

Frank McCusker has been appointed chief executive of the Ski Club of Great Britain, in effect from 2 July. McCusker is former vice president EMEA at Carlson Marketing Group and was also global general manager for ICLP Group.

Jaffar Juma Al Lawati has been named country manager, Oman at Oman Air. Lawati has joined the airline from Etihad, where he held the same role. He will now set targets for Oman Air’s hub in the country, work to build revenue and promote the airline through its sales channels.