After serving for nearly nine years as vice president of sales for Universal Studios Hollywood, Tom See is leaving to take a position with Beverly Hills, California-based Live Nation Entertainment as chief revenue officer of its concert division. This is a newly created position with the company. A long time veteran of the tour and travel industry, See has a CV that also includes several senior positions within the Disney organization, as well as a tenure as vice president of sales and marketing for Trafalgar Tours. He also had the same title while serving with Contiki Tours.
The Receptive Services Association of America (RSAA) has announced that longtime tour and travel industry veteran Jane Rossmango is coming out of a short retirement to serve as the new president and CEO of RSAA. The association has been managed by Lexington, Ky.-based Associations International (AI) since 2011, when the latter acquired the association management business of IMG, the global talent and event management company. RSAA had been with IMG since 2008. Rossmango will join the AI management team and, effective Oct. 1, and take over RSAA from Matt Grayson, who is also executive director of AI. Rossmango, who once served as executive vice president of AmericanTours International, had a twenty-year career with Allied Tours, which later merged with T Pro to become AlliedTPro (a Kuoni brand), lastly serving as chairman and senior vice president of AlliedTPro and Kuoni Destination Management (USA), leaving the company last year.
Ross Jefferson has been named president and CEO of Destination Halifax, joining the DMO from Discover Saint John, where he had served since joining the new agency in 2010 as executive director. Before that, he worked at J. D. Irving, Ltd. and as general manager of Saint John Waterfront Development Corp.
Rochester, N.Y.-based Woman Tours, Inc., a leading bicycle touring company for women, has announced the hiring of Annette Lein as social media director and bike fleet manager. Lein, who has 30 years of experience working in photojournalism and was recently employed with the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle newspaper. Lein will be responsible for producing multimedia content for the company’s website, printed catalog, and various social media outlets. Founded in 1985, Women Tours conducts inn-to-inn bike tours in the USA and internationally. The tours are from two days to two months long and are for women only.
Dana Jones has been named by the Sabre Corporation as senior vice president, new market development. She will report to Sabre President and CEO Tom Klein. Jones will continue to serve as chief marketing officer for the company, as well as senior vice president of solutions management for Sabre Airline Solutions.
Karen Chen, the director of Nevada Commission on Tourism’s office in Beijing, as well as two other employees of the operation, have lost their jobs as a result of a decision by Nevada officials to close the office in a restructuring move. Nevada had the first such state tourism facility in China. It opened in the summer of 2004. State Tourism Director Claudia Vecchio said a new firm will be hired by the end of the fiscal year, and will focus primarily on marketing, as is the case with the state’s other overseas tourism representation offices.
