Claudia Baino, who had experience with the Latin American market while serving with Tourico (2004-2006) and GTA (2010-2013), was appointed CEO of Meeting Point North America and held the position for three months when it was mutually decided that she would step down. This episode demonstrates the difficulty of staff transferring from one corporate culture to another. Baino’s resumé also includes tenures with Traveltek, lowcostbeds and MSC Cruises.
In Brazil, TBO Holidays—it is a B2B portal for travel agents, hoteliers and other tour and travel industry suppliers—has announced the hiring of André Affonso for the position of account executive in São Paulo. The company says that the appointment of Affonso, an eight-year veteran of the tour and travel industry sector, is part of its plans to expand its profile in Brazil.
Roselle Masse, who was the west coast marketing manager for TeamAmerica for nearly six years, has accepted a position as west coast marketing manager for Meeting Point North America. She replaces Ken Schwartz, who passed away in December 2016. Prior to her tenure at TeamAmerica, Masse, who has a graduate degree form L’Université Paris Sorbonne, had served as a director at AlliedTPro for nearly 16 years.
Marco Guaramonti has left his post as general manager at Albatravel France. Guaramonti, who had been with the company since 2005, said in a message announcing his departure that he wanted “to focus on new projects.”
Stacey Cohen, a veteran of more than 25 years in the tour and travel industry, is the new Northeast manager for Meeting Point North America for the East Coast. She replaces Helen Woodward who moved on to a similar position at UK-based Miki Travel. Before joining Meeting Point, Cohen had worked at Travalco, a receptive tour operator in Hallandale Beach, Fla., as senior market manager. Previously, she served at AlliedTPro/Kuoni for nearly 15 years. She began her career in the industry in 1987 with AlliedTPro’s predecessor company, Allied Tours, as a senior group coordinator.
After 12 years at MMTGapnet and just over a year at Consolid, the incoming division of the operator belonging to the Flytour Group, Jorge Souza is looking for new opportunities. Souza, who spent seven years in operations and five in marketing at MMT, can be contacted at jorgeblue@gmail.com.
David Alexander recently joined the team at Visit Orlando as director of travel industry sales. Most recently, he had been a regional director at Hotelbeds (his second tenure with the company, having served there from 2006-2010). In between his time at Hotelbeds, he worked for nearly eight years at the Orlando office of TUI Travel as director of destination development—Americas.
