Lisa Love, division director for tourism in the Georgia Department of Economic Development has accepted the role of Interim deputy commissioner of Explore Georgia. She takes over from Kevin Langston, who recently announced that he has announced that he was retiring from his position as deputy commissioner. Love, who joined Georgia Tourism in 2017, will help maintain the department’s operation as the search continues for a permanent deputy commissioner. Before Georgia Tourism, she was director of music marketing and development for the Film, Musical & Digital Entertainment Office at the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
Courtney Cacatian has been named as the new executive director of the Charlottesville-Albemarle CVB in Virginia. She succeeds the retiring Kurt Burkhart. Cacatian comes to the position from the Convention & Visitors Bureau in Bristol, which straddles the state line between Virginia and Tennessee. Prior to that, she was executive director of the Arlington County Convention and Visitors Service, representing a destination that is on the other side of the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.
Alexandre Mesquita has been promoted to the post of marketing and commercial manager at GSP Travel. Previously, he had briefly been part of the company’s sales business development team. He came to GSP from Clubventos, where he was commercial and travel manager. His career includes tenures in senior sales position at some major Brazilian tour and travel businesses, such as Hostway Viagens, Grupo Águia and MMT Gapnet.
Tricia Suit has been appointed visitor experience manager for the Cincinnati USA CVB. Suit, who began her new job on July 1st, oversees operations at the Cincinnati USA Visitor Center, managing the Cincy USA Tourism ambassador Program. Previously, Suit was vice president of marketing for Downtown Cincinnati. She was also communications manager at the Taft Museum of Art
After more than 23 years at Delta Air Lines, Luiz Henrique Teixeira (better known as “Tex” in Braazil) is joining Latam Airlines as country manager of Gol Airlines in the United States. Teixeira and his family will move to Orlando at the end of the month in preparation for assuming his new job.
Latam Airlines has announced the hiring of Sabrina Salgado as a new marketing manager in Brazil. She comes to the airline from Time Warner. Salgado replaces Daniel Aguado, who left the tourism industry three months ago to accept a position at Poliedro Educação, a preparatory school in São José dos Campos.
Trivago has appointed James Carter as chief product and technology officer. He comes to the hotel price comparison site from Google. In his new role, he joins the trivago leadership team as the head of hotel search. With 14 years of experience in the travel tech industry, he was most recently engineering director at search engine Google, working on its hotel ads product.
Brittney Hendricks has been promoted to the post of director of marketing and communications at the Oxnard CVB in California. Previously, she had been marketing and communications coordinator. Previously, Hendricks had been a technical writer and editor for Marine Research Specialists in Ventura, California.
Kristen Loflin has been named communications and marketing manager for New Orleans & Company. She comes to the post from Onslow County Tourism in Jacksonville, N.C. She has also served with the Albany (Georgia) CVB.
Not Just Travel and The Travel Franchise has appointed a new managing director and head of sales and training. She is Annabel Wathen, who joins from the banking and training industries as MD. She started her career on Wall Street at the Royal Bank of Scotland and has also worked on convertible bond trading at Credit Suisse and was business manager and associate at Deutsche Bank for Global Markets in London, overseeing 300 people on the trading floor. Also, David Pope has joined as head of sales and training. He has worked for Travel Bag and AirTours, progressing from a commission-based sales role to director of sales at Abercrombie & Kent.
Suzanne Brunt, former business development manager for the Freedom Travel Group, is taking on a new role with Vertical Travel Group. Brunt has joined Vertical’s Your Holiday Booking homeworking division as sales manager. She will assume the role on August 19, bringing nearly 30 years of travel sector experience.
The Travel Leaders network has hired Lindsay Pearlman as senior vice president, international leisure, a newly-created position. Pearlman started July 8 and reports to Travel Leaders Network President Roger E. Block. Pearlman most recently served as co-president of Ensemble, where he worked for 12 years, including as executive vice president and general manager of the retail travel group. Prior to Ensemble, Pearlman was with American Express Global Travel Services for 11 years in a variety of roles.
Travelport has just announced Greg Webb as the company’s new CEO. With more than 20 years of experience in the travel technology industry, the executive will take office on August 1, taking the place of Gordon Wilson, who has been in the company for 28 years and President and CEO since 2011. Previously, Webb served as senior vice president at Oracle Hospitality and vice chairman at Saber. The professional will bring to Travelport a deep knowledge of the industry and a strong track record of commercial and operational execution, having been responsible for strategy, training, development, sales, service and support.
Sérgio Vianna has been named to the post of sales and marketing manager for the Brazilian tour operator Lusanova. He joins the company from another operator, Abreu, where he spent more than 20 years.
