Kevin Gaddes, national sales manager for now-defunct Thomas Cook, joined Travelopia a week after the former closed down on Sept. 23. He has taken on the newly created role of trade partnerships manager for some of Travelopia’s tailor-made brands. Travelopia has more than 50 specialist brands. Reporting to head of trade partnerships Simon Garrido, Gaddes will work with Hayes & Jarvis, Citalia, Sovereign Luxury Travel, Austravel and American Holidays. With the exception of a one-year spell in which he worked for GfK, Gaddes had been with Thomas Cook for more than 15 years.
Stéphane Durand, a veteran of more than 20 years at Amadeus, has been named president of Amadeus France, replacing Georges Rudas. He will also serve as senior vice president in the business travel agencies division for WEMEA (Western Europe, Middle East and Africa). Durand’s tenure at Amadeus includes several executive positions in various divisions, including general manager UK & Ireland and chief commercial officer North America. Most recently, Durand was senior vice [resident of online travel for the America Zone.
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he French tour operator Marietton Group has retained an executive—Anne-Cécile Terret— who replaces the retired Christian Chatillon as Voyamar sales representative. She will be in charge of the Burgundy-Franche-Comté and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions, including Lyon intra-muros. A statement from Voyamar’s management said that Anne-Cécile Terret has “already mastered Voyamar production since she spent a few years as product manager [within the] tour operator.”
Gloria Loree has been named Destination Canada’s new senior vice president, marketing strategy and chief marketing officer. Previously, she was vice president, global marketing, for the organization. Loree has been with Destination Canada for 13 years.
Charity Stewart has been appointed as new tourism marketing director for Florida’s Space Coast Office of Tourism. She comes to her new position from Huntsville, Alabama where she was account manager with Move Digital. Prior to that, she served as social media and advertising director for the U.S. Space and Rocket Center for six years.
Bruno Heleno has been named CVC’s director of national land product for Brazil’s northern and northeastern sectors. A veteran of some 15 years at the Othon hotel chain, Heleno takes over a position that has been vacant since Ricardo Assalim’s departure four months ago. Heleno is part of the executive team reporting to Claiton Armelin.
FCM Travel Solutions, a global business travel company, has appointed Jason Dunderdale as head of UK sales. He joins from car rental provider SIXT, where he was head of travel sales UK & Ireland for the last three years. Dunderdale also brings extensive sales and management experience in the banking and finance sector—his career includes 13 years in diverse roles within Lloyds Banking Group. He takes on the role at FCM from Graham Ross, former head of UK Sales who was promoted to UK general manager earlier this year. FCM is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, with an additional three regional head offices in London, Singapore and Philadelphia
Roberto Vertemati has returned to CVC Corp. The executive takes over the channel agency sales director in place of Rogério Mendes, who in turn assumes the regional sales director for the franchise network. Vertemati spent 23 years at CVC during a previous tenure before joining Beto Carrero World for three years where was commercial director and director of marketing. Beto Carrero World, Latin America’s largest theme park, is located in Penha, Brazil,
Hotelbeds, the world’s largest bedbank, has announced the appointment of Forrest Zhang as managing director for China. He joins the company in a newly created role becoming directly responsible for all the company’s activities which are focused on the Chinese market, reporting directly to Carlos Muñoz, managing director at Hotelbeds. Zhang joins Hotelbeds from Expedia, where he held the position of director of market management, Mainland China.
Justine Evans has been named the new marketing and communications manager for UFI, a global association of the exhibition industry. She is part of the UFI team in Paris. Justine takes over the role from Monika Fourneaux-Ceskova who managed UFI’s Marketing and Communications activities for the past year and a half, and who has relocated to Dubai. Evans brings extensive experience in marketing and communications. She brings with her a background in the non-profit sector, having worked in areas related to health, refrigeration and standardization.
Kristina Miranda has been appointed as vice president of sales for Insight Vacations & Luxury Gold. She has been promoted from her previous role as director of national and key accounts. One of her main responsibilities as director of national and key accounts was to grow and develop Insight and Luxury Gold’s new preferred relationship with Virtuoso. Prior to her role at Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold, Kristina spent five-and-a-half years at AmaWaterways as director of national accounts.
Laura Di Nardo (left) and Kerry Sharpe have joined the Toronto-based marketing firm, VoX International, as account manager and senior public relations manager, respectively. Di Nardo comes to VoX with more than six years of sales and marketing experience in the travel industry, most recently in trade media. She will take on the role of travel trade account manager at VoX, using her industry expertise to help VoX clients develop travel trade relationships, brand awareness, training programs and new product development in Canada. Sharpe has worked in the Canadian travel industry for the last 17 years. She started as a writer, then moved to senior corporate communications roles before returning to the trade media where she has worked for the past three years. At VoX Sharpe will work as senior public relations manager at the company’s Toronto office.
The Kansas City Kansas CVB has selected Alan Carr as the organization’s new executive director. Before his new post, Carr ran his own marketing and public relations agency for four years. Previously, he spent 10 years with Visit KC, including a tenure as vice president of marketing and communications. Carr succeeds Bridgette Jobe who left the Kansas City Kansas bureau to become director of tourism for the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism.
Alyssa Barrera-Mason, who is currently the executive director of the downtown management district in Corpus Christi has been appointed interim CEO of the Corpus Christi CVB. She will serve her dual role until a permanent CVB CEO is selected. The action follows the decision of Paulette Kluge to resign from the position following the discovery that she had agreed to pay the Selena Foundation $50,000 regardless of how much a fundraising event made. According to local news accounts, Kluge’s decision was not made clear to the CVB board of directors at the time of discovery. The CVB board agreed to uphold that commitment of $50,000 to the Selena Foundation.
G Adventures has appointed Tom Bell as director of sales for the UK and Ireland. He will join G Adventures on October 21 to oversee the operator’s on-the-road sales team of 10 global purpose specialists. He replaces Rachel Coffey who left earlier this year, and will be supported by national sales manager, Stu Darnley. Bell will join from Hotelbeds Group, where he was regional manager for UK and Ireland at Bedsonline.
Benjamin Maddy has been named director of sales for Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Times Square in New York City. Well known in the travel and tourism community in New York, Maddy’s career has included senior sales positions at The Madison Square Garden Company, Discovery Times Square and Dave & Buster’s.
