New roles for the industry’s movers and shakers
British Airways
Moran Birger has been appointed as regional commercial manager for South Asia. He will be based at the airline’s South Asia headquarters in Gurgaon. He will be responsible for all sales and commercial activity for the region, including India, Sri Lanka and Maldives. Prior to this, in 2013, he was appointed as the commercial manager in Ghana for British Airways. Birger has also held the position of commercial agreements executive – revenue management for British Airways looking after the carrier’s relationships with a broad portfolio of key European airlines.
Yatra.com
Yatra.com has appointed Himanshu Verma as chief technology officer of the company. In his new role, he will lead technology development for all businesses and products of Yatra. The appointment is set to augment the organisation’s technology capabilities and formalise strategy to build the business across networks, locations and technologies. The role will also have him engaged in growing the mobile business, which is now touted as the future of the travel industry. Verma joined Yatra.com from Flipkart where he essayed the role of director of engineering for three years.
Bombardier
Bombardier has appointed Jim Vounassis as vice president, operations strategy. In this new position, Vounassis will conduct a detailed review of the company’s operations and implement strategies to increase value creation across the organisation. In addition, he will lead Bombardier’s global action plan, focusing on improving profitability and execution to transform the business into a high performance organisation. He will be based at Bombardier’s corporate office in Montreal.
David M Coleal has been appointed as president, Bombardier Business Aircraft. He succeeds Éric Martel, who is leaving the company after 13 years of service to pursue other career opportunities. Before Coleal first joined Bombardier in 2008, he was president and chief operating officer of Cirrus Design Corporation. He also held various management positions at McKinsey and Company, Caterpillar and New United Motor Manufacturing. Coleal holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering Technology from California State University (CSU), Sacramento, and an MBA in Management Science from CSU, East Bay.
Bombardier has also appointed Jean-Paul Pellissier as a special advisor to conduct an extensive review of the company’s supply chain. Pellissier is an industry veteran with 25 years of experience at Dassault Aviation, most recently as senior vice president responsible for procurement. His focus will be to improve sourcing processes and supply chain efficiency.
Boeing
Bernie Dunn has been appointed president of Boeing Middle East. Dunn will be based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and report to Marc Allen, president of Boeing International. Dunn will be responsible for Boeing’s growth and productivity plans and government affairs and for implementing the company’s strategy across the region. He also will support Boeing business units and functions as they pursue their business objectives and closely coordinate with Boeing Saudi Arabia president Ahmed Jazzar. Dunn, who is fluent in Arabic, has lived and worked in the region for most of the last 30 years.
Etihad Airways
Etihad Airways has appointed Iwan Kip as general manager for Indonesia, based in Jakarta. In the role, Kip will play a pivotal role in accelerating the growth of business in Indonesia. Kip will report to Lindsay White, the airline’s Sydney-based vice president for Asia Pacific South and Australasia. Kip, who has more than 10 years of travel industry experience, takes up the role after two years as Etihad Airways’ manager direct sales and operations for the Netherlands.
PATA
Kevin B Murphy, president and CEO, Asiawide Hospitality Solutions (AHS), Hong Kong SAR & Thailand, has been elected as chairman of the PATA Executive Board. Murphy replaces W Scott Supernaw who served as chairman of PATA since April 2013 and will remain on the executive board as PATA immediate past chairman. PATA has also elected four new members to its executive board including, Andrew Jones, guardian, Sanctuary Resorts, Hong Kong SAR; Dato Haji Azizan Noordin, deputy director general (planning), Tourism Malaysia, Malaysia; John Schubert, managing director – marketing Asia Pacific and India, The Boeing Company, USA; and Philip Schaetz, senior VP of sales and marketing, Dorsett Hospitality International, Hong Kong SAR. Long-time PATA member Jones has been elected as the new vice chairman; while Basant Mishra, executive chairman, Temple Tiger Group of Companies, Nepal remains secretary/ treasurer.
Other executive board members include Henry Oh, Jr., president, Global Tour, Korea (ROK); HE Ramon R Jimenez Jr., secretary of tourism, Philippines Department of Tourism; Sarah Mathews, destination marketing senior sales manager APAC, TripAdvisor, Hong Kong SAR; Setyono Djuandi Darmono, chairman, President University, Indonesia; and Stephen Pearce, vice president, Leisure Travel & Digital Marketing, Tourism Vancouver, Canada. Furthermore, Dr Helena Lo, director of Pousada de Mong-Ha (the Educational Hotel of Institute for Tourism Studies Macau – IFT) and the 2015 PATA Face of the Future, joins the PATA executive board as a non-voting member and observer for a one-year term at the invitation of the PATA chairman.
PATA has also appointed Parita Niemwongse as director – human capital development, and Wallace Wong as regional director – Asia. Niemwongse’s primary focus is to initiate human capital development (HCD) programmes and activities for members of the association including PATAcademy, PATA Youth Symposium, and the PATA Intern and Associate Programme. She will also be responsible for PATA’s Capacity Building Programme, University and Tourism College relationships, and any future related HCD programmes, as well as the continued management of the PATA Gold Awards and PATA Face of the Future.
Wallace Wong will be responsible for PATA’s commercial and industry development, as well as bridging the relationship between the public and private travel sectors in the Asia Pacific region. His territorial responsibilities will include all of Asia with the exception of mainland China (this includes North Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, Central Asia and the sub-Indian Continent), and will report directly to PATA CEO Mario Hardy.
Sabre Airline Solutions
Sabre has appointed Jeff Fullmer as vice president and regional general manager of the Americas for the company’s airline solutions business. In this role, Fullmer will oversee the sales team for the Americas, including North America and Latin America and work closely with airline customers in this region. He has 19 years of sales and customer management experience at IBM, where he most recently served as managing partner, infrastructure services. He has also held general manager, area general manager and regional manager positions within IBM.
Fullmer earned his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Utah.