New roles for the industry’s movers and shakers
Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) has announced three key appointments to its executive team. Andrew Waller, CWT’s current president, Europe, Middle East and Africa, will be executive vice president, global business transformation. In this role, Waller will focus on driving efficiency and organisation effectiveness, reshaping CWT’s business model for the future. Waller will be based in Paris and London.
Kelly Kuhn, CWT’s president, Asia-Pacific, will take the role of president, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Global Partners Network, based in London.
Kai Chan, currently general manager, Southeast Asia, CWT, will become president, Asia Pacific, and part of the global executive team. Chan will be based in Singapore. All three positions are effective from February 1, 2016.
Airbus Group India
Airbus Group India has appointed Ashish Saraf as vice president, industry development, strategic partnerships and offsets. Saraf will drive the group’s existing ‘Make in India’ initiatives and conceive new ones for all the businesses of Airbus Group India with the aim to increase its industrial footprint. Prior to joining Airbus Group India, Saraf was the India head of the Tata Sikorsky joint venture since 2010 and led Sikorsky’s industrialisation and strategic partnerships in India. An industry veteran with experience in offsets, industrial relations, greenfield start-up development and strategic partnerships, Saraf started his career with Dassault Systems and Deloitte Consulting.
Kuoni Travel India
Vishal Suri has been appointed as managing director of Kuoni Travel India, by Thomas Cook India. Prior to this appointment, Suri headed the outbound portfolio as CEO – tour operating, Kuoni India. Suri has an experience of over 22 years across industries like telecom, internet, and office automation; including over a decade in running travel businesses.
Yatra.com
Vikrant Mudaliar has been appointed as chief marketing officer of Yatra.com. In this role, Mudaliar will be responsible for leading marketing activities across all Yatra.com business lines and group entities. While focusing on strengthening Yatra’s brand equity in the travel category, he will be responsible for driving the marketing and communications strategy to support the company’s overall strategic objectives. The role will also have him responsible for all traffic and consumer marketing initiatives across web and mobile platforms and driving customer-engagement and loyalty. Mudaliar previously served as chief sales and marketing officer at Lenskart.com. He has also worked at Tata Sky as vice president of brand marketing.
Contiki
Contiki has announced Sam Morrah as its new sales and marketing director for Asia. In this role, Morrah will be responsible for ensuring sales growth in the key markets of Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, and also India, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Sam will also be working on creating marketing campaigns to capture the 18 to 35 market. Morrah joined Contiki in its New Zealand team in 2013 where he began working as a sales executive, before joining the sales team in Australia the following year. He previously managed the biggest trade sales region in Australia. He consistently grew sales in the New Zealand and Australian market, and in 2015 achieved the highest number of passengers globally.
Skal – Asian Area
Robert Sohn has been appointed as president of Skal – Asian Area. Sohn is president and CEO of Promac Partnership and serves as chairman for Association of National Tourism Organisation Representatives (ANTOR) in Korea. He is also the Korean representative for Tourism Western Australia. Sohn served four years as vice president, East Asia on the Skal Asian Area board. He was also the chairman of the organising committee that hosted the 2012 Skal World Congress in Incheon and Seoul. He has been a Skal member in Seoul since 1994.
United Airlines
United Airlines has appointed James T Olson as senior vice president of corporate communications. Olson will join United Airlines on February 1, 2016 and will report to Michael Bonds, executive vice president of human resources and labour relations. Olson currently serves as vice president – global corporate communications at Starbucks Coffee. Prior to Starbucks, Olson was vice president – corporate communications at US Airways where he led the airline’s internal, external and crisis communication functions, which included managing the response to the 2009 Hudson River emergency water landing of Flight 1549.
Carnival Corporation
Carnival Corporation has appointed Roger Chen as chairman in China. Chen will be based in Shanghai and will lead all government relations and port development, while supporting Carnival’s joint ventures in China. In this new role, Chen will have responsibility for representing all of Carnival Corporation’s brands in China to continue growing the company’s presence and scale in the region. Chen will report directly to Alan Buckelew, chief operations officer for Carnival Corporation. Chen’s experience includes several senior positions where he led strategic efforts in China for multi-national corporations, including General Electric, Microsoft, Volvo Group and Alcatel. Most recently, Chen served as China president for Volvo Group.
Flight Centre Travel Group
Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) has appointed Laura Kern as director of global product for corporate procurement in Northern America. Kern will be responsible for managing and strengthening FCTG’s partnerships with its North American supplier partners, and will lead the development of corporate product offerings as well as delivery and distribution, marketing, promotion, incentivisation and training via FCTG’s corporate sales, business development and account management teams. Kern has knowledge of the business travel industry, having worked in a range of consultant and leadership roles since joining FCTG in 2000.