New roles for the industry’s movers and shakers
Phocuswright
Phocuswright recently announced the appointment of Simon Lehmann as the company’s president. Lehmann brings to Phocuswright 25 years of strategic and operating experience, expertise in travel and technology, and a passion for moving the industry forward. As president, he will build on the strength of Phocuswright’s premier research and events to foster growth and expand the company’s global reach. Lehmann most recently served as CEO of Biketec AG and Interhome AG. He has also held executive roles at Swissport and Hotelplan Group. He was a board member of Inntopia, HomeAway and Travel ch.
Contiki
Contiki has recently appointed Jonathan Phua as the sales manager for Contiki Asia. In his new role, Phua will support Contiki’s Asia team based in Singapore headed by director of Sales and Marketing, Sam Morrah, to expand sales and market growth for the region. He has a strong experience in brand management that will help Contiki to expand its footprint in the region and help the partners to promote the unique itineraries. Contiki has added several new itineraries, which offer savvy young travellers the opportunity to see Europe in an entirely new way.
Sabre Travel Network
Alfred de Cárdenas has been appointed as chief commercial officer of Sabre Travel Network. With more than 28 years of commercial strategy, operations and executive management experience, De Cárdenas will be responsible for leading global sales, sales operations and business development initiatives. De Cárdenas gained expertise in international commercial and service operations working for the telecommunications firm Nortel Networks, as senior vice-president of global operations with expat assignments in Israel, Brazil and Colombia.
Boeing
Boeing has appointed Ihssane Mounir as vice president of sales and marketing, commercial airplanes. Mounir has held several leadership positions within Boeing’s sales organisation, mostly recently as vice president of sales for Northeast Asia. He previously served as vice president of marketing, sales strategy and operations, responsible for developing and implementing cross-regional strategies for commercial airplanes. Prior to that assignment, he was the vice president of sales for Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean. He also served in sales leadership roles in Europe, Central Asia and Africa.
Munich Airport
Munich Airport has appointed Andrea Gebbeken as managing director. Originally from Germany, Gebbeken has extensive experience in aviation and logistics, including the post of sole managing director of Tirana Airport in Albania. Gebbeken joins Munich Airport after serving as the head of north German operations for DB Station and Service AG, the services arm of the German railways. In that role, Gebbeken was responsible for more than 700 employees and the safe and profitable operation of 560 train stations.
Pandaw River Cruises
Pandaw, an operator of luxury small ship river cruises on the Mekong River has made new appointments. Marco Rosa, Pandaw’s new vice president sales and marketing, has held senior positions in the high-end experiential travel industry stretching back over 20 years. Sven Zika, sales and marketing manager, started with Pandaw in Cambodia in early 2013 and relocated to the UK in 2014. After two years in London he rejoined the team back in Phnom Penh in October 2016. Steven Dobbins has been appointed as sales manager for North America and Central Europe.
Volga-Dnepr
Volga-Dnepr has promoted Robert van de Weg to senior vice president of sales and marketing. In his new role, Robert assumes commercial responsibility for both the group’s scheduled cargo operations and charter businesses, namely AirBridgeCargo Airlines, Volga-Dnepr Airlines and Atran Airlines. The three airlines operate a combined fleet of 16 Boeing 747, 12 An-124-100, five IL-76TD-90VD and three 737-400 freighters. He joined AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) in May 2014 as a senior vice president of marketing and sales and has played a significant role in its subsequent year-on-year growth in Europe, Russia, North America and Asia Pacific.
Air Asia
Guy Sebastian, an Australian musician, has become AirAsia’s ambassador for Australia. Sebastian was born in Malaysia before arriving in Australia at the age of six. Over the course of his career, he has received 25 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) nominations including Single of the Year, Highest Selling Album, Best Male Artist and Best Pop Artist. Sebastian will promote AirAsia’s brand, help create some engaging content as well as showcase some of his favourite Asian destinations.
Silversea Cruises
Silversea Cruises has appointed Roberto Martinoli as chief executive officer. Martinoli, board member of Silversea since 2013, becomes CEO after an extensive, and successful career in the cruise and shipping industry. Based in the company’s headquarters in Monaco, Martinol will report directly to Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio, executive chairman of Silversea Cruises.
W Goa
TJ Joulak has been recently appointed as the general manager for W Goa, located on Vagator beach in Goa. In his new role, Joulak will be in charge of overseeing W Goa’s strategy and daily operations. Joulak has worked with the W Hotels across the world since 2002 and will be now leading the team in Goa. He began his journey with Starwood in 2002 after opening the Iberostar, in Hammamet in Tunisia. Since then, he has worked with a few Starwood hotels, by opening four hotels over the past 15 years, namely Sheraton Hotel & Towers Tunis, W Doha in Qatar, W Istanbul in Turkey, and W Bali in Indonesia, then recently running the W Taipei since 2014.
AccorHotels
Greg Doman, Francois Baudin and Laure Morvan have been respectively appointed as senior vice president, development, North and Central America, Luxury Hotels Americas & Residential; SVP, development, Luxury Hotels Europe Middle East and Africa; and vice president, development, Luxury Hotels, Asia Pacific.In their new roles, they will report to Gaurav Bhushan, AccorHotels’ global chief development officer.
These appointments aim to align the development team to the new global organisation, following the acquisition of FRHI and the creation of the luxury division headed by Chris Cahill.