Steven Freudmann, Majestic
Travel
ITT Chairman
Steven opened Majestic Travel in Wrexham in 1967 and forty years on, Majestic is one of Wales' oldest independent travel agencies. Steven has been a director of ABTA for over fifteen years and chairs three of its most important Committees: Membership, Code of Conduct, and Government Affairs. He was President of ABTA from 1997 until 2000. He is Chairman of Advantage Travel Centres, a director of the Triton Travel Group and the Tourism Training Forum for Wales and Chairman of Seligo. Steven is also a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA).
Lawrence Assock, Destination Care
Lawrence is currently Managing Director of in-resort service specialist Destination Care. After a spell in the Civil Service, he was lured into the travel industry where he has been for over 25 years. The majority of his career has been in tour operating as well as training and coaching the retail sector. He has worked for Cosmos, Global, ILG, Sunworld, Inspiration, Thomson and Mark Warner mainly in sales, yield and commercial/marketing roles. Lawrence also created his own consultancy business in 2000 coaching and developing sales skills and techniques for retail and call centre staff.
Marc Bennett, Thomas Cook Group
Marc joined Thomas Cook from Disney four years ago. He leads the key commercial negotiations between internal/external customers and business partners. Marc’s current remit includes the Sales Team, looking after Thomas Cook’s travel agency partners, the Buying Team, liaising with Suppliers to provide stock for the Thomas Cook Retail channels, Distribution Systems, providing a trade information website for travel agency partners and helping to develop the technology to get stock to market plus a Sales Support team providing first class support to the trade. Marc’s previous roles have included working as a branch manager for Thomas Cook, Product Manager at P & O but more recently, Head of Disney Tour Operations at Disneyland Paris.
Chairman — ITT Regional Committee
Paul has been in the travel industry for over 20 years and started his career as a travel agent in Sheffield. He has spent most of his time working for some of the country’s best known specialist tour operators, including Yugotours, Balkan Holidays and more recently Sunquest Holidays. Following Sunquest's acquisition by First Choice, he spent a period integrating the company into the First Choice family and after successfully completing that role he joined Jewel in the Crown Holidays as Sales Director in 2001. Paul was General Manager of the Mid Consort Elite Travel Group before his current role as a Director at resorthoppa.com. He also sits on ABTA's Membership Committee and Code of Conduct Committee.
Jane Dunham, Rail Europe
Having worked in the travel industry for 18 years, Jane has a vast knowledge of the inside workings and issues facing our dynamic sector. During her career, she has worked for high profile companies such as Tui, Eurotunnel, Cosmos and First Choice Holidays. Now at Rail Europe, she is working to increase awareness of high-speed European rail, which promotes efficient environmentally sustainable travel. Jane has a real passion for ITT and as a board member feels it is a great pleasure to be able to give something back to the industry
Mike Greenacre, The Co-operative Travel Group
Mike is Managing Director of The Co-operative Travel Group, which he has been involved with since he joined the travel industry in 1987. He has overseen an incredible growth in his business during the past 21 years, taking it from a small local 12 shop business to the largest national multi channel travel distribution company that it is today with over 400 shops nationwide, over 600 homeworkers, is the fastest growing Independent Consortia, and has a top 10 place for its business travel division and a number of call centres. Mike also has responsibility for CTTG, the national buying group that handles the supplier negotiations for the whole of the Co-operative travel sector with sales in excess of £1.3bn. Mike is a Fellow of the Institute, an ABTA Main Board Director and a member of the IoD. He is passionate about training and education, believing that ITT and ABTA can play a key role in developing future talent for the industry as a whole.
Wendy Hartley, World Travel Market, Reed Travel Exhibitions
Wendy started her career in travel 16 years ago with National Car Rental,
where she was initially responsible for the national account team within
the UK, focusing on the corporate travellers within the major blue chip
organisations. She became Senior International Account Director for EMEA,
where she developed and managed business across the regions. She joined
Stena Line in 2001 as Head of Sales GB, responsible for sales and marketing
ex GB for the travel trade. Her role was broadened to include management
of the Stena Line Call Centre and sales ex Ireland. Following her departure from Stena Line in April 2005 she has worked on a number of projects including six months at The Network.
Following a period as an independant consultant, including a six month contract with The Network, Wendy joined World Travel market as Head of Sales.
Neil's career in the industry has been interesting and varied, spanning many sectors including retail, shipping, airlines and tour operating. Commencing in retail travel with Premier Travel in Cambridge, he then spent some time working in FMCG before returning to travel with ILG. His 24 year long career within the travel industry has also seen him working for British Airways, Airtours, Hoverspeed, Keycamp and Cosmos before becoming MD of The Independent Holiday Company in 1997 and moving to Holiday Extras as UK Head of Sales in 2000. Following six and a half years at Holiday Extras, Neil became Managing Director of Holiday Taxis in 2006, a position he held for a year.
Simon Johnson, P&O Ferries
Simon’s career to date has covered sales, marketing and operational roles inside and outside the shipping and travel industry. He’s currently Director of P&O Ferries’ tourist business with a responsibility for around 500 staff attracting £140m turnover a year from 8.5m customers. He was directly involved in a Fundamental Business Review which delivered a turn-round of annual business earnings by £25m. More recently he’s been responsible for the launch of P&O’s low-cost pricing model through re-engineering the online tourist proposition and communicated through a brand new marketing campaign. He’s currently working on a project to build two of the largest ships ever built for the Dover straits with a view to launching them in time for the Olympics in 2010 and 2011. In 2006 he was elected to the Passenger Shipping Association Board and is currently the Chair of the ferry section; he will become the President of this Association in 2012.
Sue started her career as a graduate trainee with Lunn Poly. In 1988, she moved to Pickford’s Travel (now Carlson Wagonlit Travel) and within a year was promoted to Group Personnel and Training Manager. She is now Human Resources Director with responsibility for personnel, training, payroll and administration issues in the UK.
Bill Maxwell
Bill has 30 years experience in the travel industry specialising in contracting
and business relationships. He started his career with the National Bus
Company and worked with Wallace Arnold Group as Trade Relations Director.
He has a long history of liaising with hoteliers and various other suppliers
in the United Kingdom and Europe. Bill sits on the ABTA Code of Conduct
Committee, as well as ABTA's Members Committee and UK Tourism Advisory
Committee.
Lynn Narraway, Carnival Cruise Lines
Lynn has worked in most sectors of the travel industry,including retail, tour operating, airlines and crusing. She’s responsible for running all aspects of the SeaVacations business, as well as serving as Director of Sales & Marketing (UK & Ireland) for two Carnival Corporation brands - Carnival Cruise Lines and Holland America Line and working closely with senior director-level counterparts in Miami and Seattle. Lynn and her management team supervise a busy sales & marketing department, with sales staff also based in the North of England; as well as 30-strong call centre that handles fly/cruise reservations, administration and operations for all three brands. As well as being recently voted onto the Institute of Travel and Tourism Committee, Lynn has been on the Passenger Shipping Association PR committee since its inception and is now proud to be Chair of this Committee. She also works closely with the seven other Carnival-owned brands on joint sales and marketing initiatives, both to the travel trade and consumers.
Martin Roberts, PropertyQC
Claire Steiner, Consultant
Chairman — ITT Education and Training Committee
Claire has been working in HR and Training since 1991 - she joined the travel industry in 1997 as Head of HR for the Travelbag Group. She is a strong advocate of education and development, both at a personal and organisational level. Claire is a member of the ABTA Education and Skills Group and the ABTA Gold Training Award Committee. She is also Project Manager for the Accredited Travel Professional Scheme and chairs the Technical Group. Since 2004 she has worked independently as a consultant working for a number of different travel and tourism companies, both in the UK and internationally.
Michael Stevens, Chase Travel International
With over 25 years experience in the industry, with postings in the UK and USA, Michael has worked for many well known companies such as Page & Moy, Bowen Travel and, until recently, held the position of Director of Global Leisure Sales with Accor. Michael has recently joined Chase Travel International as a Director with the responsibility of managing the company’s market share with the UK travel trade.
Kristina Wallen, HARP Wallen Executive Recruitment
Kristina has more than 20 years experience in executive recruitment for the travel, leisure and tourism sectors. In 1995 she joined the board of HARP Design and Advertising where she set up their recruitment division. In July 2000 she led a management buy-out and set up HARP Wallen as a specialist boutique independent executive recruitment business. Kristina is passionate about ensuring the travel industry does all it can to attract and retain the best suited and skilled personnel. She is an active member of the ITT, and is also founder of the Shine Awards which recognises the achievements of women in the travel, leisure and hospitality sectors. She was recently appointed a Trustee for the Family Holiday Association.
