Gail Grimmett has announced plans to leave Travel Leaders Group later in May. Grimmett has served as president of Travel Leaders Group’s luxury travel brands, Protravel International and Tzell Travel Group, for the past two years.
With Grimmett’s departure, Becky Powell will continue to lead Protravel, now serving as president, Travel Leaders said. Cindy Schlansky and Monty Swaney will continue their senior leadership roles at Tzell Travel Group, now serving as co-presidents. All three leaders will take on additional responsibilities for strategic direction of the brands, working with Travel Leaders Group CEO Ninan Chacko.
During her time at Travel Leaders Group, Grimmett integrated the organization’s luxury acquisitions, expanded its presence in the UK and strengthened its executive team, said Chacko in a written statement. A long-time airline industry executive with Delta, she joined Travel Leaders Group in May 2016.
We profiled Grimmett in our October 2016 cover story: A native of Deerfiled, IL, before working at Delta, Grimmett served as a senior regulatory economist for the Department of Labor (OSHA). Delta was her first private sector role, where she was a revenue management strategy analyst before taking over investor relations shortly after 9/11. She also ran revenue management just before the merger with Northwest, and eventually moved to New York to create the airline’s business unit there.
While leading Travel Leaders Group’s luxury brands, Grimmett also oversaw historical highs in the recruitment of independent contractors to the Tzell and Protravel brands and expanded the number of Tzell Travel branches, Travel Leaders said. She also worked to create synergies between the brands, which include Protravel, Tzell, Andrew Harper Travel, R. Crusoe, Colletts Travel and All Star Travel Group. She also oversaw the growth of Travel Leaders UK and introduced new marketing initiatives, including Protravel’s sponsorship of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival and the New York Wine & Food Festival.
Powell joined Travel Leaders Group as senior vice president at Andrew Harper Travel and became general manager and COO of Protravel in January of this year. Schlansky has served in various leadership roles at Tzell since 2000, overseeing branch acquisitions, projects, process and change management, while Swaney, who joined Tzell in 2009, handles relationship management, leads independent contractor support, oversees sales efforts and coordinates UK operations.
This story originally appeared on www.travelagentcentral.com.
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