Global Travel Announces COO and Call Center Director
GTI Further Expands Professional Team
Orlando, FL, April 4, 2006. Global Travel International (GTI), industry leaders and pioneers of the home-based travel agent distribution model in the US, announces the appointment of its new Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Diane Steenman and the new Director of Call Center Operations, Ms. Diane Gates.
Diane Steenman brings to GTI a wealth of industry expertise, with over 30 years experience in optimizing performance and achieving measurable bottom line results through outstanding customer experiences. Ms. Steenman was COO of Lowestfare.com, managing over 2000 employees and held the position of Vice President, Central Reservations for Universal Studios Orlando, where she successfully ran nine lines of business with responsibility for development and installation of hotels/restaurant reservations sales systems as well as theme park travel sales and fulfillment. Ms. Steenman was also Vice President for timeshare exchange company, Resort Condominium International, which serviced three million members.
Ms. Steenman is a University of California, Berkeley graduate and has also attended the Wharton School of Management and the Carlson School of Management.
According to Ms. Steenman, her decision to join GTI was based on "GTI's professionalism and leadership position in the home based travel agent market. It is a model Host agency with an outstanding platform and a commitment to ongoing development, education and agent training."
Diane Gates is a travel call center expert with over 20 years of cumulative industry experience. During her ten year tenure at Universal Studios, as the Director of Call Center Operations, Ms. Gates oversaw nine lines of business including hotel reservations, ticket sales, tour operations and groups. As the Manager of Tour Services at Premiere Cruises for eight years, she was responsible for a variety of tourism services including air, car rental, hotel accommodation, transfers, ticketing, group bookings and embarkation staff. Ms. Gates also worked with Thomas Cook Vacations, establishing the Southern Living Travel brand.
Ms. Gates holds an Associates Degree in Science from Waukesha County Institute and is a CTA (Certified Travel Advisor).
Diane and Diane are excited about their new roles at GTI and are looking forward to helping position the company for scalable growth. They are committed to creating outstanding customer experiences, enhancing services to GTI's army of home based agents and growing agent productivity.
Michael Gross, GTI President and CEO commented "We are extremely pleased to welcome Diane and Diane to our GTI team of skilled and dedicated travel professionals. We look forward to continuing to build our Host agency team and recruiting the most qualified industry professionals to further our leadership position within the US travel industry."
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