Singapore Tourism Board
Chang Chee Pey has been appointed new executive director, South Asia, Middle East and Africa of Singapore Tourism Board (STB) with immediate effect. He takes over from Randall Tan, regional director, South Asia, Middle East and Africa and will be based in STB’s Mumbai office. As executive director, Chee Pey’s mandate is to oversee STB’s promotion, marketing and developmental efforts in the key regional markets.
Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel
Dr Girish Baria is the newly appointed spa manager of Club Renaissance at Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel. He comes with an experience of being in the healthcare industry for over 16 years, having proficiency in healthcare, spa, and sports and fitness management. Prior to joining Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel, he was with The Westin, Pune as a spa and sports manager.
Thomas Cook (India)
Thomas Cook (India) has announced the appointment of Abraham Alapatt as head- marketing. Abraham’s strengths are in the areas of marketing, brand strategy formulation, implementation and management; integrated brand and corporate communication; advertising; PR-media relations; market research, customer service and customer-centric marketing from ideation to process engineering.
Kuoni India
Kuoni India has announced the appointment of Vishal Suri as deputy chief operating officer, tour operating, Kuoni India. In this role, Suri will focus on further strengthening the position that tour operating holds across all travel segments and to establish a strong position in the online travel space.
Etihad Airways
Etihad Airways has appointed John Evans as its new general manager for the Philippines. He has more than 35 years of experience in airline operations including senior management roles at Swissair and Gulf Air in the UK and Thailand. He has transferred to the Manila-based position from Cyprus, where he was Etihad Airways’ general manager for the past year.
EgyptAir
Captain Roshdy Zakaria has been appointed as the chairman & CEO of EgyptAir Airlines. Captain Zakaria has spent his full 30-year career at EgyptAir, holding many positions, namely chief pilot examiner and instructor on A300-B4; B767 and B777. He also held the position of deputy VP flight operations.
Air Canada
Air Canada has appointed Michael Friisdahl as president and chief executive officer to lead its new leisure group which will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Canada. The new integrated leisure group will combine the activities of its tour operator business, Air Canada Vacations, with the new low-cost leisure airline it hopes to launch in 2013. Friisdahl will report to Ben Smith, executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Air Canada.
Ministry of Tourism
Parvez Dewan, IAS, has taken over as secretary, ministry of tourism from R H Khwaja, IAS. Dewan was previously secretary, ministry of overseas Indian affairs. He was also chairman and managing director of India Tourism Development Corporation from 2006-2009. He belongs to the 1977-batch IAS of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) cadre.
Khwaja, IAS, has taken over as secretary, ministry of mines.
British Airways
British Airways has announced the formulation of a commercial team for India. Anjali Puri has been appointed as the commercial development manager – South Asia. Puri will now be responsible for all sales related activities for the region.
Nepali Gandhi has been appointed as the corporate sales manager for South Asia, British Airways. She will now be responsible for all sales activities related to the Corporate Channel in the region.
Tarun Minocha has been appointed as British Airways’ trade sales manager for South Asia and will be responsible for development and implementation of trade sales strategy. He will be working closely with commercial and business development.
