Meet The Team
You can even take a glimpse at out team members, all of whom are exceptionally qualified
in their specific disciplines. With their collective experience of over 200 years,
they will be able to guide you through all your Travel Branding
problems and get your organization to reach a new pinnacle of success. You can read
through their biographical sketches and rich industry as well as work experience
and also work with them to get the most apposite advice from our International Travel
Consulting Business at TTC.
 Mike Putman, Founder
Position: Growth Strategy, E-commerce Specialist Number of Years in Travel: 20
Number of Business Owned: 3
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With over 20 years of industry experience, Mike Putman has acquired in-depth knowledge
in nearly every facet of the travel industry. He started his career with a single
travel agency, Putman Travel, which grew to become one of the largest privately
held agencies in the Southeast.
In the late 1990s, Mike uncovered a niche in the marketplace – last minute travel.
The Internet was the ideal forum to sell this near-term inventory, so he founded
11thHour.com, which now offers affordable vacation packages and cruises to destinations
worldwide.
After just a few short years in operation, OneTravel, Inc., a prominent player in
the online travel space, acquired the web site in April 2001. 11thHour.com maintained
its unique branding, yet became integrated as the vacation and cruise arm of its
parent company.
As a result of the merger, Mike took a strategic position as Senior Vice President
of Supplier Relations with OneTravel, initiating and maintaining relationships with
many of the key industry suppliers. In addition, under Mike’s stewardship, the company
created one of the first API-based online cruise booking engines.
In late 2004, Mike once again heard opportunity knocking, but this time in the form
of a consultancy group to take on the increasing demand for a variety of specialized
travel services. Travel Team Consulting was born to meet the needs of companies
of all sizes, whether small businesses or large, multimillion dollar corporations.
Mike realized companies in all spectrums of the travel industry – including online
intermediaries, brick-and-mortar agencies, hotels and resorts, airlines, and more
– often require expertise on-demand. Travel Team Consulting was formed to answer
that call and provide know-how in all facets of the industry.
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 Annette Cavanaugh
Position: Branding, Strategic Marketing, & Consumer Insight Research
Number of Years in Travel: 15
Claim to Fame: Worked on an RCCL repositioning campaign, which won a Gold EFFIE
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As owner of MMI Marketing, Inc., a firm specializing in marketing for the travel
industry, Annette Cavanaugh has proven her skills with a variety of elite clientele.
From Couples Resorts to Travel Guard International, Annette guides her clients on
key initiatives such as brand development, consumer insight research, and strategic
marketing.
Her 15-year tenure in the travel industry has added companies such as Avis Rent-A-Car,
Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, The Florida Keys Visitor’s Bureau,
and many others to her roster.
When serving as the Director of Marketing for Royal Caribbean International, Annette
worked on the Lust for Life advertising campaign, which was awarded a prestigious
Gold EFFIE, considered the global benchmark for effective advertising. Also during
her tenure with the line, Annette helped launch the renowned Voyager Class Vessels.
In addition to holding a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from the University
of Maryland, College Park, Annette has also recently completed a variety of executive
education courses at Harvard University.
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 Jack Westman
Position: Start Ups, Supplier Relations, & Tour Operator/Hotel/Resort Specialist
Number of Years in Travel: 38
Number of Business Owned: 2
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A travel industry veteran of 38 years, Jack Westman currently serves as the President
of Room Results, Inc., a company specializing in Internet revenue management for
the lodging industry. Through relationships with the top online intermediaries,
such as Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz, Jack’s company oversees his clients’ on-site
positioning, marketing, inventory, and pricing. Room Results helps lodging suppliers,
from hotels and resorts to condominiums, villas, and homes, obtain greater exposure,
reach, and ultimately sales, through online channels.
In previous posts, Jack has served not only in the lodging industry, but also for
airlines, tour operators, as well as for online travel web sites.
He began his career working for Delta Airlines, holding various roles of increasing
responsibility throughout his 22-year tenure with the company. While there, Jack
was assigned to lead Delta’s expansion into Cleveland and Northern Ohio and subsequently
went on to manage the sales and marketing efforts when the airline established Dallas
as a hub.
Additionally, Jack successfully created Delta’s International Market Development
department, which housed a total of 23 field marketing representatives who worked
to support the airline’s international interests.
While serving as the Director of National Accounts with Wyndham Hotels and Resorts,
Jack oversaw sales and marketing efforts for seven offshore resorts, including the
acquisition and renovation of the Wyndham Rose Hall Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
The resort became one of the most profitable in the Wyndham brand.
His start up experience includes the likes of South Seas Resort Company, where he
served as Vice President of Sales for the brand’s eight resorts. While there, he
opened and ran the company’s vacation planning center. More over, Jack worked with
Air Jamaica to assist the airline develop its own tour company that came to be known
as Air Jamaica Vacations.
Finally, before starting his own firm, Jack held the post of Vice President of 11thHour.com,
managing the company’s supplier relations and product development. During his term,
Jack took the company’s product offering from 256,000 SKUs in 2001 to over 14 million
by 2004.
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 Gerry Epstein
Position: Airline, Distribution, & Partnership Specialist
Number of Years in Travel: 30
Claim to Fame: Established initial agreements between BA and emerging online intermediaries
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Gerry Epstein is intimately aware of all things airline. Having spent 30 years at
British Airways, Gerry has held a multitude positions – starting from a telephone
sales agent to a manager of online distribution and everything in between.
During her tenure with the airline, Gerry oversaw development of the groundbreaking
codeshare agreement between British Airways and US Airways, including product design,
systems development, and schedule coordination.
As manager of online distribution, while much of the industry still believed the
Internet was only about direct selling, Gerry read the marketplace trends and established
broad marketing agreements with the major online intermediaries. Additionally, Gerry
worked as project manager on the team that developed the industry’s first calendar-based,
real-time availability display for international airfares.
Along with her experience in online distribution, Gerry also has an extensive background
in building strategic relationships as well as business analysis and development.
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 Marc Bolick
Position: Strategic Marketing & Growth
Number of Years in Travel: 5
Claim to Fame: A passion for product development
and marketing
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Marc Bolick founded and operates Dmarc8 International, a company specializing in
marketing and business development services for high growth, technology-based companies.
Prior to Dmarc8, he co-founded MobiQuis, a company providing infotainment services
to the mobile telecoms industry. Marc’s previous experience includes nine years
at General Electric and two years at Nucletron/Delft Instruments in medical devices
marketing and product management. Marc received his MBA from Rotterdam School of
Management and his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering
from Clemson University (USA).
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 Lou Phillips
Position: Multicultural Marketing with an emphasis on African Americans
Number of Years in Travel: 32
Number of Business Owned: 4
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After 27 years of service at American Airlines, Inc, Lou took an early retirement
from his position as Managing Director of Urban and Community Relations (a department
that he established in 1995) to become founder and President of the Multicultural
Tourism Development Alliance (www.mtda.org). A non-profit (501c6) travel industry
organization dedicated to preserving, protecting and promoting the rich history
and culture of African, Latin/Hispanic, Asian and Native Americans. This effort
began with the establishment of Ethnotravel.com (www.ethnotravel.com) in early 2001.
His 32 years of marketing and management experience is now being directed toward
legacy preservation and inclusion of traditional minority segments into America’s
tourism mega-industry. MTDA demonstrated its vision “real time” by raising $1.3
million dollars in donations for the restoration of Princeville, North Carolina
(the first town chartered in America by freed slaves). Through its coordination
of resources from corporations, government officials, professional & social
organizations, churches, entertainers and everyday citizens, MTDA demonstrated how
corporate social activism can have a direct impact on the bottom-line.
In early 2001, Lou developed an interest in the plight of the home of Dr. Carter
G. Woodson and dedicated himself to organizing an effort to restore the home of
this great American. Lou committed the resources of MTDA to the Association for
the Study of African American Life & History (founded by Dr. Woodson in 1915)
and sought to save the home from destruction. It has now been added to the inventory
of the federal government under the auspices of the National Park Service.
This experience led to Lou founding a Northern Virginia branch of Dr. Woodson’s
association (www.cartergwodson.com) with the goal of launching strategies to celebrate
Black History on a daily basis. In 2002, he launched “The Clio Exchange” television
show (www.clioexchange.com) as a tool to affect that celebration and expand public
awareness of Dr. Carter G. Woodson.
Lou has served on the Board of Directors of the Washington YMCA, Washington Urban
League, Big Brothers of the National Capital Area, the Jackie Robinson Foundation,
the Woodholme Foundation and a number of Advisory Boards to include The Association
for the Study of African American Life & History and the Board of Trustees at
Potomac College.
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 Dick Knodt
Position: Business Growth Strategist
Number of Years in Travel: 30+
Claim to Fame: Redefinition of the travel industry with Vacation.com
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Dick Knodt, CTC, president and CEO of Vacation.com, the travel industry’s largest
agency marketing group, recently announced his retirement. During his tenure at
Vacation.com, Knodt gained a reputation as an innovative, decisive executive who
broke new ground in technology, marketing, and travel agent education.
Knodt took over as president and CEO of Vacation.com in 2001 after serving as the
organization’s COO. He melded six agency groups into Vacation.com, creating a leisure
travel powerhouse fueled by technology and marketing tools. With over 6,000 agency
locations throughout North America, the company’s annual sales are estimated at
$17 billion.
During his three decades in the travel industry, Knodt has been a multi-location
travel agency owner, an educator and an executive, and twice served as the top staff
executive running ASTA. Knodt continues to be, an outstanding influence – both to
agents just starting out and to industry veterans. His professional activities have
advanced the status of travel agents. Through his commitment to fostering agent
education, he has given his personal time to teach others and launched a travel
school, now a prototype for a network of schools across the country.
Knodt earned his CTC in 1978 and served as a member of the Institute of Certified
Travel Agents (ICTA) Board of Trustees as its Vice Chairman. He has also served
as a member of the Board of Directors of the Travel Industry Association (TIA),
chaired the Tourism Works for America Council, and sat on the advisory board for
the Academy of Travel and Tourism. He presently serves on the Advisory Boards for
Rail Europe, Classic Custom Vacations, Globus/Cosmos Tours, the Canadian Travel
Commission and Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
As a consultant, Knodt shares his extensive experience in corporate travel management,
franchise system development and leisure marketing programs with many of the country’s
leading travel organizations and companies.
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 John Melchior
Position: International Travel Sales Specialist
Number of Years in Travel: 26
Claim to Fame: International travel sales, marketing and negotiation
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John Melchior is an experienced senior executive with vast international experience
in the travel industry. His experience includes senior positions in general management,
sales and marketing, including launching new companies and products, driving change,
and the supervision and motivation of large staffs. Melchior is especially well
known in the hotel industry thanks to his development of one of the world’s most
renowned preferred hotel programs for RADIUS.
Until June 2005, John served for 14 years as executive vice president for RADIUS
– The Global Travel Company (previously known as Woodside Travel Trust). In that
capacity, Melchior developed and supported an international network of travel agencies
spanning 80+ countries. His responsibilities included development of multinational
sales, international agency recruitment, product and network marketing and public
relations efforts. He also negotiated preferred relationships with travel related
suppliers on behalf of member agencies, negotiating pricing and sales both to travel
agencies and corporate buyers. He frequently speaks internationally on industry
issues and served on numerous hotel companies’ advisory boards.
Born and educated in Denmark, Melchior began his career in travel with his training
at the Danish Travelcenter, before moving into the corporate travel industry with
Maersk Travel in 1979. In 1981, with the opening of Maersk’s first international
agency, Melchior was appointed managing director where he served until 1988. During
this period, he launched Scanscape Holidays which became the leading independent
tour operator to Scandinavia.
Melchior helped to establish Maersk Travel operations in Hong Kong and Singapore,
as well as the Maersk entry into the scheduled air market in the United
Kingdom. When Maersk bought into Birmingham European Airways in 1988, Melchoir was
named director, sales and marketing. There he helped improve the image of the airline
by transitioning from turboprops to jets resulting in an increase in the passenger
base from 50,000 to 300,000.
Since his departure from RADIUS in 2005, Melchior’s passion is consulting travel
management companies, hotel chains, distributors and corporate buyers of travel
internationally.
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 Howard
Weiss
Howard Weiss began his travel career selling ski trips to his classmates at Forest
Hills High School in New York at the age of 16. "Why pay to ski when if I get
10 friends together I can go for free?" This was Howard’s introduction
to the world of travel. At the age of 17 he brought friends to Miami Beach for Easter
Vacation. After graduation from High School, Howard was hired at a major Travel
Agency in New York. While carrying a full course load at Queens College, Howard
managed a 40 hour work week and spent weekends in Miami, Los Angeles and Puerto
Rico. After honing his sales skills for his employer and earning both Bachelors
and Masters degrees, Howard left to start his own travel agency, the first of many
in New York and Los Angeles.
In 1982, Howard started another career in the mailroom of a major publishing company.
One day while photocopying a manuscript for a magazine editor, Howard corrected
the grammar and spelling and left it on the editor’s desk. The editor was
surprised and pleased and when the editor of TEEN BEAT Magazine quit unexpectedly
a few days later, Howard was thrown into the job and told to sink or swim. He completed
the next issue in just 2 weeks and it went on to sell more than the previous issues.
Unfortunately the company went bankrupt and Howard was out of a job. This period
of unemployment lasted 48 hours. Howard was hired by the competition and given 30
days to create a new teen magazine. Titled TEEN MACHINE, the premiere issue went
on to outsell the company’s other leading magazine. After a year Howard was
moved to Los Angeles to open the west coast office of the company. After six months
he resigned and started the first of many of his own teen magazines TEEN SET.
In 1988 the publishing industry was suffering from poor sales. Howard sold his magazines
and took a vacation to Australia. Since it rained for 10 straight days, one afternoon
he picked up a copy of an Australian fan magazine TV HITS and called the publisher
to compare notes. They had coffee and a chat and by the time Howard’s plane
landed back in Los Angeles he was hired to do a teen gossip column for TV HITS Australia.
Within one year, Howard was accredited by the MPAA and was doing monthly columns
in the UK, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Holland and the Czech Republic.
These assignments led to live by satellite TV segments on SHOWBIZ UK for the BBC
SKY Broadcasting network in the UK and live by phone segments on several Australian
radio shows. When in London or Sydney Howard was a frequent live guest on these
shows.
In 1985 Howard was given a co-starring role in the independent horror film EVIL
LAUGH which went on to become a cult classic. The DVD is still on sale today. Howard’s
portrayal of a bumbling real estate agent had audiences laughing non stop from his
opening scene to his death at the hands of the sadistic killer.
While covering major events including the Academy Awards, Howard made many entertainment
contacts and interviewed just about every major teen and young TV, film and music
star. His personal relationships with these celebrities found Howard helping with
travel advice. Since he had never completely given up his travel agency, he began
an entertainment division and soon was handling full film productions and traveling
with his clients to film sets all over the world.
In the late 1990s, the internet took away Howard’s assignments because the
foreign press found it easier and cheaper to get immediate stories online. This
presented another opportunity for Howard to go back to full time travel work with
his ever growing list of celebrity clients.
In 2001, Howard moved to Boca Raton Florida where he operates his successful travel
agency with a 90% sports and entertainment client base.
In 2006 Howard was hired by BUSINESS TRAVEL USA Magazine as the consulting editor.
The monthly magazine features Howard’s regular "fare deals" column
as well as reviews of airlines, hotels and cruise ships.
Howard has logged more than 3 million air miles circling the globe by air, sea and
land and has visited more than 100 countries on 6 continents. He holds top tier
membership in many of the airline frequent flier and hotel and cruise line frequent
traveler programs. When Queen Mary 2 made its maiden transatlantic crossing from
New York to England in 2004 Howard was on board. There is not a single aircraft
flying today that Howard hasn’t personally flown. Prior to the end of the
supersonic Concorde era, Howard had flown it 14 times.
Many of Howard’s clients call him "The best kept secret in the travel
industry" due to his expertise in the travel and airline industries. From all
of his personal travels, Howard knows many of the secrets of the airline industry
that they would prefer never to be made public. Howard still manages to log over
100,000 miles a year on land, sea and air and is at home in Europe as much as in
the US. Anyone who invites Howard to dinner or a party can count on being mesmerized
by his stories.
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