Travel Leaders Group
announced a new division on Monday — the Elite Travel Division, comprised of
Protravel International and Tzell Travel Group — which will be headed by Gail Grimmett, a longtime Delta Airlines executive.
Under the new division,
Protravel and Tzell will remain distinct businesses. In total, “the new Elite Travel
Division represents nearly $4 billion in annual sales volume, making it the
unparalleled seller of luxury travel among travel agencies,” according to a
statement from Travel Leaders Group.
Gail Grimmett
Grimmett will become the
president of the division effective May 16, where she will head Protravel and
Tzell’s senior leadership teams and report to Travel Leaders Group CEO Ninan
Chacko.
To support Grimmett,
Travel Leaders Group said Barry Liben, most recently CEO of Tzell, will become
the chairman of Protravel and Tzell.
“Ultimately, our
strategy is to further strengthen the already enviable position our
award-winning travel agents from both Protravel and Tzell maintain within the
industry, whether they are focused on luxury leisure, corporate or entertainment,”
Chacko said in a statement.
Liben said the new
division “will yield tremendous results for all our agents within Protravel and
Tzell.”
Grimmett comes to the
Elite Travel Division after spending 19 years in executive roles at Delta, most
recently as the senior vice president of the New York region, a position she held
since November 2008.
In that position, she
was responsible for the airline’s domestic and international performance in New
York, and was asked to serve on both the New York State Tourism Board and the
New York City Regional Economic Development Council. She also serves on a
variety of other boards, and was named one of Crain’s Business top 50 Most
Powerful Women in New York.
Grimmett previously held
other executive roles at Delta, including senior vice president of pricing and
yield management, managing director of investor relations, and director of
financial planning and analysis. Her
career started at the U.S. Department of Labor as a senior regulatory
economist.