They are CEOs and senior vice presidents; marketing managers and ministers of tourism; agency owners and airline executives. They range in age from 24 to 39, and the decisions they make will shape the future of the industry. They are Travel Weekly's Forty Under Forty -- the leaders who represent the "next generation" of travel.
Who: Christine Arnholt
Age: 39
Title: Vice president marketing services
Firm: Carnival Cruise Lines
Have you seen those "So much fun, so many places" TV ads for Carnival Cruise Lines? Or the fun-loving people on the covers of Carnival's materials? Or the fun blue-and-red colors on your mailers? That's all Christine Arnholt's responsibility.
Arnholt was Carnival's first advertising manager. Now, she's responsible for all aspects of the line's advertising and promotions as well as the Carnival Vacation Stores and creative services.
She's particularly proud of her influence on Carnival's "fun" brand marketing: "I always felt very strongly about showing people having fun."
Who: Erik Blachford
Age: 36
Title: President, North America
Firm: Expedia
At the end of March, Erik Blachford -- who has been with Expedia since the company's launch in 1996 -- will assume the role of president and CEO after Rich Barton steps down.
After years of bleeding red ink, Expedia turned a $66 million profit in 2002, fueled by the success of its online merchant hotel business -- a model that other companies in the industry have begun to copy.
Already the top player in online leisure travel, Expedia is now focusing on the corporate market, offering a lightly managed booking solution for small companies.
"Our short-term initiatives are modest, and we'll go after small and medium-size businesses," he said.
Who: Ted Botimer
Age: 37
Title: Senior vice president of planning
Firm: Cendant Car Rental
In corporate-speak, Ted Botimer is responsible for pricing, yield management, revenue analysis and operations research for the company's Avis and Budget brands.
In plain English, he decides what customers pay for their Avis and Budget rentals.
Botimer said his job "provides a window" to managing profits and helps determine "the core strategies and future directions" of travel giant Cendant Corp.'s rental car division.
Over the next several months, Botimer said his group will implement the yield management system originally developed by Avis at Budget.
Who: Lynda Burruss
Age: 37
Title: Manager
Firm: PNR Travel
An up-and-comer in her southern California ASTA chapter, agency manager Lynda Burruss dreamed of working in travel from childhood -- and now is striving to attract young people to the industry.
"I'd actually envisioned myself as a flight attendant. I loved the idea I could make someone's trip magical."
Burruss joined PNR Travel in Los Angles seven years ago.
Secretary of her ASTA chapter for two years and recently elected its vice president, she also serves on ASTA's Young Professional Society Committee and chaired her chapter's program committee.
She's used each platform to promote agency careers to youth; for example, when planning chapter meetings, she opted for offbeat events, such as a cruise night aboard the Queen Mary.
Who: Marc Casto
Age: 28
Title: Vice president and co-owner
Firm: Casto Travel
Marc Casto co-owns Casto Travel in Santa Clara, Calif., with his mother, Maryles Casto. He said he enjoys being part of a family-owned business -- even though conversation at the holiday dinner table never seems to drift far from the travel business. Casto's had an active role in the company for the past three years, but his indoctrination occurred way before that.
"My day care was the ticketing room," he said. "I worked here many summers."
Before travel, Casto studied accounting in order to familiarize himself with financial issues that companies face. But there was no chance of becoming an accountant.
"Travel is exciting and full of change," Casto said. "Doing people's taxes is not as fun."
Who: Evan Chan
Age: 31
Title: Director of the China and Asia division
Firm: Ritz Tours
Born in Taiwan, Evan Chan came to the U.S. with his parents when he was 4 years old. After graduating from UCLA with a degree in economics and business, he took a job as controller with Ritz Tours in 1998. Soon, Chan took on the responsibility of building a new division for tours to Asia for English-speaking U.S. clients. In four years Chan built the program into one of the largest-volume operators to the region from the U.S.
This year, Ritz expanded into Japan, and Chan still plans to bring the product to Indochina but knows slow and steady wins the race.
"As an economics student I did a lot of studies on companies that expanded too quickly."
Who: Martin Charlwood
Age: 35
Title: President and chief operating officer
Firm: Uniglobe Travel
Martin Charlwood is no stranger to travel.
Sure, having a father (U. Gary Charlwood) who founded a worldwide franchise company with 900 travel agency locations in 20 countries doesn't hurt.
But Charlwood, as president and chief operating officer of Uniglobe, spends more than 250 days a year on the road -- and that's a lot of time for some real "on the job" training meeting with agency owners and staff, suppliers and strategic partners.
At 35, Charlwood already has 13 years of experience in the travel agency business.
He has owned and operated a corporate agency, run the marketing and franchise sales divisions and coordinated the Uniglobe-branded help line services company that provides 24-hour emergency assistance to travelers.
Who: Trip Davis
Age: 36
Title: President and CEO
Firm: TRX
Trip Davis has led TRX, a company that provides transaction-processing and fulfillment services, since 2000.
Davis said one in six transactions made on the Internet are processed by TRX.
A sailing enthusiast, Davis said he became interested in the travel industry in the early 1990s, when he helped produce America's Cup telecasts on ESPN. Soon after, he was employed by Landmark Communications, for which he helped develop Internet strategies for the Weather Channel and the Travel Channel.
Prior to joining TRX, Davis launched his own company, Green Room Productions, which developed Web sites for travel companies.
He subsequently sold that company to Atlanta-based technology company iXL.
Who: Mark Dunkerley
Age: 39
Title: President and chief operating officer
Firm: Hawaiian Airlines
A licensed commercial pilot who has held airline executive positions for 17 years, Mark Dunkerley is no stranger to challenges.
He worked for British Airways before serving as president and chief operating officer at the Dallas-based airport ground services provider Worldwide Flight Services.
Now, as the head of Hawaiian Airlines at a very difficult time, Dunkerley views the challenge as an opportunity to do business more efficiently. He said his main goal is to work "cooperatively with all of our stakeholders to adjust the business model so that we are in better shape when economic conditions improve," he said.
Who: Mark Espat
Age: 33
Title: Minister of tourism
Firm: Belize Tourist Board
Mark Espat is the youngest minister of tourism within the Caribbean, but his age belies his wide experience in hospitality management, politics and tourism development.
He's managed a political campaign; served as sales manager, marketing director and general manager of a conference resort in Belize City; was vice president of the Belize National Sports Council; represented Belize on the board of directors of the Caribbean Hotel Association; and was elected to the House of Representatives of Belize in 1998.
Espat's tourism vision closely matches his passion for celebrating his country's cultural and natural diversities.
"I want to raise the profile and visibility of Belize in the U.S. market," he said. "Our mix of ecotourism, adventure tourism, cultural tourism and Mayan temples has allowed Belize to continue to grow."
Who: Bobbie Heiser
Age: 37
Title: Executive vice president
Firm: Vacation.com
Bobbie Heiser came to consortia work in 1996 as vice president at Cruiselink Plus, one of the trade groups that eventually was rolled into Vacation.com. For a brief spell after school, he sold mobile telephones -- before their time -- then worked with Norwegian Cruise Line for more than eight years, rising to the post of director of national accounts. Heiser said he has three- and five-year plans for himself to ensure his career moves forward: "I don't want to sit still. I'm too young."
He said he is committed to the industry and believes in the future of leisure agents and believes that he "has a lot to offer to agents and suppliers."
Who: Chris Horne
Age: 32
Title: CEO
Firm: Horne Travel Consulting
Chris Horne started law school and founded his Canton, Mich.-based agency in the same year, 1996. The law lost. He grew his agency to a profitable $18 million operation by last year, nearly all of its business corporate. He is aggressive about fees (10% on air tickets) and aims to run an agency where not only he and his wife make the business their real career, but where his employees do the same.
He aims to maintain growth while diversifying with more leisure sales, but his goal is about $50 million in gross sales. After that, he worries, the agency would lose the personal touch. "We don't want to lose that. That's our niche."
Who: Danny Hughes
Age: 38
Title: Vice president of operations
Firm: Hilton Caribbean
With 20 years of Hilton experience already under his belt, Danny Hughes knows the hotel business from back office to front desk. Hughes' current duties include Hilton Caribbean's revenues, sales, marketing, operating standards and the management of its eight hotels in Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Tobago and Margarita Island.
Hughes, who views the travel agent "as a vital partner to our long-term success," said his goals are "to position Hilton Caribbean as the first choice for both business and leisure travelers and to carve a niche in the all-inclusive market that we recently entered with the addition of the Coral by Hilton brand."
Who: Sam Katz
Age: 37
Title: Chairman and CEO of travel distribution and chief strategic officer
Firm: Cendant
As CEO of travel distribution, Sam Katz has wide-ranging responsibilities at Cendant that include overseeing Galileo, CheapTickets, Trip.com, Lodging.com and Highwire.
"It's an exciting set of challenges, and I'm fortunate to have great people to work with," Katz said. "We feel really excited that we're putting strategies in place that are transforming the old GDS model."
Katz said his main focus at the moment is on increasing Cendant's market share in leisure and corporate travel bookings and increasing nonair transactions.
Who: Michael Kelly Jr.
Age: 24
Title: President
Firm: Avalon Resorts
Michael Kelly Jr. credits his Indiana roots with shaping his work ethic. His dad was an
entrepreneur, and the family moved often when new business ventures arose. He returned to South Bend, Ind., where he "received the best training for business by growing up so involved in all the family enterprises," he said. In fact, in 1997, Kelly landed a job in the hospitality industry in Cancun, Mexico with Avalon Resorts, which was founded by his father. He helped the company grow from one small property to six inclusive resorts in Mexico and Panama.
"The thing that drives me every day is the legacy that my father and I have built -- the Avalon Resorts family," Kelly said.
Who: Scott Kirby
Age: 35
Title: Executive vice president of sales and marketing
Firm: America West
Scott Kirby was named executive vice president of sales and marketing on an inauspicious date: Sept. 10, 2001.
The airline shifted to "survival mode," and its focus shifted to obtaining a
federal loan guarantee.
America West made a big splash when it reduced its fare categories to seven, ditched Saturday-stay requirements and slashed walk-up fares by 50% to 70%. With the new model apparently a success, and America West having obtained its loan guarantee, Kirby said he and the airline simply want to keep expanding its business- and consumer-friendly reputation.
He's also focusing on reducing the airline's alliance on the GDSs -- but not until America West has a "viable alternative" for agents to book directly with the carrier, he said.
Who: Bill La Macchia Jr.
Age: 36
Title: Executive vice president and chief operating officer
Firm: The Mark Travel Corp.
"It all began when I was 10 years old," said Bill La Macchia Jr., "hanging out with my dad at Travel Power, when it was still a travel agency, my sister and I going in weekends, stuffing brochures, doing odds and ends."
As a freshman studying marketing at Marquette University, La Macchia worked as a sales rep calling on agencies. As a junior and senior, he sold spring-break vacations for his own company, Break-A-Way Travel.
Now, he takes responsibility for the business activities and helps plan the strategic development of the company.
Who: David LeCompte
Age: 35
Title: President
Firm: Short's Travel Management
David LeCompte was selling medical supplies in the early 1990s, a job he didn't particularly enjoy.
Looking for a change, he hooked up with Short's, where his mother-in-law, Camille Hogan, is the CEO.
Eight years later, Short's has grown from a small-town company in Waterloo, Iowa, to a $150 million agency that is headquartered in the Kansas City area. Two major accomplishments during LeCompte's tenure are winning the $30 million John Deere account in 1999 and purchasing Passport Travel in 2001, an acquisition that doubled the company's size.
"I love the business part of the travel agency, orchestrating and coordinating our different business units," LeCompte said.
Who: Dan Mahar
Age: 36
Title: Executive vice president, strategy and new business development
Firm: Tauck World Discovery
Not many people arrive to this industry via telecommunications. But that's exactly the case with Dan Mahar.
He held several business development and brand management positions at Nortel Networks and Global Crossing, where he first got involved with the Web through a partnership with Netscape in 1995.
"I read that travel would be bigger in the long term than telecom," he said.
In 1996, Mahar joined Tauck World Discovery as manager of market planning. Since then, he's held various posts, and today he serves as executive vice president, strategy and new business development.
In that capacity he scouts out new business opportunities in a challenging world.
"There are a host of uncertainties in today's world, but travel has a great future. We are well positioned to take advantage of that growth."
Who: Paolo Mantegazza
Age: 33
Title: President and CEO
Firm: Globus & Cosmos
Talk about the family business: Paolo Mantegazza's grandfather founded Globus Viaggi in 1928, offering scenic bus rides around Lake Lugano in Switzerland.
Mantegazza grew up around travel; his father, sister and brother all worked in the tour business. He entered the business when he joined Globus in 1993.
Today, Mantegazza heads Globus & Cosmos in Littleton, Colo.
Mantegazza introduced a climate of innovation with new product styles, an increased focus on marketing and a bottom-up command structure.
Mantegazza hopes to keep adapting to the constant changes in the industry.
"We've been through so many iterations of what happens in markets," Mantegazza said. "We're pretty good at adapting. Before, you didn't have to be so aggressive. But now, you have to fight for every customer."
Who: Charly McDonald
Age: 33
Title: Adventure ocean specialist
Firm: Royal Caribbean International
Charly McDonald joined Royal Caribbean International in 1992 as a youth counselor on the Sun Viking. Back then, kids' activities were often held in an empty hallway on the ship.
Today, the line's newest ship boats 22,000 square feet of kids-only space on its Adventure Ocean children's program -- and Charly's in charge.
The 3,140-passenger Voyager-class ships carried 1,000 kids apiece. "When you bring a thousand kids, you bring a thousand moms and a thousand dads ... . Kids are a huge factor in vacation choices."
His newly created Fuel disco (with a "mocktail" bar) and "Starbuck-sy" Living Room on the Navigator of the Seas have been a huge hit with hip teens: 20% more teens signed up for programs on the Navigator than its sister ships. Fuel and Living Room are now in Royal's renovation plans for its older ships.
Who: George Morgan-Grenville
Age: 38
Title: President
Firm: Abercrombie & Kent
George Morgan-Grenville met Geoffrey Kent, chairman of Abercrombie & Kent, in 1986 in Hong Kong when Morgan-Grenville was an officer in the British Army.
"A military background is in many ways ideal training for the travel industry," said Morgan-Grenville. "In the army you are taught that there are no excuses. It's the same in the travel industry. Clients are not interested in why things go wrong. It has to go right every time without fail."
From there he joined A&K in 1987 and worked in various capacities in A&K offices around the world. Last year, he was appointed president of A&K.
Morgan-Grenville's immediate focus is on managing through the next few difficult months, after which he hopes to get back to the "very exciting" prospect of developing new travel products.
Who: Curtis Nelson
Age: 39
Title: President, CEO
Firm: Carlson Hospitality Worldwide
Curtis Nelson wears several hats, including chief operating officer of the company's Consumer Group and president and CEO of Carlson Hospitality Worldwide.
"Building better relationships guides our strategies and focuses our tactics with the key stakeholders of our business: our customers, our employees, our owners, our vendors and the communities in which we operate," Nelson said.
The major brands under Nelson's leadership include Radisson Seven Seas Cruises, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Cruise Holidays, Results Travel, Radisson Hotels & Resorts and T.G.I. Friday's restaurants.
As for the future? "We will continue to grow, not only in the number of physical locations for our consumer brands but also in the share of business that we receive from our existing customer," Nelson said.
Who: Katerina Pavlitova
Age: 33
Title: Director, USA
Firm: Czech Tourist Authority
Prague native and former radio newscaster Katerina Pavlitova took over the one-woman, no-budget operation that was the Czech Tourist Authority in New York in 1996 -- at the age of 26. Seven years later, both Pavlitova and the tourist authority, which just joined the U.S. Tour Operators Association, have matured.
"This is the first year we have money for anything you could call a marketing campaign," she said. "It's not the best year for travel, but I'm happy to be doing what we should have [done] all along: active marketing."
In the interim, Pavlitova has been busy -- she was just elected to the executive committee of the European Travel Commission.
Who: Michelle Peluso
Age: 31
Title: Senior vice president of product strategy and distribution
Firm: Travelocity
Michelle Peluso was already a rising star in the travel industry at the age of 28, when she launched Site59, a company specializing in selling last-minute travel packages.
"I was very excited about the economic opportunity to bundle distressed inventory," Peluso said. "It was a model that made a lot of sense for suppliers."
Travelocity thought so, too. She sold Site59 in 2002 to Travelocity. In her new role at Travelocity, Peluso is charged with developing a merchant hotel program and a vacation-packaging solution -- initiatives that Peluso is hoping will help close the gap between Travelocity and the top dog in the online space, Expedia.
Who: Clecio Primo
Age: 38
Title: Director of reservations
Firm: Princess Cruises
Three months ago, Clecio Primo moved up the corporate ladder to director of reservations from Princess' air planning department. Now, he overseas Princess' largest shoreside division.
Primo's path to Princess included stops as a tour guide in his native Brazil, Varig Airlines and Royal Caribbean and "then it was just how it bounced: I was given the opportunity, and I performed well."
Well enough that Primo also was asked to chair two task forces that were created within Princess.
"I steer people who are doing what they've been doing for awhile, and ask: 'What can we do differently that will increase customer service?' "
Who: Gail Reisman
Age: 39
Title: Senior director, loyalty marketing
Firm: Amtrak
Keeping the thousands who ride Amtrak loyal is Gail Reisman's job.
Reisman oversees Amtrak's Guest Rewards program, which officially launched on Jan. 1, 2001. Similar to the frequent-flyer programs long used by the airlines, Guest Rewards members accumulate points when they travel on Amtrak.
The points can be exchanged for an array of benefits, including free stays at top hotels, gift certificates for select retail stores, and travel on Amtrak. But to Reisman, the program is more than that.
"It's about understanding what the individual traveler's needs are," she said. "We have found that [Guest Rewards members] are traveling about seven-and-a-half percent more" than they did before.
Who: Chris Russo
Age: 36
Title: Owner
Firm: Travel Junction and Travel Partners
At the age of 30, Chris Russo bought his first travel agency, Travel Junction in Denver. Two years later, he added Travel Partners in Broomfield, Colo.
This came after nearly a decade working for other agencies as a counselor and manager. He is first vice president of the ASTA Rocky Mountain chapter and a member of the ASTA Young Professionals group. He aims to attract new entrants -- he speaks at high school career programs, for example -- and to meet the needs of young professionals already in travel.
As far as his own business, Russo is looking to grow it "as creatively as possible."
Who: Amanda Santana
Age: 36
Title: Corporate sales and marketing director
Firm: Viva Resorts
Amanda Santana has spent the last 10 years developing sales and marketing strategies for Viva Resorts, which includes six all-inclusive properties in the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and Mexico.
Santana manages and directs the sales and marketing teams at each of the hotels and at Viva's offices in the U.S., Mexico, South America and Europe; oversees the budgets; and identifies primary new markets for Viva.
Somehow, she finds time to represent Viva Resorts at the major industry and trade shows in he U.S., Canada, Europe and Latin America and attend graduate classes in Web-based marketing, electronic distribution and financial management.
Who: Jose Suarez
Age: 36
Title: Executive director
Firm: Puerto Rico Tourism Co.
His career in the hospitality industry began with the Puerto Rico Tourism Co. as area sales manager in Miami in 1992 and came full circle in 2002 when he rejoined the PRTC. Less than six months later, Jose Suarez was named executive director.
In the 10 years between PRTC posts, Suarez honed his leadership experience and garnered some top honors to boot. Wyndham named him hotel manager of the year in 2001 while he was at the Wyndham El San Juan Hotel & Casino in San Juan.
Suarez's main goal as the PRTC's executive director is "to control the experience of the visitor to Puerto Rico and make it better."
Who: Jaime Stewart
Age: 24
Title: Inside sales and special projects manager
Firm: Sandals Resorts International
She has a well-known father, a recognizable surname, and a resort company with worldwide brand recognition, but Jaime Stewart has come up through the ranks of the hospitality industry on her own merits.
From stuffing envelopes in Sandals' Miami mailroom at age 6 to sales calls following college, public relations work in London and hardhat work at construction sites, Stewart learned the job from the inside out.
She grew up in Jamaica, lived in St. Lucia, moved to Miami to work in Sandals' reservations and groups departments and jumped over to Air Jamaica Vacations for a brief stint in the tour side of the business.
"My goal now is to double or triple our business not by dropping rates, but by attracting new customers who have never taken a Sandals or Beaches vacation," Stewart said. Like father, like daughter.
Who: Andrea Stokes
Age: 34
Title: Director, marketing and international research
Firm: Travel Industry Association
Andrea Stokes has your number. Actually, she has the travel industry's number. Stokes leads a team of researchers at TIA that gather, crunch and analyze travel industry marketing data culled from consumer surveys and other sources.
The reports are vital for gauging the growth and impact of certain events on the industry, such as the potential war in Iraq, but they also produce data not available through any other source.
"When we are analyzing marketing, we look at the economic indicators of that market and then we do our direct consumer research," Stokes said.
A TIA employee since 1999, Stokes is responsible for TIA's TravelScope, TIA Travel Polls, seasonal travel forecasts, quarterly studies and customized research studies on shopping, gambling and other travel market segments groups.
Who: Andy Stuart
Age: 39
Title: Senior vice president of sales and marketing
Firm: Norwegian Cruise Line
Andy Stuart worked in the travel industry in London prior to joining Norwegian Cruise Line -- in the hotel industry, to be precise -- but he didn't know anything about cruising when he was hired in 1988 as the British equivalent of a district sales manager.
"But it sounded like the best job in the world."
By the time Stuart relocated to Miami in 1997, he was running NCL's London office. He had done a stint as the senior vice president of customer services and was senior vice president of sales in 2000 when newly named CEO Colin Veitch gave Stuart his current position "without hesitation." How's that for an endorsement? "We were about to launch into something very new," Veitch said. "He'd done a lot of jobs at NCL and done them well."
Who: Charlie Sullivan
Age: 37
Title: Senior vice president of e-commerce
Firm: Worldspan
Charlie Sullivan said he's always enjoyed selling technology systems, ever since he began selling them to the financial industry for Unisys Corp. shortly after graduating from college.
"As I began looking for new opportunities, I discovered the global distribution systems and with it, the travel industry," he said. "Once you are in travel, it's in you. There is not another industry that is as dynamic, challenging and enjoyable."
Worldspan provides reservations technology for several Web sites, including Expedia and Orbitz.
Sullivan said his goals are to "continue leveraging our e-commerce expertise and further establishing Worldspan as the leader defining travel technology."
Who: Kari Thomas
Age: 30
Title: Vice president, sales and marketing
Firm: Will Travel
As vice president of sales and marketing for family-run Will Travel in Langhorne, Pa., Kari Thomas jokes that she has 30 years' experience, but her full-time involvement started
10 years ago, right after college.
Thomas is in her second year as the ASTA Delaware Valley chapter president, and she is a founder and chairwoman of a growing ASTA subset called ASTA Young Professionals, established to attract more young members and involve them in the organization's business.
Thomas said she will remain active in ASTA and see "where that takes me" partly because she likes knowing what is going on, but she has a broader goal, too: "I want people to be proud of being travel agents."
Who: Conrad van Tiggelen
Age: 38
Title: Director, North America
Firm: Netherlands Board of Tourism
Armed with a master's degree in economics and marketing, Conrad van Tiggelen is hard at work thriftily nabbing the Netherlands its fair share of the U.S.-to-Europe travel pie.
Facing decreased government funding for promotional efforts, the forward-thinking Dutchman -- named to head Holland's tourist office in New York just one day before 9/11 -- is rendering his operations more solvent and self-reliant by selling U.S. call-center and public relations services to other suppliers.
Who: Dawn O'Flannery Walzak
Age: 37
Title: Vice president
Firm: Tishman Hotel Corp.
At 37, Dawn O'Flannery Walzak is the youngest vice president of the Tishman Hotel Corp. With the successful opening of the $330 million Westin New York at Times Square (the largest new-build in New York in 17 years) under her cap, Walzak is busy spearheading a new Tishman initiative: She is leading the formation of a network of nationwide sales directors to sell the six Starwood-branded properties within Tishman.
Walzak also has been tapped to reposition four of New York's most prominent boutique hotels: the Shoreham, the Mansfield, the Roger Williams and the Franklin.
Who: Kimberly Wilson Wetty
Age: 32
Title: Chief operating officer
Firm: Valerie Wilson Travel
Kimberly Wilson Wetty wasn't ready to jump into the family business: The well-known agency owned by her mother, Valerie. But after a stint in the international hotel business with CIGA Hotels, Wetty said she caught the travel bug. Now, she's co-COO with her sister Jennifer (profiled below).
Wetty said it was strange "to call your mother and say you want an interview." But, once on board, she focused on expanding the leisure side of the business: growing the cruise sales, retraining corporate agents, negotiating with preferred suppliers.
Wetty said that as a youthful boss -- she was 24 when she was hired -- and as the daughter of the owner, "I had to work twice as hard as every other employee." But, she added, "I think it's paid off."
Who: Michael Wien
Age: 38
Title: Director of national accounts
Firm: Holland America Line
Travel Weekly caught up with Michael Wien halfway around the world, in Hong Kong, where he was working with one of Holland America Line's key accounts, the Virtuoso agency group.
Since 9/11, "we've had to rethink our opportunities, marketing dollars, make sure we're utilizing them in the best possible way," he said.
Wien's career has been exclusively with Holland America, but his association with travel goes back to his roots -- his family founded Wien Alaska Airlines.
Wien said he was drawn to his current position because it involved "getting out and meeting people."
He has no plans to leave HAL. "I look forward to a strong career," he said. "And more challenges."
Who: Jennifer Wilson-Buttigieg
Age: 35
Title: Chief operating officer
Firm: Valerie Wilson Travel
Within her first year at Valerie Wilson Travel, daughter Jennifer Wilson-Buttigieg brought in its largest account and its first corporate on-site engagement. The second year, VWT started an onsite on the West Coast, hired a group of commissioned agents and brought in its first $15 million account. Ten years later, Wilson-Buttigieg still is heavily concentrating on corporate clients -- with some twists.
"The role of the agent is going to disappear, and it's going to be the role of the travel consultant," she said.
Meanwhile, she's taking a Harvard Business School program called Owner, President, Management: "It allows you to take your business outside your work environment and look at it a different way.