CWT has appointed Belinda Hindmarsh as chief growth officer, and Brian Mogler as chief partnership officer.
Hindmarsh and Mogler, as well as chief strategy officer Julia Kou, will report to Patrick Andersen, CWT’s president and CEO. They also become members of the company’s Executive Leadership Team, with immediate effect.
Additionally, Judy Hendrick has been appointed Interim chief financial officer from July 1, 2022, taking over from Bill Courtney, CWT’s current CFO, who has announced his intention to retire at the end of June 2022.
Prior to her appointment as chief growth officer, Hindmarsh was chief operating officer of RoomIt and China, and she will continue to spearhead these and other commercial developments, plus marketing and communications. She joined CWT in 2018 to lead global sales effectiveness and was appointed senior vice president global market management & market development in 2020. She has over 20 years of experience in the travel tech space, having held various international and global operations, marketing, supplier management and commercial roles with Expedia Group and Aer Lingus.
Prior to his appointment as chief partnership officer, Mogler was CWT’s head of global supplier management and solutions group. He retains responsibility for CWT’s air & ground transportation strategy, commercial relationships, revenue and supplier agreements and supplier e-commerce and merchandising strategy. He will also take on responsibility for CWT’s gobal partnership network and certain technology partners. He has more than 30 years of travel industry experience, and joined CWT in 2011, having held a variety of management roles at American Express Corporate Card, American Express Business Travel, and United Airlines.
Julia Kou was appointed chief strategy officer in April 2022, and is dedicated to leading corporate strategy, mergers & acquisitions, strategic transactions, business insights & analytics, and is responsible for enabling CWT’s company’s vision and priorities. Prior to this, she was head of strategy, planning & analytics for two years. She is a board member of JTB Business Travel Solutions, and China Travel Management Services Compan, and joined CWT in 2016 following M&A, capital markets, and legal roles with Capgemini, Travelport, Cendant Travel Distribution Services Group, and Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett.
Lastly, Hendrick retired as CFO and chief growth officer of Aimbridge Hospitality on December 31, 2021, following 13 years in the role, and she has 20 years of extensive experience in hospitality and banking. She served for 15 years at Wyndham International in various executive roles, including executive vice president, chief investment officer, senior vice president of finance, and treasurer, before which she held senior positions at Chase Manhattan Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and First Republic Bank. She serves on the American Hospitality & Lodging Association’s Women in Lodging Advisory Board, the American Heart Association Board of Directors for the Southwest Region, and the Executive Committee of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce Executive Women’s Roundtable.
Prior to his new appointment, Ali was a key member of the pre-opening team of Dream Doha, as director of sales, for Dream Hotel Group’s flagship luxury hotel in Qatar.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on May 23 that mass vaccinations are not needed against the monkeypox outbreak that has spread beyond Africa.
Latest reports this week state that there are about 200 confirmed and suspected cases across at least a dozen countries, most of them being in Europe.
The US and the UK are making some vaccines available while Germany is mulling options for vaccinations, isolation and quarantine. On May 23, Belgium ordered mandatory monkeypox quarantine; it is the first country to do so.
A senior official at WHO said measures like good hygiene, safe sexual behaviour, contact tracing and isolation will help control its spread, and noted that the virus does not spread very easily.
In a statement issued May 21, WHO said epidemiological investigations are ongoing, and reported cases have no established travel links to endemic areas. As the situation is evolving and surveillance is expanded in non-endemic countries, WHO expects more cases of monkeypox will be identified.