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Travelport GDS Strengthens Africa Team

DUBAI — Travelport GDS, one of the world’s leading global distribution system, or GDS, providers, has recently announced details of the new, highly experienced team it has recruited both internally and externally as it sharpens its focus on growing its market presence throughout Africa.

Mark Meehan has relocated to Travelport’s Middle East and Africa, or MEA, headquarters in Dubai to head up the newly-created team. Reporting into Bryan Conway, president and managing director for the MEA region, Meehan will have overall responsibility for reinforcing the company’s leading position in many African markets and identifying new market entry opportunities for the company. He previously held responsibility for Travelport GDS’s global commercial operations based in the UK and has been with the company for ten years.

Matthew Powell has been named as director of business development for Africa, reporting into Meehan. Formerly head of product marketing, Powell has grown with the company in various leadership roles over a 14-year period. With extensive knowledge of the GDS sector, Powell has particular expertise in managing helpdesk operations, regional sales teams and product marketing programmes. Powell will also be based in the MEA headquarters but will spend much of his time travelling throughout Africa, working closely with the company’s distributors in the continent as well as identifying new market entry opportunities.

In addition to the strategic direction provided by the newly created roles based in the MEA headquarters, Travelport GDS has also strengthened its local commercial team based in Southern Africa. Working in close collaboration with the Travelport distributors in the region, the focus of the new Southern African team is to expand the company’s already strong presence in the region and oversee the implementation of new Travelport products in local markets.

Heading up the Southern Africa team is Gary Broomberg, commercial vice president for the region. Based in Johannesburg, Broomberg recently joined Travelport, bringing with him over 15 years experience gained in a number of high profile technology organisations including MicroStrategy and Novell.

He is supported by two regional product managers; Samantha Williams, who has recently re-located to Johannesburg from Travelport’s global HQ in the UK, and local appointee Don Smith. Both Williams and Smith offer extensive GDS product knowledge as well as experience of working in the Southern African travel industry. In their roles they will offer local hands-on support when new Travelport products, services and content are introduced to the growing region.

“The new team we have put in place to expand our already strong presence in Africa is clear evidence of Travelport’s commitment to the continent and our firm belief that we can continue to grow our share of the business in target markets. I am delighted all of these talented individuals have agreed to take on these new roles and very much look forward to working with them over the months ahead to ensure we continue to offer local travel agents the best GDS technology and content available,” said Conway.