Big shuffle at Travelport includes departure of marketing chief

Travelport is passing off a series of high level commercial changes as part of the “delivery of ongoing strategic business objectives”.

The shuffle sees the merger of the global product and marketing teams and the departure of chief marketing officer Gillian Gibson who will be replaced by Bryan Conway, currently in a global operations role.

Gibson, who has held the role for just under two years, leaves at the end of 2012 to “pursue other interests”.

Key changes include:

Jason Clarke is promoted to vice president and managing director of global sales (currently Europe and Brazil) and Mark Harris becomes group VP of commercial operations and deployment.
Derek Sharp is appointed group VP and managing director of global distribution sales and services with responsibility for partnerships with content providers including airlines and rail companies.
Simon Nowroz becomes group VP of business development and will oversee Travelport’s strategy in growth territories including Brazil, China, India and Japan.

The plan is to announce a new regional boss for APAC but Nowroz will continue to oversee the region until then.

A statement says:

“The new structure aims to provide a highly customer-centric approach through the closer alignment of its commercial, marketing and product teams. Specifically, under the new structure, Travelport’s marketing and product team will be merged with its commercial function under the leadership of Kurt Ekert, Chief Commercial Officer.”

All changes are effective 1 November.

Gordon Wilson, Travelport President and CEO says the changes would enable the business to cater for the distribution needs of airline, hotel and other customers and make decisions faster.