UK-based Sports Tours International has announced a new senior leadership team, bringing a range of new skills and experience to the specialist sports travel business. As well as a series of internal promotions chief executive Chris Bird has welcomed a number of new additions to the team based in Walkden, Greater Manchester, England.
The new executive team includes Claire Dyson as deputy CEO. Dyson is the longest serving member of the team with 26 years in the business. Still maintaining her role as head of sales and customer services for Club La Santa UK & Ireland, Dyson will support Bird in the day to day running of the business, enabling him to focus on future strategy and development.
New to the executive board are three new appointments and three internal promotions. Tim May has joined the team as finance director, Natasha Haggart as director of marketing and communications, and Tim Przybysz as director of international operations. Internally Paul O’Halloran has been promoted to head of sales UK and Europe, Clement Cicuto to general manager Europe and Fidelma Alford to territory manager Ireland.
Director of international operations Przybysz has a lengthy career in the travel sector and joins the team from Destinology where he was director of sales, customer experience and marketing since 2017. Przybysz is working with his new team to innovate the product offering in line with customer demand.
In the marketing team Haggart has joined from Informa Markets where she was marketing director of Aviation Week Network’s Routes portfolio. Haggart will be responsible for the marketing activity across all brands and will lead an expanded marketing team.
Heading up the sales team is O’Halloran. He joined Sports Tours in 2019 having held a senior position in the Guardian media group. In his new role O’Halloran will be responsible for all brands including Sports Travel Ireland and Sports Tours France.
At Sports Tours International France Clement Cicuto will continue to develop and build the presence in Europe, and at Sports Travel International in Ireland, Fidelma Alford will be launching a new office in the new year and recruiting a Dublin-based team.
In finance Tim May will be developing and expanding the new team to support the business’s growth. He joins from Holidaybreak where he spent nearly 30 years in the finance team.
Chief executive Bird said: “The new team have brought a real energy into the business which as travel begins to open up again the timing of their arrival is perfect. Those that have been with us throughout the pandemic have worked tirelessly to ensure that our customers have felt supported. The experience of Claire, Paul, Clement and Fidelma is incredibly valuable, and they have all worked throughout this difficult time and managed the unprecedented circumstances brilliantly.”
The Sports Tours International team is now looking ahead to an exciting 2022, with a number of product innovations being developed, together with the return of some well-known events. New events are also being added to the portfolio which will support growing customer demand for mass participation events and active holidays and will better serve the active lifestyle community at its heart.
Image (from left to right): Claire Dyson, Tim May, Chris Bird, Natasha Haggart, Clement Cicuto, Fidelma Alford, and Paul O’Halloran