Montreal, November 6, 2008
Lina De Cesare, President, Tour Operators of Transat A.T. Inc., one of the world’s largest integrated tourism companies and Canada’s holiday travel leader, is pleased to announce the appointment of Nelson Gentiletti as Executive Vice-President, Tour Operators. In this capacity, Mr. Gentiletti will be responsible for orchestrating the majority of the group’s tour operator activities; namely, the operations of Transat Tours Canada (TTC), Jonview Canada, Canadian Affair (United Kingdom) and Air Consultants Europe (The Hague), which together account for annual sales of some $3 billion.
“We are delighted to entrust further responsibilities to Nelson, who has demonstrated his proficiency in our line of work and asserted his leadership with the organization for six years now,” Mrs. De Cesare said.
Mr. Gentiletti joined Transat in 2002 as Chief Financial Officer before being appointed to his current positions of President, Transat Tours Canada, and President, Jonview Canada. He was formerly Chief Financial Officer of BCE Emergis Inc., Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of Unican Security Systems Ltd. and Vice-President, Finance, of Vidéotron ltée. Mr. Gentiletti is a chartered accountant and graduate of McGill University. He also holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Concordia University.
Following his promotion, Mr. Gentiletti announces the following appointments to the TTC senior management team.
Denise Heffron, currently Vice-President, Commercial, Ontario and Maritimes, moves to the position of Vice-President, National Sales. Denis Codère, now Vice-President, Commercial, Quebec, is appointed Vice-President, Commercialization and Development, Europe. He will be in charge of increasing the company’s market share in Europe, where Transat already has a commercial presence in 11 countries, including the United Kingdom and France. Both of them will report to Michael DiLollo, who holds the position of Executive Vice-President, TTC.
“These appointments will result in improved efficiency and are in keeping with the continuing evolution of our organization in recent years,” Mr. Gentiletti said. “We are very proud to be able to count on such esteemed travel industry professionals. These adjustments represent new challenges for them, and an opportunity to achieve their full potential.”
Transat Tours Canada is a business unit of Transat A.T. Inc. specializing in the organization, marketing, and distribution of holiday travel to and from Canada via the Transat Holidays/Vacances Transat, Nolitours, Air Transat and Rêvatours brands. Canadian Affair is a UK-based tour operator specializing in travel to Canada. Air Consultants Europe is TTC’s exclusive commercial representative in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Austria. Jonview Canada is the country’s largest incoming tour operator.
Transat A.T. Inc. is an integrated international tour operator with more than 60 destination countries and that distributes products in over 50 countries. A holiday travel specialist, Transat operates mainly in Canada and Europe, as well as in the Caribbean, Mexico and the Mediterranean Basin. Montreal-based Transat is also active in air transportation, destination services and distribution (TSX: TRZ.B, TRZ.A).