Name: John Selden Title: Airport general manager Company, city: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Number of employees: 700 in the Department of Aviation; 63,000 employees throughout the airport Recent project: The canopy on the south side of the airport will be finished by mid-September. First job: I started a lawn mowing
Name: Tarek Adawy Title: General manager, USA Company, city: EgyptAir, New York, New York Number of employees: 20 in New York; 9,000 in Cairo Recent project: Working on opening new gateways in the United States First job: EgyptAir ticket agent in Cairo Little-known fact about you: I am a Backstreet Boys
Name: Brendan Griffin Title: Minister of State for Tourism & Sport Company, city: Government of Ireland Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport; Dublin, Ireland Recent project: Tourism Ireland recently launched a new brand advertising campaign, “Fill Your Heart with Ireland,” to inspire Americans to put Ireland on their
Name: Perry Cantarutti Title: Senior vice president, alliances Company, city: Delta Air Lines; Atlanta, Georgia Number of employees: 80,000 company-wide; 50 in Alliances department Recent project: Bringing together our two trans-Atlantic joint ventures into one combined partnership that offers more than 340 destinations First job: Analyst, domestic yield management Little-known fact
Name: M. İlker Aycı Title: Chairman of the board and executive committee Company, city: Turkish Airlines; İstanbul, Turkey Number of employees: Approximately 51,000, including subsidiaries Recent project: Bringing all our developing technology within Turkish Airlines to create a seamless experience, from using AI in our reservation system to fullservice
Name: Derek DeCross Title: Senior vice president, global sales Company, city: InterContinental Hotels Group; Atlanta, Georgia Number of employees: 375,000 at 5,500 hotels and corporate offices around the world Recent project: We celebrated reaching the milestone of 200 Inter- Continental Hotels and Resorts open around the world. First job: Unpaid?
Name: Ayo Akinsete Title: Managing director/vice president of operations Company, city: Dream Hollywood; Los Angeles, California Number of employees: 250 Recent project: Dream Hollywood First job: Football player for West Ham United in the U.K. Little-known fact about you: I love music; sometimes people call me a jukebox. I DJ as
Name: Rob Gurney Title: CEO Company, city: oneworld; New York, New York Number of employees: The central oneworld team numbers around 30, but oneworld member airlines collectively employ 400,000. Recent project: I don’t think of things as projects but as a stream of initiatives to make the customer experience
Name: Jamie Rhee Title: Commissioner Company, city: Chicago Department of Aviation; Chicago, Illinois Number of employees: 1,400 Recent project: O’Hare International Airport is always on the move, with new services, new amenities and projects opening to serve our customers. Most recently, we opened a Multi Modal Facility, centralizing all
Name: Luis Gallego Title: Chief executive officer Company, city: Iberia; Madrid, Spain Number of employees: 16,000 Recent project: In 2012 Iberia’s transformation began. At that point, the airline was losing $1 million per day. I joined in 2013 to help turn the company around; with more than 30 initiatives
Name: Janelle Anderson Title: Vice president, global marketing Company, city: American Airlines; Fort Worth, Texas Number of employees: 100 people on AA’s marketing team and 130,000 worldwide Recent project: Developing AA’s Flagship program as the only domestic airline with a truly first-class product First job: I was a swimmer in
Name: Thomas Kochs Title: Managing director Company, city: Corinthia Hotel London Number of employees: 500 Recent project: Working with Tom Kerridge to open Kerridge’s Bar & Grill and the new London and Garden suites First job: I worked in a restaurant in my hometown. Little-known fact about you: I enjoy cooking
Name: Rafael Lizarraga Title: Chief commercial officer Company, city: Grupo Posadas; Mexico City, Mexico Number of employees: 18,200 Recent project: We expanded outside of Mexico, opening two new Fiesta Americana hotels in Cuba. First job: I started in reservations with Grupo Posadas 24 years ago. Little-known fact about you: When possible,
Name: Jess Peterson Title: Director, itinerary and revenue planning Company, city: Windstar Cruises; Seattle, Washington Number of employees: 1,800 (140 at the Seattle headquarters) Recent project: Launch of Wind Surf’s Grand Caribbean voyage, a 56-night voyage to every corner of the Caribbean. Our flagship will visit many places for
Name: Peter Ingram Title: President and CEO Company, city: Hawaiian Airlines; Honolulu, Hawai’i Number of employees: 7,153 worldwide Recent project: Integrating the Airbus A321neos into our fleet; we will have 11 by the end of 2018 and 18 by 2020. Also, 10 Boeing 787-9s will join our fleet starting
Name: Charles E. “Chilly” Ewing, Sr. Title: Director of concessions Company, city: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; Atlanta, Georgia Number of employees: 63,000 employees overall; 6,000 in concessions Recent project: Completing request for proposals for new concession vendors, and our Global Runway event First job: As a youngster, I worked at
