TTAND appoints Jeff Element as COO; Chris Senior as CFO

The Travel Agent Next Door has undergone a restructuring that is designed to position the host agency for continued growth in the next decade, following its 10th anniversary this year.

“Our company grew organically over the past 10 years where we saw consistent growth, adjusting our organization and processes as we grew the company – including the addition of our India division. But to get ready for the next 10 years we will be looking at even more support for the staff and our agent partners through this restructuring,” said Flemming Friisdahl, founder and CEO. “With the retirement of our VP Agent Experience, Penny Martin this coming July, we believe now is a good time to reorganize
the company to prepare it for the future.”

Jeff Element joins as COO

Well-known travel industry executive Jeff Element will become chief operating officer, based in Toronto, overseeing marketing and training, finance, support and operations.

Element was president of The Travel Corporation for many years until recently, overseeing Contiki, Insight and Trafalgar brands as well as the call centre and accounting departments. He is a past chairman of CATO and a TICO board member for many years. He holds both CMA and CTM credentials.

“I have very much enjoyed these last five months getting to know this business,” said Element.” I particularly enjoy the positive atmosphere and the level of dedication and integrity of the TTAND team. I look forward to being part of this team and contributing to TTAND’s continued success.”

New CFO Chris Senior

Chris Senior, CPA, CMA, joins TTAND as CFO. Senior has been in the industry for many years with finance roles at TICO, TTI Travel as vice-president of finance and HRG North America as director of financial analysis.

Rounding out the management team are Rhonda Stanley, VP talent development; Kuldeep Gautam, manager, India division; Raj Gautam, technology head; Christine Ufniak, director of marketing and training; Nicola Gowe, director, finance; Roxanne Jeffries, senior accounting manager and James Nguyen, senior manager, Agent Support Team in Canada.

Flemming Friisdahl will continue as founder and CEO and will have supplier relations, technology and IT, talent development reporting directly to him.

“I’m confident our leadership team is in a strong position to take TTAND forward into its next decade,” said Friisdahl. “We want to leverage the legacy we have built into continued growth and innovation.”

The Travel Agent Next Door currently has 70 employees in Canada and India responsible for supporting more than 1,300 travel agent partners and is the largest host agency in Canada.