August 7, 2001
Travel Exchange Asia Announces Key Executive Appointments
Travel Exchange Asia today announced three key appointments that reflect its commitment to establish a world-class
travel portal for Asia Pacific.
The appointments are:
- Martin Symes, Commercial Director (Content, Marketing and Sales, Product Development)
- Alex Snead, Strategic Advisor and Acting Director of Operations
- Wong Kok Kit, Chief Financial Officer
*** See following attached bios
MARTIN SYMES
Commercial Director
(Content, Marketing and Sales, Product Development)
Martin Symes, 40, brings with him both depth of knowledge of the travel industry and breadth of experience covering
general management, sales, marketing and travel distribution. He is also familiar with the Asian marketplace having
lived and worked in the region for most of the last five years.
As Commercial Director responsible for content, marketing and sales and product development, Martin’s most immediate
goal for TEA is to create a world-class travel portal that is unrivalled in Asia Pacific by quickly establishing TEA as
the best place to plan and buy travel online.
Prior to joining TEA, Martin was Head of Travel at Hutchison-Priceline in Hong Kong, and a key member of the team
responsible for bringing Priceline.com’s buyer driven
e-commerce model to Asia. Martin joined Hutchison-Priceline from British Airways where he was General Manager, World
Sales and Distribution, based in the airline’s London head office.
Martin spent three of his seven years with American Airlines as Regional Director, Asia Pacific, for American Airlines
based in Hong Kong. He led a complete overhaul of the sales organisation and practices, introducing sales force
automation, corporate account sales and various pricing initiatives which increased the region’s international revenue
production by more than 100% annually despite the Asian economic crisis.
At American Airlines in Europe, he led the development of direct corporate sales, conceived and negotiated the first
Pan-European travel agency incentive agreements, and led various major process and product automation initiatives.
Outside of the travel industry, Martin has significant experience in the financial services sector having held positions
with HSBC, Merrill Lynch and Fidelity Investments as well as establishing a profitable financial services company in the
Czech Republic.
Martin is a graduate of Oxford University and holds an MBA with distinction from London Business School.
He has been a Board Member of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and an officer of the Association of Corporate
Travel Executives (ACTE) Europe.
In his leisure, Martin enjoys golf, trekking and travel.
ALEX SNEAD
Strategic Advisor
Acting Director of Operations
Alex Snead has 19 years of extensive experience in management consulting, general management, distribution and sales and
marketing in the international travel industry.
This includes five years in the area of online distribution across diverse markets including the United States and Asia
Pacific. His deep knowledge of the industry and involvement in setting up systems for the online business of major
companies, make Alex well placed to carry out his responsibilities as strategic advisor to TEA’s Chief Executive
Officer, Pascal Bordat.
At TEA, Alex’s immediate goal is to implement a world-class operational structure that is able to support a 24 hours a
day, seven days a week customer service system across all launch markets.
Prior to joining TEA, Alex was Managing Director and Founder of GDS Consulting International, a travel management and
consulting firm. During this period from 1991-1997, he held several key positions under contract with GDS including
General Manager e-Commerce, Qantas Airways Limited; Vice President, Travel Power Consolidated; General Manager, Telstra
/ Amadeus; Market Development Manager, Travel Industries
Automated Systems; and Principal Business Consultant, Servicios de Telerreservaciones (SERTEL).
Alex has several achievements to his credit. Whist at Qantas, Alex was responsible for co-developing the Travel Exchange
Asia concept and bringing it to fruition along with counterparts from other major TEA shareholder airlines.
During his tenure at Telstra, Alex introduced the Amadeus GDS into Australasia. He was also responsible for securing
Amadeus’ position as a market leader in the Australian GDS industry and for gaining significant market share.
At Travel Power, Alex pioneered the development of one of Australia’s first online travel ventures. He also made
significant contributions to the development and success of Travel Industries Automated Systems (TIAS), a travel and
transport distribution systems in Australasia. This earned him the tagline ‘father’ of LeisureNet and CargoNet.
At the age of 17, Alex founded, owned and managed his own IATA-accredited travel agency Main Street World Travel, the
youngest person in the US to achieve this. In parallel, he also studied Sociology and Political Science at Trinity
University in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
Alex is married and has three children.
WONG KOK KIT
Chief Financial Officer
Wong Kok Kit has a solid background in finance and accounting having spent 16 years in the field in senior positions
with MNCs and leading local companies.
As CFO, Kok Kit is responsible for building a robust financial and accounting system that is able to deliver on the
products and services to be offered by TEA when it launches.
Prior to joining TEA, he was Finance and Administration Director at Compart Holdings Ltd, a leading provider of
precision machining services for the manufacture of actuator arms used in hard disk drives in computers.
Kok Kit has also held the position of CFO at ST Assembly Test Services, a provider of semiconductor packaging and test
services. He played a key role in preparing the company for its Initial Public Offering with simultaneous listing on the
Main-Board of the Singapore Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.
Kok Kit is a Business Administration graduate from the National University of Singapore. He is married with four
children and enjoys golf and travel.
***
Note to Editor
Travel Exchange Asia aims to be the leading Asia-Pacific business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business-consumer
(B2B2C) travel portal. It will offer the full spectrum of travel services and products including airline tickets,
hotels, car rentals and tour packages.
Travel Exchange Asia is a joint venture of 11 leading Asia Pacific airlines and Travelocity.com, the leading travel web
site. The airlines are Air New Zealand, Ansett, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, EVA Air, Garuda Indonesia, Malaysia
Airlines, Qantas, Royal Brunei Airlines, SilkAir and Singapore Airlines.
Ends