| Meon Valley Travel Copyright 2009 | Another site Designed and Hosted by infocentre.com |
Our founder and MD, James has over the last 30 years travelled extensively throughout
the world both for business and pleasure. After founding his own travel insurance company
and a worldwide medical assistance company at the age of 23 James topped off his career as
a Managing Director of Aon Risk Services UK Plc, the worlds second biggest insurance broker.
James sold his business and jumped the corporate ship in 2002 and together with his life partner
Karen, indulged his passion for travel by aquiring the retail business of Meon Travel and
establishing Meon Valley Travel and Meon Repats. His experience in the travel and medical
emergency assistance world is encyclopaedic.
Favourite Destination: The Chedi, Oman
Jon joined Meon in 2007 bringing with him a huge wealth of knowledge and technology
expertise to help engineer the future of Meon e-Commerce. After graduating in London, Jon
enjoys a broad church of experience derived from pivotal roles at Trailfinders, American
Express, Travelocity, Sabre and more recently through the governance of Advantage Travel
Centres own tech panel. A huge asset to the company in streamlining business process,
maximising efficiencies and pioneering cutting edge internet and web enabled technologies,
Jon’s profound depth of expertise has been instrumental in the positioning of Meon Valley
Business Travel at the forefront of corporate self booking tools and Travel Management
efficiencies for our hard-charging national and international customer base.
Originally from the North East of England he’s a keen Middlesbrough fan, has
frighteningly talented multi-lingual children (it must be in the genes!) and loves a
pint! So whilst he may be brilliant at his job he has no taste in football!
Favourite Destination: Koh Samui, Thailand
General Manager and all-round problem solver, Karen manages the operational aspects
of all the Meon divisions and has been at the heart of the company since joining as a
saturday girl in the retail shop for her father, the then finance director back in 1978.
Personnel, technology and supplier relationships consume most of Karens time but she still
enjoys impulsively diving off to explore the latest hot destinations at the drop of a hat.
Karen has spent her life getting under the skin of the travel industry, understanding what
makes things happen and how to create the unthinkable. Commercial savvy and a love for people
and family mix to form a unique talent and an inspirational manager.
Favourite destination: Al Maha nature resort Dubai
Angela lives near Petersfield with husband Peter. Having decided never to work in an office,
Angela first set out to tour the World and got as far as Switzerland before feeling homesick! But the
next two years were spent as cook/crew aboard a private yacht sailing all ports sunny before
succumbing to real life and joining Meon Travel for seven years. Combining work and pleasure,
Angela visited many countries including the Caribbean, Seychelles, Zambia, India and Nepal.
After a break to raise her family, she set up the International Air operations for Naturetrek,
specialising in expert-escorted wildlife holidays and tours, including Birdwatching and Botanical
tours, Bear, Whale and Tiger watching holidays and a variety of wildlife-orientated treks,
conservation tours and Expedition Cruises to some of the most spectacular regions on Earth.
When life is an adventure, then the world is your back-yard!
Favourite destination: Bird Island, Seychelles “It was deserted, and all mine for a day.
I could happily become lost there all over again”.
With a huge wealth of experience running teams in the airline reservations sector, Sheelagh
brings expansive knowlege and a vast catalogue of travel skills to the benefit of all around her.
A great source of informed tried and trusted knowlege with an exceptional talent for drawing the
best most professional performances from her team. Sheelagh is a rock upon which the foundations
of integrity and professionalism continue to be built.
Favourite destination: Home with a fine wine
One of our latest repats recruits, Christine hails from Australia, still can't get used to water
swirling the wrong way down the plug, loves being with people and lives the work hard play hard ethos.
A typical Aussie adrenalin junkie, forever at work or in the gym and addicted to travel, christine
has been rapidly adopted by the team as a caring and dedicated individual always willing to sacrifice
her own needs for those of others. A brilliant team member.
Favourite destination: Khaosan Road Bangkok
Mujde hails from Turkey herself, she knows Europe like the back of her hand and can captivate with
stories of East/West trade routes, the Hotels to enhance your trip and the sights to see - our very
own ‘TravelSpice!’ The wealth of experience doesn’t stop there, Mujde has travelled extensively
across the Middle and Far East whilst also gaining intimate first-hand knowledge of the Cruise market.
Feisty and European, demanding of herself and others, her flair for languages and intelligent
approach to travel sometimes distracts from an encyclopaedic insight into the most delicious
destinations. Just having returned from Sri Lanka last month and the Caribbean this, her personal
experience of some heart-stopping destinations is legend.
Favourite destination: Blue Waters, Antigua
With 12 years at Carllson Wagonlit culminating in managing the platinum team responsible for the
personal travel for senior board members of the largest and most demanding multinationals, Kirsty
understands all about attention to detail. Kirsty is responsible for training together with the systems
and proceedures that accompany the increasing demands of managing and institutionally sharing knowledge.
Greatly respected initially as a trouble shooter through all departments with the challenges that accompany
exponential growth the word 'no' simply doesnt exist in her vocabulary and Kirsty is relentless in
the pursuit of nurturing talent. Kirsty has been instrumental in the development of the meon knowledge
bank.
Favourite destination: Moon Palace, Cancun
Local Petersfield girl, Faye is new to the team and brings a bright, bubbly enthusiasm and infectiously
inquisitive nature to the world and all it has to offer. Adept at digging out great bargains for the
diverse needs and wants of the modern day family. Fayes’ intimate understanding of all you could want from
that dream holiday is poised at the end of her fingertips through her scarily adept and natural flair for
research, special friendships and relationships that she has built with our preferred suppliers and holiday
operators, and incredible eye for a bargain. Look no further when you have checked on the ‘net’. Faye takes
great delight in surprising the starch out of us all with her skill at beating the best for value!
Favourite destination: “There’s too much I’ve yet to see – don’t stop me now, but Florida has it so
far!”
Our dear Nicki started her professional travel career as a saturday girl in the retail shop working her
way through the ranks to ultimately taking charge as business travel manager. We lost her for a short while
as she took time out to have Josh and Lottie, but now she is back and has taken a grip on the finances
with the accounts team. Nicki knows the travel business inside out and exactly how to maximise efficiencies
through effective supplier and systems management. Attention to detail is a prerequisite and just like our
clients Nicki makes sure we pay our bills on time and extract every ounce of benefit from good business
practice.
Favourite destination: Standing atop Sydney Harbour Bridge
Jude, with over 10 years leisure and business travel experience joined meon repats in 2003 and quickly
established a reputation as a thorough all rounder with an amazing knack for getting the most distant
carriers to deliver client needs and emergency support under the most extreme and difficult circumstances.
Jude comes in to her own in the toughest situations with an intuitive skill for containing crisis blended
with common sense when sense is not always common. A comitted team player, driven and focused, Jude is one
who leads by example and always delivers. Oh, and if there's a party... Jude's the one in the middle of
the dance floor swinging her arms in the air.
Favourite destination: White Hart Lane
What a lovely man. Clever, charming, witty, knowledgeable and a serious specialist in the field of Travel, Insurance , Repatriation and front line delivery systems (IT to you and me). Tom enjoys a wealth of very dear contacts turned friendships earned over the years from delivering excellence and innovation consistently, intelligently, reliably and at great value to many in the Finance and insurance industries. We are thrilled to have been able to entice him onto the team to run our North American front line operations and cannot fault the tremendous value he has brought to the partnership.
She left us once and she can’t keep away! Alex enjoys extensive experience in leisure and medical emergency
assistance specialist travel and we are thrilled that she loved us so much we were able to entice her back to
support the rapid development we’re enjoying in Business Travel. Efficient, effective, to the point and on
the ball. Alex has honed her myriad skills with a recent stint as a high flier in Lastminute.com where
exceptional service is a way of life not just an aspiration. For best professional advice, pragmatism and
delivery of results without compromise, no prisoners are taken.A keen equestrian, Alex throws her competitive
spirit into regular Eventing but doesn’t let this interfere with her love of adventure and regular travel with
all that you can throw at living.
Favourite Destination: Sigiriya, Sri lanka. Google it…just see what you think!
Attention to detail bar none plus the capacity for picking up technology quicker than your regular
teenager, Claire has a talent for surprising both us and our clients with information that proves we are
actually good and we do know what we’re doing! A fundamental corner stone to our own self belief, proof is
always in the data for any customer facing service industry and this takes focus and commitment together
with common sense and competence. Over and above that she is great fun to have in the building and keeps us
all well grounded. She’s just about to take her own first freefall parachute jump this summer, we’ll send
the earplugs to the pilot now!
Favourite Destination: The Mall of America, Minneapolis, USA. Who on earth could think of building a
shopping mall so big it has its own full scale theme park… indoors!
Independent and totally committed to what it takes to be a brilliant repats consultant, Hiba buries herself
in caring for the intimate of repatriation planning, demonstrating knowledge way beyond her only recently
joining us. Originating from the Lebanon, Heba thrives on the challenge to go one step beyond the norm and
she is our very own "Speedy Gonzalez" racing to the phone to help with anything that she can. Whatever she
does Hiba wants to do well and she cares - it's what makes her so special.
Favourite Destination: a night out in London
Dottie by name but definitely not by nature! Our very own whirlwind with a wonderful warm nature and a devilish sense of humour. Hard charging and results driven, Dotty knows how to make sure our customers get everything they want out of the company. With nearly 20 years experience, Dotty leads from the front responsible for building and enabling strong channel to significant revenue growth. Market focused and thoroughly immersed in trends and opportunities for customers needs she takes on board our customer engagement, direct marketing and customer prospects.
Jonathan is responsible for Meon's business development and sales strategy in the UK. Leading a
multidisciplined team. His charter is to develop service solutions for and implementations for Meon's
multichannel strategy, embracing leisure, business and specialist projects. Jono has a unique perspective
on client solutions, marketing and customer insight. Loves the outdoors, plays polo, he is an excellent clay
shot and he drives too fast. All packaged together it is difficult not to get swept up in his frenzied,
enthusiastic tour de force. A real power house in every sense.
Favourite Destination: Stars'n'Bars, Sports Bar, Monaco
Strong willed, resilient, reliable, loyal, enterprising, fiercely professional and a devil for detail. These are virtues that Anneke embodies as a versatile and enthusiastic problem solver who takes great pride in her team providing total quality service under pressure. Anneke coordinates and assists in the management, administration and the delivery of our executive clients needs; having a legacy of experience in event coordination, group travel, concierge and business travel support as well as having travelled the globe for both business and pleasure. Remarkably computer savvy, bright and intelligent, Anneke also has an exciting history of being responsible for a number of Formula 1 teams unique travel needs in a past life, enjoying the most demanding and deadline-driven sports environments. When you need someone to rely upon, and someone to fight your cause with initiative, intuition and a shrewd eye for exceeding customer value, then Anneke is the best of the best. She provides that fiery element that differentiates between just plain good and "exceptional".
When we see people that care - we always measure it against the bench mark of ‘our Jayne’. No challenge too difficult, no trouble too insurmountable, no need too demanding and no rock left unturned. A mentor for her team, Jayne is all about people, about caring, about relationships and sensitivity and about solving problems with a resilient empathy and a strong set of ideals. Mentoring can be increasingly vague or formulaic but with Jayne its a natural talent, with critical success being her benchmark for her investment of time effort and empathy. In the face of difficulties the out of hours help desk is here to fix and achieve the unthinkable; and that takes a special team with a special leader, one who's prepared to invest in the human side of business. People make things work not systems desks or telephones, and Jayne embodies the virtues of team leadership in dealing perfectly with an imperfect world. With her voracious appetite for learning, a demanding young family and a frequently hostile environment of outside influences requiring the most delicate navigation and care to get what her client needs, and when he needs it, Jayne sets the standard.