Travelocity

A 25-year veteran of the travel industry, Paul Nelson always has a story to tell. Some may say that the fish gets bigger every time a tale is told, but Nelson knows the truth behind his anecdotes. Although this senior vice president of partner marketing claims to have been the travel agent of Christopher Columbus, the Rolodex on his desk reveals a bit of a different story. Nelson can thumb through his contacts, picking the who's who of the travel industry, but that's expected of a leader who negotiates with travel suppliers on a daily basis. The charge of running the partner marketing team is somewhat of a grab bag of responsibilities. Nelson's team sells all media on Travelocity, and he contracts, operationalizes and merchandizes the hotel products. Nelson has held a variety of executive positions at leading travel companies, including U.S. Travel, Paradise Marketing and Hawaiian Adventures. He joined Preview Travel in 1991, enlisting with the Travelocity team after the company acquisition in 1999. He earned his Master of Art's degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University and his Bachelor's degree from St. Olaf College. Nelson also served in Vietnam, becoming a decorated officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. His knowledge of the travel industry is paralleled only by his personal travel experiences. Among his many adventures, Nelson has watched the traffic on the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War, while hiding in the mountains of Laos; he also served as a tour leader for teenagers on a six-week camping tour of Scandinavia. Now that's an adventure!

Jeff Glueck oversees marketing activities for Travelocity, including advertising, merchandising, customer experience, design, personalization, CRM, search engine marketing and editorial content, business development, and community sites including IgoUgo.com. Since assuming the role in January 2004, Jeff has helped Travelocity launch a new site design and interface, a new logo, the wildly popular Roaming Gnome Advertising campaign, the Travelocity Guarantee and Customer Bill of Rights, as well as a new tagline: "You'll never roam alone." Previously, Jeff led the product team that built Travelocity's dynamic packaging platform, which has helped more than one million travelers build their complete trip, while saving time and money by booking flight, hotel, car and activities together. Prior to Travelocity, he helped found and launch Site59, where he served as chief strategic officer and VP Business and Product Development. Site59 became the leader in the US "last minute deals" arena and won numerous honors for innovation. In March 2002, Site 59 was acquired by Travelocity. Earlier in his career, Jeff served as advisor to the Ministers of trade and travel of Peru, Venezuela and Bolivia as well as a White House Fellow in Washington D.C. working on international trade and economic development financing for Asia and the Middle East. Under Glueck's direction, Travelocity has been recognized for its business rejuvenation, including "Turnaround Company of the Year" from the American Business Awards, and a Gold Effie from the American Marketing Association for best retail advertising campaign in the USA. Glueck, named to Advertising Age's 2007 "40 under 40," holds degrees from Harvard University and Oxford University, where he was honored as a Marshall Scholar.

John Mills has never bought into the idea of the stereotypical finance guy - but don't let the calm, cool and collected disposition fool you. Rising through the ranks of Travelocity's parent company Sabre Holdings, John was named Travelocity's CFO in July 2005 and is responsible for financial management of Travelocity's North America and Asia businesses. His day-to-day to-do list ranges from budgeting and investor relations support one hour, to strategy development, cost control initiatives, business/investment analysis, and credit card processing, the next.

Chief Product Officer John Vars oversees company strategy, community, and the development and implementation of new products and technology at Dogster, Inc. John is constantly sniffing out opportunities to introduce new products and technologies to the Dogster and Catster communities. He also manages the company's engineering and community teams as they build those products and keep the sites up and purring. John earned his chops as a software engineer, web producer, and product manager working for global travel company Preview Travel, which merged with Travelocity in 2000. In 2002, he combined his love of travel and coding by becoming the Sydney, Australia-based manager and lead software engineer for Travelocity's international partnerships and joint ventures in the Asia-Pacific and Europe. Growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota, Vars' pets included dogs, cats, hamsters, bunnies, and fish--he kept eight aquariums in his room as a kid. His mother, who worked as a part-time zoo curator, also cared for exotic animals at home, including monkeys, lion cubs, and kodamundis.

Adam Polansky is a Senior Information Architect with Travelocity, a Sabre Holdings company, where he concentrates on internet applications for the cruise industry. Prior to that, his work as an independant contractor brought him to such firms as Texas Instruments, i2 Technologies and The Fleming Companies. Adam served as Senior Information Architect at Rare Medium Inc. an international Internet business consultancy. His efforts helped to define the role accross the company's many locations worldwide serving as both a practical mentor and a direct instructor to those transitioning into the role of IA. Active in the broader community of the discipline as well, he is a member of the Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture, and the American Society of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), where he served on the first advisory committee for the SIG-Information Architecture. He is a charter member of both the former Dallas Internet Society and the Dallas/Fort Worth Internet Marketing Association. He has been an invited speaker at international functions on Information Architecture and is a regular contributor to various forums within the discipline including the SIGIA list serve that he helped found and which currently boasts over 3000 subscribers. Before joining Rare Medium, he served as creative director for Graphic Communicators Advertising in Dallas, where he supervised advertising art. As Operations Manager with Midway Press in Dallas, he oversaw the printing of more than 70 monthly and weekly newsprint periodicals. He also managed Sales Service for Epoch Solutions, one of the oldest business forms distributors in the country, where he served as primary contact for national clients in the chemical, petroleum, industrial roofing and insurance industries. Mr. Polansky's experience also includes the Radio Shack Division of the Tandy Corporation as a Retail Sales Manager. Honorably discharged from the United States Air Force, he holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Bryan joined the BRO team in 2006 after years as a dedicated volunteer, including extensive creative communications work for the No on Constitutional Amendment 36 campaign and 2005 legislative campaigns as well as serving as a board member on the Basic Rights Equality PAC for a year and a half. Bryan brings to BRO a strong background in electronic base building, emerging media including web and email-based communications, podcasting, blogging and more. He also has extensive experience developing messaging for print and online advertising campaigns for a range of corporate clients, including Cingular, Adobe, Travelocity, Red Bull and Kettle Foods. Before joining Basic Rights Oregon, Bryan worked as the Art Director for a local e-marketing firm and founded and managed a full service web, e-marketing and design firm. Bryan's strong background in communication and creative leadership makes him an invaluable asset to BRO team.

Chris McAndrews joined Travelocity.com in March 2000 and supervises vacation packages, cruises, content, community and media sales. Previously, he served as executive vice president of interactive marketing for Preview Travel. Prior to that, McAndrews was vice president of national accounts and served in executive marketing positions at International Data Group, a high-tech publisher.

Michael Stacy joined Travelocity.com in 1998 and manages advertising, public relations, customer database and direct marketing initiatives. Prior to Travelocity.com, Stacy worked as marketing manager for Microsoft, where he was involved with the launch of Sidewalk.com, a collection of Internet city guides. Before Microsoft, he held positions with Burlington Inc. and Milliken & Company.

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