OUR COMMITTEE
The TIME Board is supported by a committee of dedicated, passionate travel and tourism industry representatives.
Dave Fordyce
Dave Fordyce joined the industry in early 2000, working for a wholesale travel company Travelplan Holidays. When Travelplan was acquired by House of Travel in 2001, Dave had a number of roles within the business, from negotiating airline commercial contracts through to managing the Air Consolidation unit. Dave became Managing Director of Travelplan Holidays in 2006 a position he retained until he left in 2011.
During the next three years Dave was the marketing manager at First Travel Group before a brief stint with Air New Zealand as the Head of Ancillary. In 2015, Dave returned to House of Travel where he currently is the Chief Operating Officer of the company’s internal Air, Land and Cruise wholesale operation.
Dave is passionate about partnerships in the industry and how collaboration between businesses can bring outstanding results. He’s also passionate about his team and developing and challenging them to achieve their full potential as leaders in the industry. Dave loves numbers and metrics and uses these to ensure that the business is achieving and ensuring that corrective action is taken when things may not be quite on course. Finally, Dave first and foremost, with his wife are parents to their 2 teenage kids.
Grant Bevin
Grant has a background in the airline industry, starting his career as a commercial trainee with Air New Zealand, followed by a decade with Lufthansa.
In 1992, he launched Business World Travel in Auckland, eventually selling to UK-based ATPI in 2017. Grant is Managing Director of ATPI NZ Ltd. Although a specialist TMC, ATPI in New Zealand has a diversified portfolio with groups/ sports as well as a significant luxury leisure division. The company is a Virtuoso member and Grant sits on Collaboration Groups with Virtuoso’s most established members in Australia.
Grant is a founding shareholder in First Travel Group where he currently chairs FTG 1999 Ltd, is a life-member of the German-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce and has completed the Advanced Management Programme at Wharton Business School in Philadelphia.
Joseph O’Sullivan
Joseph first entered the travel industry 30 years ago when, in partnership with his brother Donal, they founded Cruise World, an independent cruise wholesale and representative company based in New Zealand.
The goal was to provide expertise and partnership to NZ agents and to assist them to recognise the potential to grow sales in the fledging cruise industry. At the same time they started Travel Marketing Brochurenet.
Completely client focussed and leveraging off their understanding of the needs of the travel and tourism industries the business soon grew into New Zealand’s largest brochure and collateral distribution company.
Then 20 years ago Joseph with his two partners set up the small ship luxury and expedition wholesaler and representative company, Cruise Traveller, in the Australian market. He is Managing Director of that enterprise.
View Joseph’s LinkedIn profile
Lindy Christian
Lindy has 30+ years experience in senior and executive roles within the industry in NZ and Australia covering retail, wholesale, consolidation, product procurement both air and land , product development, product database development & management. Her career started in the 80’s with the launch of Budget Travel ,one of the original “travel disruptors “ in the NZ travel industry. Budget Travel was part of the Gulliver’s Travel Group , which grew via organic growth and a range of acquisitions to be the largest vertically integrated travel company in NZ. Lindy was part of the executive management team who developed and managed the business through this phase of business transformation , culminating in the successful listing of The Gulliver’s Group on the NZX in 2005.
The Group was then purchased by Australian interests, Lindy moved to the role of General Manager , Global Product Purchasing (wholesale) for the larger Australasian entity, The Stella Travel Group, which after 2 years acquired and merged into the Jetset Travel Group. She continued in the greatly expanded role and focused on the strategic development required to merge all the product procurement processes and systems while ensuring a strong commercial focus was maintained. The Jetset Travel Group was rebranded Helloworld Travel in 2014.
A key to Lindy’s ongoing success over 30 years was being supported by strong mentors at stages of her career but also her ability to choose the right people to work with her and with them develop strong successful teams to manage the range of functions she was responsible for during this period of constant transformation.
Lindy left Helloworld in 2016 and moved back to NZ permanently after having commuted between Sydney and Auckland for 5 years while she managed large teams in both sides of the Tasman.
Now a partner in Our World Ltd in Auckland ,a part-time role focused on the strategic development of the business. The role allows Lindy to participate in TIME(NZ) as she firmly believes that mentors can contribute in a very positive way to the ongoing development of our people, the cornerstone to the success of the NZ travel industry.
- Bachelor of Commerce – Auckland University
- Executive Management Program- Stanford University , Calif, USA
- Chairperson: OTOC- Overseas Tour Operators Council -5 years
Daniel (Dan) Wright
Daniel (Dan) has spent his entire working career in the travel industry. Having graduated from the International Travel College of New Zealand, his first ever full-time job was with JUCY Rentals, in their reservations team. He says this was the perfect first role in travel with a fun and thriving brand and team.
After 18 months with JUCY, Dan took off to Europe for a Contiki and a “six-month” working holiday in London; naturally this turned into a 10-year stay. Throughout that time, Dan worked for Flight Centre in the hustle and bustle of their flagship Oxford Street store, before stints in the luxury and special interest sectors.
In 2018, Dan joined the South Australian Tourism Commission, spearheading their trade marketing strategy throughout the UK and Northern Europe. Three years later, in the midst of a COVID pandemic and with the first of his two children on the way, Dan and his wife made the decision to move home to Auckland. Luckily, Tourism Australia were hiring at the time and he landed his current role, where he leads all things trade and partnerships for the Kiwi market. Dan is obsessed with telling the Australian story and cherishes the relationships made throughout the travel industry.
View Daniel’s LinkedIn profile.
Deb Gyde
Deb Gyde is an Experienced General Manager with a demonstrated history of working across multiple sectors including airline, travel management, financial services and more recently telecommunications and ICT.
Prior to her current role at One New Zealand, Deb was General Manager Customer Partnerships for AMP Wealth Management, part of the AMP Executive team and before that she held the role of GM Corporate for Helloworld, leading teams across APX and Go C&I.
Deb’s travel career started at Air New Zealand where she spent 19 years in senior management roles including Senior Manager National Cargo, Senior Manager Corporate and SME, National Sales Manager, Customer Experience Manager, and National Business Development Manager. With a strong passion for the Travel Industry, Deb stays connected through her role on the T.I.M.E committee and as a mentor to aspiring travel professionals.
Angela Mills
With over two decades of dedicated service in the dynamic world of travel, Angela has had the privilege of witnessing the industry’s remarkable evolution and contributing to its growth. Her journey has been one of constant learning and development, which aligns seamlessly with her passion for fostering the growth of aspiring professionals in the travel sector.
Angela’s voyage in the travel industry commenced in 1997 when she embarked on an exhilarating career within the finance team. This experience taught her the importance of financial acumen in the travel business, and she quickly realised that the industry was not merely about destinations but also the meticulous management of resources.
She then transitioned to the sports tours team, a shift that allowed her to combine her passion for sports and travel. This unique role provided her with insights into the intricacies of organising seamless travel experiences for sports enthusiasts, underlining the industry’s versatility.
Subsequently, Angela found her niche in conference and incentive travel for corporate businesses. In this capacity, she honed her skills in crafting tailor-made travel solutions that catered to the specific needs and objectives of corporate clients. This role reinforced her belief in the pivotal role of travel in fostering business success and employee motivation.
Since 2008, Angela has been privileged to be a part of the Travel Managers Group in a senior operations role, and became a senior leader within the Flight Centre business when they purchased Travel Managers in 2017. Here, she has had the opportunity to assist independent business owners in the travel industry to thrive and expand their enterprises. Guiding these entrepreneurs through the intricacies of the travel business has been a deeply rewarding experience and has solidified her commitment to nurturing talent and expertise in the industry.
Angela’s journey is a testament to the vast potential for growth and development in the travel sector. She firmly believes that her experience in various facets of the travel industry has equipped her with a unique perspective that can be invaluable to individuals seeking to carve their path in this exciting field.
View Angela’s LinkedIn profile
David Caldwell
Across a 25+ year executive career David has excelled in driving strategic outcomes and delivering growth, bringing a deep passion for building high-performing teams and cultures focused on achieving successful outcomes for all shareholders and stakeholders.
Known for his ability to accelerate results through quickly identifying areas of opportunity and connecting functional resources at every level of the business to focus on key strategic objectives, he has delivered value across a diverse range of competitive sectors, including travel & hospitality, consulting, and financial services.
Highlights include spearheading the 2012 start-up of All Blacks Tours as General Manager of Sports Travel and Hospitality (STH) New Zealand and achieving a Deloitte Top 50 Finalist award as the 5th Fastest Growing business in New Zealand 2016. In 2019 David oversaw the new business expansion of STH Australia with a successful 6-year partnership agreement with Rugby Australia and more recently a 5-year partnership with Tennis Australia (Aussie Open).
As a Director & General Manager of STH New Zealand (part of the STH Group) the business successfully negotiated 3 renewals with New Zealand Rugby over a 12 year period, a partnership agreement with New Zealand Cricket creating NZC Tours, delivered three Rugby World Cups in England 2015, Japan 2019, France 2023 and a Lions Series in 2017, whilst helping traveling fans attend over 100 All Blacks games both domestically and internationally.
As Director & General Manager for Sports Travel and Hospitality New Zealand and a member of the Global Executive Team his primary focus was creating, implementing, and executing the strategic direction at global and local level.
In this next chapter of his career David is the Founder & Managing Director focused on his own business, Front Row Experiences, offering clients bespoke & highly personalised sporting event experiences.
Sarah Porter
Sarah Porter’s career is broad based and colourful, spending 10+ years in the media and sponsorship industry, before running the supermarket on Niue Island, then returning to NZ and falling into the travel industry.
For over a decade Sarah has worked in sales for small ship wholesaler Wild Earth Travel, and more recently also representing Niue Island. For Sarah, the common factor throughout is connecting with people, storytelling and delivering results. Sarah has always been involved in not-for-profit and community initiatives and the TIME programme is a great way to contribute to an industry she’s passionate about. Alongside raising two teenage boys, Sarah and her husband can be found on or in the ocean, and off exploring every continent on the globe.
Courtnay-Jane Lowe
CJ joined Air New Zealand in 2006 where she started her airline journey in the heart and soul of the airline as cabin crew. For the last 15 years she has been in the Sales channel where she has held multiple roles from SME, to Corporate, to Trade. She is currently Senior Sales Manager Retail/TMC where she has the privilege of leading the Indirect Distribution partnerships, contracting, delivery, and sales team for NZ Region.
Margaret Spiro – Programme Manager NZ
Margaret has many years of experience in the travel industry in sales & marketing roles across a range of industry’s including retail, wholesale, cruise, events and National Tourism offices. Apart from a short break whilst living overseas, travel & tourism is the only career journey Marg has been on.
She says being involved with TIME in NZ since the beginning has been so rewarding and watching the industry’s future leaders develop and grow and just being part of their amazing journey has been incredible.
View Margaret’s LinkedIn profile
