Mr. Reda Metwally was appointed to the position of Vice president, responsible for the operation of the Egypt Air duty free shops in April 2010.
A career executive in Egypt Air since 1985, Reda started out in the finance division of the airline company. He was appointed Financial Manager – United Kingdom in 1995 and continued in this role until 1999 when he continued his financial career in Cairo.
During the period from 2006 until 2008 Reda was involved in the exciting activities of creating the new internal airline – Egypt Air Express. He was appointed to the board of directors and acted as a project team member as well as the Financial Manager of this new company. In October 2008 Mr. Metwally transferred to Egypt Air Tourism & Duty Free Shops Company as Financial Manager, where he contributed to the hectic programme of shop redevelopments.
In his new role as Vice president, Reda is working to improve efficiencies inside the company. He is delighted to see that in October 2010, the company achieved its best ever monthly sales of $17.6 million.
ADAC is the owner and operator of Abu Dhabi Emirate Airports. Primarily comprised of Abu Dhabi International Airport, Al Ain International Airport and Al Bateen Airport, ADAC also operates a number of smaller airfields in the Emirate.
Michael’s previous experience covers a multitude of infrastructure disciplines including, Power, Rail, Roads, Waste Treatment and other reconstruction projects in environments as hostile as Iraq. It is in the area of Aviation where he has gained most of his experience, specifically working for Bechtel on the redevelopment of Curacao International Airport and New Doha International Airport.
Following exposure in the development and construction side of Aviation he moved to Mumbai International Airport following privatization of India’s 4 key airports. During his tenure the previously manually operated airport deployed a campus converged network solution, AODB and new FIDS solution, ERP solution and campus VoIP solution. Michael also project managed the International Terminal redevelopment from an IT perspective and turned IT into a revenue generator contributing back to MIAL’s bottom line.
Former Virgin Blue Airlines commercial chief, David Huttner, joined Nyras Ltd. London as Senior Vice in April 2010 integrationg Planely Spoken, an aviation and tourism consultancy he founded into Nyras.
David had previously spent nine years with the Virgin Group, initially with Virgin Express in Europe and latterly with Virgin Blue in Australia where he was part of the launch team.
After graduating from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, in 1988, he began working life in the maritime and fuel industries, serving with a number of major companies in the US and the UAE. David joined Virgin Express in Brussels in 1996 as an MBA intern (gaining his degree at INSEAD in France) and rose through various positions to become Deputy Director of Sales & Marketing.
In 2000, he was appointed Head of Commercial for Virgin Blue, becoming one of the three founding officers of the Virgin Group’s new Australian venture. He went on to lead strategy and communications and, subsequently, international development for the carrier.
David has undertaken business consultancy projects for a range of major aviation industry clients, including various airlines, Navitaire, Macquarie Airports, Jersey Airports, Virgin Group and Oman Airports. He has also been commissioned to work on aviation issues for the IFC (World Bank Group). He also previously served on the Board of Directors of Vueling Airlines in Barcelona.
Mr. Amr El-Ezabi was appointed Chairman of the Egyptian Tourist Authority on April 1st, 2007. He has a wealth of experience in the travel and tourism sector spanning over two decades in various leading industry roles.
Prior to that, El-Ezabi was Assistant Minister of Tourism, where he played a key role in representing the ministry in international tourism forums and exhibitions. He worked closely with the Minister on external marketing campaigns and activities conducted by Egyptian Tourist Offices.
His past positions within the ministry took him across the globe especially as Tourist Attaché in Paris, The Tourist Attaché at the Egyptian Tourist Office in Spain and The Tourist Counselor at Egyptian Tourist Office in Montreal.
Mr. El-Ezabi was born in Egypt in 1960. He holds a Master Degree in Sociology from the Sorbonne University in France, a Diploma of Modern French Literature from Paris University, and a Bachelor Degree in Science from Cairo University. He has a Tourist Guidance license from Egyptian Ministry of Tourism. He is fluent in Arabic, French, English and Spanish.
Ms. Cassotis is a specialist in high-level strategy for decision making at airports, air service development, commercial planning, public outreach and communications. She is an experienced project manager, conducting and overseeing strategic and contingency planning, airport marketing and route and profitability analysis projects for airports, private sector clients and government agencies around the world.
In the current economic environment, Ms. Cassotis is focusing her team on revenue generation for airports and systems of airports worldwide. She is currently working with several major US and European airports to enhance their commercial pre-marketing strategies.
She has been a member of the SH&E Airport Services team since leaving Logan International Airport 12 years ago. At Logan International Airport, Ms. Cassotis was responsible for the public outreach, internal and external communications and strategic planning for the Airside Improvements Planning Project and Logan Modernization.
She is currently a member of ACI’s Commercial Management Committee Trends Working Group. She holds her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts.
From its offices in London, Boston, New York and Chicago, SH&E provides trusted advice to airport executives and investors worldwide in the areas of commercial planning, air service development, forecasting, revenue enhancement, cargo marketing and operations, safety and security, environmental and climate change, system planning and economic impact analysis, and privatization.
Michael Cashin was appointed to the position of Project Director – Egypt Air Duty Shops Consultancy in February 2005 to lead the consultancy in its seven year contract. In this period Egypt Air has seen considerable growth and development with sales rising from $50 million to $165 million since then. Further considerable growth is anticipated.
Michael joined the Aer Rianta International parent company, Aer Rianta – Dublin Airport in 1967. He was a project team member in setting up the Dubai Duty Free Shop in 1983 where he gained his first experience in the travel retail business. In 1988, he transferred to Moscow as Director Finance and project team member in setting up Moscow Duty Free. Over the following ten years he set up and managed a number of companies in Russia & Ukraine before heading to Karachi in Pakistan. In 1999 Michael returned to financial matters joining a consultancy team assisting the development of Sofia Airport, Bulgaria. Since 2005 he has worked in Egypt.
Michael is married with two grown daughters.
Michael Barrett started his career in 1995 as a journalist at European news channel Euronews in Lyon before joining the network’s marketing department. Since then he has worked in both media and new media, as well as for an international NGO, specialising in fundraising, marketing and communications.
Michael joined TFWA as Conference & Research Manager in 2006, taking on responsibility for the organisation of the TFWA World Exhibition and TFWA Asia Pacific conferences in Cannes and Singapore as well as the annual MEADFA conference and the inaugural China’s Century Conference held in Beijing in March 2013. Following his relocation to India in July 2010, he was appointed Executive Officer for the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA).
Michael is also Director of Fairetail CRM, a marketing agency he set up in 2011, which provides consumer communication solutions for NGOs, charities and social enterprises. The company operates the solidarity travel and tourism website Soulcialtravel.com.
Before joining King Power in April 2003, Sunil spent over twelve years with the Weitnauer Group (now Dufry) as Chief Operating Offi cer Asia Pacific and Middle East, Managing Director for Wietnauer Singapore and General Manager for Scotts Weitnauer, Travellers Duty Free and Sincere Watch Duty Free. Between 1984 and 1990 Sunil was General Manager Duty Free at the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). He is a board member of companies in Singapore, UK, France and New Zealand and was elected President of APTRA in 2007.
Roland Stieger joined Travel Retail in July 2011 as the Head of Sales at Nestlé ITR. Upon graduating from university in 1998, he joined Nestlé’s international management trainee program and has since been posted in several countries across Asia.
After the first assignment in Pakistan as a sales trainee and subsequently confectionery brand manager, he moved on to Indonesia to head the CCSD and Trade Marketing department. He was then called to the Corporate Head Office to be the liaison with ASEAN markets and China and was tasked with the development of Nestlè’s corporate strategy to address the low-income consumer opportunity. The next assignment was in Thailand as the business director for the dairy and coffee creamer division.
He has implemented category management projects in a number of countries and categories with various international customers including Tesco, Carrefour and Casino.
Roland holds a masters degree of the University of St.Gallen and is a Swiss national. He is currently based in Vevey.
Steve was appointed CEO of Delhi Duty Free in April 2011 where he is responsible for all aspects of the business. Since its inception Delhi Duty Free has grown significantly, outperforming projections on a monthly basics and are well above the 2011 actual sales.
Prior to this position, Steve held numerous top management positions with duty free operations around the Middle East, under ARI-ME management. He was General Manager/CEO of Bahrain Duty Free Shops, between 2007 and 2011 where he drove a complete overhaul of all aspects of the business. He has also headed up operations for Aer Rianta International in Oman, Pakistan and Russia. Steve started his career in the hotel, leisure and catering business in Ireland in the early 80s. He gained experience in airport and airline catering in Ireland as well as hotel and industrial catering in the Middle East before joining Aer Rianta in 1996.
