Travel Counsellors for Business boosts business development team

The company welcomes Ricky Gudgeon and Athenee Graham, who alongside the now seven-strong team will focus on supporting and driving new business to the corporate travel arm, enabling new clients to continue to enjoy seamless onboarding experiences and transition their employee travel requirements to Travel Counsellors for Business.

Senior Business Development Manager Athenee joins the company following a ten-year tenure at Corporate Travel Management and Newland Chase in senior sales roles. Similarly, Business Development Manager Ricky’s previous role at Corporate Travel Management followed a decade long career at Corporate Traveller USA.

The new hires join the team spearhead by Wayne Durkin, with Louise Jones joining the business earlier this year from CWT and Click Travel, and business development managers Ashley Averill, Hamid Ali, Joe Vickers and Joseph Higson continuing to bid and win new business in the SME sector.

Travel Counsellors for Business’ Director of Corporate, Mel Quinn, said; “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Athenee and Ricky to the business development team. Alongside our latest hires, the wealth of experience, passion for corporate travel and dedicated skillset between the team will be essential in not only supporting new corporate travel business, but also sees them work closely with our corporate Travel Counsellors to ensure that the strong relationships we forge with our clients right at the beginning of their journey with us continue to grow.

“With further growth for the team planned in 2025, and traveller wellbeing at the forefront of our client care approach, the sales and business development team is in a brilliant position to be able to set this agenda early, ensuring our current and would-be clients know that they are fully supported every step of the way.”

The new appointments follow a period of growth for Travel Counsellors for Business, with corporate travel management contributing nearly £300m to the major milestone marked this autumn, when Travel Counsellors reported the company had hit £1 billion in sales over a rolling 12-month period.