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President & CEO
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Most of my working life has been spent in and around yachts and shipping in various capacities. In 1998 I decided for family reasons to stop going to sea. I was at this time captain of one of the largest private motor yacht and senior captain of the owners fleet of 3 x 55-60 mtr yachts employing at that time over 60 crew members. I was instrumental in commissioning and constructing my own 65ft sail boat which was used as a charter yacht in the Caribbean and Easter Mediterranean for several years unit it was sold. This was a personal project I had been working on for some years and proved to be a satisfying and successful project. In a seemingly sideways move I went into partnership with a friend of mine who had an established yacht sales brokerage and opened up a charter division specializing in the charter and management of private mega yachts in Antibes in the South of France. During this period I renewed my acquaintance with my current partners - Diana & Steve Bloss - and made an investment in their travel company based out of Antibes, France. The company specialized in moving yacht crews around as well as putting together the travel packages for the yachts my company chartered. In 1992 I decided to open a division in the United States and during a visit to a charter yacht show in Fort Lauderdale, rented office space and set up a local office to handle our US enquiries. To facilitate the move I decided to let Mr. & Mrs. Bloss manage the Antibes office in my absence and in June of 1992 moved my family to Ft. Lauderdale which heralded the opening of what was to become - Worldwide Travel & Cruise Assoc., Inc. dba Worldwide Cruise Associates. Some time after this with the European Economy tanking I made the decision to close the Antibes office and move the key personnel over to the Florida office. It was at this time I gave a shareholding interest in the new company to my new partners. Since the opening of our US Office WWTCA has gone from strength to strength. The 911 drama caused us to pull back from the expansion we where in the midst of, but unlike so many others in the travel industry we where able to weather the downturn. Since that time WWTCA has continued to increase it's client base and expanded it's overseas charter and group interest. Currently as with the rest of the worldwide corporate travel industry we are weathering another downturn in business which as of April 1010 is starting to show signs of a recovery, fortunately we have a loyal and productive client base both here in the United States and abroad, especially in Europe, which has helped diversify our business leads. |
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