Virtuoso restructures with global product & event divisions

Virtuoso has announced changes within its senior leadership team and a strategic realignment designed to position the consortium for growth and capacity for product innovation.

With senior executive Travis McElfresh announcing his departure last month, the luxury consortium has reimagined its organizational structure.

With a focus on creating consistency across the nine geographic regions it serves, Virtuoso has named Thatcher Brown as its senior vice president, global products.

The new division encompasses consumer, digital, design and network products, said Virtuoso in a press release.

“By consolidating all products under one unified team, Virtuoso plans to capitalize on synergies and efficiencies across its offerings, enabling further development of products that can serve its diverse and rapidly growing network,” the organization says.

Brown comes to Virtuoso with an extensive background in developing successful luxury hospitality and lifestyle brands on a global scale.

Most recently, Brown served as chief commercial officer and head of joint operations for Marc-Henry Cruise Holdings, joint owner and operator of Four Seasons Yachts.

There, he led the go-to-market planning and implementation of global sales, marketing, revenue and deployment strategies and acted as the lead operational liaison with Four Seasons counterparts.

Prior to that, Brown was CCO of Explora Cruises as part of the start-up executive team, as well as president of Dream Cruises and managing director of Crystal Cruises Asia, where he successfully grew market share with long-haul Asia source markets.

His previous experience also includes senior-level roles at Costa Cruises, Jumeirah Group, Four Seasons and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.

Additionally, Virtuoso veteran Jennifer Campbell will now focus entirely on the organization’s growing roster of events, having been named senior vice-president, Global Events.

Campbell will continue to build her team in each region, ensuring relevance and consistency across all regional and global events, while also delivering value to attendees.

“Jennifer’s deep understanding of our brand, her strategic vision and her unwavering commitment to excellence have been instrumental in making Virtuoso events the industry benchmark,” said Brad Bourland, chief operating officer for Virtuoso. “She and her growing team will work to meet the increasing demand for the exceptional, unique and genuine interactions that define Virtuoso events.”

Bourland continued: “Travis McElfresh was instrumental in establishing the product discipline within Virtuoso and leaves a legacy for us to build upon as he departs to focus on family. We couldn’t be more pleased to welcome Thatcher Brown to build the future, tapping into his extensive experience in driving luxury product development and strategy, keeping our stakeholders and their customers in the center of all decisions. We are refining our structure to be more efficient, agile and responsive, enabling us to better serve the diverse and evolving needs of our global network, and Thatcher will have a strong hand in that. These changes demonstrate our commitment to our partners and members, continuous improvement and our dedication to maintaining Virtuoso’s leadership position in luxury travel.”

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