Meet
your Summer Camp Trainers!
Click on one of the Trainers' names
below to read their biographies.
Dan Palley |
Dan
Palley was the first employee hired when TRAMS,
Inc. was founded in 1986. Fresh out of computer
school, Dan ignored the advice of his parents
and friends and abandoned his job with a Fortune
500 company to go to a small start-up with
an uncertain future. 20 years later, Dan is
still the head of all stuff technical at TRAMS,
including overseeing the small army of developers
that create the products that make up the
TRAMS line.
He's considering training
his son, Nick, to program so that he can look
forward to his retirement in the not-so-near
future.
|
Frank Diaz |
Frank
Diaz is from a manufacturing environment where
he was the traveler. His area of responsibility
for TRAMS is customer support, education and
testing. While working full-time, Frank became
a CTA. Based in Los Angeles he conducts WebEx
classes, in conjunction with being a presenter
at Technology and Marketing University (TMU),
and Summer Camp. Frank’s off hours are
spent umpiring high school fast pitch softball
and watching his grandson at motocross events.
|
Helen Lewis |
Helen
Lewis, TCC, CTC, began her career in the Travel
Industry in Northern California as an agent
in 1982. In 1991, having moved to Illinois,
she switched to back office accounting and
TRAMS for DOS. 1997 found her in Georgia working
for two Travel Agencies as their TRAMS Back
Office operator. After earning her TCC designation
in 1998, she became a trainer for TRAMS, Inc.
in the Atlanta Training Center. Now, back
in Illinois, she still works for the Georgia
agencies remote and is one of the Chicago
and WebEx trainers for ClientBase and TRAMS
Back Office.
|
Jeanne Fick |
Jeanne
Fick has been with TRAMS, Inc. for 9 years
and in education for over 40. In her capacity
as Training Manager, she conducts classes
in TRAMS products, as well as implements new
training programs and curriculum. Also responsible
for documentation, Jeanne compiles the Help
Files found inside TRAMS programs, and is
responsible for the Recorded Trainings and
Knowledge Base found on the www.trams.com
web site. Jeanne is a former Peace Corps volunteer,
and enjoys hiking, sports, and helping out
in the community. |
Ken Jonker |
Ken
Jonker is one of our most senior executives--that
is in age. He has been with TRAMS for over
nine years. While his background is finance
and he is a CPA, his first love is sales and
marketing. He grew a small business in to
a large successful travel agency in a few
years after he made the switch from finance
to sales/marketing. As a heavy user of earlier
versions of ClientBase, he is able to relate
well to our current base of customers using
ClientBase. His primary responsibilities in
the company are business relations including
our consortia relationships, our Sales Representatives
and Marketing Managers. He also aggressively
pursues new Live Connect suppliers. Ken is
also the primary author of ClientBase News
Bulletin.
|
Lindsay Chomyn |
Lindsay
Chomyn has worked with TRAMS, Inc since 1996
in assorted positions. She currently holds
the position of Director of Operations for
TMA . Lindsay's background is Accounting/Management
and she has spent some time as a travel agent.
Her background makes working at TRAMS a perfect
fit and it shows in her enthusiasm for her
daily work at TRAMS.
Lindsay and her husband, Chris
spend their time outside of work trying to
keep up with their two young daughters Anneke
6 and Alexis 4. One look at Lindsay's desk,
covered in pictures of the family, tells you
how much she enjoys motherhood.
|
Lloyd West |
Lloyd
West has been with TRAMS in Los Angeles for
the past 8 years. He started as the Support
Desk Manager and is currently the and is currently
the International Accounts & Special Projects
Manager.
Lloyd has a varied and far
ranging past that centered on a 22-year career
with the US Air Force. He flew fighter aircraft
for most of that career, spending most of
his time in the F-111 and the F-15. That distinguished
career included a combat tour in South East
Asia, where he was awarded 22 Air Medals and
3 Distinguished Flying Crosses. When his Air
Force career came to an end, Lloyd added an
Associates of Arts Degree in Travel &
Tourism to his MBA in Marketing. Armed with
these new skills he entered the Travel Industry
as a Travel Agency owner and manager.
He and his wife have been
operating and managing the same agency in
the Seattle area the past 20 years. Lloyd
was one of the first users of the TRAMS Back
Office Product starting back in 1988. He is
still actively involved in his agency's operations
and still performs many of the TRAMS everyday
functions for his agency. Before joining TRAMS
in Los Angeles, Lloyd was also a TRAMS Certified
Consultant in the western US working with
hundreds of TRAMS users.
|
Marcie Karavakis |
Marcie
Karavakis is a founding member of the 'TRAMS
International Team for Sales' and has been
with TRAMS, Inc. for 17 years. In her previous
lives she's sold advertising, real estate
and has been a headhunter. Her territory is
the Mid West and Canada and she's acquiring
a Canadian accent by spending so much time
there. Marcie lives in downtown Chicago with
her 75 lb standard poodle 'Curly Lambeau'
(you can take the girl out of Wisconsin, but
you can't take Wisconsin out of the girl)
and when not selling software to travel agents
she can be found plotting and scheming about
her next vacation, opening a bottle of nice
wine or planning the next "MarcieGras",
the perpetual celebration of her 29th birthday.
|
Mindy Schwab |
Mindy
Schwab has been an employee of TRAMS since
January 2002 and her primary responsibility
is as a ClientBase trainer teaching WebEx
classes. Originally a high school history
teacher, she switched to retail travel where
she gained experience as an agent, a manager,
and an operations manager. Upon leaving the
agency it was a natural fit to become an independent
consultant/trainer with an emphasis on ClientBase
products and she believes that these past
experiences have proven invaluable in her
current role. Through personal experience
and observation she understands the value
to an agency of a rich, clean database of
clients and believes that the ClientBase products
provide the key to success.
On a personal note, she has always loved to
travel and working as an agent afforded her
the opportunity to see the world. One particular
highlight – two African safaris within
a six month period! And a visit to her favorite
city, London, is never complete without a
show or two per day! |
Nick Mageloff |
Nick
Mageloff, ECC, TCC is the President of GRX,
an agency based in Central Florida. Nick has
been part-time in outside sales in the travel
industry since 1989. He personally specializes
in Affinity Group Cruises and has over 20
years of experience as a computer consultant
and developer - functioning also as a technology
consultant. We all need more time to relax
and enjoy life; and with the technology available
today... we can! Nick and GRX have been enjoying
the benefits of a paperless office since 2002
and have been using ClientBase and TRAMS Back
Office since 2005. Even while we are on a
cruise we can access everything for Client
Base to booking confirmations and beyond.
Nick and his wife Sharon reside
in the Orlando area and love to cruise. Nick's
personal hobbies (outside of cruising) include
walking, gourmet cooking, movies and any electronic
gadgets that make life more fun, easy or productive.
|
Sarani Gaines |
Sarani
Gaines is currently our TMA Operations Manager.
As a member of the TRAMS family for the past
18 years, Sarani's roles have been varied
- from teaching the TRAMS introductory training,
to the special topic classes at Tech U (TMU)
and Summer Camp; to managing the accounting
support desk, to overseeing the TRAMS Certified
Consulting program to managing the Quality
Assurance Department. With her calm, no-nonsense
approach, the Support team still relies on
her to assist with advanced accounting support
challenges.
Her spare time is split between
chasing and spoiling her nieces and nephews,
and doing her patriotic duty to keep the economy
afloat with shopping. |
Sharon Meyer |
Sharon
Meyer, CTC, has been an integral part of the
success of TRAMS, Inc. since she joined the
company 21 years ago. As a front line agent
the 5 years prior, she used that experience
to help market, train, and support the TRAMS
Back Office program. She is now EVP and the
ClientBase Product Manager, where she is involved
in every aspect of the development, marketing,
training and support of the ClientBase programs.
A highly regarded trainer, she has helped
agents adapt to new technologies at dozens
of industry conferences and events. Even after
training thousands of agents, the favorite
part of Sharon's job is helping Travel Agencies
benefit from technology.
Happily married to Steve, she is also the
mother of 3 awesome kids, Jordan, Austin and
Dylan. Sharon loves to read, cook, travel
and spend lots of time cheering on the kids
at water polo, lacrosse and school activities.
|
Shirley Sweeney |
Shirley
Sweeney has been with TRAMS, Inc. over 10
years and has passed her CTA exam. Prior to
working at TRAMS, she was in the Aerospace
industry. Shirley has a variety of specialties
as a senior support technician at TRAMS, including
hardware and interface. She is one of the
key trainers in the Los Angeles Training Center.
She also teaches live WebEx classes, and at
Technology Marketing University and TRAMS
Summer Camp.
Shirley is married to Andy,
and will be welcoming their second grandson
in May 2007. Her first grandson, Sean was
born on July 1, 2005. She loves being a grandmother,
and is an avid reader and enjoys playing with
her dog, Duke. |
Scott Caddow |
Scott
Caddow's passion for the travel industry began
while he was still attending college at UCSD
back in the early 1980's. He began by organizing
large group and corporate events, including
the Balloon and Polo Festival held annually
in La Quinta, California. In 1989 he opened
his first travel agency in this quaint desert
community, Firstworld Travel. During his time
in La Quinta, he served as President of the
La Quinta Chamber of Commerce, and was very
active in the business community.
In 1992, he returned to his college town of
San Diego and founded Travel Concepts, Ltd.
Travel Concepts served San Diego’s business
travelers for over 10 years, and was a leader
in Corporate, Leisure and wholesale travel.
In 1997, he acquired a leisure travel agency,
The Cruise Place. With the leisure experience
of The Cruise Place added to his family of
travel agencies, Scott's staff is now positioned
to fully take care of all of its clients needs.
The Cruise Place strives to be large enough
to provide the strength, stability and buying
power our clients require, but small enough
to be flexible, nimble and move with the changing
times. In 2005 a large cruise only company
was acquired in Tucson, Arizona--which soon
became Scott's home and corporate headquarters.
The last few years have been devoted to growing
the company's expansive group program and
clientele. Clear Channel Cruises is a private
label program serving 1200 radio stations
across the country under the Clear Channel
umbrella. The core of these programs is the
annual "Oldies Music" and "Country
Music” cruises that draw over 1000 guests.
The Cruise Place has also been expanding into
Culinary Cruises with numerous Celebrity Chef
Cruises, Winery Cruises and general Culinary
Programs. |
Teresa Giacalone |
Teresa
Giacalone is TRAMS' Metro NY, NJ, CT, FL and
PA sales representative. Teresa graduated
from State University of New York at Albany
in 1986 with a degree in English and Business,
and previously worked as a sales manager for
a travel insurance company, managed law firms
and also worked for an advertising agency.
Having grown up in suburbia New York, Teresa
now lives in Connecticut. When not working
for TRAMS, she can be found either running,
spending time with her friends and family
or her three cats.
|
Linda
Pannekeet |
Linda
Pannekeet works in the Los Angeles office
as the TBO Product Manager, also managing
Client Relations. During Linda's 18 year tenure,
she has gained an in-depth understanding of
the applications offered by TRAMS and how
that relates to customer's needs. This experience
has helped Linda make an impact in her role
at TRAMS with regards to agency implementation
procedures, delivering customer's concerns
and requests to the development team resulting
in improved customer experiences with the
TRAMS Product line.
Some of Linda's other interests include: Cooking,
swimming, and of course, shopping.
|
Kathy
Humen
|
Kathy
Humen is Director of Supplier Relations for
TRAMS Marketing Alliance (TMA). In this role
she is responsible for the creation and implementation
of integrated marketing initiatives with preferred
suppliers, including email, direct mail and
web presence, based on consumer segmentation
analysis.
Previously, she served on the team to create
and implement Jurni Network, where she served
as head of training and event planning.
Prior to her roles at Jurni, she had 20 years
of travel experience with Sabre Holdings,
in a variety of roles, ranging from managing
cruise and tour distribution products, to
managing relationships with a variety of strategic
leisure partners, and managing automation
training teams.
|
Brent
Hubele
|
Brent
Hubele, CTC, MCC, is currently the VP Partner
Relations for TRAMS Marketing Alliance (TMA).
Brent has over 20 years experience in the
travel industry as a cruise agency owner,
travel consortium president, and various positions
within Sabre and Jurni. As a veteran of over
125 worldwide cruises, Brent joins the TRAMS
team with a wealth of experience in the leisure
travel space.
|
Dana
Stewart
|
Dana
Stewart celebrated her 16th anniversary with
TRAMS on April 1st this year. Born in Los
Angeles, Dana is one of those rare native
Californians. Prior to joining TRAMS, Dana
was employed by Continental Airlines as a
customer support manager and international
airline reservationist - preparation that
suited her perfectly for her career with TRAMS.
Dana started her career with TRAMS as a support/admin
employee, then moved into a training role.
Due to the rapid growth of the company, it
became apparent we needed an interface specialist,
and Dana moved to that position. She developed
the Interface Appointment Concept which eventually
lead to the birth of the Interface Department.
The name of the department has sense been
changed to GDS Integration and handles not
only interface, but , also ClientBase Merge
to PNR and PNR import issues.
When not working, Dana enjoys spending time
with her family and friends. Her dream is
to one day work remote from a warm beach.
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