TRAMS Summer Camp 2007
see it all come to life!
Trainers
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 formal client education, WebEx classes, in conjunction with being a presenter at Technology and Marketing University (TMU), and Summer Camp. In his spare time Frank umpires both varsity high school softball, Little League Baseball, and still has time to coach Girls Under 16 soccer team with his daughter. Frank now enjoys photographing his 15 year old grandson at his motocross races. |
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 Plus and TRAMS Back Office. |
Jeanne Fick |
Jeanne Fick has been with TRAMS, Inc. for 8 years and in education for over 35. 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 five 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 Plus. His primary responsibilities in the company are national accounts, which include all of our consortia relationships and he aggressively pursues new Live Connect suppliers. Ken is also the primary author behind the ClientBase Plus Monthly 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 6 years. He started as the Support Desk Manager and is currently the TRAMS Back Office Product 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 the same agency in the Seattle area the past 18 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 14 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 is an employee of TRAMS and since joining the company in January 2002, her primary focus has been as a ClientBase trainer for the WebEx classes. Originally a high school history teacher, she switched to retail travel where her background included 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 her past experiences have proven invaluable in her current role. Through observation and personal experience she understands the importance to an agency of a rich, clean database of clients and believes that ClientBase provides 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. |
Nolan Burris |
Nolan Burris began his professional career as a travel agent in 1979 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the years that followed he worked in nearly all areas of the travel industry, but eventually began to focus on technology. He was eventually recruited to join Uniglobe Travel International in Vancouver Canada where he served as Vice President of Information Technologies until 1999. Today, Nolan is a popular keynote motivational speaker and consultant. In 1999 Nolan formed his own company; Visionistics. Visionistics' mission is to help others achieve personal and professional success. "The Visionistics Process of Success" is based on the concept that success is a natural result of integrity of Vision, Strategies, Tactics and Ethics. Nolan's programs have been presented to enthusiastic audiences around the world. Technology still plays an important role in Nolan's career. He believes that technology is integral to success in the modern world. Without balance and strategic application, technology can become a barrier to success. With integrated and visionary thinking, it can enable and enhance the potential for even greater success. |
Roberta Ellsworth |
Roberta Ellsworth has been with TRAMS, Inc for almost 10 years and has been Supervisor of the GDS Integration Desk for 6 years. She has spent the last twenty three years in the travel industry working for companies such as Sabre, Apollo, and Nippon Travel. She specialized in Travel agency back-office accounting and took an interest in the GDS interface. After all these years of doing support calls Roberta still loves her job, the customers, and co-workers. "I have the gift to gab and there is nothing better than having a paying job where I can do that all day long on the phones with our customers." Roberta now resides in a small town of Coweta, Oklahoma with her 12-year-old daughter, Christan. Christan keeps her very busy with cheerleading, gymnastics, and soccer. They both love to travel and enjoy the great outdoors with camping, boating, and fishing. |
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 19 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 travel with the family, coach volleyball and spend lots of time cheering on the kids at water polo, soccer 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 are 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. |
Scott Koepf |
Scott Koepf assumed the role of General Manager of Jurni in May of 2006. In his role as General Manager he has improved the operating income by over 300% while providing a unique and new vision for the organization. He joined Sabre Holdings, the parent company of Jurni, in August of 2004 as Vice President of Sales for Nexion "The Whole Host Agency." While in that role at Nexion the membership tripled in size and surpassed $200,000,000 in sales. Prior to joining Sabre Holdings, Scott was a full-time motivational speaker and sales trainer. In addition he was a consultant for various travel retail organizations as well as providing seminars for travel agents sponsored by Princess Cruises. He started in the travel industry as a cruise travel agency owner in 1985 and1989 became President of Cruise Holidays International. Scott was responsible for taking the franchise company from 12 franchises to over 120. In 1991 he returned to owning an agency which quickly became one of the top cruise selling agencies in the country. Scott has personally sold millions of dollars of cruises and vacations as well as trained thousands of agents in the skills of marketing and sales. In 1981 after a short career in commercial real estate, Scott's passion for travel ignited, leading him over the next few years to jobs as Entertainment Director for Club Med at various locations throughout the world, a Physical Education Teacher in South Africa and as an entertainer on cruise ships with his wife. Scott has two college degrees from the University of Nevada in Reno including a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and a Bachelor of Arts in Music. He is still active in theatre when time permits, having won best actor awards in both Northern and Southern California. He now lives in Colleyville, Texas with his wife Pam and their three daughters (who surprisingly all love travel and theatre!) |
Stacey Mack |
Stacey L. Mack, West Coast Regional Sales Manager for TRAMS Inc., has been with TRAMS since 1998. Stacey worked for Third Party solutions selling ClientBase from 1996 and became a part of the TRAMS team when they bought the company two years later. In addition to selling TRAMS back office, ClientBase and TMA, Stacey has taught classes for ASTA, ATAA, Vacation.com, WESTA National Conferences, and other travel organization meetings on the benefits of Customer Relationship Management. Every day presenting three products that she believes creates phenomenal success in travel agencies is a true joy for Stacey. "I also couldn't ask for better people to work with and work for. Being around the people in the TRAMS family is contagious." Stacey received her Bachelor's Degree in Marketing and Public Relations in 1996 from Illinois State University. A topic she loves talking about is her Golden Retriever Dreyfus who turned 10 this year. |
Teresa Giacallone |
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 NY and now living in Connecticut, Teresa is very familiar with her territory and is looking forward to growing it! When not working for TRAMS, she can be found either exercising, spending time with her friends and family or her three cats. |
