EFFECTIVE October 1, Sheila Leong, who has been organising the PATA mart and all other PATA events for the past 10 years, will no longer be with PATA. But it is not goodbye, as she moves on to set up her own company, with PATA as her first client.
Interviewed by the Daily yesterday, Leong said her contract with PATA from October 1 was on a thrice-weekly basis, for a period of one year, with extension each year. The events she will be handling for PATA have yet to be worked out.
The next PATA event is the Adventure Travel Mart in Bhutan in February, and, in April, the PATA Annual Meeting – a scaled-down PATA Annual Conference – which Putrajaya in Malaysia is hosting. Leong would be reporting to the PATA CEO, currently interim chief Bill Calderwood, and later, the new CEO.
Leong refused to be drawn into the organisational changes at PATA, which led to this outsourcing move, a similar fate that met John Koldowski, whom PATA earlier announced would operate its Intelligence Centre on an outsourced basis (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 3).
Both are PATA’s longest-serving staff today and Leong’s Events is a big money-spinner for the cash-strapped association, drawing about US$500,000 a year, with the mart contributing the bulk.
– Read more in TTG-PTM Official Daily – Day 1 issue
