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Lindblad appoints Gina Gabbard as chief sales officer

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Gina Gabbard has 25 years of travel leadership experience from both the retail and supplier sides
Lindblad Expeditions appointed Gina Gabbard to the newly created position of chief sales officer. She'll direct strategic sales growth with a focus on the retail travel sector and group sales.

Gabbard brings 25 years of experience in leadership roles within several premier travel companies. Most recently she served as SVP of Ovation Travel Group, a travel management and luxury leisure company, where she oversaw the strategic and day-to-day operations of the leisure and independent advisors division. Before that, she was VP of leisure for the Tzell Travel Group where she managed leisure and marketing programs, assisted in maximizing key leisure relationships and developed and nurtured leisure supplier partnerships and programs.

Plus, supplier-side background

Before going to the agency side, Gabbard held various sales positions with MLT Vacations, as well as with some of the country’s leading hotel companies, including Adams Mark, Marriott Hotels and Promus Hotel Corp. She has also served on several luxury travel agent advisory boards including Accor, Abercrombie & Kent and Belmond.

Gabbard joins Lindblad’s senior sales team of Jacinta McEvoy, VP of global sales; Lesa Bain, VP of sales, North America, and Karen Kuttner-Dimitry, VP of affinity and charter sales.

'Gina’s broad expertise with diverse suppliers of upscale travel will be instrumental in further driving our sales initiatives as we navigate a more and more competitive world,' CEO Sven Lindblad said. 'Her addition builds on our established commitment to the travel advisor community, whose role we believe will be more important than ever in a post-COVID travel landscape.'

'As we look forward to the future, I am confident that more travelers will crave the unique and intimate experiences that Lindblad is renowned for and I could not be more excited to lead the sales strategy with this incomparable team,' Gabbard said.