Ric Leutwyler has been appointed as president of Utell Hotels & Resorts, the representation business unit of Pegasus Solutions. This includes both the Utell and Unirez representation services, which enable nearly 11,000 hotels in over 130 countries to compete globally.
Leutwyler’s key objective is to maximise the company’s powerful position in the marketplace, helping hotel and travel agent customers be more successful with their business growth plans. Leutwyler states: “We are embarking on a journey to become the essential partner in enabling hotels to compete worldwide. Utell is already seeing annual growth of 20 – 30 % with many of our top customers and we want to leverage this to capitalise on the enormous potential that Utell has for our hotel customers globally.”
Leutwyler’s extensive industry background includes six years at Best Western in various senior vice president and vice president positions. During this time, Leutwyler worked with more than 4000 hotels in 80 countries to ensure brand quality and maximise member services, e-commerce and field marketing. Prior to joining Best Western in 2002, Leutwyler worked on the agency side of the travel industry in various leadership positions at Cendant Travel, Inc. which had more than $750 million in annual sales. Prior to his 11 years at Cendant, he also held national account positions with AT&T.
Mike Kistner, chief executive officer for Pegasus Solutions, said: “Ric’s international management experience, track record and industry expertise from both the hotel and agency side make him the ideal candidate to lead Pegasus’ representation business. He’s one of the best executives this industry has seen in achieving results and we are confident that he will bring the strong leadership, innovative ideas and unparalleled experience that we have been looking for.”
Leutwyler will divide his time between the company’s offices in Scottsdale, Arizona and London, UK.
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Utell Hotel & Resorts is the representation business unit of Pegasus Solutions. This includes both the Utell and Unirez representation services which enable nearly 11,000 independent and small group hotels in over 130 countries to compete globally. Established almost 80 years ago, Utell is the world’s largest and most experienced sales, marketing and distribution service for hotels. With a comprehensive international portfolio that encompasses luxury, boutique, value, business and resort properties, Utell caters for a variety of accommodation requirements for both business and leisure travellers. Utell’s products and services are used by thousands of travel agencies worldwide in addition to major TMC’s, corporations and consortia groups. www.utell.com