John Noel, Travel Guard's founder and CEO, has stepped down after 24 years at the helm. Dean Sivley, who most recently served as senior vice president and COO of Orbitz for Business and Alliance Marketing of Orbitz Worldwide, will succeed Noel as president and CEO of Travel Guard.
"This is an opportunity for me to join a company that has established an outstanding reputation in the travel industry for incredible service, quality products and impeccable integrity," Sivley said. "In no way do I feel that I need to replace John Noel; he really is one of the legends in the industry. I look forward to working with the first-class management team that's in place to build upon the solid foundation that's been laid and take Travel Guard to even greater heights in the very near future."
Sivley's responsibilities at Orbitz for Business included driving performance to meet shareholder and business goals and managing day-to-day execution. His extensive travel experience includes
serving as CEO of Atlas Travel Technologies, vice president of marketing and chief information officer of Rosenbluth International, and chief strategy officer at Neon Systems and
VerticalNet Inc. Sivley earned his MBA from Columbia University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
Noel founded Travel Guard in 1985 and built the company into the largest provider of travel insurance and assistance in North America. In May of 2006, Travel Guard was acquired by American International Group, Inc. and Noel continued to serve as Travel Guard's CEO. Recently, it was announced that Travel Guard is part of a group of companies that will be spun off into a separate holding company called AIU Holdings.
"John built Travel Guard from a small company in the basement of his home to the largest provider of travel insurance and assistance in North America," said Tom Zavadsky, Travel Guard
executive vice president. "Under his guidance, Travel Guard was built on solid corporate values, giving back to the community, empowering employees and providing astonishing service to our
clients. He is an extraordinary leader and a man of incredible passion and compassion. He will be missed, but his legacy will live on at Travel Guard."
Visit www.travelguard.com.