Virgin Atlantic Airways has appointed Andy Grodecki as its new vice president of sales, North America. Grodecki replaces Simon Newton-Smith, who has been appointed to the position of country manager for Virgin Atlantic, South Africa in Johannesburg.
Grodecki's most recent position as Manager, Global and Multi-National Accounts at the Virgin Atlantic headquarters in Crawley, UK centered around creating a global approach to sales management and serving high profile clients consistently across each market. Grodecki's role also included sales development where he worked as part of the Sales Leadership Team to develop and implement ongoing sales strategies and business plans which resulted in his team exceeding sales targets over a three-year period.
Grodecki started his career in the airline industry with American Airlines in 1993 where he served as a Corporate Account Manager. After four years with American Airlines, he took the position as National Sales Manager with Virgin Atlantic, where he negotiated the first-ever incentive deal with News International - a client that is still to this day with the airline. After a brief stint with Eurostar, Grodecki moved to bmi, and then back to Virgin Atlantic as a National Account Manager, where he progressed quickly through sales development, eventually leading up to the creation of the strategic GMNA management role.
