IB Woman
Issue No. 36 - August/September 2007
A road greatly travelled
by Penelope Herbert
Roz Meertens was never strategic about entering the world of travel and airline sales; especially not growing up in Waikerie, South Australia. Her journey started when, in her early 20's, she visited a friend living in Aberdeen, Scotland. Needing to be self-sufficient, Roz accepted a temporary job as a typist in a travel agency. The rest, as they say, is history.
“I was serendipitously working for a company now known as Hogg Robinson Travel, who had secured a dynamic contract with an American oil company, Marathon Oil, who were drilling in the North Sea,” says Roz. “They had such ongoing travel demands that three staff from Hogg Robinson were permanently placed within Marathon Oil so I eventually became a permanent employee. I was trained as a ticketing and sales consultant to an advanced level under courses conducted by British Airways, with additional training in niche markets such as leisure travel. When I returned to Adelaide three years later, I worked as a Travel Agency Manager.”
Roz progressed to Sales Manager SA/NT for the international StarLauro Cruises based at Port Adelaide where she worked, for a time, with the ill-fated Achille Lauro. “There was an oversupply of cruise ships during the early 90's in the Australian marketplace and the ship was repositioned to Italy for future cruising duties, so several people eventually were retrenched,” she says. “I then worked as a Manager for Harvey World Travel in Glenelg before joining Cathay Pacific in 1993. I started as a sales executive and was thrilled to join when I did because Cathay Pacific was entering an exciting period of growth and development at the time, due to the commencement of international flights from Adelaide.”
As the Business Development Manager, Roz keeps well informed on operations as Cathay Pacific is one of five international airlines currently servicing Adelaide. The airline operates four flights per week (daily effective 1st October) between Ade...
