The Advantage Travel Partnership has announced the promotion of John Sullivan to Commercial Director with immediate effect. Sullivan, who has been with Advantage for 15 years will see his new responsibilities increased to overseeing the Partnership’s strategic business-to-business commercial activities across all its third- party supply chain. The combined commercial function of Advantage, which operates multi sector including global business travel, delivers a sales turnover across its membership of £15.7bn annually.

In his new role, Sullivan will continue to report to Kelly Cookes, Chief Commercial Officer, whilst working closely with other divisional leads across the Group, including Andrea Caulfield-Smith, who recently joined the business as Managing Director, Global Business Travel.

Kelly Cookes, Chief Commercial Officer, The Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “This is a well-deserved promotion for John and reflects his strong performance over the years and his significant contribution and influence in building our third-party partnerships. Our commercial proposition sits at the very heart of the business and our ambition is to further optimise and leverage our global buying power across the group to drive increased commercial benefits to members operating in both leisure and business travel.”

Julia Lo Bue-Said, Chief Executive Officer, The Advantage Travel Partnership, added: “John is a highly valued member of the team and in his new role he will play a pivotal role in driving forward our ambitious commercial agenda. This appointment reinforces our focus on leveraging our commercial scale, the importance of our business-to-business relationships, and further demonstrates our intention to strengthen our commercial proposition through increased investment in our people talent. This is evidenced by the recent appointments of Pelin Dede as Head of Accommodation and Jonny Peat as Senior Commercial Manager – Cruise in November last year and the new position of Head of Supplier Relations – Air, Ground and Technology, which we are currently recruiting for.”

Commenting on his promotion, Sullivan said: “I am delighted to be taking on this wider role and excited for a fresh challenge. Over the last 12 months we have made great progress in strategically driving our product portfolio across a number of sectors, including cruise and touring and adventure.  This strategic drive incorporates securing greater commercial benefits, marketing and dedicated events for our members. I am looking forward to further developing our third-party partnerships and enhancing our member value proposition.”