Profile
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Sector
Lifestyle & Learning

Location
Pleasant Hill, CA

Employees
90

2002 Revenue
$20MM

Web Site
www.gettravel.com

12 June 2003
GET Travel Hires VP of Sales & Marketing

San Francisco–based GET Travel Group, LLC recently announced hiring Patrick D. Williams as its new Vice President of Sales & Marketing.

Founded in 1985, GET Travel is the nation's leading student-leisure tour operator, registering over 73,000 students annually for group tours across North America.

Rip Hunter, CEO/President of GET Travel, stated, "Pat is the right leader at the right time for us. His experience in recruiting, training, and management will solidify our sales program as strongest in the student travel industry."

Before joining GET Travel, Pat Williams succeeded in sales and marketing roles throughout his career, with the common theme being skill in recruiting, training, and managing sales forces.

Pat started his career in Northern California as a direct sales representative for Ralston Purina, beginning a sixteen-year relationship with the company. In 1991, Pat became region manager for all of Northern California. In 1994, Pat became a corporate team leader with P&L responsibility for a $70 million division of the company. In 1995, Pat was promoted to run the $260 million Safeway division of Ralston Purina, where he again had P&L responsibility.

Along the way, Pat served on design, implementation, and training teams that restructured the company's sales organization and developed its corporate college recruiting programs. This expertise is particularly relevant to the responsibility Pat will have at GET Travel.

In 1996, Pat left Ralston Purina and began a six-year stint in the toy and game industry. First, Pat served as National Sales Director for Mattel, responsible for a $125 million division of the company. In 1998, Pat migrated to Hasbro, where he ran a $100 million division. In 2001, Pat served as the Senior Vice President of Sales for Micro Games of America, where he ran a $120 million division. Pat has succeeded in every role, in every company, throughout his career.

Pat played baseball at San Diego State University on a baseball scholarship and later with the San Diego Padres. He currently lives in Northern California and begins at GET Travel June 9th, having overall responsibility for the sales and marketing of the company.

GET Travel Group, LLC operates trips across North America and has developed nationally recognized brand names, Invasion Tours®, Adventures America®, LA Ski & Sun Tours®, and MusicAmerica®, which it uses to market its trips to student groups nationwide. CEO Rip Hunter and his brothers, Dave and Rich, founded the company and have built a track record of seventeen years of growth since. Today, the company is owned by its founders, its management, and investors led by Dallas-based private equity firm Black Knight Partners, LP.

POC: Rob Holmes, 214 695 4243