As a Thomas Cook rep Stephen Satterthwaite is known for his confident and funny nature. But a few seconds in the company of TV’s scariest gameshow presenter, Anne Robinson, was enough to have even him quaking in his boots.
After a mock interview with one of Anne’s team to see how he would cope on TV – “one of the most painful half hours of my life” – the 33-year-old was picked to be a contestant on a special travel industry edition of the BBC’s The Weakest Link.
As it turned out, his test interview was a walk in the park compared with presenter Robinson.
“The real Anne Robinson was worse,” recalls Stephen. “For some stupid reason I wore a pastel yellow jumper. I have red hair with blonde highlights, and she asked me what came first, the hair or the jumper. I was riddled with fear.”
But that’s not Stephen’s only celebrity encounter. He met Anton du Beke (pictured) during Thomas Cook’s Strictly Come Dancing competition in 2009.
“Anton was such a nice guy,” says Stephen, who came third and fourth in two competitions held in front of 2,500 delegates at two staff conferences in Turkey.
The attention has far from fazed Stephen, who ultimately hopes to train reps for Thomas Cook. In the meantime, he is already looking forward to his next challenge, having been promoted to rep team manager for one of the company’s busiest regions, Dalman North in Turkey, for this summer.
Stephen’s highlights
Stephen and five of his team from Zante were invited to Club 18-30’s The Big Reunion party (top) in Butlins in Skegness after being some of the top 10 sellers of the party worldwide.
“We sell The Big Reunion in resort and it’s something we lived and breathed in resort in terms of selling and taking deposits. We had an amazing time!”
Another highlight of Stephen’s career was creating a ‘green corner’ at a flagship hotel in Zante (right). Last summer he came up with the idea for a themed recycling area as part of an internal promotion programme.
During the first week he ran a suncream exchange programme (pictured) for holidaymakers; in the second week newspapers and magazines could be swapped; while in the third week there was a lilo exchange.
“It was such a success the hotel has carried it on,” says Stephen. “I’m really proud of it.”
Stephen’s CV
- February 2007: Joins My Travel as a rep in Gran Canaria
- 2008-10: Works as Thomas Cook rep in Ibiza. Goes on to rep in Sharm el-Sheikh and Zante. Also reps for Neilson ski in Livigno
- 2011: Is promoted to Thomas Cook team manager for Dalaman North, Turkey