Executive travel recruitment specialist Harp Wallen has strengthened its team, with one executive relocating to Vietnam, another promoted and a new appointment.
After nearly 24 years with Harp Wallen team, associate director Judith Roberts is moving to Vietnam and will work as a consultant to the company’s Asia-Pacific division.
Sue Marchant is promoted to account director and Jenny Pate-Wright has been recruited as account manager.
Kristina Wallen (pictured), Harp Wallen group managing director, said: “This is a fantastic move for Judith, as she joins her husband Steve who is based in Vietnam in his role as senior director of business development Asia-Pacific Melia Hotels International. I’d like to thank Judith for the fantastic contribution she has made to Harp Wallen over the past 20-plus years, and wish both her and Steve the very best for this exciting new chapter of their lives.
“Having Judith in situ in Vietnam, as we start to see the borders open and the return of the APAC travel recruitment market, will be extremely valuable for candidates and employers alike.”
Marchant has been with the business for more than six years and has worked alongside Wallen and Roberts on middle to senior management roles across travel, tourism and luxury retail sectors.
Pate-Wright has spent more than 20 years in the travel industry, with extensive experience in the luxury sector in the UK and various markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including roles at Citalia and Holland America Line.
Wallen added: “The newly restructured team and I are excited about prospects for the future, and about getting fully back to what we do best and have done for the last 25 years, putting the right people in the right places at the heart of the travel industry.”
She said there are “welcome signs” pointing to a more “normal” means of doing business after two years of the Covid crisis.
Wallen added: “The challenges of the recruitment market in travel are well documented. In the past couple of years, of course we have seen talent leave the industry, and for those who remain, many feel as though their careers are in limbo and are looking to other sectors for future moves.
“But there are two sides to this debate. As an industry we need to be speaking to a wider audience outside travel and shouting from the mountains about what a great industry it is to join and about its many opportunities.
“There are some fabulous opportunities in the market as companies are gaining confidence in hiring once more. But candidates must be serious and not follow the belief that it is entirely their market – it’s not the case.
“In the past months we have seen many employers offering greater flexibility than ever before in the workplace, but we have seen, first-hand, there can be a lack of willingness to compromise from candidates’ side, with some making surprising and unrealistic demands in the late stages of the interview process.
“Never before has there been more need for trust and transparency from both sides of the hiring fence as we all seek to rebuild our much-loved industry.
Photograph by Steve Dunlop