Global Taskforce
Adam Campbell, Chief Financial Officer
Adam became Flight Centre Travel Group chief financial officer in August 2015, after previously serving as the company's Australian CFO since 2012.
In his role as Australian CFO, Mr Campbell worked closely with the previous CFO Andrew Flannery, chief operating officer Melanie Waters-Ryan and Mr Turner, while helping to spearhead a number of key business initiatives. These initiatives have included the company's strategic journey from travel agent to the world's best person-to-person travel experience retailer, the ongoing focus on costs and the deployment of numerous process changes to improve both productivity and business acumen in-store.
Adams previous experience includes six years at Minter Ellison as the law firm's financial manager for Australia and South-East Asia. In this role he managed key external relationships and oversaw various finance functions including financial accounting, tax, treasury and asset management.
Adam also spent six years with Ernst & Young. During that time, his responsibilities included performing internal and external audits of major listed and non-listed entities, working on mergers and acquisitions and helping companies meet their statutory requirements.
Melanie Waters-Ryan, Chief Operating Officer
Melanie joined Flight Centre Travel Group Limited in 1987, after completing university in Brisbane and travelling overseas.
She began her career as a retail travel agent, before progressing to team leader roles at Flight Centre’s busy Toombul and Indooroopilly shops.
As her career progressed, Melanie successfully took on a variety of management roles in the company’s retail, wholesale and human resources (Peopleworks) areas. Roles included national training manager, land contract leader, global human resources manager, brand leader of Great Holiday Escape and leader of the Infinity wholesale brand.
Melanie is a key member of FLT’s global executive team in her current role as COO and is directly responsible for the air, land and IT functions, in addition to overseeing the Australian business.
In 2006, she won the company’s prestigious Directors’ Award for her efforts in growing FLT’s land business globally.
Melanie has been instrumental in the development of FLT’s global product (direct contracting) area and online strategy.
Rob Flint, Executive General Manager – Global Corporate Operations
Rob oversees Flight Centre Travel Group Limited’s emerging businesses in New Zealand, Greater China, India, Singapore and Dubai.
Rob has worked for FLT for 20 years and has vast experience in retail and corporate travel.
He began his Flight Centre career as a travel agent in Rockhampton (Queensland), after working in Europe for eight years, and later progressed to various team and area leadership roles within the company’s retail travel business.
Rob also led FLT’s Emerging Escape Travel and Student Flights brands, before becoming executive general manager of the company’s Victoria-Tasmania business, one of FLT’s largest and most successful operations.
In 2007/08, he was recognised as one of the company’s top achievers globally for his efforts in overseeing and growing the business.
Rob returned to FLT’s Brisbane head office in 2009 to take on his current role.
Chris Galanty, MD – United Kingdom
Chris Galanty has always been innovative when it comes to making sure he can travel. During his holidays at Warwick University, he managed to secure funding to spend six weeks’ backpacking in Venezuela, researching Venezuelan pop music. How much research he carried out on that trip is a mystery, but it certainly stood him in good stead for starting at Flight Centre’s Putney store as a consultant. That was 1997, during its start up phase when the company had under 10 shops in the UK, around 20 staff.
Since then, Chris has progressed through the company working as a store manager then subsequently as an area manager and general manager. In 2004, he was appointed Managing Director of Leisure and in 2007 Managing Director of Flight Centre Group UK. In 2009, Chris took on his current role, taking on responsibility for Flight Centre Travel Group Limited's South Africa market.
In 2012 Flight Centre UK & South Africa operate 13 brands with turnover in excess of £1.1 billion and employ over 2300 people. Both companies regularly receive awards for ‘leading employers’ in their respective countries and play active roles in both the leisure and corporate sectors of both travel markets. Chris has played a key part in growing Flight Centre Travel Group UK to the size it is now.
Dean Smith, MD – United States of America
Dean Smith, president of FC USA Inc., has roots in the travel industry dating back to 1996. Smith has been in his current position for the past four years, overseeing all 11 of FC USA’s brands in the United States. He has led the charge on a number of ground-breaking initiatives, including his most noteworthy and most recent achievement, the opening of the first-ever New York Travel Center in Manhattan.
The 10,000-square-foot, three-floor space on Madison Avenue marks an unprecedented move by the company with a half-dozen brands of FC USA under the same roof for the first time. This new endeavor took shape largely under Smith’s vision and direction, alongside his executive team. The expansive space is anchored by Liberty Travel’s flagship store, which is said to be the most innovative and technologically advanced travel stores in the world. The launch of this new flagship store is a nod to a critical part of its success, the brick-and-mortar travel agency and travel consultants, coupled with the best of today’s technology.
Smith holds a special place for travel agents, as he himself started out with Flight Centre Travel Group Limited in Australia, the parent company of FC USA, as a travel consultant with the company in 1996 in Melbourne. He worked his way up the ranks, responsible for a number of the company’s Australian-based brands, including Infinity Holidays, Explore Holidays, Cruiseabout, and Quickbeds as the wholesale nation leader.
In 2008, when Flight Centre Travel Group Limited acquired Liberty Travel and GOGO Worldwide Vacations, Smith received a well-deserved promotion. Along with the title of president of GOGO Worldwide Vacations came a move to the United States where the Ramsey, NJ-based brand is headquartered. In this position he was responsible for overseeing the sales, operations and marketing for the entire brand and over 300 people.
In 2009 Smith was promoted to his current position. He oversees 2,000 employees across the company’s retail, wholesale, corporate travel and ecommerce brands.
Smith was born in New Zealand and gained much experience and love for travel through living and working in Vancouver, San Francisco, and London prior to joining Flight Centre Travel group Limited.