Who's Who?
Direct Tourism Services a wholly owned associate company of Shropshire Tourism (UK) Ltd
Your Chief Executive
Chief Executive - Simon McCloy. MTMI. MIH. MCIM.
Simon has more years of experience than he is prepared to admit to! However he will acknowledge some 20 years in the hotel industry - much of it running his own business. He became Tourism Officer for North Shropshire District Council in 1995 and was also a member of Shropshire Tourism's Management group. After 7 years in this post he took over as Chief Executive at DTS in 2002. Simon is a full member of the Tourism Management Institute, the Institute of Hospitality and the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Your Business Support Team
Business Manager - Catherine Collier. BA (Hons) Business Management. MTMI. MCIM.
Catherine joined the company in 2000 after working locally for some 5 years for the National Trust, Oswestry Borderland Tourism and a travel agency. Having practical experience in both the travel and tourism industry, Catherine certainly brings a wide range of knowledge to the team. Catherine completed the Advanced Certificate in Marketing in 2003, she then gained a 1st class honours degree in Business Management studying part time. Catherine is a full member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Tourism Management Institute.
Business Support Officer - Jodie Stephen. MTMI.
Jodie joined the team in June 2003. After several years of experience in varied careers, including catering, dental nursing (!) and working at a local visitor attraction, Jodie decided to return to college to study Travel and Tourism. Her main roles includes membership support, providing secretarial support for some of the tourism associations, coordinating the advertisement sales for the Shropshire and Welsh Borders brochure, Places to Visit and various other publications.
Jodie is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and has a Professional Certificate in Marketing.
Your Marketing Team
Senior Marketing Officer - Claire Owen. BA (Hons) Advertising, Media & Design Management.
Claire joined the company after working for 2 years at Mid Wales community regeneration organisation L.L.A.N.I. Ltd, introducing and managing a number of joint tourism marketing initiatives. Claire has also travelled extensively and undertaken a number of volunteer projects abroad, including teaching English.
Claire has a 1st Class honours degree in Advertising, Media & Design Management.
Your Website Development Team
Head Web Development Officer – Stuart Messenger – BSc (Hons) Computers Science.
Stuart joined the team. After completing his degree Stuart gained employment with a nationwide haulage and logistics company. As a member of the IT department Stuart was responsible for the creation and maintenance of bespoke software applications, customer and desktop support and network and server administration. After gaining a taste for development and having an interest in the web Stuart moved to the internet department of a local IT solutions supplier. During his time in this role Stuart was again involved in many areas including the creation and maintenance of many dynamic websites and web and desktop based software applications, support and server administration.
Stuart now heads up the IT team and is responsible for the creation and maintenance of the company’s websites, client's websites and Content Management Systems.
Senior Web Development Officer - Ciaran Bradley
Ciaran joined Shropshire Tourism after working with a local media firm, creating social networking websites. Originally from Northern Ireland, Ciaran adopted Shropshire as his home in 2001. He has a rather diverse background; after a few years working as a professional musician, he moved into technical fields, developing a passion for web technologies and all things programming. Since then, he has worked in public sector and commercial environments, and has wide experience in developing intranet and internet services. He still keeps in touch with his musical background, and nowadays is a keen player of traditional Irish music.
Ciaran is a member of the IT department, and works in supporting the team with the maintenance and development of company and client websites.
Web Development Officer - Kay Corbett
Kay joined the team after working within the internet department of a local IT solutions supplier for 8 years. During this time Kay was the company’s website designer working on both client and internal projects. Alongside her role as a website designer Kay also created showroom marketing materials, managed domain renewals/transfers and handled orders for services such as website hosting and ADSL services. Kay's main role is to design, develop and improve customer and internal websites.
Your Accounts Team
Accounts Assistant - Lucy Cruise
After graduating from The University of Liverpool with a BA Honours degree in Geography, Lucy embarked on a career in the finance sector. She is AAT qualified and a CIMA finalist and previously worked as a Management Accountant at an IT company.
She has been lucky enough to travel far and wide, but due to family commitments travel plans are temporarily on hold and she currently works only ten hours a week covering the Accounts function.
Associates
Direct Tourism Services also uses a range of special support organisations and associates, including designers and printers. This ensures that you get the strongest possible team for your individual requirements.
