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ZUJI Appoints Jo O'Brien as General Manager, Australia

Announcement posted by ZUJI 03 Apr 2003

ZUJI, Asia Pacific's most comprehensive travel portal, today announced the appointment of Jo O'Brien as General Manager for Australia. She will be based in ZUJI's Australian office in Sydney.
Ms O'Brien has more than 25 years of experience in almost every aspect of the Australian travel industry. Prior to joining ZUJI, she managed one of Australia's largest travel groups with responsibility for a network of over 500 agents. Complementing these strong leadership skills, Ms O'Brien brings significant online experience to the role, having conceived and led Jetset's integrated internet strategy, and previously managing an IT department with a complex data network. Ms O'Brien also established and owned a travel agency that achieved a turnover of $4.5 million within four years of operation.
Ms O'Brien will be responsible for leading ZUJI into its second year of operation. Established by 16 leading airlines operating in Asia-Pacific and Travelocity.com, the most popular online travel service in the United States, ZUJI launched in Australia in July 2002 and has since achieved a constant growth of both new members and transactions. In December 2002, Red Sheriff data ranked www.zuji.com.au as the fourth most visited portal in the travel category in Australia.
In her new role, Ms O'Brien will be responsible for building the ZUJI brand and developing strong relationships with partners and travel product suppliers in Australia. Ms O'Brien said that ZUJI's goal in 2003 is to become the leading provider of online travel in Australia. "We are establishing Sydney as our head office in Australia, and developing our brand presence in the market," she said. "New technology will continue to allow us to deliver on our promise of providing the best resources for consumers to book travel online. Our partnerships with Australia's leading websites such as ninemsn and Yahoo! Australia & NZ will allow ZUJI to reach over 80 percent of Australia's 11 million online population, thus making ZUJI a very cost effective distribution channel for airlines, hotels and rental car companies."
ZUJI's Chief Executive Officer, Scott Blume, said, "Jo's strong track record, knowledge of the Australian travel industry and demonstrated leadership skills make her the ideal choice to lead ZUJI in Australia. Having worked with the company since our launch last July, we are confident in Jo's ability to achieve our goal of making ZUJI Australia's leading travel portal."
Commenting on her vision for 2003, Ms O'Brien said, "By our first birthday we will have a string of important achievements to celebrate and a healthy future to look forward to. We have already established an extremely strong market presence and membership base in the past year. Our aim is to delight our customers through superior products, service and value, deliver value to our partners and suppliers, and provide a challenging and rewarding environment for our staff."
* electronic images of Jo O'Brien available upon request
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About ZUJI
ZUJI (www.zuji.com) aims to be the leading business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) travel portal in Asia-Pacific. Through ZUJI, travellers can access a comprehensive range of travel products that include more than 400 airlines, 56,000 hotels and more than 50 car rental companies. Combined with innovative travel planning tools like Flight Guru and Price Guru, ZUJI gives travellers the freedom to create their own journeys. The ZUJI experience is enhanced by best value pricing, excellent customer service and leading-edge technology.
ZUJI is a joint venture of 16 leading airlines operating in Asia-Pacific and Travelocity.com, the most popular online travel service in the United States. The airlines are All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, China Airlines, EVA Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines, Japan Air System, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Qantas Airways, Royal Brunei Airlines, SilkAir, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines.