Investor Relations
About Joystar
Joystar specializes in selling complex travel products including cruises, vacation packages and group travel through our virtual salesforce of independent travel agents. Our innovative technology, lead generation programs, and expert support give our travel agents more time to do what they do best, sell travel. With the support of Joystar, professional travel agents can concentrate on promoting travel and creating customer loyalty without the administrative and financial burden of operating a traditional storefront travel agency.
Code Of Ethics
Management Team
William M. Alverson - Chairman and CEO. Mr. Alverson began his career as a financial advisor at American Express in 1989. He has spent the last fifteen years working in the financial services travel services industry. He has served as Chairman and CEO where he guided private companies through their first rounds of financing and public listings, and as Chairman and CEO overseeing management of 220 employees and over 44,000 sales agents nationwide. He has been active in financing and consulting to both private and public companies including Baby Genius, Inc. and freerealtime.com and has financed companies that have created over 500 million dollars in market capitalization.
Katherine West - Executive - Vice President and Director. Ms. West has been the Officer and Director of the Company since the inception of Joystar, Inc. Additionally, Ms. West is responsible for the day to day management and supervision of customer service, human resources, accounting, budget, payroll and contracts. Ms. West began her career in the travel industry in 1989 with Thrifty Car Rental where she was responsible for the franchise's operations, reporting, forecasting, and accounting & tax preparation. From 1992 to 1996 she held the position of Senior Account Executive with Metromedia Communications, Inc.
Larry Fishkin – President. Mr. Fishkin is a 35-year veteran of the travel industry. His responsibilities will include the oversight of all day to day operations of the company including Joystar, the host agency model as well as consumer brands including VacationCompare.com and Travelstar.com. He is also responsible for the continuing development of the wholesale division brand Starlight Vacations, and the Company’s Specialty Themed Cruises division. Mr. Fishkin was the founder of The Cruise Line, Inc., which he built to eventually become one of the top cruise agencies in the nation. Over the past three decades, Mr. Fishkin has been involved in all aspects of the travel industry. He has served on the advisory boards of several cruise lines including Royal Caribbean, Princess, Cunard, and Disney.
Jerry Galant - Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Galant is a financial executive with over 30 years of travel industry experience, ranging from start-ups to large multi-national corporations. After graduating from Harvard with an MBA, he began his career in corporate finance at Goldman Sachs.
During his tenure with Sabre Group, he managed the financial planning and analysis for a $1.5 billion division of American Airlines and operated a variety of information services business on a worldwide basis. He established and directed a European finance organization responsible for planning, analysis, billing, collections, contracts and administration in 18 European countries. He managed the preparation of a five-year financial plan and business valuation model used in partnering discussions and to assess the fit of potential business alliances as well as leading a effort to develop a new strategic plan for the Sabre Group, resulting in a clear and focused direction for the company and improved financial performance. Mr. Galant instituted financial controls, profitability planning and cost reduction initiatives that turned around the European division from a $20 million annual loss to profitability in two years.
As the Chief Financial Officer of Pegasus Solutions, the leading provider of transaction services and e-commerce solutions to the hotel industry, Mr. Galant led the Company’s Initial Public Offering in 1997, raising $50 million, and follow-on offerings raising an additional $90 million plus secondary shares sold valued at $40 million. He served as the primary contact with Pegasus’ institutional investors, ran investor relations efforts including the Company’s annual report, quarterly earnings releases, conference calls, investor presentations and road shows. He managed all financial aspects of the Company’s growth from a $16 million (revenues) privately held company to a $200 million (revenues) public company. During that time, Pegasus grew from 80 employees in two offices to over 2,000 employees in 35 offices around the world. Mr. Galant was responsible for the supervision of a financial staff of 160 performing controllership, treasury, financial planning, tax and billing services around the world. He also negotiated various complementary acquisitions, the divestiture of a $12 million (revenues) non-core business and directed all financial elements of the Company’s $210 million cash and stock acquisition of RezSolutions, Inc.
Jay Borromei – Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Borromei brings over 20 years of experience to his role overseeing all of the technology needs of the Travelstar brands. Working as a consultant for the company since its inception, Mr. Borromei has been an integral part of the technology planning and implementation process leading to his appointment as CTO. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Borromei served as President for a successful independent technology consulting firm.
Jo Beemer – Senior Vice President of Travel Services. Ms. Beemer brings more than 19 years of travel industry experience to her role, overseeing Joystar’s travel Agent Hosting and support services to our rapidly expanding sales force of experienced, home-based travel agents. Ms. Beemer’s management background and experience providing business and leisure travelers with exceptional service brings tremendous insight to Joystar’s global network of independent travel agents. Her industry experience includes Managing Partner of a Specialty Tour Company, Quality Control Manager for online travel channel, Corporate Travel Counselor and Supervisor responsible for over 75 reservation agents.
Aleic T Grant – Senior Vice President of Business Development. Mr Grant started his career in the travel industry GWV, a respected charter tour operator in 1987. Mr Grant is responsible for the negotiation and management of the company’s preferred supplier relationships as well as overseeing the day to day operations of membership service. Over the last 20 years, he has worked for several major tour wholesale companies such as Globetrotters and Travel Impressions. He has also led the start up of two online wholesale companies for Fairfield Resorts and Bedsonline. Through his career, Mr Grant has been actively involved in the development of sales and marketing, exclusively focused on travel agents that has resulted in over $100m dollars in sales.
Daniel J. Schmier – Senior VP of Specialty & Theme Groups. Dan comes to us from the great State of Michigan. Born and raised in Flint, Dan studied Music Education at the University of Michigan. Teaching music at a large Catholic Church for 14 years, Dan toured with his choirs throughout Italy. This tour sparked Dan’s curiosity in the travel industry and the rest is history. Dan has been in the travel industry for 15 years and has started and sold several travel agencies. Over the past 7 years, Dan has dedicated his efforts on “themed group travel”. He has generated groups such as: The Renaissance Festival Cruise, The Anniversary Cruise, Dan’s Hurricane Chasers and many more. Dan also started The All-Star Travel Academy, a state certified travel school in Michigan. Dan has one daughter (Dana) and one grand-daughter (Lexi). If he’s not at work, you can find him at Disney World with his grand-daughter riding the Dumbo ride!
Grete Bigert – Director, Commission Accounting. Ms. Bigert is responsible for the Commission Accounting Department, ARC processing and Accounting development. She was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, where she also began her travel career as Director of Flights for international language travel company EF Education. She has held several Travel Operations positions in Europe and the United States.
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