Paul Metselaar, Chairman and CEO
Paul Metselaar founded the company in 1984, filling a void in the corporate travel market by providing specialized service to law firms and other professional service firms. Trained as a litigator, Mr. Metselaar left a New York City law firm to support a family travel business. He quickly built the company into one of the top 6 corporate travel management companies in the U.S., serving more than 450 of the world's leading companies. Originally known as The World Travel Specialists Group, Mr. Metselaar renamed the company the Ovation Travel Group in July 2004 to underscore the company's efforts to redefine the corporate travel management industry.
Mr. Metselaar is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University. In addition, he is the current Chairman of the Metro New York Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization (“YPO”), the largest YPO Chapter in the world.
Sunil Mahtani, Executive Vice President Sunil Mahtani is responsible for the company's finances, strategic
planning, vendor relations, mergers and acquisitions and airline
negotiations. Since joining the company in 1989, Mr. Mahtani has held
several management positions including Corporate Controller, Vice President
of Finance, Chief Financial Officer and finally Executive Vice President.
Prior to business school he was responsible for business development for an
export business in Brazil. He is an member of Continental Airline's
Agency Advisory Board and a frequent participant at various industry round
table discussions.
Mr. Mahtani holds a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Boston University. He holds an undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce from Calcutta University, India.
Michael Steiner, Executive Vice President
Michael Steiner oversees the company’s marketing, business development and strategic growth efforts. He was previously Managing Director and Senior Vice President of Paris-based KDS International. Prior to leading KDS in North America, Mr. Steiner served as Vice President and General Manager of Gorp.com where he was responsible for the launch and strategic development of this leading travel e-commerce concern. Prior to Gorp, Mr Steiner held the position of Executive Vice President of DirectLink Technologies where he directed sales, marketing and operational activities for this online travel company. Before joining DirectLink Technologies, he was Senior Vice President at Direct Travel where he was responsible for over $300 million in travel management sales.
Mr. Steiner is an active member and speaker of the National Business Travel Association (NBTA), former board member of RADIUS, and a frequent speaker and writer on the topics of travel management, carbon-neutral travel and online travel solutions. He graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in Economics.
Thomas Gehrke, Chief Information Officer
Thomas Gehrke joined Ovation as Chief Information Officer and is responsible for directing the overall technology strategy. Mr. Gehrke brings over 20 years experience implementing creative, cutting edge technology solutions in a diverse array of environments ranging from the entertainment industry to financial services. For the last 12 years, Mr. Gehrke served as Chief Information Officer for one of the premier boutique financial service firms, The Daley-Hodkin Group. He guided the development of new technologies that have defined the industry standard for asset valuation, research and analysis. Mr. Gehrke attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and The University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
