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Celestyal, the award-winning, number one choice for travelers to the Greek Islands and the Eastern Mediterranean, has announced the appointment of Lee Haslett to take on the role of global chief commercial officer (CCO) as of February 20, 2023.

Haslett takes over from Leslie Peden, who has been with the company for more than five years, initially as vice president, North America and thereafter serving as the company’s CCO. At the same time, Celestyal is strengthening its sales department in Greece by appointing Mr. Charis Broussalian as business development manager.

Haslett is a highly experienced travel executive, having had a wide range of experience with tour operations and airlines. He joins Celestyal from Virgin, where he joined the Virgin Holidays team in 2008 leading the company’s holidays retail expansion before holding various roles across the business including head of retail and vice president, product and distribution. Most recently, Lee has been vice president global sales for Virgin Atlantic, where he led the sales transformation plan, focused on key North American and European markets, and has played an important role in the company’s commercial leadership team. Haslett will report to Chris Theophilides, Celestyal’s CEO, and will be based in the U.K. but will also share his time amongst the US, the main European markets and Greece.

“As we pivot Celestyal to reinforce our brand proposition of destination-rich, immersive travel experiences, we continue to develop our commercial team to meet new challenges,” said Chris Theophilides. “I would like to extend my thanks and gratitude to Leslie for his significant contributions to position Celestyal for future success. He has been an integral part of the company’s senior leadership and we wholeheartedly wish him all the best in his new endeavors.”

“I’m delighted to announce Lee’s appointment and welcome him to Celestyal. Lee joins Celestyal at an exciting time, as we intensify our efforts and invest in substantially broadening Celestyal’s presence in key markets. Fresh on the heels of Celestyal significantly growing its trade facing commercial team, Lee will oversee a global team of over 60 travel professionals covering the whole spectrum of Celestyal’s commercial activities including sales, strategic business development, marketing, commercial PR functions, contact centers as well as revenue management. We are also very pleased to add Charis Broussalian to our sales team in Greece, whose experience will be adding value to our efforts towards the expansion of our network in the Greek market. We look forward to making additional exciting announcements in the near future, as we continue our journey of strengthening Celestyal’s position as the leading provider of the award-winning, multi-destination vacation experiences in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean that the company has fast become known for,” added Theophilides.

Broussalian will report to Vassilis Karachalios, Country Manager, Sales Greece and will be responsible for developing Celestyal's footprint in Southern Greece, as well as continuing to establish relationships with destination management companies (DMCs). Prior to joining Celestyal, he served as business development and marketing director at Best Western Hotel & Resorts in Greece, and previously at Booking.com as global accounts manager. Broussalian also spent a number of years within the hotel industry in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. He also worked for several years at GTP (“Greek Travel Pages”, a tourism guide of Greece) as sales and marketing manager. Broussalian studied Hotel Management at the University of Portsmouth, U.K., and in addition to his being a native Greek speaker, he speaks English and German fluently.