AFTER more than
three decades at the
organisation, Ben Langner
is retiring from BidTravel, leaving
his position as ceo of Carlson
Wagonlit Travel.
Ben, who describes himself
as a ‘veteran of mergers’,
joined World Travel as a
consultant in 1987 and was
appointed a director three
years later and made md in the
early 90s.
He was md when the
company was sold to Michael
Delahunt and later to Gen
Food, when it merged with Gen
Travel. World Travel was then
acquired by Bidvest in 1999.
When the group later acquired
Uniworld, Ben oversaw the
merger of Uniworld into World
Travel.
When Bidvest
acquired Concord,
Ben managed a
merger that would
later become CWT
as it is today, when
business travel
was taken out of
World Travel brand
and merged with
Concord, trading as
CWT. World Travel
was retained as a
GSA company and Ben served
as md of World Travel and CWT
before Marco Cristofoli took
the reins of World Travel in
2016.
Ben says he has had a long
and interesting career, working
with wonderful people. He has
no definite retirement plans,
but will be starting off with
some travel.
Ben will be succeeded by
Louis van Zyl, who
was appointed ceo
designate, effective
April 1. Ben says
he is delighted
that Louis has
been appointed
his successor,
describing him as
the perfect person
to take the business
to the next phase.
Louis joins the
group from Tourvest, where he
was coo. I am confident that
Louis will lead our global brand
in reinforcing its footprint in the
markets, offering support for
numerous online booking tools,
adopting different strategies
and offering a value-add
product to customers,” says
Lidia Folli, ceo of BidTravel.
Lidia also joined the group from
Tourvest in 2017.
