SHERYL began her travel
career after leaving
school in Natal, when
she started working for the
family business, Pinetown
Travel Bureau. She says in
those days airlines invested
heavily in onsite agency
training, which was very in
depth. She attended regular
week-long airline and Iata
courses in Germany and
Amsterdam and says the first
educational she attended was
a 30-day cruise on the Reina
del Mar from Cape Town to
South America.
A few years later, she spent
a year exploring Vancouver
and surrounds. When she
returned to South Africa she
relocated to Johannesburg and
got her first job at Rennies
Travel in Harrison Street.
She was 23 at the time. She
later worked for International
Travels at its IBM in-house,
spent some time working as
a leisure FIT specialist for the
Associated Air Travel Bureau
(AATB) and also repped for
Scandinavian Airlines.
Corporate specialist
In the early 1980s Sheryl was
appointed travel manager for
Eskom and spent 10 years
working from the Megawatt
Park office in Sunninghill.
She found the position very
stimulating and particularly
enjoyed escorting visiting
energy experts from around
the world on trips up to private
game lodges in Southern
Africa. “Eskom was a
successful state-owned entity
in those days that ran a very
tight ship,” she says.
Shortly after moving to
Johannesburg, Sheryl met
Rob, the man who would
become her husband and
business partner.
“We met on the Friday and
had three dates in three
days,” says Sheryl. “On the
Tuesday, in a beautiful little
Italian restaurant while we
were being serenaded by
violin, he asked me to marry
him. We were married five
months later and we recently
celebrated our 42nd wedding
anniversary.”
Stepping out
The couple wanted to own
their own business and so in
1990 Sheryl left Eskom. She,
Rob and a receptionist set
up shop in Rivonia, leveraging
Sheryl’s travel experience
and extensive network of
contacts and Rob’s accounting
expertise. The company was
called Ferguson Travel Brokers,
later becoming Traveleaders.
Sheryl says the original name
was ahead of its time, as she
sees the current airline-agency
relationship as more like a
brokerage than a true agent
supplier relationship these
days. The company focused
on corporate travel, with its
first client located in the same
building as their agency.
These days, the company
also assists with leisure
options. Self-drives through
the Dordogne valley; 50th
celebrations at the Monaco
Grand Prix and two-month
cruises on the QE2 travelling
from Cape Town to Asia Pacific
are some of the stand-out
itineraries that Sheryl has
tailor-made for clients over the
years.
“It was hard for the first few
years but working for yourself
is also immensely rewarding,”
she says.
Sheryl says before there
was Internet, corporate clients
really needed the agent to be
with them every step of the
way along their journey.
Today Traveleaders is a team
of five with its offices still in
Rivonia.
“Jacqui has been with the
company for nearly 12 years,
Cezanne for nearly four years
and Mmakgating for nearly two
years,” says Sheryl. She says
the secret to retaining good
staff comes down to looking
after their individual needs,
rewarding them financially and
creating a pleasant working
environment.
Sheryl remains very handson in the business and knows
every client who walks through
the door by name. She says
she takes the time not only
to get to know the clients
but also to understand their
businesses in as much depth
as possible – a step that
Sheryl feels is essential to
providing successful travel
management consulting.
Getting to know Sheryl
Rob and Sheryl have
two children. Ross is
an electrical engineer
who now owns his own
business and Kirsty is
an Earth Scientist who
consults on air, water
and dust pollution.
Sheryl says work
doesn’t stop for her
after hours but when
she does have some
spare time her hobbies
include gardening,
Latin American dancing
and cooking. Her love
of travel and exotic
cultures have influenced
her cooking, with
her Moroccan meat,
clementine and cinnamon
dish; her Zabaglione
Italian egg custard; and
her grape cake being
some of the family’s
favourites.
While Sheryl has
travelled extensively, she
says one of her favourite
travel memories was
formed decades ago
when she travelled up
to Mozambique with a
group of friends by light
aircraft, staying in lodges
and beach huts not
even registered on the
tourist maps, and sharing
prawns braaied on the
beach.
On another trip, Sheryl
and Rob visited Réunion.
The couple enjoyed a
number of day walks on
different parts of the
island. She remembers
hiking up into the
mountains, through
valleys of vineyards and
beautiful, shady forests.
She says it was awe
inspiring to walk through
the lava beds in the
south of the island and
see nature bringing the
stark black lava back to
life as tiny, luminescent
green ferns sprouted
out of the mineral lava
beds.
