Travelport, one of the world’s largest global distribution system (GDS) providers and operators of the Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan platforms, has promoted Hiroshi Shimizu to Worldspan’s Commercial Head in Japan, South Korea and Guam. The promotion takes effect immediately.

As commercial head, Shimizu will be directly responsible for Worldspan supplier and subscriber sales in Japan. He will also oversee the contribution of Worldspan’s official distributors in South Korea and Guam.

In addition, Shimizu will be responsible for Travelport’s airline relationships in Japan and South Korea as well as Travelport GDS’ partners including hotel, rail and car hire for Japan, Korea, Guam and Fiji.

“We are delighted that Hiroshi-san has moved into this role that builds on his knowledge of Worldspan and also the airlines in North Asia. He is a seasoned sales professional with almost two decades in airline sales and a further three in the GDS business,” said Shelley Beasley, Managing Director, Pacific, Travelport GDS.

Shimizu joined Worldspan in 2007, the same year that it was acquired by Travelport. During his time with Worldspan and Travelport, Shimizu has been Airline Sales Manager, Pacific and was most recently Business Development Manager (Supplier Services), Pacific.

Prior to joining the company, Shimizu spent almost 20 years in airline roles including more than a decade with Qantas and Qantas Holidays. Shimizu started his career in travel and tourism in Sydney coordinating Japanese visitor programmes in Australia.