Tourism Authority Appoints Pat Phillip-Fairn
[Updated] The Bermuda Tourism Authority [BTA] announced today that Pat Phillip-Fairn [pictured left] has been appointed Chief Product and Experience Development Officer, effective April 14, 2014. She will report to the Chief Executive Officer.
Ms. Phillip-Fairn will be responsible for overseeing the Product and Experience Development Division. Her responsibilities will include analysing Bermuda’s existing tourism products and experiences compared with competitors as well as current trends, and strategically identifying development opportunities for new niche areas.
She will also look at what Bermuda needs to offer to satisfy the expectations of today’s traveller and develop corresponding product strategies. This is one of two new Divisions within the BTA.
Ms. Phillip-Fairn comes to the Bermuda Tourism Authority from her current role as Deputy Director, Corporate Governance and Communications at the Bermuda Monetary Authority [BMA], which she joined in 2005.
In this position she has been responsible for strategic planning and execution of the Authority’s corporate communications programmes, and further development and implementation of the organisation’s corporate governance framework and related policies.
She was appointed to this position after serving as Assistant Director, Policy, Research and Communications at the Authority for four years.
Prior to joining the Authority, Ms. Phillip-Fairn’s career included providing international business editorial and marketing consulting services to a group of Bermuda-based insurance and financial services firms, as well as public sector clients. She is a former Chief Executive Officer of the Bermuda International Business Association, where she led strategic initiatives to promote Bermuda and its services as a financial centre globally; she also monitored and assessed the impact of legislative and regulatory issues affecting the international business industry in Bermuda.
Prior to that, she was the Director of Marketing for Appleby Spurling and Kempe where she was responsible for strategic marketing and business development. Ms. Phillip-Fairn was also the Assistant Director of Tourism at the Bermuda Department of Tourism, with responsibility for Marketing, covering strategic planning and execution of a range of communications programmes.
Ms. Phillip-Fairn is a graduate of Bournemouth University in the UK and holds a degree in Business Studies; she also has professional qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the United Kingdom.
Bill Hanbury, CEO of Bermuda Tourism Authority, said, “I am delighted to welcome Pat to the Bermuda Tourism Authority. Her extensive background in research, strategic planning, and communications will be extremely valuable as she leads the division to uncover consumer needs and translate those into unique experiences.”
Pat Phillip-Fairn said, “I’m very pleased to be joining a dynamic organisation with a strategic approach and a deep focus on success for Bermuda. I also look forward to returning to the tourism industry and I’m pleased to be contributing to the collective effort towards new development.
“It’s an area that affects all of us and I’m excited to be taking my personal commitment to Bermuda to a new level and new direction with this senior role.”
Ms. Phillip-Fairn is Chairman of the Development Committee of the Board of Somersfield Academy and a member of the Asset Management and Captive committees of the Bermuda Business Development Agency.
Update Feb 20, 11.11am: Shadow Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert said, “The Bermuda Progressive Labour Party welcomes the appointment of Pat Phillip-Fairn to the post of Chief Product and Experience Development Officer, with the Bermuda Tourism Authority.
“Mrs. Phillip-Fairn possesses an outstanding and varied background that will surely be an asset to the Tourism Authority and to Bermuda as we seek to better understand our customers and bring more visitors to our island.”
BEST OF LUCK PAT!!!!!
This is a key position. We await the list of what it looks like NOW and where she will take us in 3 -4 years time. We have to see accomplishments.
Impressive resume.
she could easily have done the Top position instead of giving it to some American that knows next to nothing about Bermuda!
10:46am Why isn’t her education background listed? Is it because she has a 1st degree?
Who owns the BTA now?
Who will own it once it is private?
How can a business start with taxpayer dollars, go private and a select few make gains on it?
Who is doing the hiring?
And what are the salaries?
Whether you are OBA, PLP, Neither or Bermudian, these are questions you should want to know.
Nice
enquiry minds–are you not satisfied with the 5th paragraph from bottom ?…but with all those qualifications um more interested in achievements which would validate any degree or position, sounds nice to print positions but what did she achieve that would make her worthy of the position in tourism.. never heard of her before nor any real accomplishments that have made a dent in our lives here in Bda, or overseas.
Thanks for pointing out to all. She’s more qualified than her immediate boss eh? Just goes to show some have to have degrees and some don’t – depends on looks,connections or both?
This is the same thing that I said about the new Tourism leader. Great managerial experience but I didn’t about any direct experience in the tourism industry.
Good luck with the new position Pat, all the very best to you.
With all these high flyers on board, there seems to be too many chiefs basically doing the same job/s at the BTA. Financially speaking, is this sustainable? What happens if the BTA cannot meet meet payroll?
Just asking!
Soon we will have more BTA appointees than tourists. But, all the same, very best of luck to this lady. I think she will need it.
They are getting in position and picking the BEST. Let’s see what it looks like in 3 years time. Then we can put them to the test as to the accomplishments and why we continue to fail and NOT develop products. So we need to give them our support and rally behind them. that way we all benefit. They made the decisions so lets see performance. Resumes are great. Performance is even better and to date they are picking people who are not that well known and are not seen out in the community and have a short list of community development.’
For the most part I agree with you. However, sometimes we are so happy to see our friends/ family in these types of positions that we fail to ask the tough questions.
The taxpayer could end up paying these high priced people, then what?
Correction…cannot meet payroll?
I for one would wish that the BTA would get its self out of corporate businesses’ ass
way too many corporate types to effectively run a tourism organization
its not solely an OBA issue I for one remember when Terry Lister was Minister of Cultural Affairs and had a majority of accountants and corporate lawyers as human rights commissioners
accountants and corporate lawyers don’t first come to mind when I think compassion and understanding for the aggrieved
if anything they would have compassion and understanding for the person aggrieving
I think Harold Darrel who give a nod to that
I suppose in Bermuda if you do anything corporate business related you are perceived as being able to do anything including tourism
quite sad and somewhat pathetic
Is Corey Butterfield one of the BTA chiefs? After all, he was highly praised, hired, and defended by Crockwell!
WHY bother with Tourism anything????? This place can not even keep public transport up and running when we don’t have thousands here? Maybe you all should consider International Busines only, cause you sure can’t handle tourism, thats a given… This place is just too wasted right now… Hallo Cayman, Hello Bahamas, Hello Jamaica even…. More hope there… Governments that perhaps do not allow idiots (BIU members) to hold an entire country hostage….
chairman, ceo, cfo, cdepo, etc…
how many people are presently employed by the bta?
how many more positions are expected to be filled?
if they keep the remunerations to themselves, why publish these appointments?
She gets top marks for her CEO tenure at BIBA, its most successful years in developing International Business. Glad to see her get the job.
Congrats PAT…..
I wish you well. I wish Bermuda well. If only the politicians would stop fighting we would all be ok. Anything I can do to help I am there
Well done Pat!
You will be fantastic in your new role!