After more than 30 years with BCD Travel, John
Snyder, President and Chief Executive Officer, has announced that
he will step down on 1 July 2023, transitioning his
responsibilities to current Stephan Baars, former BCD Chief
Financial Officer and current CEO of Boron.
“After three decades of doing what I love, there
was never going to be an easy time to say goodbye and step away,
but this is the right time,” John said. “It was important to me
to help get BCD well on the road to recovery, with the pandemic in
our rearview mirror. As a testament to what a fundamentally strong
company and culture we have here, we’ve maintained an
extraordinary track record of client retention and sales success.
We’ve rebuilt our teams with an eye on delivering the world’s very
best travel solutions and customer service. And we have a clear
path for our next phase of growth. I can say with full confidence
that BCD’s best days are yet to come.”
A Wisconsin native, John joined what was
then called WorldTravel Advisors in 1992. In various leadership roles, he
helped guide the company through periods of rapid growth,
including the 2006 acquisitions in Europe that led to the creation
of the BCD Travel brand and established the company as a leading
player on the global stage. In the years that followed the launch
of BCD, John oversaw acquisitions designed to meet the needs of a
growing client base.
During John’s time as president and CEO, he and
BCD have earned numerous accolades that reflect the company’s core
vision to be the world’s most trusted, innovative and sustainable
travel management company.
John turns the reins of BCD over to longtime
friend and colleague Stephan Baars.
“So robust is our culture that it lets us refer
affectionately to ‘boomerang’ colleagues — people who leave for
other opportunities but return to the BCD Travel family, drawn
back by the strength of our values and our commitment to living
them,” John said. “Stephan has almost 14 years of travel
industry experience, and I had the pleasure and privilege of
working closely with him during his 11-year tenure as BCD Travel’s
CFO. Stephan shares my conviction that client focus lies at the
heart of a successful enterprise. He also believes in the
importance of people and innovation, and in long-standing
relationships with business partners. His track record in steering
companies through times of change and growth speaks to his skill
in aligning commercial, operational, technology and central
service teams toward common goals.”
A native of Hanover, Germany, Stephan has three
decades of executive leadership experience in the
telecommunications, oil and gas production, business travel and
investment sectors.
In 2013, he became chairman of the Supervisory
Board for BCD Travel Germany, a role he still holds today.
In
2017, Stephan left BCD Travel to become CEO of Boron, the private
investment company of BCD founder John Fentener van Vlissingen.
“In his more than three decades with BCD Travel,
John has accomplished an amazing body of work that has benefited
not only our company but the entire travel industry,” Stephan said.
“I’m honored to follow in his footsteps and build on that
incredible success. Like John, I’m a ‘people person,’ and I
believe that perhaps his greatest legacy is promoting and
nurturing a strong company culture, guided by core values that
feed long-term success.”
