ITAC gears up to announce exciting changes in leadership roles this week.
Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Vancouver, BC – The Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) is about to roll out several exciting changes coming to ITAC’s leadership team this week. The changes will help ITAC, and the Indigenous tourism industry continue to grow and build back better in the recovery from COVID-19.
The first promotion ITAC is pleased to announce this week is Sébastien (Séb) Desnoyers-Picard into the newly created role of Vice President of Operations. In this role, Desnoyers-Picard will oversee the execution of the strategy and action plan as approved by the Board of Directors and the CEO. The role will also support CEO, Keith Henry, at various levels to achieve further efficiency while augmenting services dedicated to ITAC members. This is a new position for the organization, to enable both the VP and CEO more diversified work and opportunity to further promotion advocacy efforts.
“We are so proud of the work that Séb has done in his time at ITAC and within the Indigenous tourism industry throughout his career,” said Keith Henry, President and CEO of ITAC. “This position is an important step for ITAC and for Séb to elevate him as an operational leader and further enhance our advocacy efforts.”
Desnoyers-Picard brings with him more than 15 years in tourism, media relations, communications and international marketing experience where he’s known for creating important alliances with various financial partners in order to create support and sales conversion programs for the industries he represented, always aiming for sound management of human and financial resources. Previously, he held the position of the Chief Marketing Officer for ITAC where he helped launch The Original Original marketing campaign and led advocacy support to secure government and partner funding for the Indigenous tourism industry at large. The bi-lingual leader has been with ITAC for five years, the last three spent in the Chief Marketing Officer role.
ITAC will roll out additional promotions later this week as we look forward to the continued growth of ITAC and the Indigenous tourism industry as interest and revenue continues to grow rapidly. ITAC’s mandate is to leverage tourism to help support the revitalization and broader understanding of Indigenous culture in a way that contributes positively to Indigenous communities. With this new leadership structure, ITAC is set up very well to recover and continue to build back better following the pandemic.