Excellence in Leadership
TravelAge West’s Excellence in Leadership Award celebrates a long-standing icon of the travel industry, and recognizes their lifelong commitment to the betterment of the industry.
Each year, TravelAge West honors individuals with the Excellence in Leadership Award. These exceptional industry leaders not only demonstrate outstanding leadership, insight and innovation, but also positively impact both their own organizations and the travel industry overall.
For 2023, TravelAge West is honored to present this award to three worthy recipients, Rodrigo Esponda Cascajares with the Los Cabos Tourism Board, Scott Koepf with Cruise Planners and Michele Saegesser with Viking.
Rodrigo
Esponda Cascajares
Los
Cabos Tourism Board
Strategic
planning, crisis management, destination marketing, public relations, sales,
event planning … these are just a few of the skills Rodrigo Esponda Cascajares
has honed over his 20-plus years in the travel industry. Add to that varied
skillset his outstanding leadership as managing director of the Los Cabos
Tourism Board, and you will start to see why TravelAge West chose him as a
recipient of this year’s Excellence in Leadership Award.
Since
2016, Esponda has led the marketing, communication and branding efforts for the
Los Cabos Tourism Board. Prior to that position, he spent 16 years at the
Mexico Tourism Board, holding positions including regional director for North
America; director, Canada; and director, Midwest USA. As regional director for North
America during his last four years with the organization, he linked major tour
operators, airlines and travel agencies as part of efforts to coordinate
Mexico’s promotional efforts in both the U.S. and Canada.
In
addition to these accomplishments, Esponda’s distinguished career has included
time working for the National Trust Fund for Development. He has also shared
his vast knowledge of the industry with upcoming generations by serving as a
professor of tourism planning at New York University.
Scott
Koepf
Cruise
Planners
If
you don’t know Scott Koepf, you’re probably new to the travel industry in the
West. With almost 40 years in retail travel — much of it based in Southern
California — Koepf is an industry veteran and a fitting recipient of this year’s
Excellence in Leadership Award.
Koepf
is chief strategy officer at Cruise Planners, one of the largest and
most-awarded travel companies in North America. His previous experience
includes executive roles at Avoya Travel and the National Association of Career
Travel Agents. He also had positions at Sabre Holdings and Nexion.
Koepf
and Pam, his wife of almost 40 years, started in the travel business when they
opened the fifth Cruise Holidays franchise in 1985. In 1989, he became
president of Cruise Holidays International.
Koepf
is also a motivational speaker who has focused on helping travel advisors reach
their goals. For more than 20 years, he trained every Master Cruise Counselor
in Australia and New Zealand through an annual program he conducted with Cruise
Lines International Association (CLIA) Australasia. He was recently presented
with a lifetime achievement award and inducted into the CLIA Hall of Fame.
Koepf
is also known as “the Sales Coach” and, due to his passion for musical theater,
the “Singing Salesman.”
Koepf
and Pam now live in Temecula, Calif., where they enjoy the company of their
three daughters and their husbands, as well as four grandchildren.
“I
am honored and so grateful for the Leadership Award presented at one of my
favorite annual events, the WAVE Awards,” Koepf said. “I am blessed to have
spent almost my entire career in the travel industry, and I have always been
driven to advocate for travel advisors. I am just giddy to receive this
recognition for what I love to do.”
Michele
Saegesser
Viking
After
44 years in tourism and a career that has included some of the industry’s most
recognizable brands, along with her own initiatives, it’s safe to say that
Michele Saegesser has earned her reputation as a leader in travel — not to mention
the well-deserved honor of a TravelAge West Excellence in Leadership Award.
Saegesser
started her career with Disneyland Resort before moving on to Princess Cruises.
In the 1980s, she worked onboard the “real” Love Boat, the Pacific Princess.
“Those
were incredible times in the cruise industry,” Saegesser said. “Everything was
possible. Being based on the Pacific Princess had its perks, including a gown
allowance — $1,200 per month to buy gowns for hosting dinner tables. Pretty
sure no one has that anymore.”
Other
career highlights for Saegesser include being the first U.S. representative for
Rocky Mountaineer, which led her to start her own business specializing in
luxury trains.
Small-ship
cruising was later added to her business model, and along came a little unknown
line called Viking River Cruises. Her resulting 20 years with Viking have
included two years living in Sydney while opening the first Viking office in
Australia, and her current role as vice president of sales and national
accounts for the company.
“When
I started with Viking, none of us had any idea how to sell river cruising in
the U.S.,” she said. “Viking had about 12 ships when I joined. Look at us now.”
