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Experience The
staff at Orba Travel Brokers has over 150yrs experience in the travel
industry! Founded
in 1990 by present Managing Director, Richard van Kempen, Orba Travel Brokers
quickly established itself amongst its peers as an Agency specialising in
business and Corporate travel. In the 20 years since, Orba Travel Brokers has
become Platinum Partners or Top Tier Agents with many of the world’s leading
airlines and travel providers, including QANTAS, Cathay Pacific, Singapore
Airlines, Emirates Airlines, American Express and many others. Staff Profiles |
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Richard van Kempen Richard,
our Managing Director, has been in the industry for over 20 years, and
established Orba Travel Brokers on July 1, 1990 with a view to becoming one
of Western Australia’s premier corporate travel agents. He has a firm belief
in working truly collaboratively with both our customers and our suppliers. Richard
is widely travelled but his favourite experience was to be had in the game
parks in South Africa where one evening at dusk he was in a vehicle which
pulled up underneath a tree. Looking up, Richard was astonished to see his
first leopard in the wild, sitting on a branch just over his head – a truly
memorable moment. Richard
is also a member of the Australian Society of Certified Practicing
Accountants, and as such has a true understanding of what it takes to make a business not only tick,
but grow. |
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Lee Forster Lee has been in the travel industry
since 1974, initially with the UK’s largest Tour Operator Thomson’s Holidays,
in London and Greece. Lee then moved into the retail travel sector where she
spent 6 years, before finally settling in Perth, where for the past 21 years
she has worked exclusively in the Corporate world enjoying every minute. Lee
joined Orba in 1996 and is Office Manager. Lee says "The current world wide business
environment may mean that some of the smaller operators and low cost carriers
may fall by the wayside. We have a strong client base and provide a
professional service that is key to maintaining and
welcoming new business to the Orba way of safe and competitive travel. "I was pleased to have been a Finalist in the AFTA
AWARDS for EXCELLENCE as BEST CORPORATE CONSULTANT, which shows that Orba has
an approach that the industry respects." During her time in the industry Lee has travelled
extensively, using her experiences with a tourist eye for detail and taking
into account the business travellers needs for that all important Business
meeting. Some of the locations she has experienced are UK, USA, Tahiti, Bora
Bora, Cook Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Thailand,
Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Mauritius, Maldives, Egypt, Tunisia,
Spain, the Canary Islands, Greece, Malta, Macau, Italy, France, Belgium,
Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Yugoslavia. Lee is looking to expand this list even further covering
the A to Z of the world. "Every
trip is a unique experience", her favourite being in the cockpit of a
jet as it landed at JFK, followed by sailing across the Atlantic on the QE2.
Lee enjoys all forms of travel "smooth and on time is best and something
we always plan for, the unexpected is just managed differently". |
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Janet Wheeler Janet's career in the travel industry began in Tasmania in 1968.
After getting a solid grounding in the industry she headed overseas. After
working in Corporate travel in South Africa for a year she moved on to the UK
where she worked with a major tour
company handling 4 group departures a week to the then USSR. For the next
nine years Janet lived in Munich giving her the opportunity to travel widely
throughout Europe. Returning to Australia Janet spent 16 years with various
agencies, hospitality and airline companies in W.A before joining Orba in
1994. Janet has travelled widely throughout Australia, Asia and
Europe. The highlights include her birth state of Tasmania, along with the
North West of W.A. as well as Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, Italy,
Turkey, the UK, Spain, the Soviet Union, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia,
Thailand, the USA, Canada, Mexico and Mauritius and South Africa. Her
favourite destination is Malaysia's Langkawi Island….”nothing to do….great
beaches – wonderful food and a cold Tiger beer…!” When it comes to Corporate Travel Janet loves the challenge of
being able to arrange the seemingly impossible at the last minute and enjoys
building close ties with her clients. She
has also enjoyed the challenge of hosting a special interest group of 20
Corporate customers and their clients to Europe in 1997. |
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Lynette
Spadaccini Lynette
already has over 11 years experience in the travel industry. Lynette loves
the diversity her job brings, according to her “there’s never a dull moment”.
She has already travelled extensively thru |
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Laura Hird Laura
has been in the industry since 1994. As she could not be a pilot “due to
having to wear glasses”, she felt the travel industry itself was the
next-best thing! |
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Richard Scales Rich has
been in the travel industry since 1986. His first foray into travel was with Deluxe
Coach lines. Then the aviation industry beckoned and in 1988 he flew into a
Travel career with Ansett Australia with whom he was with for 14 plus years
until they sadly disappeared into the Aviation graveyard. For the last 7
years Rich has worked in several Corporate Travel agencies until joining Orba
Travel Brokers in October of 2007. Rich just
loves finding solutions to the travel requests Orba’s clients have, whether
they are simple or complex, and to simply provide excellent service to them. He has
travelled the globe quite extensively in his years since leaving high school
and the list of places visited just keeps growing. |
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Naomi Cobain Naomi has been in the industry since
2005 and commenced her journey in travel because she genuinely enjoys
learning about other destinations. Already Naomi has been to Europe (UK,
France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland & Austria), Singapore
& parts of Australia (Melbourne, Gold Coast, Broome & Port Hedland) France and Switzerland are Naomi’s
particular favourites – she “loves the history of France & the beauty of
Switzerland”… and had never seen the snow before so particularly loved that! |
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June Siddique June joined Kings Travel in Adelaide
in 1965 which at the time was one of the largest privately owned agents in
Australia. Progressing through the ranks, June, eventually joined the Sales
Promotion Department which involved selected staff members escorting Kings
own Tour programmes, which were marketed as Harlequin Holidays
and Women’s Weekly World Tours. During the period 1968-1970 she even
co-hosted a weekly TV travel programme on SAS 10 Adelaide which was ‘live to
air’ on Wednesday afternoon and replayed Sunday morning. Each week a
different destination was presented with
native guests of the country or Industry members show-casing the various
tourist facets. On one such tour, whilst escorting a
group of 30 clients through Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong,
June met husband who was Inflight Manager with Air India and subsequently
married in 1970 and moved to India where they lived – between postings – for
a period of 5 years. As part of an overseas posting, June
lived in Beirut for a period of 9 months in 1972, working for a short time
with MEA (Middle East Airlines) at Beirut airport. June returned in
1975 to live in Western Australia, and for the past 30 + years has enjoyed
working in and managing various Travel Agencies in Perth. Some of the destinations where June
has travelled and spent time include the UK, Europe, Syria, Jordan, Egypt,
Lebanon, Kuwait, USA, Canada, Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand,
Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Borneo, China, Hong Kong,
Japan, Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and others In spite of a horrifying hijacking
and bombing experience, the one place which impacted on June and will always
remembered is Beirut – the Paris of the East. June is of the opinion that the ethos
of the Travel Industry will in the not too distant future be restored - once
‘smart travellers’ realise there is no substitute for good old fashioned
service . |
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Tony Griffin Tony was born in Africa (Northern
Rhodesia) and educated in He has worked in the Industry since
1974 having worked both for Ansett Airlines & Qantas, and later as a
Travel Agent in both the retail market and later in Corporate Travel, which
is now his particular field of expertise. He loves solving problems and
offering travel solutions to our clients whilst ensuring a very high level of
customer service, attention to detail and also offering cost effective
savings to all Clients. Above all, he is very passionate
about his career in travel and is thrilled to be able to share his knowledge
and experience to all our Team members and acting as a mentor and to be a
motivated team member. Tony has travelled extensively
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Rod Davies Rod
started in the industry in 1973 and has worked in a variety of retail, group,
corporate and IT areas within the business. Rod
enjoys all facets of travel, but does have a soft spot for the Corporate
field as it’s this field that is, firstly, the most challenging and secondly
the most rewarding. And,
it’s the IT area of travel that is his particular love. Searching out better
ways of achieving a result for the Agency and therefore the Agency staff and
our customers is what he hopes to achieve at Orba. Rod
has travelled throughout Europe, Asia and the US and Canada, and admits to
having seen little of Australia…”I’ll see Oz when I retire – whilst I am fit
and well enough to sit in planes for long periods at a time – I will”! |
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