Paul Metselaar, Chairman and CEO
Paul Metselaar founded The Lawyers' Travel Service in 1984, filling a void in the corporate travel market by providing specialized service to law firms. Trained as a litigator, Mr. Metselaar left a New York City law firm to support a family travel business. He quickly built the company into one of the top 6 corporate travel management companies in the U.S., serving more than 200 of the world's leading law firms. The Lawyers' Travel Service is a division of Ovation Travel Group, a $500 million corporate travel management company providing comprehensive travel solutions to over 350 professional service firm clients, representing over 200,000 travelers.
Mr. Metselaar is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University, and is a member of the Young Presidents Organization.
Sunil Mahtani, Executive Vice President Sunil Mahtani is responsible for the company's finances, strategic
planning, vendor relations, mergers and acquisitions and airline
negotiations. Since joining the company in 1989, Mr. Mahtani has held
several management positions including Corporate Controller, Vice President
of Finance, Chief Financial Officer and finally Executive Vice President.
Prior to business school he was responsible for business development for an
export business in Brazil. He is an member of Continental Airline's
Agency Advisory Board and a frequent participant at various industry round
table discussions.
Mr. Mahtani holds a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Boston University. He holds an undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce from Calcutta University, India.
Michael Steiner, Executive Vice President
Michael Steiner oversees the company’s marketing, business development and strategic growth efforts. He was previously Managing Director and Senior Vice President of Paris-based KDS International. Prior to leading KDS in North America, Mr. Steiner served as Vice President and General Manager of Gorp.com where he was responsible for the launch and strategic development of this leading travel e-commerce concern. Prior to Gorp, Mr Steiner held the position of Executive Vice President of DirectLink Technologies where he directed sales, marketing and operational activities for this online travel company. Before joining DirectLink Technologies, he was Senior Vice President at Direct Travel where he was responsible for over $300 million in travel management sales.
Mr. Steiner is an active member and speaker of the National Business Travel Association (NBTA), former board member of RADIUS, and a frequent speaker and writer on the topics of travel management, carbon-neutral travel and online travel solutions. He graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in Economics.
Daniel Gogerty, Senior Vice President, Operations
Daniel Gogerty joined Ovation as Senior Vice President of Operations, after more than 28 years in the travel industry. Prior to joining Ovation, Mr. Gogerty held senior level positions at Rosenbluth International, Maritz Travel Company, TQ3 and Carlson Wagonlit Travel in Client Solutions and Operations. During his career, Mr. Gogerty has managed multiple call centers, global service delivery, implementations, training, and new technology implementations in addition to integration responsibilities for Maritz Corporate Travel and Carlson Wagonlit. In his role at Ovation, Mr. Gogerty is responsible for service delivery, customer satisfaction, process innovation, employee development and strategic growth. . Mr. Gogerty attended Golden West College and holds a private pilots license.
Thomas Gehrke, Chief Information Officer
Thomas Gehrke joined Ovation as Chief Information Officer and is responsible for directing the overall technology strategy. Mr. Gehrke brings over 20 years experience implementing creative, cutting edge technology solutions in a diverse array of environments ranging from the entertainment industry to financial services. For the last 12 years, Mr. Gehrke served as Chief Information Officer for one of the premier boutique financial service firms, The Daley-Hodkin Group. He guided the development of new technologies that have defined the industry standard for asset valuation, research and analysis. Mr. Gehrke attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and The University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
