Tony Vericella
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Tony Vericella has taken an instrumental leadership role in the merging of two brands, as they embark in the same direction. Early this year, Hawaii’s leading destination and event management companies, MC&A and Island Partners Hawaii, signed an agreement to join forces. Vericella of IPH was a main figure in the emergence of the new entity, as what began as casual talks between him and good friend Chris Resich of MC&A in 2007 progressed into a logical negotiation that both sides view as a tremendous opportunity.
“As the economy took a downturn at the end of 2008 our talks were put on hold, but midway through 2010 our parties resumed conversations and worked out an exciting opportunity for both sides,” says Vericella, who was featured on the MidWeek cover Oct. 15, 1997.
“We both have strong reputations, and this should be good for our collective customers, employees and vendors. We are going to come together and be more aggressive in different parts of the world, working to promote and convince organizations to come to Hawaii.”
Vericella, who previously was president of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau and ran American Express Travel Services, and Budget Rent-A-Car for the Asia/Pacific region before that, expects the travel industry to continue to rise throughout 2011. Both the leisure and group sides should see expansion ventures to Hawaii including conventions, corporate groups, incentive programs, and corporate meetings and seminars.
“The marketplace globally keeps changing, and we just want to make sure we’re able to look at those opportunities, sort them out and focus more attention to them as quickly as possible,” he adds. “We have to be adaptable and flexible to what is happening on a global scale.”
Both companies will maintain their separate headquarters, with IPH based on Maui and MC&A on Oahu, but there will be cooperate unification between the two companies.
“As chief operations officer, my role will be to help integrate the organizations in areas where it makes sense.” Vericella says, “helping to find and share the best practices from our different brands, with the goal always being to make each brand stronger.”
With the incentives that both parties are looking for, Vericella seems to be the right fit for the groups’ integration process.
“I always love to find ways of integrating efforts to achieve something greater than anyone could do on an individual level,” he says.
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