As you may have heard, Collette has been celebrating their 100 year anniversary recently. And what better way to celebrate than to name a brand-spanking-new president?

After starting in the mailroom at 15 years old, Jaclyn Leibl-Cote, daughter of Collette CEO Dan Sullivan, has just been chosen as the new president of the family-owned company, making her the first-ever female president of Collette.

Speaking to Travel Weekly, Leibl-Cote said there was never any question of whether she would follow in her father’s footsteps and work in the travel industry.

“I was always interested in the business, from when I was a little kid. I used to play with calculators and do pricing and sit with my dad and type things in, and so I’ve always wanted to.

“We have a family rule that we have to work outside the business for at least three years after we graduate university. So I did that, in a very different field, and as soon as my three years was up, I came right into the business,” she said.

Leibl-Cote worked casually for the company when she was a teenager, but came back “officially” as a product manager in 2005, a whopping 13 years ago.

“I was responsible for designing the programs and the itineraries, and negotiating them and doing all that and I would travel,” she told TW. 

Now, in her new role, Leibl-Cote hopes to become even more involved as Collette continues to grow and expand.

“The business has changed tremendously, we don’t even have enough space in our buildings. We’re constantly looking to hire and expand.

“It’s great to be a part of that growth and know that what we’re creating from the product perspective is resonating out of the marketplace through partners, through the travel agent community, and to our guests,” she said.

Collette has just launched their Explorations Small Tour product line, which includes destinations like South Africa, Spain and Antarctica, in smaller groups instead of the larger, classic travel tours that Collette is best known for.

Speaking more on the future of the travel industry, Collette’s president said although new technology is becoming ever-present in travel, it will never completely take over – especially in the guided travel space.

“People are curious, they want to ask questions. If you don’t have an experienced person who can answer those for you, what’s the purpose of travel?

“I do think that technology is going to continue to impact the way travellers make decisions, but I also think it will change the way travellers purchase travel. I think that we’ll definitely see technology just continue to develop in our space.

“But I think it will be good. Consumers are constantly changing and you just have to be able to respond to it,” she said.

Managing a family business as big as Collette certainly has its challenges, but Leibl-Cote’s been watching Sullivan since she could walk – and although she said balancing family and work life can be difficult as a mother, she wouldn’t change it, or her new title, for anything.

“I think it’s great for women. I think that in the travel industry especially, having more women leaders would be a really positive thing.

“I mean for me from a mother’s standpoint there’s just wanting to be there more so but there are times you sacrifice. [But] I have a super strong support system.

“[My kids are] getting to an age where we’re going to be able to start taking them out on tours and teaching them about the world and so I just think there’s such a value to being in the travel industry. And I know that what I do every single day is going to benefit them in the long run, and that’s the goal,” she said.

Rewind to Leibl-Cote’s childhood and you’d see a similar picture – her family travelled across Europe, the Canadian Rockies and the US, with Sullivan often away for work too.

“He would travel a lot because he was growing the business and developing a lot of product internationally, so he was gone a lot but he always made the effort to be at my field hockey games when he was around. I think seeing how he was able to balance it does help me,” she added.

And Sullivan’s passion for the industry is easy to see in Leibl-Cote, too.

“What’s so great about it is that I don’t come into work and so the same thing every day. I really have the opportunity to really stretch my imagination and try to come up with new concepts – guided travel is a copycat industry, and we’re a leader in that. That’s what I love.

“And when people copy what we’re doing it makes us feel good but it also makes us know that we need to stay sharp, we need to stay innovative, we need to stay on the edge because we need to always try and make sure that we’re one step ahead,” she said.