Meet the newest members of your sales and marketing team.

Founder and Co-Owner

Suzanne founded Cara Hotel Marketing in 2004. She’s an industry expert with a vast experience of the travel industry across the UK, Irish and European markets. Suzanne cut her teeth in her family’s travel agency business in Dublin, Ireland, where she set up a very successful long haul division. After a brief encounter with the banking sector, she was drawn back to travel and spent almost a decade in senior sales roles for hotels and resorts in the Caribbean, Mexico and Africa.

Suzanne holds degrees in German, Economics and Business Studies from University College Dublin. She now lives in Singapore with her husband and three children. In her early years, Suzanne played tennis for Ireland and continues to send her opponents into crushing defeats!

suzanne@carahotelmarketing.com
+44 (0)20 3959 0959

James Bell, Co-Owner and Managing Director

As Managing Director, James leads the strategic direction of the company and our clients in the UK and European markets. He began his career in travel at Thomson Holidays, initially on the Graduate Management Scheme, and ultimately in the long haul product department where he was responsible for the Caribbean and Mexico.

After a number of years working in representation and directly for hotels and resorts across the Caribbean, Mexico and Florida, he teamed up with Suzanne in 2005 to build the company to the success it is today. James enjoys a vast wealth of knowledge and long track-record of delivering success for partners and clients during his travel industry career.

After graduating from the University of Cambridge with a Masters in history, James spent almost 20 years living in London before heading for the green fields of Wiltshire in the UK, where he now lives with his partner.

james@carahotelmarketing.com
+44 (0)7793 539 119

Edouard Maindon, Director of Commercial

Edouard joined the team as Commercial Director in November 2015 from UK tour operator Kuoni, where he was the Contracting Manager for Mauritius, Seychelles, Spanish Caribbean and Middle East. As Commercial Director, Edouard works closely with our hotels to develop the annual rate strategy for all European markets and directs contracting with our partners, as well as leading the commercial team to ensure the delivery of promotional rates throughout the season.

Edouard is originally from France, giving him the insight necessary to manage our multi-cultural team. After many years of London life, he now lives in Madrid with his wife and two young sons, but is a very regular visitor to Cara's UK offices. When Edouard was much younger, he completed a six-day trek in Venezuela. (And couldn’t walk for two days afterwards.)

edouard@carahotelmarketing.com
+44 (0)7879 994 874

Director of Groups and Incentives

Donna has worked in the travel industry for the past 30 years, with the last 24 focusing on the MICE and groups segment. She’s previously worked for Sandals and Superclubs and has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in groups and incentives. She joined us in August 2012. In her role, Donna works closely with incentive houses and smaller bespoke clients to create brand awareness to meet their and their client’s group and incentive requests.

Donna loves challenging herself with a daily early morning boxing session or cardio workout and is passionate about travelling. She also has a secret superpower: being able to eat nine crème eggs in one sitting without feeling queasy.

donna@carahotelmarketing.com
+44 (0)20 3372 4810

Darren Parry, Sales & Marketing Executive - UK and Ireland

darren@carahotelmarketing.com

+44 (0)7795 673 623

Lauren Mack, Head of Business Development & Trade Marketing, UK and Ireland

Lauren joined the team in 2019 from the trade sales team at Caribbean specialist tour operator Caribtours. Like all of the best, she cut her travel industry teeth as a Resort Representative for Thomas Cook before returning to the UK in a trade sales role with Greek specialist tour operator, Olympic Holidays.

Lauren works closely with the travel agent community and consortia in the UK & Ireland to raise awareness and build knowledge of the AMR Collection and its many destinations around the world. She loves flying the flag for AMR Collection and is always out on the road doing agency visits or attending events to ensure that their product is always front of mind with the teams selling to our future guests.

After a number of years enjoying everything that living in central London offers, she is now adjusting to a slower pace of life in the suburbs with her lucky husband to be! They always have at least one holiday in the diary, and as a lover of all things luxury, Lauren has many years of fabulous destinations to explore as she works her way around the world with the AMR Collection!

lauren.mack@carahotelmarketing.com
+44 (0)7884 385 338

Alice Gamm, Business Development Executive - UK and Ireland

alice@carahotelmarketing.com

Sandra Timmermanns, Sales, Marketing & Business Development Manager – Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia and E. Europe

Sandra joined the team as Sales & Marketing Executive in 2013 and was promoted to Sales & Marketing Manager for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Eastern Europe & Scandinavia in 2015.

She holds a BSc in International Hospitality and Tourism Management and has previously worked as Online Marketing Manager for the German South America specialist Viventura. After nearly 10 years of living, studying and working abroad, Sandra moved back to Germany in 2015, where she since lives with her family near Aachen/Cologne.

It goes without saying that she is passionate about travel and Latin America in particular. However, with two small kids, she currently prefers spending her holidays on campsites across Europe, while still getting to enjoy travelling to places a little further afield through her work with AMR Collection.

sandra@carahotelmarketing.com
+49 (0) 157 5309 2175

Jana Taufenbach, Business Development Executive - Germany, Austria & Switzerland

jana@carahotelmarketing.com 

+49 (0) 163 136 6085

Laureen Wilkening, Business Development Executive - Germany, Austria and Switzerland

laureen@carahotelmarketing.com

+49 (0) 178 674 8649

Pauline Pham, Business Development Executive - France and Benelux

pauline@carahotelmarketing.com
+44 (0)7482 452 937

Claire Hutson, Sales & Commercial Manager - Maldives

Claire joined Cara’s team from British Airways Holidays where she had spent 18 years as Destination Manager looking after product and contracting for a global portfolio of destinations stretching from Europe to the Caribbean. She brings with her a vast amount of experience and now works with our clients in the Indian Ocean to manage partner relationships, define and implement commercial strategies, and to maximise distribution and sales growth.

Hailing from Eastbourne, Claire is a busy mum to her children Daisy and Albie. On the rare occasions she gets time to herself and she can't head with friends to the spa, she loves a simple walk on the seafront with her lovely dog Hatton!

claire@carahotelmarketing.com

+44 (0)7795 568 659

Silva Catena, Sales & Marketing Manager - Italy and Commercial Manager - Jamaica, St. Lucia, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia & Mexican Pacific

Originally from Italy, Silvia studied Foreign Languages at the University of Bologna before moving to the UK in January 2015. She gained invaluable experience working in hotels and latterly at Tripadvisor before joining Cara's team in October 2017. Having initially joined as Commercial Executive, she was promoted in 2019 and after a stint as working as Sales & Marketing Manager supporting our partners in France, Benelux & Russia, she is now Commercial Manager for AMR Collection in Latin America, Caribbean & Mexican Pacific.

Born and raised in central Italy, Silvia has always been passionate about different cultures and visiting new countries. It is for this reason she decided to pursue a career in the travel industry so that she could nurture her passion for travel both at work and whilst travelling during her spare time. 

silvia@carahotelmarketing.com
+44 (0)7876 872 855

Richard Gamber, Commercial Manager - Mexican Caribbean South

Richard joined the company in September 2021. He has enjoyed a long and successful career in travel that started over 25 years ago as a Ski Rep in the French Alps before he moved on to roles in Product, Marketing and Commercial with Tour Operators in the UK including Crystal Holidays, Sovereign, The Holiday Malta Company, Youtravel and JAC Travel.  

As Commercial Manager, Richard works closely with our client hotels in Mexico to increase revenue, maximise ADR and grow their market share. He ensures that they are always one step ahead of their competitors and that we are maximising the promotional opportunities available to them through our vast network of distribution.

Richard is happily married with teenage children and 3 dogs. When he’s not skiing or showing off his ballroom dancing, he can be found challenging himself to raise money for charity. Sponsorship has seen him jumping out of an aeroplane, racing in Triathlons, and most recently cycling from London to Paris!

richard@carahotelmarketing.com
+44 (0)7887 945 013

Claire McGowan, Commercial Executive

claire.mcgowan@carahotelmarketing.com
+44 (0)7482 458 332

Martina Karayaneva, Commercial Executive

Martina joined the team in July 2018 and comes with a degree in Economics with Banking. Initially in the role of Office & Executive Assistant she supported our executive team whith responsibility for administrating accounts, payments, invoicing, and managing the smooth running of the office. However in March 2019 she was promoted to the role of Commercial Executive, and now contributes to the commercial strategy of our client hotels across all AMResorts properties in the Caribbean, Mexico & Latin America. 

Since a young age, Martina has loved crunching numbers and from that developed a love for maths & accountancy. However, her real passion lies in travelling the globe and top of her hobby list is collecting stamps in her passport!

martina@carahotelmarketing.com
+44 (0)7825 563 341