Our Experts

Alison joined the Sunvil team in 2019 but has long been an extended member of our family, having sold our holidays as a travel agent for 25 years! Sunvil is more than a business, our approach to travel - introducing visitor to lesser-known places and placing them among the locals, is a concept that our staff buy into and feel passionate about. Our holidays are those that we ourselves enjoy and would recommend for our friends and family. Alison is no exception having chosen a Sunvil trip to the Azores for her honeymoon and having recently returned from Veneto.

Chris is the Sunvil Group’s managing director and is not only responsible for the overall running of the company, the welfare of its staff, the fabric of the building, the efficient working of its computer systems but also for overseeing and contracting much of the accommodation on the GIC The Villa Collection programme. He is a very hands on managing director, a friend and helper to all, mad on aircraft and indefatigable. Chris joined The Greek Islands Club in 1993, after two years running a scouts’ holiday camp in Wales. He was responsible for maintaining The Club’s sailing boats on Paxos and generally acting as a rep for the villas. Sunvil Inherited Chris on purchasing GIC in 1998 and his abilities were quickly realised. He well deserves the top job.

Claire joined us in 2005 after having spent 6 years in Lesbos running her own business teaching English, where she married a Greek. The economic crisis in Greece forced them to return to the UK. Alongside day to day reservations, Claire is also mother goose to our 30 or so overseas representatives in Greece and works very closely with Graeme, our overseas manager in Greece, to arrange for their interviewing and training. Understandably she loves Alonissos.

Having been at university and unsure as to what to do following some temporary jobs, Dudley joined the family firm as a brochure packer in 1979. In those days distribution was from the office premises and Sunvil was just beginning to grow again, following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the company’s major destination, in 1974. He was then made responsible for travel agency sales. In due course he took over the running and brochure writing for the Sunvil Greece programme and the contracting of accommodation. He is now a director of the company and is the most knowledgeable and experienced member of the Greek team. He mixes work in administering the programme with taking reservations and he particularly enjoys tackling complicated and well nigh impossible itineraries.

Those of our clients who have, over the last 20 or so years, visited Tolon in the Peloponnese will know Jackie; our very knowledgeable and passionate representative. Having decided to return to the UK, she has joined our reservations team and, needless to say, knows Tolon, a resort we have featured since 1973, inside out. It will come as no surprise to know that the Peloponnese is her favourite region in Greece.

Growing up in Greece instilled Jordan with a deep passion for the country and her people, an appreciation of their history and culture, and an understanding of the true meaning of 'filoxenia' (warm, authentic hospitality). He loves nothing more than introducing our guests to the country of his childhood.

Justin came to us straight from university and has been on reservations ever since. Over this time he has developed an in-depth knowledge of Greece and her islands and uses his first-hand experiences to design complex island hopping itineraries around the Cyclades and the Dodecanese as well as fly drives on the Greek mainland. Justin loves the lesser-known regions and islands of Greece including Folegandros, Thessaly and the Peloponnese.

For those of you who have taken a holiday to Samos, you may have met Kellie who has worked as our local representative since 2016. Kellie fell in love with Samos after visiting the island over 20 years ago and her passion for Samos and all the Greek islands continues. Kellie's career in the travel industry began as soon as she left school and over the past 25 years has worked for many UK travel companies as well as working as a tour representative in Mexico. Kellie is one of our many well-travelled destination experts whose passion and knowledge of Greece is invaluable as part of the Sunvil family.

Mark came to Sunvil in 2007 and, by his own admission, his spell here has been the longest he has spent in any organisation. Previously he had worked in TV, website design and the music scene in general. A fervent lover of Greece he has travelled extensively throughout the country since working at Sunvil and knows the regions we cover. He is particularly fond of the Cyclades and Dodecanese islands and cites Sifnos and Milos as particular favourites.

At Sunvil we run a very high risk business as we charter aircraft and we pay whether we fill the seats or not. Neil is our wheeler dealer. He monitors our load factors on the aircraft and matches the beds we have abroad with the availability of the seats on the aircraft. He also takes reservations when necessary and counts the Peloponnese as his first choice for a holiday.

Noel is Sunvil’s Chairman. Born in Cyprus in 1948, he joined John der Parthog at Sunvil in 1973. Before that and following university, he spent 3 years as a trainee buyer at C&A Modes and then worked for a large Cypriot builder and property developer for whom he set up a London Office buying electrical components for the Middle East and importing lemons from orchards in Cyprus. He still researches new destinations for Sunvil and is heavily involved in matters relating to the travel industry. He is a previous chairman of ABTA, a long standing director and previous chairman of The Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO) and former chairman of The Travel Foundation - the travel industry’s sustainability charity.

Rebecca provides the important administrative backbone our European tailor-made programme, making sure the complicated documentation is in order and that everything goes out on time. She joined in 2013 from Lindt Chocolates but previously she had considerable travel experience with the specialist Magic Group of companies that were taken over by Thomson Holidays and before that with Holiday Hypermarket.

Rosanna is the head of our Discovery Department which covers tailor made holidays to Portugal and the Azores, Italy and Sicily, Scandinavia and the new programme to Spain. She is our longest serving member of staff having joined in 1994 after completing an honours degree in French and Italian and subsequently working for a tour operator in Yorkshire. She is responsible for brochure writing, contracting accommodation, programme costing, computer inputting and generally troubleshoots where necessary. She has global knowledge of our tailor made programme.

Rose has been visiting Latin America for over two decades (first visit to the continent was in 1998) where she had many adventures as a single 30 something getting lost in Patagonia! It didn't put her off as she returned with her toddler daughter for 6 months in 2005 whilst working for an adventure trekking and riding outfit in the Torres del Paine National Park, Chile. Realising that Latin America is an ideal place to travel with children, Emily has accompanied Rose over the years on trips to Peru, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Costa Rica. Rose is now enjoying exploring new destinations with her partner. The most recent trips have been to Costa Rica, Panama and Guyana.

With over three decades of experience working for major travel companies in the UK, Shirnett brings a blend of expertise and enthusiasm to her position within our Greece & Cyprus sales team at Sunvil. Shirnett has extensively explored the Greek islands of Crete, Lemnos, Kefalonia, Corfu, Paxos and Lefkas, and is looking forward to visiting many more in the coming months to expand her knowledge. Her affection for Cyprus dates back to her initial visit in 1992, and her love and knowledge of the island enables her to personalise the ideal Cypriot holiday experience for you.

Since joining Sunvil in 2007, Yasmin has travelled extensively across Portugal, the Azores, Spain, Italy, Sicily and Scandinavia. Her depth of knowledge of these countries is remarkable and she uses this to personalise the tailor made itineraries for our clients - attention to detail is something that is second nature, put her to the test. Though fluent in Spanish, she ranks Portugal as her number one destination... with our new programme to Sao Tome and Principe a close second.