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E X E C U T I V E B
I O G R A P H Y -
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Matt
Halloran
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Position:
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Managing
Director
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Industry
Experience:
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17
Years
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Accom.Com.Au
Role:
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Management,
Sales, Promotion, Web Design,
Media Liason.
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Contact:
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0425 344
124
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Email:
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mhalloran@accom.com.au
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Matt Halloran
has a career spanning 17 years in the travel &
hospitality industry. He has worked with major
industry players such as East-West Airlines,
British Airways and Novotel Hotels, and has held
senior positions at General Travel as Retail
Manager, and at Abacus Distribution Systems as Head
of Customer Service. For a number of years, Matt
also owned and operated a small independent travel
agency, Holiday Oz, which was located in Sydney's
Southern Suburbs.
Matt's
experience, both within and outside the travel
industry, has been broad and diversified. Early on
in his career - prior to travel - Matt had already
developed a fairly active entrepreneurial mindset.
At the age of 17, he had organised and promoted his
first youth concert, and by the time he was 20, he
had promoted 6 such concerts featuring well known
local and international bands, and was presenting
music programs on community radio in Sydney.
Around the same
time, he was developing a love and talent for
"Desktop Publishing", and by the late 1980's was
already producing simple designs and artwork on his
Apple Macintosh Plus. Of course the Mac Plus has
long gone, however Matt has kept a keen interest in
continually developing this skill over the years,
many times being called upon to produce artwork for
leaflets and promotional material which have
assisted both himself and his employers in various
roles he has undertaken throughout his career.
In the mid
1990's, with the advent of the commercialisation of
the internet, Matt began to experiment in web
development. He produced his first site for Holiday
Oz, which was one of the first Travel Agencies in
Australia to link up to Sabre's "Web Reservations"
online reservation product. The Holiday Oz site was
actually used by Sabre at the time to demonstrate
their product - in the context of a live working
environment - to their potential Web Reservations
customers. Today, Matt is the primary designer for
Accom.Com.Au, as well as developing a small web
design business on the side.
Educationally,
Matt left school in 1980 with a School Certificate.
He has since undertaken many industry and external
short courses to ehance his skills in selling,
customer service, training, conflict resolution,
supervision and management, as well as many hours
of practical application in artwork and website
design.
With a range of
talents and abilities which in many cases have been
beyond regular career roles, Matt has often found
himself frustrated. "I guess you could say I am a
bit of a square peg", Matt states. "I have always
been a bit of a 'creative thinker', and although
there have been some fantastic roles and
opportunities in my career, I have often felt the
need to be able to flex my creative muscles a
little more."
That creative
input has come together in Accom.Com.Au, where Matt
is able to combine his flair for creativity and
entepreneurial skill with his experience and
knowledge of the travel industry. "I guess my aim
with Accom.Com.Au has always been to produce
something that is comprehensive in its content, and
yet is user friendly, and visually attractive" says
Matt, "Sometimes it is a fine line. The web is a
great resource for people, but my experience has
been that many sites still seem to miss the mark
and don't take make the most of the medium - or of
their own potential. Hopefully I am avoiding that!"
So, is
Accom.Com.Au the ultimate career move for Matt?
"Well, I am constantly calling upon the combination
of my skills and experience to continue developing
our sites - both from a business management as well
as a web development point of view. At the moment I
am working from home, managing a business, a young
family, a mortgage, 2 cars and a cat. It can be
crazy sometimes - it's not easy wearing so many
hats. You've got to think that surely that has to
go a long way towards the brownie points needed to
fulfil my creative potential!"
Judging by the
results, it certainly seems so.
-- ENDS
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