Meet The Team
Helena Beard
Managing Director
Helena is a senior marketer with over 15 years’ experience and a passion for delivering innovative marketing solutions to address marketing challenges. Until 2009, Helena was General Manager, Brand and Communications for Virgin Holidays. There she was responsible for a large marketing department, including PR, Advertising, Brand Management and Responsible Business.
Helena joined KBC PR & Marketing, initially as Marketing Director, before becoming Managing Director in 2012. Two years later, Helena left KBC to focus her attention on China Travel Outbound, where she is a director and co-owner.
Helena has an MSC in Tourism Management and Marketing, a Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a BA Honours degree from London University. She is also a guest blogger for travel website, TravelMole, winner of the 2016 Entrepreneurial Spark #Acceler8 Award, and finalist in the Disrupter Award at the 2019 Everywoman in Travel award which recognises inspirational female British businesswomen.
Vivienne Song
Account Director
Vivienne Song is an experienced Sales and PR professional who heads up our office in Beijing. Vivienne has many years’ experience working in the travel and tourism industries with clients including Choose Chicago, Uncover Britain and San Francisco Travel. She has also worked for one of China’s largest online travel agencies, Mafengwo.
Vivienne is an excellent communicator and is bilingual in Mandarin and English.
Ed Lamb
Head of Client Services
Ed joined China Travel Outbound in November 2019 from digital agency Propellernet, where he’d worked for nine years, winning and working with clients like Marks and Spencer and Waitrose. He’s here to give all our clients strategic input and ensure that we are delivering the highest standards of client service. Prior to that Ed helped TMW (now TMW Unlimited) to transform themselves successfully from an offline paper-based DM agency to a digitally focused one.
Ed’s career has spanned two decades working in marketing, starting out on the client-side following his Marketing degree. After Wilkinson Sword he moved to London digital agency Syzygy where he was part of the management team before joining TMW.
Outside work Ed volunteers for the charity Cricket Without Boundaries, regularly visiting East Africa to deliver health and gender equality messages through cricket. He’s also helping Street Child United with the preparation and delivery of The Street Child Cricket World Cup in India in 2023.
Helen Bailey
Research Partner
Helen Bailey heads up our consumer research division. Whether you need insights into the behaviours or attitudes of your Chinese customers, or you want to find out more about the preferences of Chinese students studying in the UK, Helen and her team are here to help.
Helen understands people and relishes the opportunity to find out why people do what they do and how they perceive businesses. Helen uses a variety of market research and coaching techniques to uncover the real stories and what lurks beneath the ‘data.’ All of her work results in the reward of clarity in what you should be doing and what people want from you which always results in an increase in sales. More recently Helen has been working with our team to discover what Chinese Students want from a weekend away and how tourist boards can communicate what this unique group of people would like to hear that will inspire a visit. This has resulted in transforming the thinking behind how to attract this lucrative group of regular travellers to a major European destination.
Helen has over 26 years business experience as an owner of three SMEs, owner and operator of a restaurant chain and researcher to companies including Coca Cola, JD Wetherspoon, Legal & General, P&O Ferries and Optivo and local Sussex based companies. She is a non-executive board member of MDHUB a leadership organisation to help companies grow and mentors Sussex University Business Graduates.
Julie Withers
Account Manager
Julie has extensive marketing, communications and account management experience gained at organisations ranging from the NSPCC to Country Living Magazine. Her skills include strategy, new business development, content marketing and event management. She is an avid traveller and has visited 34 countries including, of course, China.
Julie looks after our clients, ensuring that service levels are kept to her exacting standards. She is also a great person to talk to if you are new to China and is always happy to chat about how to find effective marketing solutions, whatever your challenges and budget.
Jing Jing
Account Manager
Jing is an experienced bilingual marketing professional with a history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. She is highly skilled in cross-culture communication, advertising, Chinese digital marketing and client relationship management.
Jing has a strong tourism industry marketing background with a bachelor’s degree in Tourism Management from Hainan University and a master’s degree in Media and Culture Studies from the University of Sussex.
Jing has used her knowledge and skills to help many overseas organisations build an authentic and unique reputation in China and get real traction from the market.
Maria Wang
Travel Trade Manager
Maria Wang is China Travel Outbound’s Travel Trade Manager. Starting her career at CTS as a European Visa Commissioner, Maria now has more than nine years experience working in the travel trade and Chinese Tourism Market. During this time, Maria has developed great relationships with overseas tourism bureaus, Chinese travel agencies and other industry partners. She has a deep understanding of the Chinese tourism market as well as a wide network of contacts.
Maria has a strong background in rail, and has worked in ticketing, marketing and operational roles. She has also worked in social media management, responsible for social media content distribution and interaction with followers on WeChat and Weibo.
Maria has a degree in English from Beijing Language and Culture University. She is a friendly, outgoing member of the team and works with Vivienne on the travel trade side of China Travel Outbound, visiting agents to promote our clients’ products, negotiating itinerary inclusion, and training agency staff. She develops and manages excellent relationships with travel trade partners and has a strong ability to do this with sensitivity and professionalism.
Wilson Zhang
Hotel Account Director
Wilson Zhang is our Hotel Account Director based in our Beijing office. He is an
experienced tourism professional with in-depth knowledge of the hospitality industry, having worked with a wide range of hotel clients across both Europe and Asia, including Sands Resorts Macao and the Kempinski Hotel, Beijing. Wilson has also worked closely with Haoqiao.com, one of the biggest outbound wholesalers in China.
Wilson is well-versed in fulfilling our clients’ briefs and giving them excellent cut through into the China market, with a solid history in driving sales and revenues for the brands he works with. He loves working with emerging markets and giving brands resonance and stand out.
Summer Anne
PR & Media Manager
Summer Wang is China Travel Outbound’s PR and Media Manager.
She graduated from the University of Leicester with an MA in Mass Communication and has five years’ experience in the Chinese media industry. She previously worked as a Project Planner for Chinese film company HeLing, and then went on to work at HeShi Media for two and a half years as an Event Planner.
Her experience of living and studying in the UK and her in depth knowledge of the Chinese media has given her an incredible ability to provide a professional, insightful and efficient service for our clients.
Summer is a friendly and reliable member of the team who is always happy to help.
Anqi Ni
Social Media Manager
Anqi is China Travel Outbound’s Social Media Manager. She has extensive PR experience with outbound tourism companies, especially European companies.
Anqi studied advertising at the Communication University of China, she has a strong background in marketing, PR and copywriting.
She is a friendly, outgoing member of the team and works with Vivienne on the social media side of China Travel Outbound, pursuing the most attractive ideas for our clients and helping to bring these to life in the Chinese tourism market.
Dani Convey
Marketing Executive Intern
Dani Convey is China Travel Outbound’s Marketing intern. She graduated in 2018 with a degree in History of Art and English Literature from the University of Sussex.
Dani has worked in a variety of customer service facing roles over the past five years. During her time spent at University, she also volunteered at a number of local Brighton museums, galleries and tourist destinations. This included volunteering for six months at Brighton Royal Pavilion and Museum as a digital archiving assistant, where she helped the conservationists to digitally archive important files and documents as a more effective and modern way of storing conservation documents.
Dani has been using her experience and knowledge of heritage and museums throughout her internship and is incredibly passionate about highlighting how tourism is vital to the survival of cultural institutions. Dani is a great first point of contact and really enjoys meeting new people. She is responsible for China Travel Outbound’s social media and her passion for writing has been of great use for this aspect of her role.
Louie Gao
Social Media Manager
Louie graduated from Beijing International Studies University with a BA in Tourism
Management.
She has three years’ experience in tourism product development, having worked for CYTS and Uniqueway where she was in charge of travel route planning, operating, sales training and supplier relationship maintenance.
She also has experience in digital marketing and advertising and worked as an Account Executive, setting up websites for international clients.
Louie is an approachable and enthusiastic member of the team, working with Vivienne on the social media side of China Travel Outbound to provide our clients with the best possible representation across Chinese social media platforms.
