Sydney, Australia (14 February 2024) At a company gathering held in Stamford Connecticut with more than 500 Tauck employees, Board members and Tauck family members present, the following leadership changes were announced by the Tauck Board of Directors, effective October 2024: Arthur Tauck Jr., Chairman, will become Chairman Emeritus; Dan Mahar, Tauck CEO since 2008 will become Chairman of the Board; Jennifer Tombaugh, Tauck President since 2011 will become CEO; Jeremy Palmer, Tauck Chief Operating Officer since 2019 will become President.
“This leadership plan has been thoughtfully prepared and refined over the past decade, and it comes during a period of strong, consistent growth for the company. We look forward to remaining a family-owned company driven by our shared purpose of enhancing our guests’ lives through travel. Our focus will continue to be on guest satisfaction and retention, internal culture, and employee engagement, favourably impacting the places where we travel, and realising responsible, profitable growth over time. Tauck will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2025, and we look forward to building on our pioneering heritage of creating the world’s best travel experiences.”
Mahar added that the evolution of Tauck’s leadership comes at a time when the company’s product line has also been evolving. “We’ve really strengthened our premium position over the past two decades by maintaining our focus on all-inclusive, guided journeys that enhance our guest’s lives, while successfully broadening both the experiences we offer and the customers we serve. We look forward to building on this momentum in our second century.”
Over the past 20 years, Tauck has developed its multi-generational Tauck Bridges family itineraries, crafted to deliver “shared enrichment” to each generation of travellers. The company also entered the European river cruising industry, successfully pairing its extensive land experience with a custom-built fleet of elegant, intimate riverboats (and in the process being named the “World’s Best River Cruise Line” three times by the readers of Travel + Leisure magazine). On the high seas, Tauck has almost tripled its complement of small ship ocean voyages, incorporating smaller vessels and creative itineraries to explore places where the big ships can’t go. And back ashore, Tauck’s “small is big” philosophy has resulted in the introduction and rapid growth of small-group land journeys, with well over half of its land programs today being small-group departures.
