Wim Butte

Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Airtrade Holding B.V.
WHEN: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 11:25 am - 11:30 am
TOPIC: Five Minutes of Fame: Previewing Travel Industry Start-ups (1 of 4)

Wim Butte, a 30-year travel industry veteran, is co-CEO of Vayama.com (www.vayama.com), a first-of-its-kind travel Web site dedicated exclusively to international air travel. Under the leadership of Wim, and his co-CEO Andre Hesselink, Vayama.com beta launched in June 2007 with the largest selection of international airlines, flights and fares, many never previously available online. In addition to launching Vayama.com, Wim has been and still is the CEO of Airtrade Holding B.V. (www.airtrade.nl), a $400 million Dutch provider of advanced international travel products and services, for the last 18 years. Wim co-founded Airtrade in 1989 with Andre Hesselink, and sold the company nine years later to BCD Holdings (www.bcd-nv.com), a privately owned Dutch company that includes BCD Travel, Park N Fly, TRX and other successful travel brands in the United States and in 96 countries around the world. BCD Holdings also tapped Wim to be Co-CEO of Airtrade Holding B.V.’s sister company in the U.S., Airtrade International Inc., which launched in 2005. While running Airtrade Holding, Wim served as executive vice president, Europe of World Travel BTI (now BCD Travel) from 2001 – 2004, where he was responsible for the company’s corporate travel offerings in France, Portugal and Eastern Europe. He has also been a member of BCD Holdings’ Executive Committee from 2002 – 2005. Before co-founding Airtrade Holding B.V., Wim served as the deputy CEO of Travel Trend, an airline wholesaler in the Netherlands, where he was responsible for all sales, marketing and operations. Wim first met Andre Hesselink in 1987 when they both worked at Travel Trend. Wim began his career in the airline industry and spent nine years in various sales jobs for KLM, Canadian Pacific Airlines and WardAir, a former Canadian charter airline. He also spent time working for Dutch tour operators. Wim earned his bachelor’s and law degrees from Amsterdam University. He currently lives in the Netherlands with his family.