In Person
Anita Gittelson
She is described by her colleagues as one of the most successful and knowledgeable executives in the industry. Jo Austin meets Wessco International's Anita Gittelson after her award-winning WTCE
Anita Gittelson
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CORPORATE & BRAND DEVELOPMENT, WESSCO INTERNATIONAL
Anita joined WESSCO in 1986. Formerly she was the director of importing and amenity development for Michaud Associates but she also has a BA in Theater Arts and studied Business Development at UCLA. She has over 20 years of packaging and branding experience, designing and selling custom and brand- name amenities for airlines, cruise lines and hotels. As well as being listed in Who's Who in Business in the USA, Anita has won numerous duty-free, airline, and cruise line industry awards for her trend-setting success.
OBH: What brought you into the world of WESSCO? AG: I got into this industry by not knowing anything about it! I was supplying Westin Hotels and Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts with kits for guests arriving without their baggage. At that time, not every airline had these. So when WESSCO's president Bob Bregman came into my office and said, "Hey, I get requests from airlines for these kits, do you think you could do those?" I was off!
Where did you learn the skills needed for the job? My colleague Sharon Conway DeHerder and I worked in an industry we knew nothing about, involving things we'd never dealt with, like eyeshades and slipper socks. What we did know was how to make little bottles for hotels and we introduced these into the airline amenity kit business. Before we knew it, we were supplying PanAm, Eastern Airlines, TWA and US Airways.
What changes have you witnessed in the industry over the years? After a time, we saw brands were more trusted by passengers than generic products and we introduced drug store brands to amenity kits. In time, we felt aromatherapy products were even better and added lines like L’Occitane.
How do you see the industry going in the future? We created exclusive discount offers for passengers on
Pictured above: Crystal O'Neilin, Anita Gittelson and Sharon Conway Deherder with
Brady Byrnes, manager of design at American Airlines, holding the EAMES pillow in same dot pattern as the AA First Class
amenity kit he designed. Right: Anita receives her Amenity Achievement Award from
Onboard Hospitality editor, Jo Austin
"We saw that brands were more trusted by passengers than generic product and we introduced them to amenity kits"
brand retail products, which created revenue generation for the airline (based on passenger sales using an exclusive discount code). Co-branding and marketing have become key and will continue to be a crucial element.
What has been your greatest partnership at WESSCO? My Delta Air Line colleagues became true family as we developed programmes together for 25 years. They, and the design companies they work with, like Lippincott, have truly creative minds.
And your greatest adventure? One of my favourite journeys was thanks to Joe Leach at Delta Air Lines. He designed a collectors’ series of eight amenity kits with WESSCO for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and we joined him at the World Airline Entertainment Association’s annual
trade show in Durban, South Africa. The safari we took after the show was a true adventure. We all ate giant, hairy worms with warm beer and danced with Zulus in the darkness, with scary green eyes staring out of the bushes at us. That was after the shark diving!
How do you feel on winning the TravelPlus lifetime achievement award? Just when I thought I couldn't get any luckier (or as my buyer/ buddy at TWA, Bill Leonard, used to say, "If I felt any better they'd arrest me!"), along comes this amazing award from Onboard Hospitality and the TravelPlus Amenity Kit Awards. I am truly honoured! How lucky I have been to have had such great teachers from all of the airlines. My buyers and vendors have become my buddies and a part of the WESSCO extended family.
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