The Bermuda Tourism Authority has placed another promising young team member on a pathway to the management ranks.

Since August of this year, Leonard Williams, 24, has been with NYC & Company as part of a BTA career development programme. When he wraps up with New York City’s official destination marketing organisation later this month, Leonard moves over to the Bermuda Tourism Authority’s New York Office to work closely with the sales and marketing team.

The internal professional development programme allows promising talent at the Bermuda Tourism Authority to rotate through the key disciplines of destination marketing and learn their inner workings. This better prepares young Bermudians for potential management roles in the future. Previously, Kyle James, who recently joined the Bermuda Business Development Agency, went through this programme in 2015; while Rasheeda Burgess completed the programme in 2016. Since then, Rasheeda has been promoted from assistant product development manager to her current position as tourism standards and training manager.

Leonard Williams joined the Bermuda Tourism Authority in 2016 as an intern with the operations division, followed by a move to the product and experiences division. In this post, he worked on a variety of high-profile projects including World Triathlon Series Bermuda, shaping our strategy for superyacht tourism and co-producing an ad campaign called Faces of Tourism. Once Leonard has completed his time with the sales and marketing team in the first part of 2019, he will have fulfilled the rotation programme’s requirements.

“Shaping young talent at the Bermuda Tourism Authority is a critical part of planning for the future,” said COO Karla Lacey. “We are fortunate to have a highly skilled, high performance team that produces excellent results for the country under what are sometimes very difficult circumstances. We view our internal professional development programmes as a critical part of ensuring we have future leaders who are ready to move up when the opportunity presents.”

Leonard Williams said: “Since joining NYC & Company in this developmental role I have experienced the business of tourism from a totally different perspective, which is not only enhancing my skill set, but helping me to better understand how this industry can benefit the lives of so many people. After the development programme, I look forward to taking what I’ve learnt back home and applying it to the continued growth of our island’s tourism industry.”

The Bermuda Tourism Authority currently has 42 full time employees in Bermuda and New York City. More than 90 per cent of the team is Bermudian or spouses of Bermudians.

• Press release from the Bermuda Tourism Authority