Our Management Team

Joe McClure and his team have built a small mom and pop travel agency into a $100+ million national travel management company. After getting his BS from Northridge and his MBA in Marketing and Finance from USC, Joe worked in Finance for the Coca-Cola Company and in Product Management for the Dole Package Foods Company. Joe's wife Julie is the CFO of Montrose Travel. They have two beautiful children, a 13-year old daughter Marissa and 10-year old son Joey IV.

After graduating from high school on the beautiful island of Maui, Julie ventured to Loyola Marymount University to get her BS in Accounting. Upon graduating, Julie became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and received her public accounting experience with Peat Marwick Mitchell in Los Angeles. From there, Julie became the Manager of Accounting at First Deposit Corporation in San Francisco. Now with Montrose Travel since 1989, Julie has two beautiful children, Marissa and Joey, and one challenging husband.

Andi began her career in the travel business by being introduced to the brochure room annual cleaning process at a young age! Prior to joining Montrose Travel as an "adult", she received her BS in Marketing at California State University, Northridge in 1983 and her MBA in Marketing and Finance from the University of Southern California in 1985. Upon graduation, she worked at Hunt-Wesson Foods as the Product Manager of Peter Pan Peanut Butter followed by several years at the Kellogg Company managing several large cereal brands including Frosted Flakes. In 1990, she and her brother, Joe, rejoined Montrose Travel and have lead the company through years of growth. Since 1990, Andi's responsibilities have included the Leisure and Group Divisions, as well as our sister company, Sportours, where she became a ski and dive travel expert. Sportours was sold in 2002 and she returned exclusively to Montrose Travel in Spring 2004 handling business development, our home-based agent and independent contractor programs. She married Dave in 2000 and they are the proud parents of Jessica, David, and two cute cats Barney & Benjy.

Kate began her travel career with Delta Airlines as a 'Gate Agent' at Burbank Airport. She wanted to get more involved with the traveler's decision making process. Montrose Travel gave her that opportunity in 1989. Kate started as an assistant (trainee) and "learned her way up" to handling worldwide vacations. In January of 1998 Kate realized her dream of developing a Honeymoon Division. In July of 2003 Kate stepped up and filled an open position of Manager of the Leisure Division. At this time Kate runs both the Leisure and Honeymoon Division out of our Vacation Center at 2349 Honolulu Avenue.

Nicole joined Montrose Travel's Commercial Division as a Receptionist in July 2001. In March of 2002 she took on the position of Assistant to the President and joined Montrose Travel's Management Team. In addition to working with Joe, Nicole works very closely with both the Leisure and Corporate Receptionists to make sure we are providing the highest level of customer service to all of our customers.

Born and raised in Southern California Lisa has worked in the Travel Industry for the past 20 years where she has enjoyed the challenging career of Leisure Travel Sales. Lisa has worked for Montrose Travel for the past 6 years and is the Account Executive for Montrose Travel’s Leisure Division.

Lisa has seen many changes in the travel industry over the last 20 years but continues to enjoy the challenges change brings.

In her current position at Montrose Travel she has been given the unique opportunity to tell others about all of the fabulous travel benefits that Montrose Travel has to offer. Lisa is the proud mother of two grown children and is also a grandmother to a beautiful granddaughter.

Born and raised in Slovakia, a small country in the heart of Europe, Igor obtained his diploma in Hotel & Catering studies and postgraduate certification in Accounting and Information Technology at Hotel Academy. He left Slovakia in 1996 to learn English and to find better career opportunities.

He and his beautiful wife Katarina, settled in London and for 6 ½ years ran their own employment agency. Again searching for a better life, Igor and Katarina accepted temporary positions with Montrose Travel. Igor provided coverage as the Dispatch Supervisor then served as the Marketing and Product Specialist in our Commercial Division.

A year later, Igor returned to a permanent designation as the Dispatch Supervisor. His strong organizational and cost control skills ensure the highest level of customer service in the all-important document delivery portion of our business.

After graduating from high school and obtaining a diploma in Management and Business studies in a beautiful mountain resort in the heart of Europe, Katie leaves Slovakia in 1997 to learn English and continue her studies. Katie lived in London and for 6 ½ years ran a partnership company together with her husband Igor.

In 2002, Katie got introduced to travel business and accepted temporary positions with Montrose Travel. Katie provided coverage as a receptionist then served as the Marketing Coordinator. In October 2003 Katie returned to Leisure Division as a Support Staff Associate. In December 2004 she got promoted to Leisure Support Group Supervisor.

Katie is committed and dedicated to provide the highest level of customer service for all customers and travel counselors of Montrose Travel.

Born and raised in Algeria, Moumene completed his Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering / Telecommunication from the National Institute of Electricity and Electronics, Algeria, in June 1994. Post graduation, Moumene decided to relocate to the United States to further his career. Luckily, AIR4LESS.com - a division of Montrose Travel - found Moumene and snatched him off the market. Working as a successful travel agent until 1998, Moumene was quickly promoted to help design, program and develop AIR4LESS.com's Desktop, Point of Sale, Quality Control and Automated Ticketing applications.

Upon completing his technological tasks with AIR4LESS.com, Moumene then joined Montrose Travel as a lead developer helping to build Montrose Travel's many websites.

In July, 2007, Moumene was promoted to manage Montrose Travel entire website design and development group.

In the travel industry since 1993, Jamie joined Montrose Travel in 1995. During her tenure, Jamie has worked on both Montrose Travel's Leisure and Commercial Sales Teams. Showing unending initiative and results while earning a BS in Marketing from California State University, Northridge, Jamie was promoted to Manager of Montrose Travel's Marketing Department in 2000 and in May, 2001 was again promoted to be the Manager of Montrose Travel's combined Leisure Sales and Marketing Departments.

Rhonda has a B.A. in Psychology from California State University, San Bernardino, CA. and joined Montrose Travel in 1988. She has managed our Commercial, Leisure and Air, Car & Hotel divisions. Rhonda knows the unique skills required to be a Montrose Travel Professional. Her focus is to ensure a consistently superior product and performance. Rhonda is readily available to hear your praise or concerns regarding your experience at Montrose Travel.

Miguel started working with Montrose Travel in 1994 as an assistant where he quickly worked his way up to be a seasoned corporate travel counselor. In 1997, Miguel became the Supervisor of Montrose Travel's Commercial Division and then became its Manager in 1999. Being responsible for the day-to-day in-house operations of his Division, Miguel has done a superior job of training and motivating his staff with the ultimate objective of constant and consistent customer service and satisfaction. In January 2004 Miguel took on the responsibility of Air / Car / Hotel Manager.

After graduating from UCSB in the summer of 1997, Kathy started in the travel industry as a bookkeeper at a travel agency in Santa Barbara. Upon moving to northern California, she continued working as a bookkeeper for an agency located in Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz agency was purchased by a large agency located in the Silicon Valley, where Kathy assisted in coordinating accounting operations for multiple locations as an Accounting Operations Supervisor. In June 2000, Kathy relocated to Pasadena to be closer to family. She continued her employment with the Silicon Valley based agency, working from home and frequently traveling to San Jose and San Francisco. In July 2002, Kathy took advantage of a great opportunity to join the Montrose Travel family as Manager of Accounting.

With 21 years in the travel industry, Susan Pelico has most recently joined the team at Montrose Travel as National Account Manager. For the past 2 years she has been with Concorde Hotels and Resorts as Director of Sales and also spent 13 years at Virgin Atlantic Airways in Corporate Sales. Prior to Corporate Sales, Susan just wanted to see the world, so she became a Military Flight Attendant for Flying Tigers for 6 years. She holds Bachelors in Communication Studies from CSULB.

For years Andrew worked in the Workers' Compensation industry but always had an interest in travel. So, he attended a 10-month training course for the travel industry. He began his travel career in 1997 as an agent at Air4Less, at that time a sister company of Montrose Travel. There, he worked his way up to lead agent. In early 2000, he was asked to fill in for a trainer, and after realizing he was the right person for the job, was promoted to the position. After Air4Less moved to Virginia in 2001, Andrew accepted the challenge from Joe and joined Montrose Travel as a trainer.

Melissa came to Montrose Travel in 1996 after working for 7 years at Nordstrom. Deciding to make her love of travel her career she was hired at Montrose Travel as a Leisure Division assistant. After a short time she moved to the Groups/Meetings/Incentives Division where she found her true calling. She started as an assistant and within a year was promoted to Group Coordinator. That led to her becoming the Lead Agent in the Group Division. In July of 2003 she was promoted to Supervisor of the Division upon the retirement of Nancy Bland, her Manager and mentor. In January of 2004 she was promoted to Manager of the Groups/Meetings/ Incentives Division and has made it her goal to grow the Division while maintaining the excellent customer service that the Division is known for.

Prior to joining the travel industry in 1986, Laurie was a Vice-President and Manager for a major California bank where she was awarded membership in the Circle of Excellence for providing outstanding service to her customers. For the past six years, Laurie was the Operations Manager for our affiliate, Horizon Travel. Laurie has been a member of Montrose Travel’s President’s Club for the past four years. In her position as the Contract Specialist for Montrose Travel, Laurie uses her expertise as a travel consultant to constantly seeks new and better opportunities for all travelers. Laurie and her husband, Bob, enjoy traveling, golf, home improvements and spending time with their two dogs.

Donna began her career as a travel agent in Washington DC 18 years ago, with the desire to "see the world". The sun and the fun of California brought her to Los Angeles over 12 years ago, where she has worked in various positions for some of the key travel agencies in the area. Currently, as the Automation Manager for Montrose Travel, Donna finds the ever-changing evolution of technology to be challenging, exciting, and fun!