Cruise Planners’ CIO, Brian Shultz, Honored as Top Workplace Professional and Wins CIO Award

This year Brian Shultz, CIO of Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel Representative, is being commended for his innovative and advanced technology skills.

Shultz has been named as a 2016 CIO Awards Finalist in the South Florida Business Journal’s 2016 Technology Awards. This program recognizes CIOs who lead their organizations in delivering business value and innovative use of technology. This comes on the heels of him being awarded Top Workplace Professional, being recognized by Sun Sentinel.

“We are so proud of Brian and all that he has accomplished with Cruise Planners technology – keeping us cutting edge,” said Cruise Planners CEO and co-founder Michelle Fee. “His goal at Cruise Planners has been to create seamless opportunities for the travel agents to focus on selling travel while creating tools to make everyone more efficient and effective. He has fulfilled those goals and then some while being a strong leader.”

During the past five years, Shultz’s team has grown from four to more than 20 people as he leads one of the largest technology teams within the home-based travel franchise industry. Under Shultz’s leadership his team recently introduced a variety of new products and technologies, expanded the company’s infrastructure and grew the user base by nearly 25 percent.

As such, Cruise Planners launched eREZ Mobile, which is one of the most technologically advanced mobile applications within the industry. This app makes it possible for travel agents to run their business from virtually anywhere in the world. In addition, Shultz’s team also launched Cruise Planners Mobile which is an app for customers. The consumer app allows travelers to access their itineraries, book trip add-ons and connect with their travel agent. On his IT team Shultz has introduced new roles and processes in order to improve efficiency and increase output.

"Brian hasn’t just made an impact on Cruise Planners, he has made an impact on the industry as a whole,” Fee said. “He developed a strong team that challenges each other to improve and create the best technology in the industry."