Luxury Travel Advisor - December 2008 - (Page 40) COVER STORY COURTYARD TRAVEL’s Sheila Yellin and Greg DeClemente. Courtyard Travel I t’s always tempting to try and dissect a relationship when you meet two people who work extremely well together. You try to place them in specific roles: Who is the detail person and who is the “big-picture” visionary? Who’s stronger on the business side and who is the creative one? Turns out, after spending time with Sheila Yellin and Greg DeClemente, president & CEO and general manager & COO of Courtyard Travel respectively, pigeonholing them into any of the above categories is tough because each seems to pick up where the other leaves off. Yellin, the founder of the agency, is quiet and low-key, so much so that those she meets at her country club don’t realize they’ve become enamored of the idea of traveling to Egypt after she’s subtly detailed the delights she enjoyed on a recent trip. Back in the office, she’s much more overtly passionate about maintaining the strong business practices that produce an ever-growing stream of revenue for her $25 million agency. DeClemente, on the other hand, is outgoing, an attribute that provides him with the innate ability to bring people and companies together to forge lucrative marketing partnerships. He’s able to think big picture, but when he’s hard at work in Courtyard Travel’s offices, he’s the one who is steadfastly reviewing the business and even handling the technology aspects of the agency, which is headquartered in Great Neck, NY. The two teamed up in 2005 when DeClemente became a consultant for Courtyard Travel for a planned six-month stint. That time flew by all too quickly. “After six months, Sheila said, ‘I don’t want you to go anywhere, and I said, ‘neither do I,’” DeClemente recalls. “We saw that we complemented each other nicely in terms of what I bring to the table along with Sheila’s passion.” What transpired was a partnership that united an extremely dynamic duo that’s able to make the most of the agency’s “local” market, which is Long Island’s North Shore, or Gold Coast, as it’s known to some. If you’ve read The Great Gatsby, you’ll recall the stately mansions whose endless green lawns reach out over the Long Island Sound. Originally built for the likes of the Vanderbilts, Roosevelts, Whitneys, Charles Pratt, J. P. Morgan and F. W. Woolworth, these homes, and the more contemporary models that neighbor them, today house some of the top attorneys, physicians, financiers and BY RUTHANNE TERRERO 40 LUXURY TRAVEL ADVISOR | December 2008
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