In addition to Gadd, the luxury river cruise line has hired Becka Herbert as a business development executive; and Harvie Lyons, who joins as a business development manager for north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Gadd, who has 27 years of industry experience, will support agents across the West Midlands and South West. She was named manager of the year at TTG's Travel Industry Awards in 2023.
She started her career as an apprentice with Lunn Poly in 1999 and subsequently spent 15 years with Tui. Her most recent retail position was at Hays Travel in Weymouth, a TTG Top 50 award-winning branch and the largest in the southern region at that time.
In 2024, Gadd transitioned to her initial field-based role as partnership development manager for the south west and Wales with P&O Cruises.
Gadd said: “I’m delighted to be joining at such an exciting time for the business and cannot wait to use my experience from both ocean cruising and my retail background to help our partners grow their river cruise business.”
Herbert previously worked at Classic Collection in customer service, travel insurance and reservations roles.
Lyons, meanwhile, has a strong background in marketing, from beginning his career as an intern during his placement year at university before advancing to the position of senior marketing executive at online beauty shop, LOOKFANTASTIC.
Andrea Stafford, director of sales UK and Europe for AmaWaterways, said: “With our newly created strategic and regional business development manager roles, we can give more focused and elevated support to our trade partners.
"With our fleet set to expand to over 50 ships by 2032, there is a huge opportunity, and our focus is to ensure we give our partners what they need to capitalise on the unprecedented demand river cruising is experiencing and supercharge their sales."
She added: "We believe any agent or operator that sells luxury ocean cruise, experiential touring or city breaks should be selling river cruising and it’s our mission to switch them on to AmaWaterways.”
