Management Team
Paolo Boni - President & Chief Executive Officer
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Victor Robison - Chief Technology Officer
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Mark Charlinski - Vice President, Business Development
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Stephen McDonald C.A. - Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Administration
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Toby Kubis - Vice President of Corporate Hotel Sales
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Ian Locke - Vice President of Operations
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Louise Meyer - Vice President, Hotels
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Jeff Thomas - Vice President of Global Distribution
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Paolo Boni joined VFM in October 2001 and is responsible for setting the Company’s vision and strategic direction, as well as evangelizing VFM’s unique value proposition to the world. Under Paolo’s leadership, VFM has become the leading provider of rich media content production and distribution solutions to the hotel and travel industry, with over 10,000 hotels and tens of thousands of travel and travel related website partners worldwide. Paolo is a frequent public speaker and panelist at major travel conferences on subjects relating to online travel marketing and rich media in travel. Paolo is a former Partner with Davies, Ward & Beck (now, Davies, Ward, Phillips & Vineberg LLP), a leading Canadian business law firm, practicing primarily in the areas of securities and corporate law with an emphasis on corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions. Paolo holds an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School (1993) and a B.A. Economics from McGill University (1989).
Victor Robison joined VFM Interactive in January 2005 and oversees the development of VFM’s new interactive content technologies and client service offerings. Victor also brings a wealth of experience in the network processing and security technology fields. As the former site manager for Intel of Canada’s Network Processor Software Infrastructure Team, Victor has overseen the development of highly scalable multi-gigabit network processing firmware. Victor was a pioneer in the field of Virtual Private Networks (VPN’s) and was co-designer of the first commercial VPN in partnership with Cisco Systems. Victor is also the inventor of the SST network encryption protocol, the world’s largest proprietary VPN encryption system deployed to date, and has co-authored patents pending in the field of network management. Victor holds a B.S. in Computer Science from San Jose State University (1988). Victor is the Chair of HTNG’s (Hotel Technology Next Generation) Distribution Content Management Working Group and is an active contributor to HEDNA (Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association) and OTA (Open Travel Alliance).
John McAuliffe joined VFM in August 2008 after a successful tenure, as Chief Marketing Officer, of a Silicon Valley technology firm where he implemented a web based demand generation program and helped turn a stagnant company with limited revenues into a sales and marketing innovation company that experienced significant growth and profitability. As a 20+ year marketing veteran John is a professional with hands on experience in leading market-driven strategies for disruptive technologies. John was the President and COO of a mid-size Canadian advertising agency which he transformed from a provider of production and creative services to a professional services firm focused on delivering integrated communications consistent with its clients’ brands. John is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and has taken post graduate studies in Strategic Marketing Management at University of Toronto and Harvard University.
Mark Charlinski joined VFM in September 2005 and as VP of Sales and Business Development is responsible for securing VFM’s business partnerships, helping to significantly grow VFM’s distribution network and content views. Mark brings a broad spectrum of experience to VFM with many years in areas such as sales, business development, venture capital, product development, content and channel management, and financial planning. Prior to joining VFM, Mark held numerous positions within Bell Canada over a 12 year period. Most recently, Mark was a Senior Marketing Consultant for Bell Canada and developed payment solutions that allowed Bell to sell outside of the traditional telecom business. Prior to that, Mark was part of the venture capital arm of Bell Mobility where he was responsible for evaluating company business plans and making investments in companies that complemented Bell Mobility’s business strategy. During his time with Bell, Mark was also responsible for launching the Blackberry service for Bell Mobility.
Stephen McDonald joined VFM Leonardo in September 2009 and is responsible for overseeing all financial and administrative aspects with a primary emphasis on financial reporting, planning, forecasting and analysis to support VFM Leonardo’s growth initiatives. Stephen brings over fourteen years of experience as a financial professional to VFM Leonardo. Prior to joining the company, Stephen was the Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary for ZipLocal, Inc., a Canadian online local directory. Stephen’s also spent several years as the Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary at Bioscrypt, Inc. Throughout his career, Stephen has been directly involved in raising equity, numerous acquisitions and post-acquisition integration and asset divestitures. Stephen is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario and graduated with Honors from Ryerson University with a Bachelor of Business Management.
Toby Kubis joined VFM Leonardo in November 2009 as Vice President Corporate Hotel Sales responsible for developing new business relationships with corporate hotel brands and chains. Toby brings a broad spectrum of experience to VFM Leonardo with many years in marketing, businesses development, revenue management and sales. Prior to joining VFM Leonardo, Toby held numerous positions at Sabre Holdings over a 10 year period. Most recently, he was the Director of Leisure Strategy and Marketing and successfully led the strategy and marketing for the leisure travel segment. Prior to that, Toby was the Director of Hotel Relations responsible for managing the European and Latin American sales teams. Toby has also held positions at American Airlines and in the pharmaceutical and banking industries. Toby holds an MBA in Marketing from Texas Christian University and a BBA in Finance and Marketing from Texas Tech University. 
Ian Locke joined VFM Leonardo in May 2006 and is responsible for overseeing global operations and for delivering the company’s products and services to the world. Ian brings a wealth of experience in the travel and information technology, software development, product and project management fields. Ian has developed and implemented online strategies in travel and e-commerce businesses delivering operational improvements, cost savings and creating new opportunities for revenue generation. Prior to joining VFM Leonardo Ian achieved a successful tenure at WWF, one of the world’s most recognized brands, where with very limited resources he implemented several online programs that turned around a staid online ecommerce presence into efficient, revenue generating pipelines for the company, some of which are featured in ‘Nonprofit Internet Strategies” (Wiley 2005). Previously, Ian was a Systems Engineer with Amadeus Global Travel Distribution where he was responsible for implementation and consulting on travel technology products and solutions with a variety of travel related companies.
Louise Meyer joined VFM Leonardo’s Chicago office in March of 2008 and is responsible for helping hotels and hotel companies increase purchase conversions by merchandising their properties online. Louise brings a broad spectrum of experience in sales, business development, product development, content and channel management and financial planning to VFM Leonardo. She is a well-rounded Sales & Marketing Professional with 20+ years of leadership in the hospitality and travel industry, including key roles at Galileo International where she was responsible for the hotel business line and Sabre Travel Network. She has also held positions in large, well-known companies, including American Airlines, Borden Foods and Federated Department Stores. Louise is a graduate in Business Management from Miami University and completed her MBA graduate work at Xavier University.
Jeff Thomas joined VFM Leonardo in November 2008 and is responsible for managing and developing all visual content distribution relationships with all four GDSs, online travel agencies, travel research and supplier websites, search portals and major travel intermediaries. Jeff has over 25-years experience in online marketing and distribution. Prior to joining VFM Leonardo, he was the VP, Commercial Operations for Leonardo Media where he led the company’s hotel and distribution development in the North American marketplace. He also served as Vice President Business Development for Open World Limited, a U.K. based website design and online marketing company. He has also built his portfolio of travel expertise working in various positions at Orbitz, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, Galileo International and Holiday Inns Worldwide.
What our Customers and
Partners Say
It’s the best way to communicate your improvements to customers. If you are going to invest good dollars in renovations to give customers a greater stay experience, make sure you show it off with updated visuals from VFM Leonardo.
Randee Talwar, Owner and GM,
Best Western West Towne Suites in Madison
