Management Team
Founder & CEO

Chief Operating Officer

Amy Brueckner
With over 3 decades of experience in client service and a passion for travel, being CIRE’s Chief Operating Officer is my dream job! Not to mention a position unheard of at other agencies. I worked my way up from tour guide (an NBC Page…like Kenneth on 30 Rock!) to executive-level positions in marketing and sales at NBCUniversal, Lifetime Television, Turner Broadcasting, A+E Networks and CBS. I use everything I learned to enhance the CIRE Travel client experience. Annoyed with the time it takes to book travel through other agencies? That doesn’t happen at CIRE. Tired of fluff travel reports? CIRE’s reports are as sexy as numbers get. The “Tiffany-level” of service I learned from my first boss stays with me. Never late. Answer every message. Return every phone call. It meshes with CIRE’s philosophy and aligns with our brand. Oh, I also can tell you how to get crisp, new $10 bills in Bangkok before heading to Myanmar, the best Michelin-starred restaurants in San Sebastián, Spain, and where you can find thatched-roof huts for your own Gilligan’s Island-style retreat. Among my most notable #traveltriumphs: a three-month, five-country, solo “jobbymoon” before they were called “jobbymoons” and an “Around the World in 42 Countries in 14 Months” with my husband. We’ve karaoked on five continents, bowled on six continents and ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Not bad for a Philly kid whose family’s idea of traveling was to the Jersey shore. #Futuretravelgoal: Visit Antarctica.
Chief Financial Officer

Mark Pizza
Luxury Vacations, Honeymoons & Experiences

Esther Klijn, Leisure Services Manager

Melissa Chaquea

Jackie English
Every client consultation is an interview. Ask. Dig. Listen past what they're saying to what they mean. Adventure or reset? Three cities or one beach? Best museum in Italy or the best plate of pasta? Listening between the lines too, I may know what they want before they do. My background in law, accounting, and sales. Precision. Accuracy. The art of reading a room. Luxury travel planning put them all to work, at the same time. Being immersed in helping with Africa safaris and multi-city Japan itineraries built around individual clients, I know what luxury means. Not a hotel category, but a perfectly curated experience, tailored around the person, not just the destination. I'm also a photographer. Not professionally. The kind who sees the shot everyone else walks past. That instinct follows me into every itinerary I build. Native Jersey girl. Pennsylvania resident. Jeep owner. Honeymooned through five Utah national parks. Every trail. Stars overhead. Underrated. National Park bucket list: ongoing and growing. A hiker at heart, next: The Dolomites. Banff. Jasper. My 45-pound Pitbull-Chihuahua. Short legs, chunky body, will travel.
Corporate, Meetings & Group Travel

Jason Villacres, Corporate Operations Manager

Terri O'Brien
A plain hamburger. That’s all she wanted after a long day. A PLAIN hamburger was not on the room service menu. Called my hotel connection and it was delivered to her room. AND the hotel updated its menu to meet guests’ preferences. With travel, it’s the little things I can help with that matter most. All challenges accepted, especially when I hear, “Not available.” April storms canceling flights across the east. Still made sure a client arrived in Atlanta just in time for tee off at the Masters in Augusta. Known travel planning was my future since I was a little girl standing on the tarmac at Logan watching planes. My uncle worked for Eastern Airlines. Fast-forward 30 years. Leisure. Corporate. Group. For travel agencies. For companies. Three decades and not one day has been the same. Imagine the experience and connections made in 30 years! Not to mention my own travels. Too much to see and learn to pick a favorite. Though a fan of volcanoes, rain forests and seclusion. Africa. Europe. Central and South Americas. The U.S. – especially the 30 ballparks my mother and I visited to watch the Red Sox play and Maine, my second home that’s been in my family for more than 50 years. All this travel knowledge and my corporate connections are at CIRE’s clients’ fingertips from my hometown and CIRE’s office in Boston. At the end of a long business day, sometimes you just want a plain hamburger. I make that happen.

Robyn Panaccione
All hail “the Waiver Queen!” Knock on wood, but I’m pretty successful at getting fees waived even in unforgiving environments… like canceling Manhattan hotel reservations last minute over the holidays. Vanity Fair Oscar parties. GQ’s Men of the Year (MOTY). Glamour’s Women of the Year (WOTY). Golf Digest Masters’ events. Bon Appetit’s Uncorked – Vegas. And stars gracing the covers of Vanity Fair and Vogue… I’ve booked a lot of celebrity and entertainment travel over my 18 years with Conde Nast Travel, and I’ve known Eric just as long. When he started CIRE Travel in 2013, Eric wanted me on the team, but the timing wasn’t right. Five years later Eric texted, “It’s time!” It was the right time for me, too. Like the entertainment industry reboots the classics, I’m glad to be at an agency that has brought back personal relationships… Somewhere I can look 10 steps ahead for clients to create the best experience, where satisfaction and service reign, and I can focus on consulting with clients on how to travel well. I’ve visited Italy (my 2nd favorite place), Israel, Greece, China, Mexico and more. Anguilla is my favorite destination on earth… My husband and I were married there. He’s been a rock since our dating years, thoroughly unfazed by celeb photographer, Annie Leibovitz, shooting Paltrow, Aniston, Dunst, Hayek and others, on a Vanity Fair holiday issue photoshoot with me. Celebrity or not, everyone deserves star treatment when traveling. I make that happen with my experience and CIRE connections.

Nikki Ledbetter
YinYin Petersen
The moments that give your life its direction; reveal your passion. They happen at any age. But mine? I was fortunate. Young, as in high school and college age. Growing up, my grandparents made travel an every-holiday event. But, after service trips in high school to Thailand and Costa Rica and in college to the Czech Republic, I knew I wanted to make tourism and hospitality my career. Thailand, the “Land of Smiles,” is where I gained my personal perspective—even if in a conflict, never leave anything on a bad note. Smile because it is a good life. Seeing how people live, how life unfolds elsewhere, learning history, making friends, building relationships. All the things textbooks and guidebooks can’t teach. So much to see. So much to explore. Spain, Australia and returning again to Japan top my to-do list. Afraid of heights, but I’d overcome it to experience Dinner in the Sky (a glass enclosed table for 22 suspended 165 feet in the air) in Athens, Greece. Big believer in working smarter, not harder, so I like creating Google maps with places to see and things to do, then choose accommodations. My favorite travel accessory recommendation? It’s one for my fellow vertically challenged travelers out there. A foot hammock. Attaches to the back of an airplane seat. Instant foot rest. Best. Invention. Ever.

Augie McGannon
Client Services

Amy Jo Simonson, Agent Support
Our Globetrotting, Contributing Writer

