New CEO of Canadian Vacation Ownership Association Announced

The Canadian Vacation Ownership Association (CVOA) has just announced their new CEO, Gregory Crist. Gregory Crist succeeds Ingrid Jarrett in this position as she takes on the role of CEO at the British Columbia Hotel Association (BCHA).

The Canadian Vacation Ownership Association has represented all forms of vacation ownership across Canada for nearly 40 years. The association works to bring together development companies, management firms, resorts, exchange companies, service providers, suppliers and similarly aligned professional organizations.

Prior to his promotion to CEO, Gregory Crist has served on the Canadian Vacation Ownership Association board of directors for six years as the Director of Government Relations. Prior to this, he served as Vice Chairman of the board.

Jon Zwickel, Chairman of Canadian Vacation Ownership Association, commented on Gregory Crist taking on this new role:

“Greg has really been a front-line leader in our organization and in the industry. He is certainly no stranger to transition as he has also previously served as interim chairman presiding over our 2018 AGM and Conference in Vancouver. I’m really excited to have him continue with the association in this new role. There are not a lot of people out there who have a 360-degree view of the timeshare industry in North America, especially here in Canada.”

Canadian Vacation Ownership Association has recently completed an annual conference in Whistler, British Columbia and announced seven new members to the team. The association as a whole is seeing consistent growth as more companies throughout North America see the value of sharing knowledge and partaking in networking ventures.

On his promotion, Gregory Crist commented:

“I am extremely honored to be leading the association forward with an energized executive team, especially at a time when we are building out our next 5-year plan. This is a new decade of opportunity for our North American industry and I want to ensure that CVOA opens new paths of collaboration in helping Canada compete as a top vacation ownership and travel destination. In doing so, we are going to provide real business value for all of our members to benefit from as we turn this page into our 40th year of operation.”

Crist is the current CEO of the Association of Vacation Owners (AVO) and former publisher of Timeshare Advisor Magazine (2010), giving him an impressive background to lead the CVOA. He also chairs the Global Secondary Market Coalition (GSMC), a multi-association task force that works to reform and governance of the timeshare secondary marketplace (2018).

Crist is also a two-time recipient of the prestigious CVOA Cornerstone Award (2014, 2019) and was given the Industry Ambassador Award at the 2016 GNEX Conference held in New Orleans. He also currently works as director at the Cooperative Association of Resort Exchangers (C.A.R.E).

Learn more about the Canadian Vacation Ownership Association on their website.