Excellence in Leadership
TravelAge West’s Excellence in Leadership Award celebrates a long-standing icon of the travel industry, and recognizes their lifelong commitment to the betterment of the industry.
Each year, TravelAge West honors individuals with the Excellence in Leadership Award. These exceptional industry leaders not only demonstrate outstanding leadership, insight and innovation, but also positively impact both their own organizations and the travel industry overall.
For 2026, TravelAge West was honored to present this award to two worthy recipients, Gary Murphy of AmaWaterways and Michael Estill of Western Association of Travel Agencies (WESTA). In addition, our Legend of the West award, sponsored by Azamara Cruises, was presented to Jackie Friedman of Nexion Travel Group.
Excellence in Leadership Award
Gary Murphy
Co-Owner, AmaWaterways
Upholding a tremendous family legacy, Gary Murphy has dedicated more than 40 years to the travel industry. At age 33, he was vice president of sales and marketing for Miami Air International. He later spent nine years as president of Brendan Vacations, which was founded by his father, industry titan Jimmy Murphy, in 1969. AmaWaterways was his next home. Here, he followed in the footsteps of his dad once more — Jimmy co-founded AmaWaterways in 2002 with Rudi Schreiner and Kristin Karst, and Gary signed on as vice president of national accounts in 2009.
A true testament of his love for AmaWaterways, and the industry as a whole, is his reluctance to hang up his hat.
“I have failed miserably at retiring,” Murphy said. “I had a plan to do so, but I just kept going to work. It’s very hard to pull away from this industry because of the relationships we form."
Murphy, who is now co-owner of AmaWaterways, has been on the frontline of Ama’s sales efforts since he joined the team, building national accounts and forging trusted partnerships with advisors. He says he remains inspired by his colleagues and the work they do every day to build the company.
The excitement in his voice grows at the thought of Ama’s future — if all goes according to plan, the line will have 50 vessels in its fleet by 2032. Being part of that evolution and the overall success of the Ama product is among Murphy’s crowning achievements.
“When I’m on an Ama ship and I see the experience clients are having onboard, including the way the crew works with them, I feel so proud,” Murphy said. “Their smiles and laughter are gratifying. And it boosts my energy level to keep pushing forward and to improve upon what we’re already delivering."
As an executive and team leader, Murphy has tried to set an example as someone who builds up others. He encourages coworkers at every level in the company to share their ideas — “No one has a monopoly on intelligence,” he says — and finds it gratifying to watch team members rise up through the ranks, even if that means leaving the brand. Giving credit where credit is due is key, too.
“If someone does something positive for your company, you need to recognize them,” he said. “Doing that inspires that same attitude from them, and from their peers."
To that end, Murphy is grateful for the trade, and he applauds their success in bolstering the river cruise market by getting the product in front of the right people. His father long believed in the retail distribution channel, and its incredible value has been demonstrated to Murphy time and time again.
“Ultimately, we have a wonderful team at Ama, and that’s what drives our success,” he said. “We have one cause: to get clients on ships and to work with advisors to ensure they have a wonderful time. And if we do drop the ball — and that happens — we pick it up and manage it properly for the travel advisor and their client.”
Excellence in Leadership Award
Michael Estill
Chief Operating Officer, Western Association of Travel Agencies (WESTA)
After working in finance at United Airlines for years, G.H. Estill left his job in Chicago and moved out west to Los Altos, California. It was the late 1950s, and he needed a new job. He opened a travel agency, where his very young grandson, Michael Estill, was a semi-regular visitor, crawling around on the office floor.
About two decades later, after earning a mechanical engineering degree, that same kid landed back at the agency. By then, his grandfather had retired, his father had taken over and the business was down an accountant. Estill’s education made him a solid fill-in, though he quickly proved to be more than that; numerous local travel agencies hired him as a business consultant, right around the time when consortia were becoming a prominent part of the industry, especially on the East Coast. Not to be left behind, West Coast powerhouses such as Holland America Line and Princess Cruises encouraged Estill’s community to get together. Those connections eventually became the Western Association of Travel Agencies (WESTA), of which Estill was named general manager in 1992.
Looking back, he sees that he was in the right place at the right time with the right skillset.
“In the late 1980s and early 1990s, travel agencies realized that tech was going to be an issue for them,” Estill said. “They needed somebody who understood tech and travel, which, at that point in time, wasn’t a common combo. They sort of found the halfway point in me."
For more than 30 years, Estill has been a guiding light at WESTA. He helped members navigate the introduction of computers, and all the data tracking that came with them. He has overseen the consortium’s growth, from about 40 to 140 agencies, and advocated for agencies in leadership roles for organizations such as the California Coalition of Travel Organizations and the American Society of Travel Advisors. Another point of pride is that WESTA remains a co-op — Estill serves the agency owners, and the profits go back to them. It’s a simpler loop than the for-profit world, he says, and WESTA’s stable membership numbers prove that the system works.
“I can count on one hand the number of agencies that have quit WESTA and gone to another consortium, and that’s a testament to the cohesion among the group,” he said. “They are tight-knit, cooperative competitors who know that they’re stronger together than they are apart."
That teamwork mentality is reflected by WESTA’s staff, too. It’s a lean team of just nine people, all of whom have to put in the work everyday — even Estill, who was named chief operating officer in 2011.
“We are a small, focused team, and everyone has their role,” Estill said. “We do our own heavy lifting, and we prefer it that way.”
Estill’s retirement has been in the works for years — Josh Burke, another business mind with deep tech and travel knowledge, will take his place in December. Estill has coached youth sports his entire adult life, from wrestling to football; he plans to keep that up, and he’ll work on his golf game and jiu jitsu practice, too.
“There’s a lot of overlap with my work and coaching,” he said. “You are given a team of various people with varying qualities, and you do the best job you can with them. You have to convince them that you are capable of getting them where they want to be, and that you’ve got a plan to fulfill their needs before your own.”
Legend of the West Award
Jackie Friedman
President, Nexion Travel Group
Sponsored by Azamara Cruises
When Jackie Friedman joined Nexion Travel Group in 2004, her first task was moving the company’s headquarters from San Jose, California, to Dallas. Nexion had been bought by Sabre the year prior, and Friedman was tasked with determining who was packing up and heading east, who might stay and work remotely and who might leave the company altogether. In hindsight, Friedman sees that it was an educational endeavor that allowed her to get to know the business and the people in it. Now considered by many to be the “godmother of travel advisors,” Friedman exudes a familial love for her professional comrades.
“Our advisors are all small business owners, and a lot of them are women,” Friedman said. “The fact that we get to play such an important role in their success is really rewarding, and one of the things that keeps me in this.”
In 2010, Nexion became part of what was then Travel Leaders Group (now Internova Travel Group), and Friedman has helped build it into the premier host agency it is today. She has been president since 2007, and the ranks have grown under her leadership. There are 6,600 advisors under the Nexion umbrella now, from both the U.S. and Canada; it’s a large number, but Friedman truly believes “advisors get out of it what they put in.” And she has the utmost respect for their engagement and entrepreneurial spirit — she was an agent herself at one point, starting in 1984.
“At that time, it was a very different job — all I really needed to know was how to sell travel,” she said. “I didn’t have to worry about bringing in new customers or a marketing plan. It was more transactional. Today, the product is much more complex; advisors have to own their business and many work from home. They are ‘solopreneurs.’ So they benefit greatly by connecting with others who become part of their extended team."
Friedman is a motivating leader, inspiring her comrades to gather, connect and learn at events such as CoNexion, the host agency’s flagship member conference, and as dean of Travel Leaders of Tomorrow, a virtual training program with thousands of advisor graduates. She brought her home country of Canada into the fold in 2013, establishing Nexion Travel Group-Canada. And as president of the Family Bonds Foundation, a nonprofit established in 2015 by Travel Leaders Group, Friedman helps drive financial assistance to industry professionals facing hardship. Supporting advisors is her life’s work — and she shows no sign of stopping.
“I’m not never retiring, but it’s not in sight either,” Friedman said. “I have arrived where I want to be. I have a place where I really believe I can make a difference, and that’s important.”
When pressed on what “slowing down” would look like, Friedman imagines that she’ll continue coaching advisors, come what may. And she’ll travel, of course — but in this field, that doesn’t require full retirement. Mostly, she’s gratified to remain in the mix, and to be recognized by her peers. (In 2022, she won an Excellence in Leadership Award at this very event.)
“It really is an honor to receive the Legend of the West Award, because my success is the result of others’ success,” she said. “In order for our supplier partners to be successful, our advisors have to be successful; they have to grow their business and sell more of our partners. When those two things happen, we as an organization succeed. So, I will never take recognition for granted. My personal success stems from theirs.”
