Alex ElKayem

My guest today was born in Alexandria, Egypt then emigrated to Philadelphia in 1961. He got his B.A. and Master’s at Temple University and was 2 years into his Ph.D. when he decided to apply to Club Med. His first season was at Club Med Fort Royale in 1970 as a Tennis G.O., where only three weeks before, he was a G.M. in the same village! Altogether, he worked for Club Med from 1970 to 2001. Who is this mystery person? Well, it is the one and only, Alex ElKayem!! Alex only held three positions in Club Med villages. He worked one season as a Tennis G.O. and then he was in Public Relations from 1970-1973 and then he was promoted to Chief of Village and served from 1973-1976, working in such villages as Fort-Royal, Agadir, Cargese, Martinique, Marrakech, Caravelle, Hanalei in Hawaii and his last season as CDV was in Moorea. After village life, Alex went to work in the offices and held positions such as Directeur du Pays in the Club Med offices of Milano and Brussels, General Manager of the Sydney office from 1977-1979, and Managing Director of the Auckland New Zealand office from 1979-1983. After that, he was the Commercial Regional Manager in the Singapore office for South East Asia and then came to my hometown of Montreal to be the Managing Director for Club Med Canada from 1985-1993. After Montreal, he was the Managing Director of UK and Ireland in the London office from 1993-2001. Alex is now retired and living in Bordeaux, France, and is only the second person and the first EXCDV to record two interviews, one in English and one in French! If you like to hear about the golden years of Club Med in the early 1970s, then this interview is for you! **My First Season podcast has always been ad-free and free to listen to and is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Samsung Podcasts, Podbean App, Podchaser, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes. And if you like what you hear, please leave a review at Apple podcasts.