Tully Luxury Travel named Steven Salm chief executive officer as founder Mary Jean Tully stepped away from the role after nearly four decades, Travel Weekly and Travel Market Report reported. Tully will remain connected to the business as a brand ambassador, while Salm takes over day-to-day operations and the company’s growth strategy.
Tully founded the agency in 1987, when it operated as The Cruise Professionals, and led it through nearly four decades of expansion in luxury travel. The sources describe her next role as a public-facing one rather than an operating post: she will continue representing the company, while the executive title passes to Salm. Neither outlet gives a specific date for the transition, but both published the change this week.
The handoff includes ownership
Salm joined Tully Luxury Travel in 2025 as chief operating officer. As part of the transition, he acquired Tully’s remaining shares and became an owner alongside executive chairman and majority shareholder Clive Jacobs. Jacobs will remain active and partner with Salm on long-term strategy. That makes the change more than a title transfer: day-to-day leadership and part of the ownership structure are moving together, while the founder retains a defined ambassador role.
Salm brings experience from hospitality and sports operations. He founded and led PLANTA and Chase Hospitality Group, and previously held leadership roles at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. The trade coverage says his immediate priorities include supporting the travel-adviser team, investing in advisor learning and technology, and improving how the company serves and educates clients. Those priorities are attributed to Salm, not a prediction about the firm’s future performance.
The change echoes another founder-linked transition in the archive: JCB’s George Bamford joined the family company as co-chair, a different business where leadership and ownership history meet. At Tully, the founder is not disappearing from the story; she is leaving the CEO seat while continuing as an ambassador, and Salm takes over the operating work.
Keeping Tully as ambassador gives the transition a public-facing role for the founder without leaving her in the operating seat. Jacobs remains executive chairman and majority shareholder, so Salm’s new ownership sits alongside an established leadership and ownership partner rather than making him the sole owner. The sources describe a planned handoff, with the founder still connected to the brand.
