Florence Solal, Vice President of Sales and owner of Go West Tours.

I was born and raised in France.  It is at a young age that my passion for the USA, travel in general and different cultures took a drastic turn.  I experienced a cultural shock first hand, going from Paris to the New York State Adirondack Mountain as an exchange student.  Quite an amazing year and turning point in my life.  Educationwise, I kept with a business major at all time, with a French degree in Management and Communications and later on a US MBA in International Business & Management.  I worked throughout my studies on various events for a well known higher end Parisian catering company (Lenotre, currently belonging to the Accor Group).  After getting my MBA in the USA, I then worked in a Placement Company, handling a pool of 60-110 temporary employees weekly in various American Industries and at various levels of responsibilities.  While I was succesfull at it, the environment was mainly "corporate america" and was not satisfying my thurst for travel as well as international, multi-cultural environments.  Those elements made me decide to join Stephan Forget, as co-owner of Go West Tours and dive into the the tourism industry.  The San Francisco-based company has grown since and branch offices have been opened in New York, Seattle, Montreal and Paris. Initially focused on French inbound programs to the Western United States (one of the largest if not the current largest receptive for French-speaking escorted tours to the USA), the company has evolved into a Receptive, working with clients from 32 countries and selling programs throughout the USA & Canada.  Among many other responsibilities, one of my most significant role has been to launch and develop client base in all new market (100% international client base).  Stephan and I are now married and are the proud parents of 3 young children, who thinks there parents are always working!