ABOUT Griffin International

Stuart Hartzell, Owner

The owner of Griffin International, LLC., Stuart Hartzell, is a longtime veteran of the travel industry. He held management positions with several domestic and international airlines as well as owning and operating two tour companies specializing in international operations. So far, Hartzell has visited 114 countries and crossed the North Atlantic 210 times, including several Supersonic Concorde flights and a number of sailings aboard Queen Elizabeth 2. Recently he attended the naming ceremony for Queen Mary 2 in Southampton England as a guest of Cunard Line Ltd. He and his staff developed tours worldwide including some of the first group trips to visit the Peoples Republic of China during the mid – 1970’s. Hartzell has visited this vast and interesting country over a dozen times.

His companies have received recognition awards from a number of airlines and cruiselines. Hartzell is a member of the Travelers Century Club, IATM – the International Association of Tour Managers, the World Affairs Council, and the English-Speaking Union. He has planned and lead groups of American tourists to over 50 countries, including Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia, Siberia, China, Tibet, India, Nepal, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya and South Africa. Griffin International is an official appointed representative of IATA – the International Air Transport Association.

Peter Zimmermann, Executive Vice President

Our Executive Vice President, Peter Zimmermann, is a 39 - year veteran of the travel industry and a longtime member of our management staff. He was born in Hungary and left there in 1956 along with his entire family. After spending sometime in Austria the family settled in West Germany. Much of his early years in were spent traveling and visiting most of the major cities in Europe. This experience sparked a life long interest in travel that ultimately lead to becoming a part of the industry.His strong interest in art and history moved him to visit many of the major museums both in Europe and America. In addition to
Europe , Zimmermann has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Two of his favorite hotels are the Raffles in Singapore and the Bristol in Vienna. He speaks English, German, French and his native Hungarian. He lives in St. Louis with his wife Jessica. 

This global adventure has been designed and planned by the Griffin staff based on their extensive personal experience and knowledge of each country included on the itinerary. Hartzell and members of his staff are scheduled to travel with the group as they circumnavigate the globe.  

John Unger, Senior Vice- President    

John has been an important member of our management group for over ten years. He originally joined us as a computer specialist and spent several years creating a very extensive and all encompassing automated group tour program that we are still using today. During the time he was with us he gradually became very knowledgeable about the inner workings of our company and the travel industry in general. John overseas our computer operations as well as contributing to our worldwide group tour operations. He is a graduate of the MBA program at Washington University in St. Louis. During his time with us he has traveled extensively through China, Europe, the United States and most of Canada. One of His short term goals is to circumnavigate the globe on one of our trips. John and his wife Lucy and their four children live just outside St. Louis.

Please call 800-433-3500 for more information.