Lisa Simon has been named president of the National Tour Association by the organizations directors. Simon rejoined NTA last August, serving in an interim role as its top staff official.

"Lisa brings to the table a love for visionary thinking, strategic planning and extensive association management experience," said NTA Chairman and CEO Randy Julian. "Her strengths will complement the travel industry expertise and NTA passion shared by the NTA board, its Leadership Team and our members. I see all good things on the horizon as NTA builds on the incredible momentum that were experiencing."

Simon, who worked at the NTA between 1985 and 2004 and was its senior vice president during most of that time, had been serving as executive director of the International Coach Federation, an association of personal and business coaches. Both NTA and the coach federation are clients of the Lexington, Ky.-based association management firm, Host Communications.

When Hank Phillips announced his resignation as NTA president last July, the association conducted a national search for a replacement. Ultimately, Simon was selected for the job.

Simon has more than two decades of experience in marketing and management. Julian said her facilitation skills and analytical abilities have proven effective in strategic planning, leadership development, organizational structure and managing change. During the years she was employed by NTA, Simon managed the association's education, certification and marketing activities, as well as served as director of the National Tourism Foundation, executive editor of Courier magazine and vice president of marketing.

She is a member of the American Society of Association Executives, The Travel Institute, and the Association of Travel Marketing Executives. Additionally, she is a certified tour professional, and holds a bachelors degree from Eastern Kentucky University.

Philips had been employed by the NTA and Host for 21 years, serving as NTA president for nine years.

SmartDrive Systems Inc. of San Diego has hired Pete Van Beek, founder of Training Alternatives Group of Houston, Texas, to bolster SmartDrive's fleet vehicle safety improvement service. Van Beek will be SmartDrive's director of safety and driver training, providing training, learning resources and incentives for educating drivers to operate more safely and productively.

SmartDrive also will utilize Van Beek's TAG safety team and resources to spearhead client support, driver oversight, client consultations, driver safety training, and fleet safety reviews.

Van Beek has 25 years of transportation safety and security experience, including a driver safety program at Coach USA, focusing on USDOT driver physical qualification requirements.

SmartDrive provides driver risk-management systems and services, offering high-tech, video-capture hardware and professional incident review services.

"Through Pete, SmartDrive can be even more pro-active in preventing risky, dangerous driving and costly crashes," said Andrew Nickerson, vice president of SmartDrive's business development.

For more information, go to www.smartdrive.net.