Travel Quest - About

Bonnie Lee is CEO of Travel Quest. She's been in the industry since 1994 and has been continually recognized for her innovative ideas and success. Most recently she was recognized by Mpls/St. Paul Business Journal as one of their "25 Women to Watch" for her leadership and role in the travel community.

Now that her four children are fully grown, she enjoys taking trips to Cancun and the Caribbean to keep an eye on all the new resorts and remodels.... and, if you're extremely lucky, you might find her relaxing. When she's not working at her storefront or from home, you can find Bonnie gardening, walking, or starting up a new project.

Walter Lee is the CFO for Travel Quest and was formerly the Chief Engineering Officer for the Minneapolis Fire Department. After 24 years with the fire department, he decided to retire and focus full-time on the travel business. Walt is the one that makes sure all our pencils are in a row. His irreplaceable background in logistics, technology, and budgeting have been a huge asset to Travel Quest.

Walt enjoys reading, cooking, and remodeling/construction. The office is lucky enough to enjoy Walt's delicious cooking every Friday when he brings a home-cooked meal into the office. So if you're in the area on a Friday, let us know and we'll set an extra place setting!

Steph's technical title is Marketing & Operations but she’s constantly changing her title depending on what project she’s working on and how much she feels like jazzing up her day. In fact, she finds changing her title randomly to be one of the small joys in life so we just let her do her thing. She's also the face behind our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages. She was awarded ASTA’s Young Professional of the Year also has been named one of Travel Agent magazine's 30 under 30.

A dabbler in many things, Steph likes traveling off the beaten path, tennis, reading, and being outside. Her biggest passion is her dog Rigel, who recently won 1st place in a Minneapolis' Dog Costume Contest for his homemade lion outfit. He was a real crowd favorite. We're pretty sure if you want to hear more about it or see pictures, Steph will be happy to oblige.

Colleen came to Travel Quest with over 20 years experience in both corporate and leisure travel.  She’s worked across multiple GDS systems and was a top corporate producer.  Impressive indeed!  However, the tricks her two dogs can do—play dead, sneeze, walk on two feet, high fives, shake—definitely steal the show. 

When push comes to shove, her all-time favorite destination is the Big Easy where she loves to get some great food and take in the melting pot of cultures.  Other favorites?  If you’re around her for more than a few minutes you’ll quickly realize some of her favorite things to do are laughing and smiling! 

Chad was fresh out of college when we converted him (and his 8+ years of customer service experience) to the ever enticing travel industry. All he had to hear was the word travel and it was a sealed deal. Chad has exclusive bragging rights on being the only one at Travel Quest to have been to Cuba. Don't be jealous quite yet. He is also the only one of us that visits Canada every year to go ice fishing!

For those that are fans of the TV show Glee, you're going to like this-- Chad is a show choir guy. We're still awaiting the day he comes into work with the whole day choreographed with song and dance but for now we take the snippets of song we get. We promise if Operation Showchoir Chad comes into being, we'll share the video.

Bridget is the friendly voice when agents call in. A self-proclaimed 'nerd' (she said it, not us), Bridget is pretty serious about her video games and board games. Did we forget to mention cards? She's a mean Euchre player but here's a tip, you can safely bet large sums against her in poker.

Her claim to fame is she's the only TQ team member that saves the world on a regular basis. We overlook the fact that it's through video/board games. We're just glad to be able to have someone on our staff with such prestigious merits. When done with the exhausting work of saving humankind (and it's very exhausting), she listens to music, plays her guitar and piano, or settles in and reads herself some fantasy books.

Angie began working with Travel Quest in 1998 as a leisure agent where she was the agency’s highest-grossing agent. The loyal client base she had built up over the next 7 years were distraught (not to mention all of us at Travel Quest!) when she decided it was time to try out a new career. Lucky for us, Angie couldn’t nip the travel bug and decided to rejoin the travel industry after only a few years!

Ever the hard worker, Angie does her best to ensure she’s up-to-date on all the vacation hot spots by doing personal inspections. She's visited Jamaica, Mexico, and many other places in the Caribbean. She's cruised and is a huge Disney fanatic... and she did all this solely to make sure she was the best at her job she could be!

One thing is for sure, when Cindy joined our team, Travel Quest became a safer place. After working in the medical field with a nationally-recognized orthopedic surgeon, Cindy opted to try her hand in travel... and we're so glad she did. Not only are we more confident that if we have any broken bones we'll be well taken care of, but she was a natural at the travel biz! Her experience in project management, event planning, and research made the transition seamless.

This lady has cruised as well as explored the likes of Mazatlan, the Riviera Maya, and quite possibly, everything Florida has to offer. Word on the street is that now that Cindy is an empty-nester, this list may be growing exponentially! With her husband a die-hard hockey fan (as any good Minnesotan should be), we just hope a few of the new destinations include liquid water and no hockey pucks. Our fingers are crossed for you Cindy!

Martin joined the travel industry straight out of college and hasn't looked back. Not only is he a seasoned traveler having visited 30+ countries, but he's also worked in various capacities in the travel industry. You may have seen him as a frontline agent, manager, business development manager, or most recently, you can catch him as a consultant on the online marketing side of things.

So what does this man of many talents do in his spare time? No rocket building yet, but the California native has been fearless of the Minnesota winters thus far. He's tried his hand at snowshoeing, cross country skiing, and it's now official, he's no longer a novice when it comes to snow shoveling! When the weather is more temperate, he's active outside sailing, playing tennis, or exploring new places to eat and places to see.

Rigel has politely declined a job title. Truth is, he prefers to go by his more formal name- Prince Rigel of Rigelshire. Since joining Travel Quest, he has been diligently working on bringing delivery personnel relations to a whole new level. Unfortunately for him, he hasn't been able to coax them into raising the quota to 2 milk bones per visit... yet. Fans of Rigel are always happy to know he has his own Facebook fan page -- 'I heart Rigel'.

When asked what the best day of his life was, Rigel said it was meeting his mama at the pound. Awwwww....