Possessing over 20 years of experience in the Hospitality Industry and Higher Education serving in various leadership capacities from Global Travel Manager to Academic Dean.  Currently, serving as Global Travel Category Manager for CDK Global.  Leslie is a consultant, providing Adult Professional Development Training, and Coaching.  Her corporate experience includes positions working with Caterpillar, Abbott, American Express Travel, JLL, KPMG and Embassy Travel.  Additionally, her academic experience includes being a college instructor, and currently, Chair’s the Advisory Board for Roosevelt University’s Heller Graduate School of Business.

Jessica Banish is the Senior Commodity Manager on GE’s Sourcing team focused on travel and fleet. Her 20+ years of supply chain experience comes with a record of demonstrated success in driving multimillion-dollar savings in competitive markets. Adept at driving growth of company revenues and improving purchasing performance, she has experience in industries including digital industrial, IT, airline, and automotive. As a part of GE’s travel sourcing team, she has delivered millions in hard deflation managing one of the largest travel programs in the world. She enjoys traveling and riding motorcycles with her husband and 3 sons.

Kevin is a Director – Strategic Sourcing for The E.W. Scripps Company, which serves audiences and businesses through a growing portfolio of local and national media brands.  He has been with Scripps in various roles for 30+ years, first on the journalism, operational and technology categories at a Scripps TV station where his duties included purchasing and vendor management. For the last 13 years, he has been a member of the Scripps Procurement team. Kevin is responsible for enterprise wide vendor relationships in numerous categories including Travel, he is responsible for travel procurement, manages the day to day relationship with their TMC and other travel partners.  Kevin is a member of the Business Travel News (BTN) advisory board.

MDC Partners is one of the fastest-growing and most influential marketing and communications networks in the world. Jason’s overall focus at MDC is delivering best in class business results to MDC’s network of 40+ agencies, globally. Prior to joining MDC Partners, Jason spent five years within Publicis Groupe.

Brenda is the Senior Manager of Operations for GE’s Global Strategic Meetings Management Program initiative – GE SmartMeetings.  Her career has taken her to all corners of the globe in a variety of roles - from hotel management, global corporate event management, logistics and sporting events management for a number of world-class organizations such as Carlson Marketing Group, NBC and GE. Brenda has managed hospitality or production events for 14 Olympic Games and a variety of other sporting events, including multiple Super Bowls.  She is a seasoned international traveler, multi-lingual and enjoys diverse cultures. 

At GE, Brenda was inspired to develop a new process for Meetings & Events Management that would unlock cost efficiencies, economies of scale and broader cross-functional communication. This led her to the creation of the Strategic Meetings Management Program (SMMP) for the company that successfully launched in the U.S. in October 2018 and is now in the process of rolling out globally. This exciting new program allows anyone within the organization to plan meetings and events using an internal portal that shares critical information such as sourcing, payment solutions and experience enhancing tools.  This breakthrough initiative at GE will not only drive process and leverage buying power across suppliers, but more importantly will result in significant bottom-line savings for the company.

Brenda has found that the key to her success has been to focus on continuous process improvement, seeking input from her internal and benchmarking with external customers,gaining trust and alignment among her team and cross-functional partners.  

Jeff Daily is a corporate travel industry professional with over 25 years’ experience in the field.

With a travel career which began in 1990, Jeff has distinguished himself with a leading passion for his work, and capacity to get the best out of others within positive team environments.  In particular, Jeff’s unique ability to identify strategic opportunities for improvement of efficiencies, savings and optimized processes for growth been a consistent hallmark of a career which has included US Travel, Rosenbluth International, Travizon/CTM, and currently Director of Global Travel at Sanmina Corporation. 

Presently, Jeff is most excited about the changing landscape of travel and designing an optimized program within his role at Sanmina through integration of enhancements to improve the passenger experience. 

Currently employed at Standard Insurance as a Travel Manager/ Business Analyst.

Dana has been in the procurement industry for over 30 years starting as an Inventory Specialist for a small start -up company in Canada called MetroNet, which laid all of the fiber optic cables throughout Canada, and then was bought out by AT & T Canada.  Dana managed and distributed millions of dollars of telecom equipment across Canada while training two managers. 

In 2000 Dana moved back to the US and started a new Senior Buyer Position at Consolidated Freightways where she built a Refurbishment program for used telecom equipment as well as 3151 Green Screens.  Dana purchased equipment for all of the IT needs for the company and unfortunately, in 2003, after 9-11 the company went out of business. 

Soon there-after Dana started a new job at TRM Corporation as the Inventory Specialist, Fleet Administrator, and Inventory Control Manager. Dana Traveled to London several times to train people on the application and how to be an Inventory Coordinator.

Today, Dana has 14 years under her belt at Standard Insurance in Portland Oregon starting as a Buyer and now is the Travel manager /Business Analyst. She has proficiencies in Systems knowing the full procure-to pay process and is Lean trained. Concur expert for both Travel /Expense, and AD Hoc reporting through the Concur Intelligence Module.

Dana loves to do volunteer work! She is currently on the OBTA (Oregon Business Travel Association) Board as the Vice President and is actively involved in other charities such as Habitat for Humanity and the Blanchett House.

Jeanine C. Davis, is a Category Manager in Commercial Indirect Supply Chain for Raytheon Company. She manages a portfolio that focuses on Global Travel, Meetings, Events and Trade Shows in excess of $500M in annual addressable spend. 

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), with sales of $26 billion, and 62,000 employees worldwide, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, homeland security, cyber and other government markets throughout the world. Raytheon’s global headquarters is in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Jeanine joined the cISC team in July of 2007.  She is responsible for negotiating and managing Travel Operations globally for Raytheon, which includes overseeing the travel Management Company, global negotiations of Air, Hotels, Ground Transportation and Corporate Card Programs.  Jeanine also serves as a member of the Raytheon Meetings and Events and Trade shows Council. She regularly accepts speaking engagements at industry sponsored events, and participates on the BCD Travel Aerospace and Defense Customer Council and American Airlines Advisory Board.

Davis joined Raytheon from Gillette/Proctor &Gamble where she managed global travel for Gillette. She subsequently accepted a position with P&G to assist in consolidating their Meetings and Events functions.  Prior to that Jeanine held Travel Management positions with Honeywell and Stratus Computers.  She also worked as an Account Manager at Carlson Wagonlit Travel and as a General Manager for the New England Region at Rosenbluth Travel.

A 2009 graduate of Northeastern University, Jeanine holds a degree in Business Administration. She also received her GTP (Global Travel Professional) certification from GBTA in 2012.

Malcolm Davis is a Senior Manager of Indirect Procurement at Home Depot. Over the twelve years he has been with the company, he has held positions of increasing levels of responsibility, and supported various areas of the business, including HR, Legal, Building Services, Aviation, Corporate Travel, Finance, and Business Processes Outsourcing. In his current role, Malcolm leads a team that supports approximately $2B in annual spend, across HR, Legal, Building Services, Aviation, and Corporate Travel. He also led the effort to consolidate procurement practices across all of Home Depot’s North American operations. Prior to joining Home Depot, Malcolm spent eight years in Procurement/Supply Chain at Delta Air Lines and Ford Motor Company. Malcolm holds a B.S. and MBA in Business Administration from Florida A & M University.

Ann is an accomplished Global Travel Executive and “GBTA 2016 Masters Honors Travel Professional Award” recipient with demonstrated ability to create, transform and execute highly complex initiatives. A strategic visionary leader with solid experience managing Global Travel Procurement and Operations including all levels of complex, cross-functional projects focusing on implementations, process efficiencies, hard and soft savings, SRM, internal/external stakeholder engagement, demand management and recruitment.

Ann joined SPGI’s Global Procurement organization in 2017 to lead the newly formed categories of Global Travel and Meetings. In her 18 months at SPGI she has successfully launched several flagship enterprise-wide projects including the consolidation of 31 countries under a single designated TMC, launch of an enterprise-wide Data Management Solution, a governance structure around the Global T&E Policy and the company’s first Meetings Strategy framework and operating model.

Ann is based at S&P Global world headquarters in New York City.

Marc Ensign is the Director, Global Category Management and leads a team of sourcing professionals covering indirect and services spend, and is the company travel manager. Marc has been at Sonoco for 17 years and is a seasoned professional in all areas of sourcing and materials management. He has served on numerous supplier diversity boards and has received occasional recognition. Marc has a passion for supplier diversity and for the past 12 years has been active in regional supplier diversity efforts. Previous to Sonoco, Marc had experience in general management at a small manufacturing company and in Materials Management at Honeywell. Marc loves photography, currently resides in South Carolina and is the proud grandfather of 18.

Leslie Hadden is the Global Travel Manager for LinkedIn and she is in it to make travelers happier and more productive on the road #InItTogether.  She has made several appearances on various panels and webinars on traveler satisfaction/engagement.  Her goal: To reduce the travel stressors so travelers can be safe, productive, and healthy while getting stuff done, having fun, and dreaming BIG. 

Nathan Haydn-Myer is an internationally accomplished business leader with experience in transforming perceptions and performance across various industries and teams.  Currently he is the head of Procurement Operations and Insights for VSP Global’s Corporate Procurement and Travel division where he has been instrumental in renovating the processes and image that help secure Procurement’s seat at the proverbial table.  Prior to VSP Global, Nathan lead teams in the fields of forecasting, finance and marketing in companies such as Blue Shield of California (healthcare), Angel (Italian early stage capital for hi-tech firms), Blackshape Aircraft (aviation) and the MERMEC Group (railway diagnostics). 

Nathan earned his MBA from UC Davis Graduate School of Management where he also obtained a fellowship in their leadership program.  He earned his Certified Sourcing Professional certificate through SIG University, holds a certificate in lean six sigma and is fluent in Italian.  

Daryl Keiper has been the Sr. Manager of Genentech Inc.’s US travel program for the past three years.  He oversees a travel program of more than $275M in total travel spend and his responsibilities include traveler engagement, policy development, vendor management (including air, ground, GDS, online booking tools and emerging technologies).  Daryl has more than 24 years of experience in the travel industry including Travel Manager for Agilent Technologies, Director of Account Management for CWT, Airline Consulting for Advito and Industry Relations at BCD Travel. 

Jennifer Kern is a Procurement, Meetings & Travel Professional with over 20 years' experience providing leadership in the areas of procurement, strategic meetings management, and corporate travel products and services. In general, Jennifer strives to identify areas of organizational development and optimization, cost reduction or service enhancement (or both), and risk opportunities, within the areas of corporate meetings and corporate travel. She’s collaboratively lead many cross-functional teams for special projects to successful conclusion and works collaboratively with business units to create, implement & monitor strategic business plans.  Her current responsibilities with BAE Systems, Inc. has her overseeing $115M in travel spend and the beginnings of a strategic meetings management program.  She’s recently conducted a request for proposal for technology to support this SMMP initiative and has just completed implementation of the selected tool.  

Jennifer earned her MBA from Wake Forest University and is currently working on becoming a Certified Supply Chain Professional through the Institute for Supply Management.

Alicia King is the Global Air and Car Rental Category Manager for Chevron, she is responsible for setting buying strategies and delivering significant value to 50 plus countries.

Alicia brings over 25 years of experience as an airline sales manager, procurement consultant and corporate buyer.  She brings diverse experience in high risk travel operations, stakeholder collaboration, supplier relations, strategic sourcing, contracting and process implementation and optimization, bringing expertise in the development of global air strategies.

Jessica Maloney Cowart is currently a Senior Buyer for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, a subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc.*  In her current role, she has enterprise-wide responsibility and oversight for travel, meetings, and events.  She also has primary procurement responsibility for various marketing services categories such as strategy & planning, consumer engagement, and media.

Since joining Reynolds in 2010, Jessica has held a range of positions in Indirect Procurement, including supporting research & development and marketing materials.  Prior to her tenure at Reynolds, she worked in various industries including legal, retail, and consumer services.  

Jessica has a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  Outside of work, she’s a crazy cat lady and a foodie who loves staying active while trying to keep up with her business-owning runner husband.

*Reynolds American Inc. is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of British American Tobacco p.l.c.  

Kim McGlinn joined Workday in November 2015 and is the Head of Global Strategic Sourcing & Travel.  Her team is responsible for the overall strategy and execution of all global sourcing (non-IT) and travel initiatives. 

Prior to joining Workday, Kim worked for Goldman Sachs as the Head of Travel for the Americas and the Head of Global Operations.  While at Goldman, she managed the overall travel program for the Americas and the operations globally including BCP/Crisis Management.  Previously, Kim held a variety of leadership roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Tampa, Florida including the Travel/Meetings Procurement Leader, Director of Strategy & Continuous Improvement and Director of Operations.  

Kim has a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration from University of West Georgia and University of South Florida, respectively.  

With over 30 years of Travel Industry experience, Sandra joined VSP Global in 2016 as the Global Travel Manager to build a comprehensive, value add travel program. Joining VSP provided a transition from her extensive career on the agency side over to customer buyer side.

Sandra had been with Carlson Wagonlit Travel for eighteen years prior, working both on the operations side, as well as account management. Through her excellent leadership skills, she created strong partnerships with a diverse portfolio of clients, resulting in high performing, cost effective travel programs.

Since joining VSP, Sandra has successfully consolidated multiple online booking tools, realizing an 80% adoption in less than one year. She also has a significant focus on creating awareness around the importance and opportunities with strategic meetings management for VSP. In 2017, she and her team conducted a series of M&E Summits, expanding the enterprise wide M&E “community”.

Sandra is a Six Sigma green belt and just recently completed the Certified Sourcing Professional program. Through her collaborative, energetic, and client-focused attitude, Sandra is passionate about delivering relevant value and building strong partnerships.

Nancy Murray has worked in the strategic sourcing and procurement field for over 15 years. Nancy is currently Vice President of Sourcing, Procurement & Travel Operations at Endeavor (formerly WME IMG), a global entertainment, sports and fashion company. She manages the global travel and expense management programs as well as she and her team drive savings through sourcing activities across all corporate business units. Nancy is also on the Endeavor M&A integration management team. 

She started her career in financial services at Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital supporting the strategic sourcing function for Global Real Estate, Corporate Services and Travel. With that success, she and her team went on to support sourcing projects in HR, Legal and other travel categories including ground transportation, airlines and hotels.  Nancy then moved into the marketing and advertising industry and was responsible for growth of the Supplier Diversity program at Interpublic Group. Nancy is past President of ISM-NY.

Director, National Basketball Association, heads the Procurement Operations Group and has been leading the transformational journey for Travel, using analytics and tools, to bring efficiencies into the business travel program. Pradeep strongly believes that the only way to get the buy-in of people is to make fact-based/data-driven decisions and then empower people with tools to sustain the change.

Judy Payne is the Director of Meetings & Travel at GameStop, the largest video game retailer in the world. With 17+ years in events, she creates passion, excitement and education in over 50 events annually in the US and Canada. The SMM program expands across all event-genres from board meetings to incentives, and from conferences to comic cons. 

While hosting roughly 12,000 multi-generational attendees, Judy’s objective is to excite, engage and empower her attendees throughout their award-winning events. From gamification to socialization, the event is fun and exciting – on a shoestring budget. 

Judy manages the travel program and policies for a fortune 300 company to help reduce overall company costs and enforce compliance. While supporting a diverse leadership team, Judy defines programs to increase moral and align with business objectives each year.   

Judy also sits on several Customer Advisory Boards, is a PCMA Gulf States Chapter board member, and speaks on industry topics at PCMA chapter events, Convening Leaders and Business Travel New events.  Travel is a passion. She enjoys adventures with her family and finding the best restaurants across the US where ever she goes. 

Show Accolades: “Mind-Blowing Set Design & Staging” by PCMA 2018. Nominated for 4 awards in 2014 including “Best Show”, “Best Corporate Meeting” and “Best Use of Social Media” by Expo Magazine in 2014. Named one of the “Top 25 Fast Growth Shows of 2013”. Awarded “Best Innovative Sponsorships” and nominated for “Best Interactive Exhibit” by Expo Magazine in 2013.

Professional Accolades: Winner of SPIN 40 over 40 for veteran planners 2018. Named “ChangeMaker 2015” by Meetings Net Magazine. Name Expo Elite by Expo Magazine in 2014. 

Kathy Rust and her team created a comprehensive global travel program to support over 10,000 NetApp employees in 45 countries.  In the past 8 years, the new services and tools launched resulted in better control over spend and high customer satisfaction.  Her focus is now optimizing the travelers’ end to end experience and improving their well-being.  Prior to joining NetApp, Kathy developed and implemented a strategic meetings management program at Washington Mutual over a 4 year period.  Kathy managed a variety of global travel and meetings programs for Microsoft for over 10 years.  She expects the pace and magnitude of change in the coming years will once again reshape how NetApp delivers travel services.   

Szilard Simon holds the Global Travel Category Manager Position within IBM Global Services & General Procurement Organization. He owns the Global Travel Procurement Strategy supporting IBM Travel Program and owns the global enterprise & strategic Supplier Relationships in the Category.

Previous roles include 15 years of IBM Procurement Management Experience covering wide range of Procurement and Supply Chain Management. 

As EMEA & LA Procurement Center Leader he managed large organization of talents in a shared service center optimizing IBM processes, client experience and held responsibility for Procurement Services Delivery to IBM customers. 

As Global Supplier Relationship Manager he was managing strategic sourcing in the Network Product Distribution and Network Maintenance Industry on behalf of IBM including managing core supplier relationships, developing sourcing strategy, market analysis and supply chain optimization. 

In prior years he held various Management positions in IBM Integrated Supply Chain supporting IBM’s Hardware Business from a Supply Chain / Fulfillment perspective, working as Technical Assistant to IBM CPO, Procurement Controls and Compliance Management, Application Support. 

Szilard’s passion for innovation was the source to gain transformative Leadership experience using Lean & Six Sigma, agile practices & principles and Design Thinking Techniques

Szilard Simon holds a bachelor degree of Economics from Budapest International Business University specialized in international Trade.

Samantha Vogel, CMP is Sr. Manager, Meetings & Travel at GameStop.  Samantha’s responsibilities include overseeing a multimillion-dollar sponsorship goal for the 12,000 attendee Annual Conference, management of the 250,000 sq. ft. Expo show floor and oversight of all sponsor relations.  In addition to her responsibilities for the Annual Conference, Samantha also plans the annual EB Games Canadian Conference and Expo, plans GameStop’s annual Field Leadership Meeting, and oversees GameStop’s corporate travel program. 

From re-designing GameStop and EB Games Expo show floors to implementing Expo tournaments and vendor pub crawls, Samantha’s passion is bringing festivalization to events and ensuring that GameStop is always on the forefront of sponsorship innovation!  

Samantha sits on the PCMA Exhibits & Tradeshow Taskforce, the Visit Houston Customer Advisory & Innovation Board, and the Connect Tech Customer Advisory Board.

When she’s not redesigning tradeshow floors, Samantha loves spending time with her family and her two chihuahuas at the lake or traveling to any tropical location! 

Awards & Accolades:

2018 Convene Magazine: Mind-blowing Set Design & Staging Best in Show

2018 MeetingsNet Changemaker

2017 ConventionSouth Meeting Professionals to Wattch

Publications:

July 2018 MeetingsNet: 3 Super Creative Ideas for Reinventing a Corporate Tradeshow

David has over 24 years of travel industry experience on both demand and supply side disciplines.  He currently leads the Managed Travel program at global engineering and construction company, Bechtel Global Corporation. David is active on numerous industry boards, speaking on behalf of advancing managed travel programs through education, advances in traveler centric technologies, and greater integration of the supply chain to deliver best value outcomes. 

David holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from San Jose State University and a Master’s degree in Management from the University of Rhode Island.

Raymond Williams is a leader in developing policy, procedure, process and compliance programs within organizations.  Mr. Williams has over 20 years of leadership experience and currently is director, G&A Expense Operations at Starbucks Corporation.  He has responsibility for global travel, card and expense programs, as well as the contingent workforce program, third party engagement compliance, telecom/mobile programs and oversees share service operations within indirect sourcing organization.

Mr Williams is experienced in leveraging service providers to optimize operational efficiency and couples those capabilities with internal program managers who can navigate organization hierarchy and culture to enable business units to realize saving while exceeding their business expectations.   

Brian is widely known as a key industry influencer and technology trendsetter based on his strong and diverse background that includes leadership roles at GE Power Systems, Toyota, Amadeus and Travel and Transport. He has led breakthrough projects in transaction processing, supply chain management, large project implementations, data warehousing and business intelligence for e-commerce, mobile and emerging technologies.   Brian is an avid technologist that embraces change and believes that technology implemented appropriately will solve many of today’s problems.

Brian founded Data Visualization Intelligence, Inc., (DVI) in late 2016 with the goal to develop a viable solution to the data challenges in the travel industry.  The next year, Brian led DVI to a win as the People’s Choice Business Travel Innovator Award at the yearly BTN Innovate conference.  As a speaker, Brian has spoken at past GBTAs, regional BTA events, technology webinars, product launches for major technology companies, BTN events, and more.   He was recently listed as one of 2018’s top innovators for the Business Travel Industry.

When you have been hounded by every major airline Security/Fraud Department, you must be doing something right!  Steve Belkin has earned over 43 million (not a typo) miles and points leveraging the unpredictable (Thai rice farmers to fly as my surrogates), the perplexing (purchasing hotel rooms for 2 months in a wing that was closed) and the mundane (buying thousands of cheese, RIFD luggage tags, awful magazines and web storage space that offered huge bonuses).  Steve parlayed his passion into BookYourAward mileage award booking service that crushes it with over 4 Billion (not a typo, again) worth of international Business/First Class awards at the elusive low cost 'Saver' level.  The company principal has merited the 'CondeNast Traveler Magazine 'Top Travel Specialist' (only one out of 135 of over 10,000 judged)for the fifth straight year.  Steve also runs www.competitours.com, which Chicago tribune calls 'The Amazing Race For Regular People'- a team travel competition to Europe featuring mystery itinerary, surprise challenges and hot pursuit of a cash grand prize. 

Jiten Bhalgat is the Director of Global Business Consulting for American Express Global Business Travel (GBT). In this role, he leads the design, negotiation, contracting, and delivering of consulting services and solutions across North America.  Prior to joining GBT, Jiten was the North American Travel Operations Category Leader for Accenture Consulting, where he led a team delivering firm-wide T&E expertise. He offers proficiency in all aspects of business travel, including consulting, sales and product development, having worked with global clients for more than 15 years.Jiten holds a master’s degree in Organizational Development from Indiana University. 

Colleen Black is a trusted travel management professional with three decades of proven national and international leadership.  Colleen has worked in every region of the world, which gives rise to a deep understanding of cultural and ethical differences that impact the success of global travel management solutions.  

Prior to joining Tripkicks, Colleen was a partner in GoldSpring Consulting, where she ran business development and the payment category.  From 2007 to 2014 Colleen was responsible for global business development at AirPlus International.  Colleen began her career in meetings and event management, later transitioning to business development for travel management companies.  First, with Thomas Cook, and then with BCD Travel as Vice President of Global Business Development, leading the global sales division and charged with delivering innovative global travel solutions.  As Vice President of Global Sales at Carlson Wagonlit, she managed complex sales accounts for large global organizations.   

Colleen is a sought-after presenter and has spoken extensively on corporate travel management topics worldwide, with an emphasis on travel programs for multinational corporations. 

Growing up in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania and with over 20 years of sales experience in the travel industry, you can say that travel is in Chad’s DNA.  Before joining Traxo, Chad has held numerous strategic sales and leadership roles for American Express Business Travel, Egencia, Expedia Affiliate Network and HRS.  His extensive, global sales background covers all market segments from SME to large, global organizations in corporate travel management, hotel distribution and travel technology. Chad currently lives in Dallas, TX and when he and his daughter are not planning or taking their next Disney vacation, you can find him watching and cheering for the Cubs, Redskins, Knicks and LA Galaxy.

Mike Daly has over twenty years in travel technology across corporate and leisure markets. After starting his travel career at United Airlines, Mike was instrumental to the development of online booking at GetThere, Travelocity and Sabre. More recently, Mike helped grow Deem in corporate travel procurement as their VP of Strategic Accounts. In August 2018, Mike joined Freebird as Senior VP of Sales to drive growth of the startup’s mobile rebooking technology. Mike is also a strong supporter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) charities and events in the Southeast.

Joe Di Re is the Director of Sales for ABODA by RESIDE, tasked with strategically leading ABODA’s global sales and account management teams, while driving revenue growth for the organization via new account acquisition and existing Fortune 1000 clients.

Joe joined ABODA from SmartTalent, where he led sales and business development strategies as the Regional Sales Manager overseeing staffing efforts in industrial, clerical and professional verticals. Prior to this role, he served as the Senior Business Development Manager for COMFORCE Global Staffing Solutions and was responsible for external market positioning, internal talent acquisition, and sales and recruiter training.  Joe was also a Language Arts Teacher for Teach for America and was nominated for the Rodel Exemplary Teacher Award for his innovative initiatives to close the educational achievement gap.

Joe is a strategic sales professional with over 10 years of experience in management, training, negotiation, client acquisition and revenue generation. He is a proven leader with an aptitude for guiding and building successful teams and growing industry market share for his companies.

Joe is a Seattle native and holds a Master of Education from Arizona State University and a Business Administration degree in Marketing & Management from Gonzaga University. 

Gyasi Edwards joined Booking Holdings in 2018 as a member of the Business Account Management Team to focus on Enterprise Level Partnerships. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, his current role focuses on creating strategic relationships with enterprise partners to align all stakeholders on implementation, marketing and account management optimization. Prior to his current role with Booking Holdings, Gyasi worked with Expedia Group’s Market Management Team and later brought his innovative approach to the Egencia team as District Sales Manager for the San Francisco Bay Area and Pacific Northwest.

Ryan is a Senior Director within Visa Inc.’s Business Solutions organization.  He is responsible for Commercial Travel strategy, including traditional travel payment solutions such as Corporate Card and Central Travel Accounts as well as emerging payment capabilities that leverage virtual accounts and mobile.  Prior to Visa, Ryan spent more than ten years on the treasury and payment issuing side, most recently at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, focused on business travel solutions and digital enablement.   Additionally, Ryan began his career at American Airlines focused on financial and product management roles.  

Ryan holds degrees in Business Administration and Political Science from Southern Methodist University. He and his wife have three children currently reside in the Chicago area.

Josephine is a highly experienced senior manager, specializing in international operations, safety and security, with a specific interest in gender-based traveler safety. Jo has lived and worked in over 25 countries across the globe from Thailand to Liberia, Yemen to the United Kingdom, and visited many more than that.  

Josephine has managed large complex operations in many of these places with a high focus on management of team safety and security, especially in insecure contexts. She has direct experience of managing individual security issues and incidents, and managing and supporting teams throughout. She has developed, led and delivered training and simulations related to international operations and team safety, all over the world.  

Josephine represents Maiden Voyage, an organization that provides intelligence and solutions to support the corporate female traveler. Maiden Voyage sets the global standard for female-friendly hotels, and partners with TMCs and organizations to provide a number of solutions to enhance duty of care for female business travelers. Maiden Voyage is regularly featured in the international press and has won numerous awards.

Journalist and The Company Dime co-founder David Jonas in 2006 helped create business media firm ProMedia.travel after ten years as an editor with Business Travel News. David rejoined BTN in 2010 as executive editor when its parent company acquired ProMedia, and in 2014 he co-created The Company Dime. David has a bachelor's degree in communications from Cornell University.

Kathleen Kaden is celebrating more than thirty years in corporate travel.  In her most recent position, Head of Travel & Fleet Operations; the Americas for Novartis, Kathleen was responsible for more than 15 country level operations and more than $125million in air spend.  Prior to joining Novartis in 2015, Kathleen worked for other notable organizations such as Cognizant and ITT.  Her experience includes, agency operations, corporate travel management, airline sales, and corporate card programs.  She has earned an industry reputation as a strong troubleshooter in both start-up and problematic operations.   

Jennifer King is the Area Vice President of Account Management at Lyft Business, which works with thousands of organizations to move people they care about — from employees and customers, to patients, travelers, and more. Together, we design transportation experiences and programs that make the ride matter. Jennifer oversees all account management for enterprise companies partnering with Lyft.

Before joining Lyft in 2019, Jennifer served as Head of Sales at Google growing businesses utilizing Google’s various suite of products.  During her 13 years at Google, she established and grew sales teams across multiple verticles including Retail, CPG and Healthcare and most recently ran the SMB account team for AdWords.  Before that, Jennifer was at Target Corporation in advertising and buying and at a non-profit in Argentina that she and her husband founded to help at-risk youth. Jennifer graduated from the University of North Carolina.

As Senior Vice President-Global Client Solutions, Andrew Menkes helps grow BCD Travel’s global market share by strategically aligning the corporate travel company’s offerings with the evolving needs of corporate travel buyers. Andrew collaborates with BCD’s leadership and works directly with clients and prospects to develop corporate travel policies, assess risk management services and address many other buyer challenges. A business travel pioneer, Andrew led creation of the first internet-based electronic ticket purchase with British Airways and initiated a similar program with JetBlue Airways. He also founded Partnership Travel Consulting, PTC, in 2001, a full-service travel consultancy serving a client base representing billions of dollars in annual Travel and Entertainment spend. 

Mony is responsible for all sales and marketing efforts at YOTEL San Francisco including its preopening efforts and has been an important part of the development of YOTEL sales initiatives as the brand has been rapidly growing globally. Mony’s experience in the hotel industry includes positions as Regional Director, Director of Sales and Marketing, and task force roles at Hyatt and Marriott properties including multi property experience and brand conversions. He graduated from San Jose State with degree in Hospitality and Tourism and a business minor. 

CEO's with 30 years of industry experience are rare and Monique Mardinian knows a thing or two about the business of travel for business. In 2018 she assembled a team whose mission was to eradicate the points that plague the industry. Brainiacs from multiple disciplines such as behavioral science, data science, computer science and communications and of course travel industry experts  got together and created Zii, an unprecedented and unique platform, out of the desire to prove that b-to-b services can be innovative and streamlined, and to revolutionize business travel management altogether. Zii is the only platform that any business will ever need to provide governance , measure, educate and service business travellers. Zii will become the world’s leading corporate travel technology.

Bryan McArthur is an Enterprise Customer Success Manager at AppZen, an AI company helping to automate the full finance back-end process. Currently he works with the enterprise customers ensuring they find value in the AppZen T&E product. Coming from over 7 years of experience within Customer Success within the SaaS industry, Bryan has worked within several verticals from currently focusing on AI for finance to IT products within major incident management and always ensures his customers meet their main business objectives

Ann O’Brien is a Senior Enterprise Account Manager at Cvent based in Los Angeles, CA. Ann attended the University of Virginia and started her career at Cvent in 2011 as a Product Specialist in Client Services. She has assumed several roles since then in Technical Sales Consulting, Acquisitions & Mergers, and Strategic Meetings Management. Outside of Cvent, Ann loves to play beach volleyball, surf, travel, and spend time with family and friends. 

Ryan is the Head of Transient Sales at IHG where he oversees sales teams in the US that deliver revenue from Corporate, Government, TMC, Long Term Stay, and Affinity partner segments.  Prior to his last 4 years with IHG, he was with Avis Budget Group for 9 years in several different roles.  Those included Regional Vice President of Sales for mid-market corporate and the local market car and truck segments.  He also spent a period of time helping ABG integrate their Zipcar acquisition into their corporate account base.  He is currently based in Atlanta and spends time with his 3 sons (two 10 month old twins) when he needs a break from the corporate world.

Stephen Puente leads the North American sales arm of Amadeus’ Corporations business unit, responsible for sales and account management activities for US based companies interested in Amadeus’ portfolio of corporate technology solutions. Stephen has been with Amadeus for more than 17 years in various roles from commercial to business development and product management; Stephen’s expertise spans Amadeus’ expansive business units including Hotel IT, Business Travel Agencies and Corporations. Today, Amadeus serves more than 11,000 customers globally with its integrated travel and expense tools and Stephen is focused on offering Amadeus’ leading technology in North America.

Jay Reilly is Vice President, Sales of Groupize, is the modern online meeting & event management solution for everyday users. Jay’s passion and focus has been on the corporate demand side of the hospitality world, identifying clients’ needs & simplifying their lives while torturing his product teams to deliver on his great recommendations that stemmed from his deep understanding of client and market feedback and needs.  With more than two decades of corporate meeting experience, Jay helped push the original SMM snowball up the mountain with companies including StarCite and Lanyon.  Closing the SIMPLE meeting gap has been the holy grail quest for Jay for many years and it is truly in his sights with Groupize vision.

John has more than 35 years of experience helping guide some of the world’s most successful technology companies through start-up phases, major product launches, branding and marketing campaigns, rapid growth, acquisitions and IPOs. Before joining Deem, he was Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Customer Officer and General Manager at SolarWinds, an IT software company that grew from $325 million to $505 million in revenues during his tenure. SolarWinds was taken private in a $4.5 billion transaction – over a 75% premium from the time he joined the company. Prior to SolarWinds John was Chief Marketing Officer at Jive Software, where he helped grow the business from $75 million to $150 million in revenues in 24 months and completed a successful $1.75 billion IPO. John has served as CEO at several early-stage startups with successful exits and early in his career held senior leadership roles at Oracle, Apple and Intel. He also sits on the board of Untangle and Filld, and is a board advisor to the Stanford StartX accelerator, Prevedere and Motiva, as well as a being an instructor at Stanford University Continuing Education.

Ron Shah is the founder and CEO of Bizly, an end-to-end corporate platform for self-service events.  Bizly enables employees to build their own events in a creative and collaborative way, while providing the rules, guidance, and data to support procurement managers.  Prior to Bizly, Ron was a venture capitalist in the technology industry for over a decade as well as an on-air contributor on CNBC.  

As Director of Customer Success, Rishi Singh and his team are focused on delivering an amazing customer experience for TripActions’ customers around the globe. Prior to TripActions, Rishi held customer success and business development roles with Wiser (acquired by Quad Analytix), Clutch Group and J.P. Morgan. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in MIS from the University of Delaware with a concentration in Finance. 

Sue Shouldis is the Director of Business Development at Dinova, where she is responsible for the sales strategy and execution for enterprise corporations. Shouldis was hired at Dinova in 2012, and previously worked for Deem as the Director of Channel Sales where she was responsible for channel sales management –  assisting channel partners in growing their revenues through the selling of the SaaS based technology. The role involved training, selling, implementing and supporting all channel teams.

Prior to deem, Shouldis worked for American Express in operations, account management and finally as the Director of Market Sales where she was responsible for leadership of centralized and remote sales teams focused in middle market travel sales. Her role involved motivating, challenging and leading a team of 12 sales managers to meet and exceed company goals.

Shouldis graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Science in Recreation Leadership, and was the winner of the Top Sales Person award at Deem as well as the Centurion and Pacesetter awards at American Express.

Michael Smith has over 25 years of experience in B2B enterprise technology marketing with a focus on helping organizations build marketing and sales functions to drive new product growth. He has extensive experience driving demand in direct sale, channel sale, and credit card sale business models. Previously, Smith was the Vice President of Global Marketing for Changepoint Inc. where he was responsible for all aspects of the marketing function. Prior to Changepoint, Smith spent ten years in the Unified Communications space with marketing leadership roles at Microsoft, Cisco and Avaya. He also had management consulting roles at Deloitte Consulting and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Smith holds an MBA from the Carnegie Mellon Tepper School and a BS in Information Systems also from Carnegie Mellon. 

Ian Van Hove has spent two decades in the Travel industry, with extensive experience in advancing adoption of new mobile technology.  Ian is currently the Director of Sales and Partnerships for Mobile in the Americas for Amadeus.  He is responsible for driving the company’s mobile strategy and managing relationships with customers and partners in these regions.  As part of the Amadeus Mobile team for over 5 years, Ian led a number of projects and initiatives that have led to the growth and success of the company’s mobile products, including Amadeus m-Power, which serves hundreds of thousands of travelers around the world.

Prior to joining Amadeus, Ian served in management roles at ATPi Belgium and SAS Scandinavian Airlines.  His broad international and professional experience have fueled his passion for the commercialization of innovative technologies that enhance the traveler experience.

Ian is a native of Belgium. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Management and Economics from Katholieke Hogeschool Mechelen, Coloma in Belgium.  Sports, sportsmanship and a winners mentality is in his DNA, having played at the highest level in the Belgian youth soccer league, and now dedicates himself to his family, technology and tech gadgets. He is currently based in Miami but is an avid traveler and is always on the move.  You can connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter @IVHove.

As the Vice President of Digital Strategy, Christina oversees the critical development and execution of Carey International’s global technology and travel automation programs.  She is also responsible for developing and maintaining e-commerce and business channel integration strategies. Since 2013, she has spearheaded Carey’s ongoing digital transformation initiative which is focused on modernizing the end-user experience and diversifying Carey International’s presence across online booking tools and other key distribution partners.  

With a background in the Healthcare and Hospitality industries, Christina Joined Carey in 2004. Ms. Wrobel previously served as Director of Billing Operations and Data Management and Senior Director of API and Program Management as Carey. She is a certified PMP with a strong emphasis on business process engineering and consults regularly with Corporate Travel Managers and their associated TMCs to deliver customized, innovative solutions to managed travel programs.

Alon Zaibert is the Vice President of Corporate Sales at Travel Leaders Corporate, a division of Travel Leaders Group, a $20 billion organization ranked in the top ten travel management firms in North America and the UK. Alon is a relationship-driven sales executive who successfully harnesses his energetic personality and interpersonal psychology skills. Along with a track record of significant bottom-line results and decades of management experience, Alon has achieved the reputation of being a highly impactful motivational leader.

Today, Alon leads the sales division at Travel Leaders Corporate. Since his appointment as VP of Sales, Alon has led the company through a period of significant growth with record sales in 2018. His passion for inspiring and establishing processes and building genuine business relationships is truly unique. He has a very positive energy and an out of the box “everything is possible” attitude which greatly benefits his clients and colleagues alike. Alon has a popular blog “Take it AZ it is” which focuses on relationship building and emotional relevance.

Prior to joining Travel Leaders Corporate, Alon ran a travel technology start-up company leading it to great success. Multifaceted Alon was also a professional basketball player overseas. 

Brian Znotins is the Vice-President, Network Planning and Alliances for WestJet Airlines. After spending 17 years with United Airlines (Continental before the merger), Brian returned to his native Canada to join WestJet in October 2016. In just two years, Brian has helped oversee the shift of WestJet’s Network strategy to a hub & spoke model; the order of 787s; the launch of WestJet’s ultra-low-cost carrier Swoop; new service to Paris, France; and, new strategic partnerships with Pacific Coastal Airlines and Delta Air Lines. One of his current areas of focus is getting WestJet’s new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners into service in 2019, which include the airline’s first-ever business class. 

Brian’s long history in the network world started with Canadian Airlines in the late ‘90s before moving to Continental/United and into progressively more senior roles over the years. Many of his career accomplishments were profit-focused initiatives including the restructuring of United’s Tokyo hub; playing a key role in the construction and implementation of two international joint-ventures (Atlantic and Pacific); transformation of United from three-cabin long-haul configuration to two cabin; and, a slimline seat program. He also championed United’s China strategy and its San Francisco growth strategy.

Brian holds a bachelor of arts degree in history and a master of business administration in finance from the University of Calgary. 

When not out hiking or trail-running, Brian is an avid traveler having visited more than 30 countries, five continents and 100 airports since he began his career. Together with his wife, Susan, Brian also shares a deep love of animals and animal welfare, having volunteered in rescue in various forms over the last 15 years. Brian and Susan live in Calgary, Alberta with their dog and two cats.