The BBT editorial team talked to a wide range of experts and key industry figures to find out who is driving change in business travel
Welcome to the resurrected Hotlist, our annual summary of who matters the most in business travel – and why. Our list is a mix of our own nominations and nominees from industry participants, and perhaps may be regarded as extraordinary not only for the individuals included, but for the names of those omitted.
We hope it helps warm the coming year (if only with the fires of controversy), and look forward to reading your own nominations and contributions on our forum.
To read about how we came up with this list, click here
THE TRANSFORMERS
WILLIE WALSH
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, IAG
POTENTIALLY PRE-OCCUPIED through 2013 with plans for a root-and-branch restructuring of Spanish flag-carrier Iberia, Willie Walsh nevertheless attracted a plethora of nominations as one of corporate travel's key opinion formers.
As well as dealing with the almost-inevitable confrontations that will arise from shedding 4,500 jobs to turn around British Airways’ sister airline, Walsh’s to-do list includes expanding the International Airline Group’s (IAG) portfolio and forging ever-closer relationships with long-time partner American Airlines.
Although IAG remains, in global terms, something of a bit-part player, the business model concept it represents – joint ownership sans frontières – makes it, along with the Lufthansa Group, a world leader.
In that sense, industrial relations challenges in Madrid and capacity constraints in London are mere sideshows; the main attraction in 2013 will centre on Walsh’s ability to take IAG to the next level. Most observers believe American is already waiting in the wings for its cue to come centre-stage – bringing an Asian carrier into the act could be a show-stopper.
The man himself is something of a novelty in 21st-century aviation, in that he is not, and has never been, an accountant. A former Aer Lingus cadet pilot, he worked his way through the ranks, becoming chief executive in 2001. He was appointed chief executive of BA in 2005, and this month celebrates only his second anniversary as head of IAG.
As softly spoken as his fellow Irishman Michael O’Leary is loud, Walsh appears quietly confident and comfortable in the corridors of power in Whitehall, Westminster and elsewhere. In 2013, his influence will extend way beyond the little local difficulty that is Iberia.
TOM HORTON
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, AMERICAN AIRLINES
BA’S RICHARD TAMS was among those who named American Airlines’ supremo as one of the business travel world’s key opinion formers – and not just because of the close relationship between the two Oneworld alliance partners.
Horton joined AMR in 1985, left in 2002 to join AT&T, and rejoined in 2006 as executive vice-president. Four years later, he became the company’s president, and 18 months after that, he succeeded Gerald Arpey as chief executive officer – on the day that American collapsed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
When the carrier does emerge, Horton promises it will be as “an industry leader”, putting its chief executive in a position of real power and influence.
RICHARD TAMS
HEAD OF UK & IRELAND, SALES AND MARKETING,BRITISH AIRWAYS
IN A RECENT INTERVIEW with a networking outfit called The Sales Club, Richard Tams was asked how British Airways could drive future sales. The response was telling. “My vision is to broaden the scope of our product and make a better revenue contribution to the business by cross-selling other products alongside flights, particularly through ba.com,” he said.
“We need to act more as a ‘travel retailer’ than a ‘flight retailer’, selling to the consumer with a lot more precision, in the way Amazon or Tesco do, by using database knowledge more creatively to put together offers appropriate to you as an individual.”
He also said: “In the business travel market, there is an increased threat of commoditisation, with many customers focused almost exclusively on price in their discussions with us.
“We don’t go into a corporate and come away with a sales order. We go in and come away with a ‘deal’ that is based on approximations of what that corporate intends to buy that year. Unlike most sales deals, there is no risk for the buyer – we take all the risk.”
Edgy stuff, but Tams still wields considerable influence, as testified by Astra Zeneca’s global commercial lead for business travel management, Caroline Strachan. “Whatever strategies he agrees, be they financial or operational, greatly impact and support managed travel in the UK and overseas,” she says.
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THE GAME-CHANGERS
SIR STELIOS HAJI-IOANNOU
FOUNDER OF EASYJET AND FASTJET
SIR STELIOS Haji-Ioannou and his family recently received an early Christmas present in the shape of an estimated £31 million dividend pay-out on their 37 per cent shareholding in Easyjet.
Relations between Sir Stelios and the airline he founded in 1995 have been strained of late, but that £31 million should go a long way to easing some of the tensions. The Greek-Cypriot entrepreneur has been arguing for some time that shareholders should receive a better return on their investment and, despite his failed attempt in August last year to oust Easyjet’s chairman Sir Mike Rake, his wishes appear to have come true.
Few would argue with the contention that Sir Stelios’ luridly-orange brainchild has had a profound impact on European aviation. What started as a tinpot domestic carrier, operating two wet-leased Boeing 737s between Luton and Scotland, is now an international airline ferrying nearly 60 million passengers a year around a network of more than 600 routes and 30 countries.
And now the self-styled “serial entrepreneur” is at it again – and his latest aviation venture could have even more impact than his first. The November launch of Fastjet, based on the Lonrho-owned airline Fly540, introduced the low-cost business model to what is arguably aviation’s final frontier – Africa.
Sub-Saharan economies are booming and, as with India and China, a new travel-hungry middle class is emerging alongside a raft of business opportunities. Seven of the top ten fastest-growing global economies are now in Africa, and inward investment is breaking new records.
The past is orange; the future’s bright.
SIR RICHARD BRANSON
FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, VIRGIN GROUP
IN THE DUST-COVER blurb to his 1994 book Virgin King, author Tim Jackson asserts that “behind the grin, beard and the trademark sweater, there is another Richard Branson”.
Sir Richard is variously described as “calculating”, “steely” and “an entrepreneur without formal training, but with an instinct for reducing risk and paring costs to the bone”.
He is also, according to Jackson, “a front-man and ambassador who puts his celebrity and political influence to commercial purpose”.
That may have been nearly 20 years ago, but anyone who thought that Branson might be going soft in his old age (he will be 63 this year)
should look back at his reaction to Virgin Trains’ loss of the West Coast Main Line rail franchise. Imputing “insanity” to the Department for Transport decision, Branson went on the warpath, forced senior government and Whitehall figures into humiliating retreat, and had the franchise award annulled. Virgin Trains has won the interim franchise until November 2014.
That may now be history – albeit recent history – but the wholesale re-think of the way rail franchises are awarded is a measure of the man’s influence, and his readiness to use it.
All of which may come in very handy when Delta Air Lines completes its purchase of Singapore Airlines’ 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic.
Sir Richard’s airline has been flagging of late, but the partnership with Delta could breathe much-needed new life into North Atlantic competition.
CAROLYN MCCALL
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, EASYJET
CAROLYN MCCALL has an impressive track record. She has a BA from Kent University in history and politics, followed up by an MA in politics from the University of London.
She joined The Guardian in 1986 and rose through the ranks all the way to the top – from advertising sales to chief executive of the Guardian Media Group. McCall also held non-executive director posts at fashion company New Look from 1999 to 2005, Tesco Plc from 2005 to 2008, and Lloyds TSB from 2008 to 2009. She was appointed chief executive at Easyjet in July 2010.
She was awarded the OBE for services to women in business in 2008, and in the same year was named Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year. But most importantly for our list, McCall has transformed Easyjet – and budget carriers generally – into a significant stall-holder in the business travel marketplace.
THE POLICYMAKERS
BORIS JOHNSON
MAYOR OF LONDON
TELEVISION CELEBRITY and polymath classics scholar Boris Johnson is arguably the best transport secretary we never had – or, given his undoubted political ambitions and abilities, possibly the best transport secretary we just haven’t had yet.
To an extent, the very office of Mayor of London brings with it an inherent power over transport matters. The biggest noise in town automatically has the biggest influence in town.
However, Boris (like Adele and Madonna, he needs no surname) has made transport his ‘thing’. Leaving aside the unfortunate experiment with bendy buses, his transport track record to date is a PR triumph. London’s streets may not be paved with gold, but they are cluttered with Barclays-sponsored ‘Boris bikes’; the jury may be out on Heathrow’s third runway, but ‘Boris island’ – the Thames estuary airport that will never be built – has been portrayed as blue sky thinking at its very best.
In transport terms, however, the Mayor’s greatest achievement so far has been the 2012 Olympic Games. Like the Millennium bug before it, the Olympiad was predicted by doom-sayers to presage the end of the travel world as we knew it. Like the
bug, it was no such thing. Lots of people on bikes pedalled into the record books, Mo Farrah won hearts and races, and nothing ground to a halt.
Boris is a cat among the conservative pigeons. He comes up with absolutely ridiculous ideas that scare the life out of everybody, and then some of them actually go on to work.
What’s not to like?
GEORGE OSBORNE
CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
IN RECENT YEARS, the voters in the Cheshire constituency of Tatton have contrived to produce some ‘interesting’ election results, to say the least.
Neil Hamilton, embroiled in sleaze allegations, resorted to ‘reality’ TV stardom; he was replaced by the BBC’s Martin Bell, best-known for wearing cream-coloured suits and being the man who replaced Neil Hamilton.
Tatton’s current incumbent, nominated by GTMC chairman Ajaya Sodha, is rather less flamboyant, but equally well-known – as the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer.
George Osborne may not be directly involved in the corporate travel sector, but his place in these pages is warranted because almost everything he does influences and shapes the industry.
SIR HOWARD DAVIES
HEADING ENQUIRY INTO UK AIRPORT CAPACITY
SIR HOWARD DAVIES has said his commission’s full report into UK airport capacity will be “a substantial piece of work” – and some would say it jolly well should be, since it won’t be published for another two years.
By way of consolation, the former head of the Confederation of British Industry (and of the Financial Services Authority, the Audit Commission, the London School of Economics, and much else) has promised an interim report by the end of this year.
Whatever conclusions he eventually reaches, they will undoubtedly have a huge and far-reaching impact on the corporate travel sector. Davies himself says that his commission’s findings will give the next government a “flying start” on the issue after the 2015 general election.
“In order to build enough political consensus around the eventual solution, we will need to show that we have done in-depth analysis of the other options [apart from Heathrow expansion]. At the moment, consensus is what is lacking,” he said.
Davies promises the final report will be a “really expert piece of work looking at how we think about airport capacity, which I hope will be internationally leading-edge”.
It will also be long overdue and, as in the case of the Leveson report on media regulation, there is no guarantee that the government will take a blind bit of notice.
THE EXPANSIONISTS
JAMES HOGAN
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ETIHAD AIRWAYS
IN NOVEMBER LAST YEAR, when Etihad boss James Hogan was named as the Centre for Aviation’s airline executive of the year, he was hailed as a man who has “disturbed the global aviation equilibrium”.
The use of the past tense is misleading. Under his leadership, Etihad is continuing to cause a great deal of turbulence, creating “a new and irreversible direction for the global airline industry”.
No mean achievement for a carrier that this year celebrates its tenth anniversary – the Abu Dhabi-based carrier was founded in July 2003, and started operations only four months later.
Hogan became chief executive in 2006, joining from Gulf Air, although his travel career includes stints at Ansett, Hertz, Forte Hotels and, most memorably, BMI British Midland.
Under his leadership, Etihad has acquired a 29 per cent stake in Air Berlin and a 10 per cent holding in Virgin Australia. The carrier is also looking at buying into India’s Jet Airways and – at time of writing – increasing its 3 per cent stake in Aer Lingus.
The shareholdings, Hogan says, are the basis for a new international aviation business model. “We believe the old alliances are fracturing – they only work for the big boys,” he told The Times last month. “Ours is the smarter way forward.”
LI JIAXIANG
ADMINISTRATOR, CIVIL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA (CAAC)
ASSUMING HE IS NOT re-shuffled out of his job under China’s new leadership, Li Jiaxiang could accelerate the re-drawing of the world air transport map and simultaneously stimulate a seismic shift in global business travel patterns.
The vice-minister for transport and head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), Li has already announced plans to build 70 new Chinese airports over the next three years and reiterated his determination to empower his country’s airlines to buy nearly 1,000 new aircraft over the same time-frame.
Speaking at IATA’s 2012 annual general meeting in Beijing, Li said that by 2015 China would have more than 230 airports, and Chinese carriers would have a combined fleet of around 4,700 aircraft, nearly 2,000 more than at present.
Those planes and airports will need to be filled, and early indications are that another Mr Li – prime-minister-in-waiting Li Keqiang – may be ready at least to attempt to push through reforms to re-ignite China’s economic growth.
The latter Li may find some of his proposals thwarted by Xi Jinping, a traditionalist who becomes China’s state president in March, but whatever happens, the former Li will certainly have the capacity to accommodate any surge in business traffic.
AKBAR AL BAKER
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, QATAR AIRWAYS
IN MARCH THIS YEAR Qatar Airways (QR) will add a sixth Chinese destination – Chengdu – to its network, underlining the seismic shift in world air travel patterns.
Born in 1994 as a tiny regional carrier serving a handful of destinations with four aircraft, QR was relaunched in 1997 after the appointment of Akbar Al Baker as chief executive officer. By December 2012, it was serving more than 120 destinations and had taken delivery of its first B787.
The new flights between Doha and Chengdu add to the existing flights to QR’s home capital from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Hong Kong.
Significantly, they link to onward flights from Doha to more than a dozen points in Africa, where China is the largest international investor by far.
Air transport’s traditional east-west axis is being superseded by diagonal axes running from the US and Europe to southeast Asia, and from northeast Asia to Africa – Qatar is at the crossroads.
One nominator is Adam White, managing director at TMC Baxter Hoare. He says: “Al Baker is probably the most dynamic, hard-working leader in the global travel industry – bar none. He is half visionary and half demanding detailist.”
THE PEACEMAKERS
ALAN JOYCE - CHAIRMAN, IATA
RICHARD ANDERSON - CHAIRMAN ELECT, IATA
IATA changes its chairman in mid-year, so Alan Joyce and Richard Anderson – the CEOs of Qantas and Delta Air Lines respectively – will both have a major say on air transport issues in 2013.
Joyce, whose aviation career has included leadership roles at Aer Lingus, Ansett and Jetstar, will be succeeded by Anderson – who has previously worked with both Northwest and Continental – at IATA’s AGM in June. The two will, therefore, share responsibilities for what IATA director-general Tony Tyler calls “our ambitious agenda over the next year”.
Crucially, that includes “developing the foundation standards for a new distribution capability”. Currently, around 40 per cent of air ticket sales are made through airline websites. Airlines can identify individual passengers and their spending habits, and offer them additional or enhanced serviced based on previous purchases. Travellers who book through other channels, however, remain a mystery to the airlines. Agents and TMCs argue that they make their money by providing a customer service based on the data they collect and collate; it makes no commercial sense to pass on that data to the airlines, who could then – in theory – bypass them.
Joyce and Anderson have a major sales job on their hands.
MICHAEL ROBERTS
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ATOC
THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) has to deal with the Department for Transport, the Office of Rail Regulation, Network Rail, various consumer watchdog organisations, and a host of other bodies, all the while looking after the interests of a membership made up of 24 train operating companies.
And every time there is a fare increase, a drop in on-time performance, a signal failure or the wrong kind of snow, guess who gets it in the neck?
Michael Roberts’ job is not for the faint-hearted. However, in the four years since he moved from the Confederation of British Industry into the ATOC hot-seat, Roberts has transformed the organisation. In an industry which attracts a clamour of complaints, he has become the voice
of reason.
Increasingly, that voice is being heard, and listened to, by rail’s policymakers – and could have real and positive implications for the future.
TONY TYLER
DIRECTOR GENERAL, IATA
SPEAKING AT the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) 2012 World Passenger Symposium in Dubai, director-general Tony Tyler announced portentously: “Travel agents, airports, air navigation service providers, regulators, manufacturers, ground service providers, GDSs and many others must work together to make each passenger journey as safe, secure, seamless and convenient as possible.”
To many in the corporate travel sector – particularly TMCs – IATA’s idea of ‘working together’ is rather different from everyone else’s. Tyler, like Alan Joyce and Richard Anderson, has his work cut out to convince them otherwise.
Among Tyler’s nominators is Ajaya Sodha, chairman of both Key Travel and the GTMC, who begrudgingly acknowledges the director general’s (not necessarily benign) influence. “Tony Tyler,” he said, “is still the main person who can wreak havoc on the TMC community and the corporate travel sector if he so chooses.”
To be fair, as well as IATA’s controversial New Distribution Capability, Tyler does have a couple of user-friendly initiatives to promote as well. IATA’s one-stop airport screening idea, Checkpoint of the Future, and the Fast Travel proposal that would allow passengers more control, for example, by allowing them to print out their own baggage tags at home, should be a lot easier to sell.
THE TECHOPHILES
DENIS LACROIX
AMADEUS IT
DENIS LACROIX, AMADEUS’S vice-president for product development, sales and e-commerce platforms, is arguably one of the technology giant’s most important players. He has led the design and development of front office systems, the company’s entire online offering, and the development of the E-Travel product.
Now he is in charge of the delivery of Amadeus’ entire range of sales and e-commerce platforms, including the E-Retail B2C web offering, and whatever Lacroix does next, it will be hugely important.
MARY BASTRENTAZ
SENIOR DIRECTOR, GLOBAL TRAVEL, ACCENTURE
ACTE member Mary Bastrentaz’s nominator, Carel Aucamp, describes Accenture’s senior director, global travel and events, as a true “trendsetter”. Aucamp, global sourcing manager, travel, with global procurement network Agrega, also says she “is doing a fantastic job standardising the management of her travel category globally”.
Among her many other achievements, Bastrentaz managed to persuade Carlson Wagonlit Travel to secure funding for, and develop, completely new global traveller profile technology.
LARRY PAGE
CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, GOOGLE
IT IS NOW MORE than two years since Google’s US$700 million purchase of ITA Software finally cleared the regulatory hurdles and legal challenges – and, so far, nothing very much appears to have happened.
Since its inception in 1996, ITA has been producing airline flight information software for the likes of Kayak, Orbitz and Trip Advisor, and airlines ranging from Alitalia to Virgin Atlantic.
At the time that Google’s takeover was first mooted, ITA chief executive Jerry Wertheimer was quoted as saying “there’s a lot more we can do to improve online travel”, while Google’s then chief executive Eric Schmidt added: “Airline travel and online search are a perfect opportunity for more innovation [and] more investment.”
It hasn’t happened yet, but when one considers how Apple’s iTunes has revolutionised the music market and Amazon’s Kindle has transformed the world of books, Google could certainly become the next big online travel breakthrough.
Co-founder Larry Page hasn’t showed his hand yet, but it’s a fair bet that he didn’t spend US$700 million just for the fun of it. Watch this space.
RICHARD CRUM
GROUP HEAD OF GLOBAL T&E PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS, MASTERCARD
IN 2012Richard Crum left Airplus to join Mastercard Worldwide as group head of travel and expense product management. His task now is to mastermind a global approach to travel expense management products and services. He aims to create a consistent solution that can be provided by Mastercard’s existing issuing bank partners.
SUZANNE NEUFANG
PRESIDENT, GET THERE AND SABRE VIRTUAL
WITH MORE THAN 20 years’ experience in the telecoms and travel industries, Suzanne Neufang joined the Sabre Holdings companies in 2003, starting out at Travelocity before being appointed chief marketing officer for Get There.
She combined her role with that of vice-president of corporate segment strategy for Sabre Travel Network, giving an early clue to her multi-tasking skills.
Named general manager and president of Get There in June 2010, she oversees Get There’s entire global business but, as one job is never enough, she also oversees Sabre Virtual Meetings.
It should come as no surprise that she holds two degrees – in communications, and in broadcasting and foreign languages – and that in addition to her two ‘proper’ jobs, she is also president of ACTE.
THE ORGANISERS
PAUL WAIT
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, GTMC
PAUL WAIT’S ACCESSION this month to the post of chief executive of the GTMC makes his inclusion in BBT’s rankings a “no-brainer”, according to one of his nominators.
Wait, who took the GTMC helm on January 2, attracted more nominations than any of the other candidates for the list – not least because, since the Guild’s members handle more than 80 per cent of UK managed travel, his new role enables him to wield very considerable influence.
Wait joins the GTMC from Virgin Atlantic, where he spent what he describes as “13 action-packed years” as UK general manager for global and multinational sales. Prior to joining the airline, he spent 28 years at American Express.
SIMONE BUCKLEY
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ITM
LIKE PAUL WAIT, her counterpart at the GTMC, Simone Buckley’s inclusion in BBT’s list of opinion-formers is also something of a no-brainer. However, while Wait’s ‘management information’ has been gleaned primarily from just two companies – Amex and Virgin – Buckley has ranged far and wide in her quest for travel management experience.
She held senior positions at Hogg Robinson, Rosenbluth and Carlson Wagonlit Travel before being appointed managing director of Capita Business Travel (CBT) following outsourcing specialist Capita Group’s £10.25 million takeover of Derby-based Lonsdale Travel.
Responsible for CBT’s strategy, sales, and overall management, targeting both public and private sector clients, Buckley was appointed to the executive board of the GTMC, where she chaired the surface transport working party.
She then went on to co-found, with Clare Murphy, travel management consultancy Bouda, where she styled herself “director of travel programme optimisation” and worked with a string of blue-chip companies.
On her accession to the role of chief executive of the ITM in January last year, she pledged: “The objective is to carry on involving ITM in the industry through the next generation. I have a real passion for buyers and suppliers working together to get the right solution.
“I want much more of a partnership between buyers and suppliers, with both sides being open and honest – and that’s what the ITM is about: bringing the two sides together.”
GREELEY KOCH
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ACTE
GREELEY KOCH, who has been actively involved with the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) for more than a decade, is the organisation’s new executive director.
Being an industry veteran with more than 20 years’ experience gives Koch – according to Suzanne Neufang, current president of the ACTE board – “the ability to bring together all the necessary viewpoints”.
She adds: “ACTE has never been in a better position to offer game-changing global education and networking opportunities, and I and the entire ACTE board will be excited to see the association move forward under Greeley’s leadership.”
PAUL TILSTONE
MANAGING DIRECTOR, GBTA EUROPE
AFTER STARTING HIS TRAVEL career in the leisure industry with Thomson, Paul Tilstone switched to the corporate travel sector more than 15 years ago, and has since held a variety of roles at Statesman Travel, Portman Travel, Uniglobe and P&O Travel.
He was appointed chief executive of the ITM in 2005 and managing director of the newly-formed European arm of the US-based GBTA in 2010. This month he celebrates his first year in the additional role of the GBTA’s chief global development officer, with a brief to take the association into new markets.
Somewhat incongruously, he holds an honours degree in psychology from Manchester Metropolitan University.
THE THOUGHT-LEADERS
GORDON WILSON
PRESIDENT AND CEO, TRAVELPORT
GORDON WILSON JOINED Galileo International in 1991, four years after it was formed and ten years before it was acquired by the Cendant Corporation. The company was re-branded as Travelport in 2006, and Wilson was named president and chief executive of Travelport GDS one year later. He took over as president and CEO of the group in June 2011.
In an interview published to coincide with last year’s World Travel & Tourism Summit in Japan, Wilson identified a string of technology trends, with use of mobile devices high on the agenda. “The world is changing and if you are not planning ahead you are not planning to survive,” he said.
The next few years, he said, will bring “more content, more refined search parameters, more mobile, more customer profiling and an even faster
pace of change”.
MIKE TANGNEY
GLOBAL TRAVEL MANAGER, GOOGLE
NOMINATED BY ASTRA ZENECA’S Caroline Strachan “for challenging the normal travel management model and building what’s right for his company’s culture”, Tangney has a keen interest in how mobile and social technologies will impact on the travel industry over the coming years.
He is a member of the advisory board of GBTA Europe, and hopefully that should give him a platform from which to share his experiences in building Google’s travel programme “from the ground up”.
RON DILEO
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, AIRPLUS INTERNATIONAL USA
HE MAY HAVE RELINQUISHED the executive directorship of ACTE, but as the new chief executive of payments company Airplus International USA, Ron DiLeo is unlikely to be far from the industry limelight.
DiLeo initially made his name as chief operating officer at TMC Rosenbluth International, where he spent 25 years.
When Rosenbluth was bought out by American Express, DiLeo became Amex’s London-based senior vice-president and general manager for the EMEA region. Prior to joining ACTE some two years ago, he was the principal of In The Black, a consulting practice specialising in travel and business management performance.
Welcoming his new recruit, Airplus International executive vice-president Volker Huber said: “Ron DiLeo will enable Airplus to forge ahead with its expansion in the US market. His international expertise will offer a substantial contribution to our global strategy.”
DiLeo says his new job is an opportunity to build on his previous career. “I am pleased to take over responsibility to further expand Airplus’ position as a leading global supplier of business travel payment solutions,” he said.
JASON CLARKE
GROUP VP AND MD, GLOBAL SALES, TRAVELPORT
WHEN STATESMAN TRAVEL’S joint managing director Mervyn Williamson nominated Jason Clarke for inclusion in BBT’s hotlist of corporate travel’s most influential people, he described him as “a young guy who has worked his way up through the GDS industry, to heading up Travelport Europe”.
Clarke’s latest and expanded role requires him to focus on TMCs, online travel agencies and leisure travel agency customers “using Travelport’s capabilities to procure and retail travel products”. Then again, given the speed with which he has “worked his way up”, he may already have additional responsibilities – and even greater influence.
SCOTT GILLESPIE
CEO, GILLESPIE’S GUIDE TO TRAVEL+PROCUREMENT
SCOTT GILLESPIE DOESN’T so much think outside the box as tear the box to shreds and build something completely new from the result. His blog, Gillespie’s Guide to Travel+Procurement, has become the online equivalent of a best-selling blockbuster.
He knows his stuff. With eight years as a management consultant at AT Kearney under his belt, he founded Travel Analytics and built it into the travel industry’s leading independent consulting firm, with clients such as Deloitte, Exxon Mobil, Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin and Microsoft.
Travel Analytics was acquired by TRX in 2006, and Gillespie went on to lead the development of new analytical tools, including a carbon footprint calculator and a hotel data clustering application. He left TRX in 2009 and – in addition to penning Gillespie’s Guide – has become a sought-after speaker on the travel conference circuit, where he continues to break just about every mould going.