TBTC’08 will feature a range of highly regarded business travel consultants, industry representatives and senior business travel buyers who will give objective advice on their particular areas of expertise. A full list of speakers will be published soon.

In the Spotlight 2008

Michael Platt
Managing Director
MPA Executive Counsel

Mike’s varied international career in the travel industry began in 1966 when he joined BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) followed by appointments with Varig Brazilian Airways and British Caledonian spanning UK, Africa and South America.

In 1989, after 16 years in the airline industry, Mike joined HRG UK (then Hogg Robinson Travel) as Director of Sales.  He was made Managing Director of HRG in 2000 and was part of the company’s executive directorate until his early retirement in June 2008.

His wide experience in the business travel industry ensures that he is regularly called upon to speak at industry conferences on a wide range of travel issues especially in his new role as industry commentator and counsellor. His new company (MPA Executive Counsel) has been created to help drive knowledge and change into what he believes is a chaotic and misunderstood sector of industry.

TBTC can confirm this picture is from Mike’s early years as the Milky Bar kid!

Geoff Allwright
Travel and Expense Manager
Airbus UK

Geoff is the Travel and Expense manager for Airbus UK. Airbus have a global Travel Team that has successfully implemented a fully integrated on-line travel booking and expense management process. Geoff has previously been employed by HP and Intel as a Travel Manager.

Andy Lewis
Head of Marketing & E-Commerce - EMEA
Budget Rent-a-Car

Andy Lewis has headed the marketing function at Budget Rent-a-Car, the third largest global car rental operator, for over three years. Following the purchase of the company by Avis Europe in March 2003, Andy’s focus was to re-establish the brand and marketing effort across the EMEA region. Recent developments have included extensive network development, a new visual brand identity and promotional activities, as well as researching and launching new products including BusinessConnections – a new SME business rental programme.

Gillian Upton
Editor
The Business Travel Magazine

Gill has been so long in the industry she's too embarrassed to say exactly how many years it is. She's edited Business Traveller magazine, the pan-European newsletter Business Travel Analyst for the Financial Times, the business travel coverage in the Evening Standard, Meet Britain for Visit Britain, and so on, ad nauseum! Her career hasn't all been about business travel; it's also spanned local newspapers, the industry bible Caterer & Hotelkeeper, Fashion Weekly and Marketing magazine. Editing TBTM is naturally the highlight of these achievements!

Alison Smith
Director of Sales UK
Carlson Wagonlit Travel

Alison Smith joined Carlson Wagonlit Travel in February 2005 as Corporate Sales Director.  With a proven track record of successful selling, Alison moved to become Director of Sales in January 2007. Her main responsibilities include leading the UK sales team towards the growth of the company, as well as strengthening and supporting the company’s expanding global position.

Prior to joining the CWT, Alison held various senior management positions within Travel Management Companies, as well as owning and running her own yacht charter company.

Christophe Juneau
European Product Marketing Director
Concur

Christopher Juneau has been with Concur for over 6 years, and currently manages all aspects of product marketing for Concur’s suite of integrated on-demand Employee Spend Management services for Europe. Mr. Juneau received his Masters in Business Administration degree from Emory University and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University.

Robert Daykin
Senior Partner
The Corporate Travel Partnership

Robert’s background is in Sales and Marketing, Project Management and Strategic Purchasing. He has previously held travel purchasing and management roles for companies such as The Littlewoods Organisation, Dresser Industries and The Halliburton Company. In 1999, he established travelConsult, a specialist travel purchasing and management consultancy offering services exclusively to corporate clients. His client list included major organisations in finance, retailing, engineering, oil, recruitment, IT and telecommunications.

Pierre-Emmanuel Tetaz
Managing Director
ETAP-ON-LINE

Pierre-Emmanuel Tetaz is Managing Director of ETAP-ON-LINE (Paris, London & Toronto); leading Expense Management Solutions player in Europe with the ULYSSE T&E solution.

Pierre-Emmanuel co-founded ETAP-ON-LINE with Pierre Higelin in 1999, following 10 years in strategy consultancy and ERP / financial systems integrations. Since 1997, he has focussed on growing the business in the field of Expense Management optimisation and on-demand services for all types of organizations.  In 2007 Pierre-Emmanuel won a business leadership award from the organisation of French SMEs.

Nicholas Mercer
Commercial Director
Eurostar

As Commercial Director for Eurostar Group/Eurostar UK Nick Mercer has overall responsibility for all sales, marketing and PR activities in all markets. Nick's primary responsibility is for all revenue generation activities across the business.  Prior to joining Eurostar Nick has, at various times, held Sales and Marketing Director positions with Air Miles, First Direct and Open, the Sky TV interactive platform. 

Graeme Milne
Head of Sales UK
FCm Travel Solutions

Graeme Milne has been in the UK travel industry for the last 10 years working for both an airline and TMC. After 4 years with South African Airways In August 2003 Graeme moved to the corporate division of Flight Centre Ltd, Corporate Traveller, and was quickly promoted to Team Leader looking after a small team of 6 Business Development Managers. Graeme Became Head of Sales UK when Corporate Traveller and Britannic Travel joined forces to become FCm Travel Solutions in 2005.

Peter Ducker
Executive Director
Hotel Booking Agents Association

Peter Ducker is the Executive Director of the HBAA and is en experienced and respected business travel specialist. 

Peter's career has spanned over 30 years working in the hotel and agency sector and 2005 he sold his own business travel agency.   Peter was one of the founding members of the HBAA in 1997 and has subsequently seen the association assert its' presence in the business travel sector.   

Peter is also the founder of the hotel and venue sectors standard measurement of carbon output; Carepar.

Grant Appleton
Commercial Director
HRS – Hotel Reservation Service

Grant Appleton has been in the corporate hotel industry for over 20 years.  From working in the sales team at Thistle hotels in the early 90’s, he was approached to join BSI as Senior Account Manager where he was responsible for managing some of their larger accounts for over 5 years during some of the most turbulent times in the travel industry. In 2004, he moved from BSI to head up the hotel sales for BTI, now HRG, before joining HRS in 2006. 

Bernard Harrop
Managing Director
IC Management

IG Management’s particular expertise is in the development of ‘Responsible Business Travel’ practices; including environmental programmes, duty of care and traveller health / stress policies.
Bernard has almost 20 years travel industry experience and is a recognised industry expert and commentator, particularly in the field of travel related regulatory issues.

Prior to his recent executive board role as head of Industry Affairs and Strategic Development for American Express Business Travel Europe, he held a number of other senior management positions including Head of Global Sales for British Airways.

Paul Tilstone
Executive Director
Institute of Travel Management

Paul Tilstone worked in the business travel industry for 16 years for travel management companies, including Portman and P&O Travel, before taking up the Executive Director position at the Institute of Travel Management in 2005. Since then he has overseen substantial membership growth of the association, the creation of ITM Research and the introduction of Project ICARUS - with targeted carbon emission reduction across the industry as the project's focus. He regularly presents at conferences and the annual business travel show in London.

Jonathan Green
Associate
JMP Consultants

Jonathan joined JMP Consultants in June 2008 who are providers of sustainable transport solutions.

Previously at Defra as Sustainable transport Manager; Jonathan advocates a holistic approach to the strategic procurement and management of business travel to deliver efficient, effective and environmental solutions aligned to a corporation's vision.  His interests revolve around sustainable procurement, travel management, CSR, carbon management and the corporate climate change agenda.  He has worked with private and public sectors clients and leading travel management institutions.

Tony Pilcher
Director
Pilcher Associates

Following his retirement from HSBC in June 2007 as Head of Business Travel and Expense Management, Tony established Pilcher Associates Limited which provides independent consultancy to the Corporate Market across all aspects of Business Travel Management.

He has a Lifetime Achievement Award from Business Travel World and was named in the top 25 most influential Business Travel Executives in the USA by Business Travel News commending him for the hours spent sharing his knowledge with both travel managers and travel suppliers at formal conferences and in one-to-one briefing sessions.  He is also Chair of ITM’s ICARUS Project.

Paul Wait
General Manager Global, MNA and UK Sales
Virgin Atlantic Airways

Paul joined Virgin Atlantic in January 2000. His responsibilities include every aspect of sales development and retention with all segments of the travel industry and companies with long haul business travel requirements.  He is also responsible for setting policy and driving the sales strategy for Global and Multi National accounts.

Shelley Hastie
UK Travel Manager
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals

Shelley joined Wyeth in 1997 and gained extensive experience around the organisation before being promoted to the role of UK Travel Manager when the responsibility for travel moved into the Procurement department. Shelley has been faced with a variety of challenges including the implementation and compliance monitoring of a major change in the company's Travel Policy where many lessons have been learnt.

Ron Mitchell
Procurement Consultant, Group Procurement
Zurich Financial Services

Ron moved into purchasing over 20 years ago working for blue chip companies such as Comet and B&Q. He is an Institute of Purchasing and Supply member with whom Zurich Financial Services hold the coveted Gold Award for Purchasing Excellence. The merger of Zurich with Allied Dunbar and Eagle Star meant Ron was responsible for the rationalisation of travel needs for the new organisation, introducing on-line booking tools for air, hotels and rail achieving 75% adoption rates. He also manages procurement of Zurich's UK travel requirements and is involved in the introduction of a Global Travel Policy.