Richard Crum is a senior executive with global management experience and recognized leadership ability. He has over 15 years of travel industry experience including 10 with the corporate card industry. Crum is a dynamic and entertaining public speaker who is often called upon to speak on corporate card and travel industry subjects including globalization of travel programs, airline industry distribution, technology, and corporate social responsibility within the travel industry.

As AirPlus president, Richard Crum is responsible for the overall development and management of AirPlus business in the US. AirPlus International Inc. is the US subsidiary of the European market leader in corporate travel payment systems and management information reporting solutions. AirPlus is the only travel payment company that delivers the detailed data and sophisticated tools necessary for true travel expense management.

Prior to joining AirPlus in October 2003, Crum served as president and chairman of the board of UATP (Universal Air Travel Plan), where he was responsible for the overall brand development, membership growth and strategic direction of the international airline industry corporate charge card program of which AirPlus is the largest member. UATP is issued by 15 airlines worldwide and accepted by virtually every airline as a form of payment for the purchase of tickets.

Crum joined UATP in 1996 after working at the Air Transport Association of America (ATA). At ATA, he served on several industry standards committees. Most notably, Crum began and served as secretariat of the ATA Electronic Marketplace Committee. The work of these committees resulted in the development of the Open Travel Alliance (OTA) and Orbitz.

Crum is a graduate of George Mason University with a degree in Economics.

For more information about AirPlus International, please click here.

Doug Weeks is the Global Sourcing Manager at Booz Allen Hamilton located in Herndon, Va. Booz Allen, a $4 billion global strategy and technology firm with 20,000 employees on six continents, has been at the forefront of management consulting for businesses and governments for more than 90 years.

In his current role, Doug is responsible for the sourcing and contract management of all travel categories and services throughout the Firm totaling nearly $200M USD annually. He also oversees and manages sourcing and contract management activities for other categories including IT hardware and services, HR professional services, and other professional services categories purchased throughout the Firm.

Prior to joining Booz Allen in 2000, Doug worked as a travel industry consultant at the Travel Management Group helping clients implement best practices in corporate travel management.

Doug has been a active member of ACTE since 2000 having participated on the Steering Committee for the 2004 Global Conference in Stockholm as well as having received a ACTE Distinguished Fellow award in 2004 for his participation and achievement with an educational presentation at the ACTE Conference in Orlando. He has also been an active participant on client advisory boards for Travelport, American Airlines, Starwood Hotels, and JetBlue.

Doug is a graduate of Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics.

Brad Seitz has over twenty five years of diversified business experience, with the past ten in the arena of corporate travel management. In his current role as President and Chief Executive Officer for Topaz International, he has the unique role of being able to assess both the corporate side and the supplier side of travel, as an independent third party. He began his corporate travel career at Xerox Corporation in the Corporate Travel Department and then served in global client service and operation roles at Carlson Wagonlit Travel and Rosenbluth International.

Seitz and Topaz International have been seen in a wide variety of news media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today and National Public Radio. While at Topaz, Seitz has refocused their service offerings to both the corporate clients and travel management companies worldwide, with a desire to improve the services his clients deliver to travelers. Topaz has been in business for 25 years and operates in over 40 countries worldwide.

For more information about Topaz International, please click here.

Susan Gurley, Executive Director for the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) has over 25 years experience in international development, corporate fundraising, education, and not-for-profit management. Gurley has been instrumental in expanding ACTE into Latin America, Africa & the Middle East as well as developing ACTE’s corporate social responsibility and data privacy and traveler security initiatives. Under her leadership, she initiated ACTE’s first carbon-low conference and has been a leading voice in educating the industry on the need for sustainable green business practices. Gurley has also advocated for more transparent data privacy regulations and has taken the lead in voicing her concerns against the down loading at U.S. ports of entry of sensitive materials contained in electronic devices. Her comments on ACTE’s initiatives have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, CNN, USA Today, Der Spiegel, International Herald Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, BBC, and NPR.

Before joining ACTE, she served as the Assistant Dean of International and Graduate Programs at Georgetown University Law Center (Law Center). During her tenure at the Law Center, she created the Law School’s first National Security Law Certificate and the International Human Rights Law Certificate programs. Gurley also served as an Adjunct Faculty Member teaching a course on International Law Perspectives.

Prior to joining the Law Center, Gurley opened the Washington, D.C. office for the East West Management Institute (EWMI) a not for profit organization providing legal and fiscal reform assistance to developing countries. As Director of the D.C. office, she won EWMI’s first Asian Law Development Bank project and thus, expanded EWMI’s development portfolio from Central and Eastern Europe to Asia. Gurley also worked for four years as a senior legal reform expert at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where she developed and managed complex legal reform, policy and training projects. Gurley also served as Special Assistant to Commissioner Ann Graham at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for three years. In that capacity, she worked on child safety issues and helped ban three Wheeled All Terrain Vehicles and Lawn Darts. Gurley has a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and speaks French Hungarian, and German. She is a member of the Virginia Bar.

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Alisa Bornstein is the results driven Procurement and Travel Management executive consistently successful through a progressive career within the Telecommunication and Management Consulting areas. Her experience includes strategic procurement and corporate travel management, from operational development to agreement negotiation, implementation and usage management. Expertise in designing of the organizational structures, new methodology and e-solutions, leading line and project teams, driving cost-efficiency programs and collaborating with cross-functional and international organizations and people.

Bornstein has been managing the Nordics Procurement at the British Telecom (BT) since September 2007. In her role she covers the procurement of direct and indirect products and services, including travel. Prior to joining BT, Bornstein was the Managing Partner and Senior Consultant at Travelogica AB, an independent management consultancy company and enjoyed a successful12-year career at Ericsson, the global telecom company,

Bornstein is the member of the Association of Travel Executives (ACTE) since 2000 and the Board member since 2006 with the ambition to expand the knowledge and better understanding of the global travel business, share experience, influence the corporate Travel industry and link it to the Procurement community – all to find new ways and make a difference!

For the past four years, Michele has held the position of Director of Travel and Procurement for the U.S. firms of Deloitte reporting directly to the Chief Procurement Officer, with responsibility for all facets of travel operations and procurement including agency and online booking, airlines, hotels, car rental, and ground transportation. Additionally, Michele is responsible for meetings procurement at Deloitte. A team of 1 manager and 9 sourcing members respond to more than 1,200 meeting requests annually, locating hotel and conference center space for internal clients across the U.S. (The meeting planning function is managed separately.)

Separate from her travel responsibilities Michele is also responsible for all Non-Technology Procurement for the U.S. firms of Deloitte, which includes managing spend of approximately $100 million in the following categories:

• Real Estate
• Office Services (includes Office Supplies, Temp Services,
  Express Mail, Firm Stationery, Promotional Products)
• Relocation

Prior to her Director position, she held various positions in Travel Procurement and Travel Sourcing, within her 7-year tenure at Deloitte and with her previous employer, JP Morgan Chase, previously Bank One Corporation.

Michele holds an M.B.A. in Finance from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan and a B.A. in Computer Information Systems from Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia, Arkansas.

Caro Cook is the Chief of Transportation at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In this role, she is responsible for 3500 travelers around the world and a global T&E budget of over $100 million. She is also responsible for the procurement and negotiation of all the travel products which includes, airlines, hotels, ground transportation services and travel technology. These contracts represent millions of dollars in spend to the IMF. Cook set up the IMF as its own travel agency, while still outsourcing the travel process to a TMC.

Cook began her career in sports sponsorship and PR before moving into the leisure market in the United Kingdom where she worked for nine years for one of the top four tour operating companies. There she was responsible for product, customer delivery, and the profit and loss of 21 business units around the world. She subsequently set up her own consulting business where she worked with blue chip clients such as The Whitbread Company. Cook's involvement in the world of business travel began with the IMF, where she has been for eight years. Through her entire career she has been tasked with delivering "top class" service to customers.

For more information about the International Monetary Fund, please click here.

A 26-year travel industry veteran, Tony D'Astolfo joined Rearden Commerce, the industry's first Services-On-Demand commerce platform and application suite, in May of 2004 in the role of Vice President, Travel Services. Prior to joining Rearden, Tony served as Senior Vice President at Sabre-Holdings where he ran Sales and Consulting at GetThere, Sabre's online business-to-business e-commerce unit. Prior to GetThere, Tony enjoyed a successful 19-year career at United Airlines, holding senior sales and customer service positions in New York and New Jersey, and in his last assignment was United's National Sales Manager for the UK and Ireland.

Tony has been a long time ACTE member in good standing and has participated in multiple ACTE events both local and global as a panelist and moderator; and was recognized by ACTE with a 2005 Distinguished Fellow Award for exceptional achievement in an educational presentation. He has also been active as a volunteer in multiple fund raising/sponsorship roles (United Way/Boys Club), as a personal mentor to young business professionals (Menttium 100), and is currently a member of the Education Committee for the ACTE Global Conference in Atlanta.

FCm Travel Solutions’ Regional Director EMEA & Latin America, Brian Donnelly, plays a key role in the strategic development of their partner network in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.

Brian is responsible for the selection of suitable network partners from all countries and also supports his colleagues in the Asia Pacific and the Americas with the selection processes in these regions. He dedicates significant time to researching, recruiting and inducting leading travel companies in to the FCm Partner Programme ensuring that they all have the capabilities and long-term commitment to effectively service FCm Travel Solutions’ regional and multinational clients.

Brian ensures all network partners adhere to FCm Travel Solutions’ uniform Operating Standards, Branding Guidelines and Preferred Supplier Programs, so they are able to provide a consistently high level of service worldwide.

His appointment to FCm Travel Solutions in September 2004 followed more than three years as Vice President of Network Development with TQ3 Travel Solutions, and a distinguished career in travel management that commenced with P & O Lines in London. Highlights of Brian’s career include:

• Building an international network in 80 countries for TQ3 Travel Solutions
• Leading the FIRST Travel Management organisation as their Managing Director
• Being Sales & Marketing Director for Britannic Travel Limited ( UK )
• Establishing more than 50 Uniglobe Travel offices in the UK &
• Forming the original Business Travel Division for the Pickfords Travel Group (now Carlson Wagonlit UK)
• Developing a new Travel Services Division for members of the Automobile Association (AA)

Those who know me well know how passionate I am about our industry, where my whole career has taken place at. I worked over the last 20 years at VASP – the glorious, now “dormant”, Brazilian airline, at Sheraton Hotels, at Bel Air Viagens, the Thomas Cook Agency in Brazil which was acquired by AMEX in 1996, where I worked in a number of Senior positions for 8 years.

For the past years I became one of the owners of ALATUR TMC, a respectable Brazilian brand clients and suppliers will testify positively about. We employ presently over 400 FTE’s.

I am Brazilian and I am US-educated. My Graduate studies in Business were taken at EAESP-FGV in São Paulo. I have had the chance to further improve my education at Wharton Business School at Pennsylvania and at University of Madrid, among other institutions.

I feel extremely motivated to represent, directly for the first time, the interests of Latin America at the highest level of ACTE organizational structure: our diversity, our peculiarities and our increasing relevance as a region in Global Corporate Travel Programs. We deserve more visibility!

I also do believe ACTE is to be exposed more and more to key corporations, suppliers and individuals in the region, our solutions, educational and high level networking opportunities, so that our membership in the region will grow and grow, our voice will be heard more and more.

Bruce Finch is the Senior Manager of Global Travel Services for Autodesk, Inc., the world's leading design software and digital content company based in San Rafael, California.

Bruce began his travel career at Eastern Airlines in New York in 1977 working in the sales and in-flight services areas. In 1987, Bruce purchased Around the World Travel, a Boston-area travel agency, which he managed until 1995.

Bruce served as the Manager of Travel Operations at the Gillette Company in Boston and as the Senior Manager of Global Travel for FleetBoston Financial, then the nation’s 7th largest financial institution prior to merging with Bank of America.

Bruce received his bachelor's degree in Geography from Salem State College. He has received his CTA and CTC certifications from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents, and his CCTE certification from the National Business Travel Association. Bruce has served as chairperson of the technology committee for the New England Business Travel Association, co-chair of the NBTA technology committee and serves on the finance committee for ACTE.

Greeley Koch serves as Vice President, Corporate Solutions for TRX, where he leads the focus on future strategic data relationships. Greeley joined TRX, a leading, independent provider of transaction processing and data integration services to the global travel industry, in July 2006.

Prior to joining TRX, Koch worked for TQ3, a global travel management company, Bank of America, Abbott Laboratories and the Office of the Governor for the State of Illinois.

Koch was named as one of Business Travel News - Top 25 Influential Executives in the Travel Industry for 2005. He served as President of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) from January 2005 until June 2007.

Firstly, I am a young South African, (37yrs old), who has been in the Travel Business for 11yrs and have been through the critical dos with our Travel Industry, from airlines & hotels dropping their commission to introduction of on-line of booking engines. But in spite of these changes, our company has done very well as a Travel Management Company.

I am the Managing Director of Travel with Flair and have seen our company grow from 8 people when we first started in 1995 to over 170 people countrywide. We have a turnover of R600 million per annum and we ran a very well aided machine.

Our travel group, Travel with Flair has also been awarded the Best Travel Agency for 2007 at the Welcome Awards, so that says that we are doing something right in our industry.

We have sort out the best technologies available in the travel industry to give us the competitive edge. I do believe that we can educate both the TMC’s and other travel co-ordinators with what is best in the market because we have done the metamorphosis. We run a paperless back-office and our service levels surpass most of our competitors.

I do believe that ACTE needs a person of colour on the board to give a different and fresh perspective, especially which I am a shareholder and Managing Director of a group that has done so well in this industry. Our group has been awarded a “AAA” rating by empowerdex, which is the highest rating ever given to an empowered Travel Agency.

I have great passion for what I do, and I believe if u love what you are doing, you can only excel.

In my younger days, I was a model, and then I decided to study, was an “A” student through school and got great graded at University. I was the 1st black student to tutor accounting at Rhodes University and you had to get an “A” to be able to tutor.

I studied to be an accountant and I did my articles with KPMG. I do believe that to manage your business well, you need accounting as a base so it has helped me over the years to grow our business.

I have also been a talk-show host on SABC2 running my own business programme called “Women on the Move”. The programme focused on Successful Business Women from diverse industries.

In closing, I am a woman of woman of many talents and believe I have done well with my talents. I was nominated for “Successful Women in Business or Government” award in 2006.

Qualifications for the Board Member Role include the following:

• In excess of 10 years experience in Corporate Travel Procurement
• A long standing membership with ACTE and active participation
• Full understanding of the objectives of ACTE
• Excellent network of contacts within the travel industry
• Experience with and understanding of the emerging markets in Africa

Reasons for running for the ACTE Board:

Since one of the visions of ACTE is to strengthen the membership base globally and be recognized as the leading voice within the travel industry by providing guidance, advice and education on a truly global level, I believe I could add value by my extensive involvement and experience in Africa in the procurement area and in particular, travel.

Some of the reasons for running for ACTE Board are largely related to the market in which I am active, namely Sub-Saharan Africa where I see much room for growth and development. These emerging markets are having to move fast to reach the levels of Europe and USA within the travel industry. ACTE could be instrumental in creating opportunities to enable the African markets to grow and develop through guidance, advice, education and innovation.

As Porter Airlines’ Manager, Sales Eastern Canada, Rick is accountable for sales, client service and retention activities in the government, corporate, travel agency, charter and leisure markets based in Ottawa, Montreal and points east. Fluently bilingual, Rick is presently Canada’s representative to the Board of Directors of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE).

Until recently, Rick was Associate Director of Travel and Expense Management at Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE), where he led a team of travel and expense management experts, implementing and managing enterprise-wide policies to control BCE’s annual travel costs of $160M, including corporate planning activities for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Peter Sijbers has over twenty years of travel industry knowledge and experience. In his current role as, Senior Sourcing Specialist for Philips General Purchasing, he holds overall responsibility for commodity strategy definition, road map, key milestones, measurement and deployment. Sijbers established a global program, with best in class commercial terms and conditions, established partnerships and overall optimized the supply base. Prior to his current position, Sijbers worked with the Philips Travel Agency.

Sijbers has been a long time ACTE member in good standing and has participated in multiple ACTE events both local and global; and was recognized by ACTE with a 2004 Advancing The Industry Award for his exceptional achievement in innovating thinking.

In 2006, Sijbers was named BTN Travel Manager of the Year Award.

Megan has 8 years experience on the corporate side of the travel industry covering global hotel sourcing, and Greater Europe, Asia and Latin America Sourcing travel manager. Today, Megan has overall responsibility for the strategic sourcing program covering all travel related areas such as Agency, hotel, ground transportation, air and meetings as well as relocation and immigration with her global team. She is Irish/Australian/South African by nationality and grew up in Africa. She has an MSc in Dietetics and Psychology and a higher diploma in Secondary Education from the University of Cape Town along with a diploma in Sports Psychology from the University of South Africa.

She has worked for Intel in both marketing events management and procurement for 12 years in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and England in a regional and global role. Prior to Intel she worked for Warner Lambert Park Davis in an Events manager capacity for 2 years.