Press Release
For Immediate Release
1 May 2008
STELLAR SPEAKER LINEUP TO HEADLINE ACTE SINGAPORE EDUCATION CONFERENCE
Alexandria, Va. --
Several prominent speakers, with expertise on the burgeoning Asia-Pacific market, will headline the Association of Corporate Travel Executives' (ACTE) Asia-Pacific Education Conference in Singapore, 20-21 August 2008: Rama Bijapurkar, Author and Founder, Rama Bijapurkar Management Consulting; Dr. Judy Siguaw, Dean of the Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management; Eric Conrad, Travel & Transportation Industry Leader, IBM Global Business Services Singapore, and Stephen Frost, Co-founder and Director, CSR Asia.
"ACTE is fortunate to have speakers of this caliber at the conference, not only for their expertise and fresh perspectives, but also for the insight they bring to issues affecting the business travel industry today and well into the future, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region," Georgie Farmer, ACTE Regional Chair, Asia-Pacific, and APAC Travel Manager, Microsoft Corporation, said.
Rama Bijapurkar is one of India's most respected thought leaders on market strategy and consumer related issues in India, as well as a keen commentator on the social and cultural changes in the country.
Bijapurkar serves as an independent director on the boards of Infosys Technologies, CRISIL, Axis Bank, Godrej Consumer Products, ENIL (Radio Mirchi), Give Foundation (a not-for-profit company), Subhiksha Trading Services Ltd. and Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd. Her new book, Winning in the Indian Market - Understanding the Transformation of Consumer India, (John Wiley & Sons), published in November 2007, has been well received and favorably reviewed.
Dr. Judy A. Siguaw, who will serve as the moderator for the conference, is the founding dean of Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management. She is also a professor of marketing in the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University and holds a J. Thomas Clark Chair in Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise.
Siguaw has been twice listed in Who's Who Among America's Teachers, has been awarded the Chancellor's Excellence in Teaching Award, and twice named Outstanding Educator by Merrill Presidential Scholars. She is presently on the board of the Center for Hospitality Research and the regional founding board of HSMAI in Asia Pacific.
Eric Conrad leads IBM's Travel & Transportation Industry, comprising Air, Travel Related Services, Freight & Logistics, and Rail. During his 23-year career, the last 12 in Asia-Pacific, Conrad has gained extensive and direct experience in creating business value for Travel & Transportation clients, working throughout the United States and in many Asian economies such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Australia, and India.
Stephen Frost is one of the founders and a director of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Asia. In the last decade, his work on CSR in China and Southeast Asia has focused on labour issues, such as health and safety, labour laws, supply chains and codes of conduct.
Frost is widely published on labour standards, auditing, CSR in supply chains, and has worked with numerous companies on these issues in Asia: Adidas, Reebok, Nike, Disney, as well as with most of the major labour rights NGOs and trade unions. Internationally, he is currently a consultant to HP, sitting on their external stakeholder committee. Frost also serves as an assistant professor at the Department of Asian and International Studies at the City University of Hong Kong.
The theme of the ACTE 2008 Asia-Pacific Education Conference in Singapore is "Strategic Travel Supply Management: Moving Business Forward."
General Sessions will offer keynote presentations on maintaining an organization's strategic focus in a constrained market, finding a competitive advantage and profitability through supply chains, and em
More than 400 business travel executives from throughout the Asia-Pacific Region will experience the unique learning and networking opportunities of the ACTE Asia-Pacific Education Conference in Singapore.
For more information on the ACTE Asia-Pacific Education Conference in Singapore, please go to http://www.acte.org/content/Singapore_08/Conference_Home.
ABOUT ACTE:
The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) represents the global business travel industry through its international advocacy efforts, executive level educational programs, and independent industry research. ACTE's membership consists of senior travel industry executives from 82 countries representing the €200 billion business travel industry. With the support of sponsors from every major segment of the business travel industry, ACTE develops and delivers educational programs in key business centers throughout the world. ACTE has offices in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and the United States. For more information on ACTE, please go to www.acte.org.
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