Managed a team of 24 agents whose responsibilities included booking over $30 million dollars of air travel for meetings and incentive programs and providing exceptional customer service to clients and participants.•Successfully integrated air and customer service department by designing the project plans and managing the integration of telecommunications, computers, back office requirements, processes, and client requirements into the new company’s environment. •Lead the successful transition of complex reservation systems from using Worldspan GDS to Apollo GDS for all airline reservations and accounting.•Member of “BOB” Team (Best of Both) transition team resulting in a successful integration of 50 employees and 75 major clients.•Trained team members on Oracle and ERP applications and transferred 75 former accounts to the new systems.•Streamlined and enhanced the processes for the newly integrated Engagement and Events Process Team, which resulted in cost savings and streamlined inter-departmental processes.•Streamlined teams resulting in ensuring all agents reached their 85% utilization goal.•Champion of an Employee Engagement team consisting of 15 members, which created a monthly “Rewards of Engagement Card” for 350 employees.•Selected as a member of the Honors Committee to review and recommend employee nominations for prestigious company award for which company executives selected final award recipients.Managed ACD call flow to ensure customer SLA’s were accomplished.•Preformed direct report quarterly and annual performance and goal reviews.•Acted as Manager on Duty one week per month as contact for on site travel staff and after hours emergency center manager contact.•Member of team to determine Workforce Management criteria for air and customer service agents.

Successful management of empowered and high performing teams of up to 35 employees, both local and out of state. Teams consisted of both pre and post sale environments. Negotiated and contracted with all major airlines for travel discounts for groups up to 3,000 participants. •Successfully consolidated air operations surrounding the integration of companines while maintaining the confidence of our clients. Added 20 new programs to the current workload and operated on two different GDS systems.•Preparation and successful achievement of yearly budgets, goals, and objectives for department and myself.•Consolidated supplier contracts under same airline agreements to ensure optimal buying power and productivity were achieved.•Participated in strategic planning sessions for RFIs and RFPs for current and potential new clients.•Determined staffing needs of the air department and supplemented staff with six high season personnel.•Maintained direct contact with eight clients regarding their air program logistics and VIP travel arrangements.•Negotiated airline group fares and contracts saving 5%-50% off published fares.

Responsible for the successful execution of all air transportation related logistics surrounding the operation of incentive and meeting programs.•Preparation and successful achievement of yearly budgets, goals, and objectives •Maintained a minimum of 5% yearly gain in productivity.•Spearheaded and successfully implemented ongoing recruitment programs to hire and train full time and up to 30 high-season personnel yearly. •Developed and implemented policies and procedures resulting in improved efficiency and productivity for 35-person department. •Hand selected as member of company Advisory Board and Process Review Team. •Team lead and participant on numerous process improvement committees resulting in employee engagement programs and inter-department efficiencies.•Developed and maintained strong relationships with 50 major clients and 60 airline, hotel, DMC, and hospitality suppliers.•Customized travel program logistics to meet client specific needs.•Coordinated air arrangements for groups up to 3,000 participants including booking airline reservations, ticketing, and preparing final arrival / departure lists.•Participated in yearly Strategic and Business Planning sessions helping to increase company sales and revenue. •Kept teams informed and involved in company Strategic and Business plans resulting in engaged employees through meetings, employee participation, and rewards.•Drafted project charters, prepared business cases and analysis, created measurement standards, tracked relevant data, and presented findings and recommended course of action.•Negotiated airline group fares and contracts saving 5%-50% off published fares.•Participated in answering hundreds of RFP and RFI travel and event proposals.•Participated in presentations to current and new clients resulting in additional business•Conducted yearly department reviews to establish a list of improvement areas and ensured their completion by year-end.

I was one of 3 employees when I started at WTI. My responsibilities when I started was to run the office and handle all the air/hotel/car reservations for the corporate accounts. The company's corporate and incentive business grew rapidly and when the time came I moved over to the Incentive business where I managed a team of air agents and negotiated all the air block space and contracts. When I left the company there were over 200 employees.