Kathy Rust Email & Phone Number

San Jose, California, United States

Managed global travel program for 12,000 employees - setting strategy and developing business plans and budgets. Led a virtual team of regional travel managers in the successful operations of a $50M+ travel program. Responsibilities included negotiating air, hotel and car rental contracts, creating and maintaining the global travel and entertainment policy, and overseeing services from a single travel management company. Drove savings and policy compliance while achieving a high level of customer satisfaction. Always focused on improving traveler experience and supporting my team.

Strategic consulting - travel and meeting management solutions. Development of policies and processes to save money, mitigate risk and improve productivity. Design and implement programs to leverage spend, manage suppliers, consolidate data, streamline contracting processes and maximize productivity of resources.

Streamlined $30M event business by implementing strategic meetings management program. Generated 15% savings through program compliance, leveraged spend and improved productivity. Restructured and consolidated meeting professionals from across enterprise which resulted in 30% efficiency increase ($250K).

Supported $450M global travel program in 90 subsidiaries for 57,000 employees. Achieved $9M/year savings in global air and car rental programs. Negotiated Global Hotel Program with 250 hotels in 120 cities worldwide resulting in 25% savings. Managed $105M event preferred vendor program (40 vendors).

Increased department from 2 to 17 employees in 3 years to handle registration, housing and travel for more than 200 Microsoft events/year with up to 15,000 attendees. Directed hotel, venue and airline negotiations to generate 10% ($1M) savings/year.