Kurt Knackstedt

Kurt Knackstedt Email and Phone Number

Strategic Advisor @ Black Book
Sydney, NSW, AU
Kurt Knackstedt's Location
Greater Sydney Area, Australia
Kurt Knackstedt's Contact Details
About Kurt Knackstedt

Where to begin? Let's start with 20+ years of senior leadership, strategic and commercial management and product development experience from start-up through to global blue-chip companies. Add in unique perspectives from having been a buyer and a supplier as well as running my own consulting business, then top it off as having been given the privilege of assuming the role of President of a fantastic industry association. I literally have a world of experience and I look forward to constant challenges, meeting new people and learning new things. My experience spans markets all over the world, both established and emerging. I've earned promotions through results and strong leadership of multi-national teams. I'm also regularly featured as an industry commentator and speaker on a variety of business topics. Business skills I pride myself on:- Seeing the big picture while focusing on what needs to get done now.- Applying years of global experience by bringing a unique perspective to problem solving. - Aligning with colleagues - up and down the organization - around vision, purpose and strategy.- Communicating clearly and purposefully.- Anticipating and driving change rather than being dictated by it.- Ensuring my objectives help achieve departmental and organizational goals.- Challenging norms tactfully and through peer engagement to ensure successful change management.Why people like to work with me:- I am very passionate about what I do, the people I work with, and seeing both come together successfully. - I look for people that share the same passions and drive as me, and also know how to get things done.- I hire people that eventually want to move into my job, and I help them find ways to do that.- I continue to coach, mentor and engage with people I have worked with before, as you never know when you will get the opportunity to work with them again.

Kurt Knackstedt's Current Company Details
Black Book

Black Book

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Strategic Advisor
Sydney, NSW, AU
Website:
blackbookapp.co
Employees:
31
Kurt Knackstedt Work Experience Details
  • Black Book
    Strategic Advisor
    Black Book
    Sydney, Nsw, Au
  • Avis Budget Group
    Head Of Sales - Pacific
    Avis Budget Group Jun 2023 - Present
    Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
    As part of the commercial leadership for the Group in APAC, I am responsible for driving growth and strengthening business partnerships across the Australia, New Zealand and APAC region. I also lead the Avis Budget Group Pacific sales team and collaborate closely with regional and global teams to identify new business opportunities, develop innovative sales strategies, and foster relationships with key clients and travel partners.
  • Freelance
    Strategic Advisor
    Freelance Feb 2023 - Present
    Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
    Currently advising several promising start ups covering travel, lifestyle, digitial identity and payments. Watch this space as these outstanding ideas come to life and launch to market!
  • Black Book
    Advisor
    Black Book Feb 2023 - Present
    Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
    Black Book is not only a companion when traveling but an everyday go-to when looking for things to do and see, events, restaurants and bars.Black Book is a by-product of our own collective experiences and the desire to strike a balance between work and play. We create efficiencies, streamline processes and focus on intuitive automation of traditional manual processes that add to the administrative and non-productive hours at the end of the week.At user signup we garner incredibly rich data insights on that user and in turn we create a number of algorithms that sift through millions of potential travel combinations which result in a personalised itinerary for business or personal. AI eliminates hours of researching and time spent on making a booking and putting an itinerary together. We have created permission accessible profiles which allows users to share profiles with either their colleagues, partner, family or friends.
  • Hrs Group
    Chief Executive Officer Hrs Pay
    Hrs Group Aug 2022 - Feb 2023
    Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
    As Chief Executive Officer of HRS Pay, my focus was driving the commercialization, globalization and expansion of HRS payment capabilities including the innovative HRS Pay solution to corporations worldwide. Leveraging next-generation technology for payment processing, virtualization and payment on the go, HRS Pay is transforming the way corporations view payment as a critical component of the corporate B2B travel ecosystem rather than just a feature within it.
  • Hrs Group
    Chief Growth Officer
    Hrs Group Jun 2021 - Aug 2022
    Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  • Troovo
    Chief Executive Officer
    Troovo Jan 2015 - Mar 2021
    Sydney, Australia
    From 2015 through March 2021, I was Co-Founder and CEO of Troovo, a technology company focused on using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for virtualising and completely removing manual intervention for B2B focused, transaction-heavy industries. Based out of Australia, and specialising in B2B payment processing, Troovo helps companies around the world to help streamline operations, optimise financial flows and payment operations and integrate multiple data streams for maximum business productivity. Troovo was acquired by Barcelona-based Voxel Group in September 2021.While at Troovo, I grew the company from start-up to scale-up, securing contracts with major travel companies such as Flight Centre and Webjet; forged global commercial agreements with payment and technology leaders such as Mastercard, WEX and Amadeus, and expanded Troovo into the B2B space through deployments via Citi with Tokopedia in Indonesia as well as MYOB in Australia. I also led our M&A and strategy activities covering capital and strategic investment options as well as acquisition potential, which led to the aforementioned acquisition by Voxel.
  • Acte Association Of Corporate Travel Executives
    Chairperson, Acte Centre
    Acte Association Of Corporate Travel Executives Jan 2018 - Dec 2019
    Sydney, Australia
    As immediate past-President of ACTE, I was privileged to support the association through the ACTE Centre and also serving on the global Board of Directors.
  • Association Of Corporate Travel Executives
    President
    Association Of Corporate Travel Executives Jan 2014 - Dec 2017
    Australia
    I'm thoroughly honoured and privileged to have been the President of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives from 2014-2017. As a global association, comprised of executive-level members in more than 100 countries, ACTE pioneers educational and technological advances that make business travel productive, cost-effective and straightforward. As ACTE's first-ever Asia-Pacific based President, I focused on ensuring ACTE grew and advanced our goals of advocacy, education and networking throughout the world - both in established as well as emerging markets.
  • Rio Tinto
    Global Category Lead, Travel And Expense Management
    Rio Tinto May 2011 - Jan 2015
    Singapore
    Based in Singapore, my role covered all aspects of the global travel and expense management program for Rio Tinto including air, car, hotel, corporate card, travel management, and technology and communications. As Rio Tinto is a world leader in mining and resources, the company's travel program is large, complex, growing exponentially, is geographically dispersed and strategic to the business. My job was to ensure that Rio enjoyed a supplier and service framework around travel and expense management which enabled the organisation to grow whilst ensuring maximum return on investment in travel, corporate cards, and supporting systems and processes. To quantify this a bit, between 2013-2014 this meant driving over $140m in savings across the program and achieving a record internal customer satisfaction score at the same time.
  • Intelligent.Travel Consulting
    Principal
    Intelligent.Travel Consulting Feb 2010 - Jun 2011
    As a consultant to the industry, I leveraged my marketing and strategic business development experience in the logistics, technology and travel industries with a variety of clients. My work focused on the following areas of expertise:Developing and Executing Strategies Extensive expertise with commercial, marketing, sales and business strategies. Ability to look both short- and long-term and align people to organisational goals and objectives.Technology, Marketing and Product ManagementOver 10 years of travel technology experience with an in-depth knowledge of global online booking tools, GDS infrastructure, travel agency tools and automation, and integration of on and offline transaction processing. A deep understanding of how to analyse market conditions and respond with well-developed solutions for maximum market penetration.Resource Engagement and ManagementProven ability to bring people and plans together to ensure full agreement and collaboration. Experienced in managing both vertically and horizontally for full alignment to a company’s objectives. Extensive coaching and learning and development experience for enabling the development of colleagues and direct reports.Presenting and Selling Ideas & ConceptsA never-ceasing focus on the customer, with 15 years experience in customer-facing roles and responsibilities. A sought-after public speaker within the travel industry and years of experience speaking in front of industry leadership. Extensive PR skills including TV appearances and press interviews. Excellent C-level presentation and communication skills.Global Market KnowledgeOver 8 years of direct responsibility for business development strategies across the world’s fastest growing markets. In-depth knowledge of Asian travel distribution systems. A deep respect and sensibility for business protocols and an ability to understand and engage in meaningful dialogue with people from all cultures.
  • American Express
    Vice President, Advisory Services, Field Effectiveness, Marketing And Product Management, Japa
    American Express Sep 2006 - Feb 2010
    American Express Business Travel is the world's largest corporate travel management company, with over $25B in sales and operations spanning the globe. In this multi-faceted, Asia-Pacific role I had responsibilities ranging from sales performance management, training and incentive plans through to owning the regional product roadmap and marketing plan for the region. I also helped get AXBT's consulting practice off the ground and growing it to a profitable component of the business. A fun, never-dull and constantly changing role, it nonetheless makes for a very challenging description on my CV so hopefully this clears things up a bit?
  • Travelport Corporate Solutions
    Senior Director, Emea, Asia And Pacific
    Travelport Corporate Solutions Aug 2005 - Aug 2006
    Travelport is one of the world's premier travel technology and distribution companies, with a plethora of brands and products from the Worldspan and Galileo Global Distribution Systems, Gullivers Travel Associates, Orbitz, HotelClub and eBookers, just to name a few. My key focus during this particular part of my time with Travelport was developing and integrating a corporate travel-focused strategy across these various brands, which was in line with previous experience and expertise in the corporate travel industry.
  • Travelport
    Director, Product Management And Marketing, Asia Pacific
    Travelport Sep 2003 - Aug 2005
    Originally hired into Galileo International, during my 2 years in this role our parent company at the time, Cendant, went on a tremendous acquisition spree throughout the travel industry turning a US mortgage and property company into one of the biggest players in the travel space. My role here focused on marketing and product strategies to help expand and grow Galileo GDS market share in the Asia Pacific region (which we did, especially in Australia) as well as work with ever-expanding cross-functional teams to develop integration and strategic plans for the newly acquired businesses in the Cendant portfolio. An extremely exciting time to be a part of a dynamic company which changed the travel landscape dramatically in just a few short years.
  • Rosenbluth International
    Director, Global Marketing
    Rosenbluth International Jan 2001 - Sep 2003
    Rosenbluth International was where it all started for me - post the dot-com implosion I ended up in the travel industry at one of the most progressive and exciting companies I've ever had the pleasure of working for. In just a few short years we launched online booking tools around the world, developed the travel industry's first safety and security suite of products for business travellers, and started a dedicated corporate travel consulting arm, eCLIPSE Advisors. Never a dull moment, Rosenbluth did end up becoming part of American Express via a 2003 acquisition, which made it quite fun to "return" to Amex in 2006 and get to work side-by-side again with some of the greatest people in the industry.
  • Ecal Corporation
    Product Manager
    Ecal Corporation Apr 2000 - Jan 2001
  • Bank One
    Manager - Online Banking
    Bank One Dec 1999 - Apr 2000
  • Aon Hewitt
    Interactive Solutions Consultant
    Aon Hewitt Nov 1996 - Nov 1999

Kurt Knackstedt Skills

Business Strategy Strategy Business Development Management Travel Management Strategic Planning Strategic Partnerships Leadership Contract Negotiation Change Management Cross Functional Team Leadership Product Management Marketing Sales Public Speaking Marketing Strategy Program Management Team Leadership Training Consulting Mergers And Acquisitions Team Management Public Relations Coaching Product Development Sourcing Selling Procurement

Kurt Knackstedt Education Details

Frequently Asked Questions about Kurt Knackstedt

What company does Kurt Knackstedt work for?

Kurt Knackstedt works for Black Book

What is Kurt Knackstedt's role at the current company?

Kurt Knackstedt's current role is Strategic Advisor.

What is Kurt Knackstedt's email address?

Kurt Knackstedt's email address is ku****@****nto.com

What is Kurt Knackstedt's direct phone number?

Kurt Knackstedt's direct phone number is +613966*****

What schools did Kurt Knackstedt attend?

Kurt Knackstedt attended Indiana University Bloomington.

What skills is Kurt Knackstedt known for?

Kurt Knackstedt has skills like Business Strategy, Strategy, Business Development, Management, Travel Management, Strategic Planning, Strategic Partnerships, Leadership, Contract Negotiation, Change Management, Cross Functional Team Leadership, Product Management.

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