Speakers

Following the sudden death of her husband, Nigel Wardropper (founder of btTB/PASA) in October 2020, Lesley took over as Managing Director/Owner, with the aim of building upon the great legacy that Nigel left the procurement community. 

Tony is the MD of Butler Caroye, the region's leading independent management consultancy specialising in the corporate travel supply chain. Established in 1998 Butler Caroye has assisted over 120 corporate and government travel buyers, and has managed over 75 travel tenders.

Kunal is a dynamic, results-oriented leader with a strong track record of performance in growing high-paced organisations. He has 20 years of experience in consumer facing businesses driven by technology. 

Johnny will be well known to many of you. Based in Silicon Valley, Johnny is perhaps the world’s leading travel industry entrepreneur and futurist, having successfully launched several globally successful technologies and ventures. He is now spearheading Spotnana, the new generation travel management platform.

Bridget is one of the best known travel category specialists in Australia, having managed travel Xstrata, Asciano, NSW Government and now IAG. Across that portfolio, she has created many innovations and improvements, especially in the areas of sustainability, stakeholder management, strategy and compliance.

Since he founded Travel Analytics in 1999, Scott has been one of the most prominent industry advisors and analysts. Based in the US, he is a graduate of the Booth School of Booth at the University of Chicago. He has also had senior roles at TRX and ARC. His book “Gillespie’s Guide to Travel Innovation” is regarded as a “must read” by the business travel community

David is one of the foremost business travel journalists and industry thought leaders globally. He co-founded business media firm ProMedia.travel in 2006 after 10 years as a journalist with Business Travel News. His primary publication, Company Dime, is the must-read editorial and news service across the industry in the Northern hemisphere. David has a degree in communications from Cornell University.

Ignacio is one of the country’s most experienced and qualified procurement managers, with a background in finance, and several years in the airline industry. He currently oversees the large and complex NSW Government travel program.

Will has been advising and assisting governments and Fortune 500 companies with travel management for over twenty years. He is regarded as a champion of innovation. Goldspring Consulting is the largest and most established independent business travel consulting firm in the US and Europe.

Since starting CTM in a small office in Brisbane in 1994, Jamie Pherous has led CTM to become one of the world’s largest global travel management companies. He is one of the industry’s true entrepreneurs and innovators. His strategic thinking and insights into the future of business travel will be fascinating to hear.

 

 

Another long-time contributor and friend of the conference, Liz is one of the most highly regarded travel procurement specialists in the region. She has been in the industry for almost four decades, the first two of them at Ansett. More “recently”, she has managed complex programs at Fisher & Paykel, Tourism Queensland, Kellogg and BHP. Four years into the project at QUT, and a former winner of the btTB-GBTA Travel Manager of the Year Award, Liz has has built one of the most adaptive and successful programs in the country.

Murray has 20 years’ experience working with cloud software technology building new sales and revenue operations. He has previously held several senior management positions with Concur Technologies, a SAP company, across Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America.

He has been with Serko for a little more than 4 years and is responsible for leading Serko’s Asia Pacific business.

Rodger is the General Manager, Global Security services for World Travel Protection, based in the Brisbane Command Centre.

He works closely with clients that come from a diverse range of businesses, including universities, security firms, travel management agencies, business continuity advisors and human resources consultants, to identify potential travel risks and provide expert security advice and support.

Rodger has valuable experience gained in some of the world’s hot spots including places like Rwanda, East Timor and Iraq. He has held senior roles for mining, oil and gas companies, living and working in Indonesia, Madagascar, Zambia and Papua New Guinea.

 

Trudy is the Risk and Assurance Specialist for Global Governance Solutions, based in Sydney.

She has a depth of experience in managing people and projects, and working with and understanding businesses in such sectors as Tertiary Education, Infrastructure, Construction, Insurance, Health Care, and Fund Management.

In her current role, Trudy has the opportunity to pursue research in behaviour risk and be an adjunct lecturer for the Australian Graduate School of Management. In her most recent position at UNSW, Trudy was the Director of Risk Management where she elevated the profile of risk and security information to support executive decision making and rebased the tools, training and practices, including streamlining and building a consistent project risk management methodology and consolidated project portfolio reporting structures, to deliver salient risk and safety information.

Shannon is the Placement Leader Health & Benefits for AON, based in Melbourne.

Shannon is a seasoned health and benefits professional. With more than 20 years valuable industry experience including providing consultancy services and product development expertise to a start-up insurance company in the Philippines, enabling them to enter the local health and life insurance employee benefits market. Prior to this, Shannon held several senior product leadership and distribution roles with AIA Australia after commencing his career at AXA Australia.

Shannon is responsible for Aon’s go to market strategy within the Health & Benefits function and plays a pivotal role in leading broking support for Aon Health &Benefit clients.

Christine is the Travel & Indirect Procurement Category Specialist at APA Group, based in Melbourne.

Christine started her career in the hospitality industry before moving into Corporate Procurement over 20 years ago. She has held several roles with global organisations such as EDS / HP as Asia Pacific Travel Manager and BAE Systems, consulting on their Travel Category. Over this time, Christine has seen many challenges and world events impact on the Travel industry.

 

Simon Crunden’s travel career spans over 20 years, including roles at Flight Centre and HRG before jumping the fence to set up a consulting firm; Travel Procure. As a consultant, he’s worked for over a third of the universities in Australia as well as the Australian government. In 2016, Simon developed Travel Analytics, a web-based reporting platform used by over 4,500 organisations in Australia and New Zealand. In 2021, Simon launched Nutrip. Developed in collaboration with one of Australia’s largest universities, Nutrip addresses historical shortfalls in the management of traveller movements, expenditure, corporate governance and reporting.His understanding of the industry – from both sides of the fence – heavily influences his products and approach to solving travel management problems for organisations in today’s market

It’s all about, ” getting the right people in the room ” and then making sure the right things get done with integrity. The foundations of all good business relationships.

Experienced relationship manager with a demonstrated history of client and supplier relationships. Skilled in Negotiation, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Satisfaction, and Sales Management.

Born and educated in Germany, my extensive global industry experience and connections were instrumental to the successful founding of The Travel Authority Group (TTA) with Sarah Bush in 2004. Since then, I have been an integral part of the exceptional growth of this business, and the expansion of my award-winning management team.

Early in my career, I studied languages before transitioning into the tourism sector where I worked extensively in consolidation, leisure and corporate travel across Europe. I moved permanently to Australia in the 90s, where I established myself as a corporate consultant, then manager, holding positions in some of the best-known travel brands in the market.

My ability to build and maintain relationships have been the driving force behind the success of TTA which is now a proud member of the ATPI Group. In this combined entity, I am responsible for the commercial success of the business, and I continue to take an active role in managing client and supplier relationships.

 

Jaclynn has spent over three years leading the sustainability consulting practice for CWT Solutions Group. Her career began in the hotel industry with over 8 years working in sales & marketing throughout North and Latin America. She later earned an MBA with a focus in consulting and strategy prior to joining CWT Solutions Group in 2016.