Director, Consulting Solutions

• dec. 2020 - - heden

Account Manager

• feb. 2019 - dec. 2020

Director, Young Leaders

• jan. 2017 - dec. 2020

In 2017, SITE Chicago won Chapter of the Year at the SITE Global Conference. I am happy to have contributed to this success by developing the members-only Mentor Program and establishing the first Education and Team Building event targeted to our Young Leader audience. The chapter grew at a record pace and most notably, our Young Leader population grew by 125% to become 25% of our total membership. In 2018 we were able to continue the success by repeating the Mentor Program and the Education and Team Building event. In addition, we added Backpacks to Briefcases, an event that matched Chicago-area hospitality students with entry level positions and internships. Our chapter has applied for Young Leader Excellence award for 2018, which will be announced at the SITE Global Conference in January 2019.

Senior Director, Account Operations

• apr. 2017 - jan. 2019

In this position, I pursued Creative Group's vision to be creators of business changing experiences that help people thrive. As Senior Director, my role spanned multiple areas of expertise including client management, end-to-end program operations, supplier relationship management and strategic sourcing. I also played a role in creating our new departments of Registration Services, Creative Solutions and Experience Design. By applying Design Thinking and most importantly empathy, I worked towards balancing the client's need with the employee's and company's needs to work smarter and not harder. Additionally, I focused on building process and workflows to support the Managers on each team to objectively identify, address and remove hurdles in order to drive towards success and help team members advance their careers.

Senior Manager, Operations & Account Management

• jan. 2014 - apr. 2017

In this role, I helped build and grow Strategic Meetings Management Programs and also developed a new department that provided just-in-time resources for other accounts. Each SMMP required thoughtful design to evolve through program maturity and global expansion while driving compliance and value. The designs that I handled were often first-of-their-kind models for the organization. To ensure client satisfaction, profitability and career growth for my team members, I partnered with our Technology Services team to build necessary reports to analyze key metrics that drove business strategy plans. This partnership enhanced the continual improvement process that resulted in 95%+ client satisfaction for more than 1800 programs annually, global expansions into EMEA and APAC, non-bid contract renewals and several promotion opportunities for team members.

Strategic Account Manager, Coca-Cola

• mei 2012 - jan. 2014

This role allowed me to design a commission-funded SMMP model focused on hotel sourcing services for the US and UK. In addition, the strong B2B relationships between our organization, the client and suppliers, allowed for close strategic partnerships to maximize value for all. Analytics of the SMMP performance helped drive decisions to build the team focus on the tasks that provided maximum value and eliminate tasks that solely caused busy work. Being nimble also helped this account grow. Even though our role was limited to hotel sourcing services, I successfully answered the call to provide attendee management and registration services for a program for 7500 people in 120 locations and launched a website within 3 days of the first request by tapping into a broad network of resources and experts.

Operations Manager, Fiserv Account

• apr. 2009 - aug. 2012

An extremely rewarding experience building an SMMP from the ground up; creating policy, implementing meeting technology, driving compliance and expanding services. This team started as a group of 3 team members managing programs via spreadsheet and manual account-level reporting. Our task included multi-level customer service working with meeting level stakeholders interested in the attendee experience and company level stakeholders interested in leveraging spend, driving savings and mitigating risk. We accomplished both! The team grew in size, scope (globally) and in service to include sourcing, planning and attendee management all while continuing to retain long-time team members.

Manager, Group Operations

• mei 2004 - apr. 2009

Experience Design on the program level at its finest; whether it was a cruise ship charter branding experience extravaganza, buy-out of a luxury hotel with an picnic at the top of a glacier or an act-now cutting edge product launch, this role allowed creativity to the max. In addition to managing a team of planners, I maintained an active role as planner as well as owning the relationship with one of our most strategic accounts. The joy of this role included developing SOPs, establishing hiring practices and collaborating with other departments to build a high performing team while also driving efficiencies and improving profit margin.

Travel Purchasing Specialist

• 2001 - 2004

In my first role on the buyer side of the incentive industry, I benefited from the mentoring of a senior sourcing manager and an outstanding account executive. The guidance helped me to contribute to a team that grew revenue 10-fold in 3 years. I was responsible for sourcing and proposal development for incentives and meetings. From a tactical standpoint, I made destination recommendations that best fit a client's need and negotiated savings to find the win-win-win solution that benefited the client, our organization and supplier. Strategically, each opportunity began with an assessment of the client's goals and objectives and seeking to understand what would produce the greatest ROI for their program.

Sales Assistant

• mrt. 2000 - mei 2001

In the Hyatt Central National Sales office, I worked for two Directors, National Accounts. One director handled the incentive market, the other handled Medical Associations. In this role, I facilitated the sales process by handling the RFPs and word processing contracts. The role allowed me to step beyond the job description to create marketing pieces for sales calls and a training manual for new team members. In addition, I was able to build strong client relationships and planned client events associated with industry trade shows and new hotel openings.