Rearden Commerce today announced the appointment of former GetThere general manager Bev Heinritz as its vice president of customer services and product support, effective Aug. 24. Heinritz will oversee the 50-employee implementation, customer relationship management and 24/7 support services teams.
She is the latest addition to the senior management team brought on to support the growth of Rearden's customer and product portfolio in 2009, including the diversification into consumer e-commerce with the June launch of technology to support Chase Card Services' Ultimate Rewards program.
Since the beginning of the year, Rearden has added more than 1,100 companies to its corporate client base, which totaled 5,120 at the end of the second quarter, according to Rearden vice president of worldwide sales Tony D'Astolfo. "It was time for the company to say that we needed to create a line of business focus and to add some senior level management level structure in there to make sure we had the right environment for that business to grow," he said.
Heinritz reports to president and general manager of B2B operations David Cassady, who joined the company in May and has responsibility for Rearden's enterprise products: the Personal Assistant online booking platform, expense management tool ExpenseWire and ground transportation booking system Global Ground Automation.
Cassady came to Rearden from software development company SpikeSource, where he was executive vice president of operations. According to D'Astolfo, one of Cassady's main tasks is building synergies across the three B2B product lines' operations and client base.
Heinritz departed GetThere in April 2008 after 22 years at parent company Sabre. In 2003, she took over the top spot at the corporate booking tool and led its growth from less than $4 billion in gross travel volume booked in 2003 to $9.4 billion in 2007
(BTNonline, Feb. 29, 2008). During her time at GetThere, Heinritz worked opposite D'Astolfo from 2000 to 2004 where he led GetThere's sales efforts and she focused on customer management.
Heinritz most recently served a six-month stint as BCD Travel's senior vice president of global online technology solutions where she also was in charge of online booking tool vendor relations before she left in the spring as part of a management restructuring.
While the Rearden Personal Assistant is currently only available in the United Kingdom and North America, Heinritz said her experience managing multinational booking tool GetThere could prove useful as Rearden expands its footprint. "That is one of the benefits of the experience that I have," she said. "As you move into regions and build out those follow-the-sun capabilities and the ways you work with core clients in multinational configurations, I can bring that to the table when the time is right."