Travel Manager of the Year 2014 to 2023

In 2014, Business Travel News started its fourth decade of publication. Average year-over-year per-diem growth rates modestly surpassed those in years prior, as suppliers experienced cost hikes and translated rising demand into higher pricing. BTN’s fourth batch of Travel Manager of the Year awardees are buyers who not only innovated to maximize savings for their company, but also those who devised policies and strategies to advance their programs in areas like procurement, technology, traveler profiles, sustainability, and data analytics.

[Editor's note: BTN pulled images from the actual time period in our archive, or as near as possible.]

2014: Steven Mandelbaum

Steven Mandelbaum, then with The Advisory Board Co., can be regarded as both a travel manager and IT specialist. In 2014 he was lauded for creating a company-branded loyalty program—integrated with the corporate card and booking tool—to track and reward traveler compliance. He also set up an advance-purchase airfare policy, deployed a custom corporate payment program, and reconfigured agency services to help corporate cardholders, among other feats. Currently, he is SVP of business solutions for educational consulting firm EAB. 

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2015: Eric Bailey

Eric Bailey served as travel and venue global group lead for Microsoft’s 70,000-traveler program. He carried out his vision to improve the program through partnerships with Amadeus, American Express Global Business Travel, and Tripism. He also leveraged internal development funding, collaborated with Microsoft technology experts, and enabled employees to test prototypes. Eric retired from Microsoft as global director of employee travel and devices. Now, he is the owner and managing director of Purposeful Travel Solutions. He became part of BTN’s Business Travel Hall of Fame in 2023 and has also been listed in BTN’s Most Influential in 2015 and 2018. 

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2016: Dorian Stonie

Dorian Stonie used Salesforce's "social, mobile, open" travel program strategy and forged relationships with suppliers, travelers, and peers to bolster the company’s managed travel. With colleague Ralph Colunga, Dorian consolidated Salesforce to a single TMC, a single booking tool, and a single credit card company. In 2020 he was promoted to senior director of global travel. Four years later, he also made BTN’s list of best practitioners for overseeing the evolution of NDC across Salesforce. 

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2017: Steven Schoen

Steven Schoen, Siemens director of mobility services for the Americas, aspired to give business travelers a better experience. He led a global team that built policies to change how the tech company looked at travel and expense management. With the U.K., Germany, Brazil and U.S./Canada markets being in the first wave of Siemens' global rollout, he championed the diverse U.S./Canada markets in the program overhaul. He fostered an ownership culture, digitalization, simplification, and transparency to manage a best-in-class program. Steven retired in 2021. 

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2018: Karen Hutchings

In 2015 Karen Hutchings was honored by BTN for consolidating EY's global agencies and launching a new TMC partner structure. Then she was BTN's 2018 Travel Manager of the Year for her efforts to cut EY's annual hotel RFP season of six months to six weeks. Also, she and her team reviewed the firm's existing city caps and stretched them to 585 cities. They shared them with hotel partners and told them they had to ensure their rates didn’t go over the caps to win EY's business. Now, she is an independent consultant and active speaker in industry forums, like the BTN Next News Desk. 

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2019: Suzanne Boyan

Suzanne Boyan of ZS Associates applied direct supplier connections and innovative service providers to meet the needs of her program. She reinvented it from the ground up, seeking to improve the travel process for employees, while keeping data visibility and other essential controls. After a 2018 pilot, ZS phased in the new program in 2019. Suzanne continues to drive progress for ZS and the managed travel industry. She was a panelist for BTN's Hot Topics webinar on buyer challenges and opportunities for 2025. 

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2020: Bill Amaral

Bill Amaral oversaw travel for the State of California. He began new payment and employee reimbursement processes across 270 state agencies and solicited a travel booking channel mandate from the governor to propel compliance. In 2020 California needed emergency lodging for healthcare workers and the homeless impacted by Covid-19. Bill created what was first supposed to be a $40 million program backed by the Federal Emergency Management Administration. As pandemic response needs evolved, he developed the program to exceed $160 million in hotel spend. Bill retired in 2022.

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2021: Ann Dery

Ann Dery helmed S&P Global’s travel program through uncharted territories post-pandemic. Besides cultivating her internal leadership team, Ann worked with suppliers and navigated priorities to reimagine the program. Before the pandemic, she implemented PredictX as S&P’s single source of business travel intelligence. She also automated reports that analyzed various stakeholder groups within the company. In 2023, she moved to Johnson & Johnson as director, global category lead for travel and meetings. She is a frequent speaker for industry events.

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2022: Kim Hamer

Visa's Kim Hamer embarked on a booking tool bid that would bring her vision of human-centered business travel to life, ultimately choosing Serko. She also worked with CWT and United Airlines to pipe, display, book and offer service to an NDC channel at scale. She made Visa-specific, NDC-delivered bundles with United that accounted for price, value, experience, and individual traveler status. Keeping active in managed travel, she is now a contractor for Garner and partner for Results Plus Consulting. 

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2023: Danielle Cavnor and Eric Gray

In November 2022, PwC faced a new business travel ecosystem with a blockchain-powered TMC, a new-to-market corporate online booking tool and an aggressive direct-connect and direct-pay configuration. PwC in the U.S. aimed to turn corporate travel into a more digital, more intuitive process for its travelers. Two PwC leaders powered the success of this initiative: Danielle Cavnor, previously from meetings and events operations, and Eric Gray from procurement. Today, Danielle is vice president of sales for Blockskye, while Eric is global travel director for FTI.