The Institute of Travel & Meetings United Kingdom &
Ireland named Omnicom Group director of corporate travel services Nicola Lomas
as its chair-elect on Friday. She takes up the position with immediate effect
and will succeed BBC head of sourcing and logistics Jamie Hindhaugh as chairman
for a two-year tenure in January 2012.
Lomas is a British citizen but spent 18 years in the United
States working for American Airlines, American Express and Travel Focus before
moving back across the Atlantic in 2008 to take up her first buying role. While
in the United States, she was a member of the Dallas and Austin chapters of the
National Business Travel Association. ITM is now the managing partner for NBTA
Europe.
Lomas said one of the targets of her chairmanship would be
to help communicate the value of managed travel to internal stakeholders in
buyer members' organizations.
"In my role, I'm not a travel manager; I am responsible
for sourcing suppliers and managing relationships with them in a non-mandated
environment," she told BTN. "My
job is all about providing value. Price is important, but there is too much
focus on it rather than the total value proposition."