The Global Business Travel Association has acquired WINiT.
The deal closed last week, and as of Monday, the nonprofit's two full-time and
one part-time employee are GBTA staffers.
WINiT founder Mick Lee told BTN that GBTA has bought the WINiT
brand and that the nonprofit itself is dissipating. Lee will serve on the advisory
board for the GBTA incarnation of WINiT. Best Western Hotels & Resorts
chief marketing officer and SVP Dorothy Dowling, will lead. Dowling also received
the GBTA Allied Member of the Year honors at GBTA on Monday.
Lee started WINiT in January 2014 and launched it at the
GBTA conference in July that year. Four years later, at the same event, GBTA
president Christle Johnson announced the acquisition. Lee said she wasn't
looking to sell, but rather GBTA approached her.
She said she started the organization because it was "the
right thing to do" and has spent the past five years developing the
message and programming to support women's career development in the travel
industry. She knows the organization has done good, but her hope is that in the
coming years, the brand will develop the ability to quantify that ROI for
donors and members. GBTA also provides the reach for immediate explosive
growth, Lee said, not only local through its U.S. chapters but also via its
global reach.