ACTE Taps Law School Dean As Executive Director

After a four-month search, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives tapped Susan Gurley, former assistant dean of international and graduate programs at Georgetown University Law Center, to be its new executive director. Gurley, who formally stepped into the role April 25, was chosen from among 100 applicants by a committee of former ACTE presidents and introduced to the corporate travel community at the ACTE annual conference in Vancouver, B.C., earlier this month, during her first week on the job.

"I'm looking forward to building on what ACTE already does," she said. "The depth of educational offerings is a core value of what ACTE does, and I'm going to try to be innovative. People aren't going to pay money for membership if the organization isn't superb."

Admittedly in the early learning stages of the position, Gurley anticipates focusing on ACTE's educational program, and may look to develop a negotiation skills workshop, such peer-to-peer educational offerings as case studies in travel management, and enhanced research opportunities.

Gurley, a lawyer who speaks German, French and Hungarian, has extensive experience in U.S. governmental affairs and served as senior manager at the East-West Management Institute, a not-for-profit organization that focuses on legal reform in developing countries.

Though Gurley lacks industry experience, the selection committee of former ACTE presidents felt confident in her potential to grow the organization.

"We wanted somebody with strong business, educational and international skills," said former ACTE president and senior vice president of Partnership Travel Consulting Earl Foster, who chaired the selection committee. "She had some great ideas on the organization itself, on some of the other industry and international organizations and how we could team up and do some good. She was really forward-thinking. She wasn't going to come in and change things for the sake of change, she wanted to be strategic and that really impressed me."

Gurley succeeds Nancy Holtzman, who held the position from 1997 to 2004.