The National Business Travel Association tomorrow will name Michael McCormick as its new executive director and COO,
BTN has learned.
Meanwhile, NBTA today in a dispatch to members said it has yet to enter merger discussions with the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, claiming the ACTE board "has refused to enter the financial due diligence process."
The brief e-mail, signed by NBTA president Kevin Maguire and incoming president Craig Banikowski, follows several starts and stops in the associations' attempts to combine. After a handful of board members from each association earlier this summer failed to reach an agreement that would get sufficient votes from the ACTE board
(BTNonline, June 22), ACTE this month countered with a proposal that it said could gain the support of its board and international members
(BTNonline, Aug. 17).
NBTA sent the e-mail as it prepared to introduce McCormick, who founded and was managing partner of travel industry advisory business consulting company Hudson Crossing for the last four years. He replaces former NBTA executive director Bill Connors, who left the association this spring.
NBTA Allied Leadership Council president and Dav El Chauffeured Transportation president and CEO Scott Solombrino, who headed the search committee, said McCormick was selected from a 25-person candidate pool of association executives, business travel industry professionals and others.
McCormick will start in his new role with a three-year contract after Labor Day, when he said he will begin building a three-year strategic plan that will focus on globalizing the association, expanding its product and service portfolio and growing membership.
McCormick told
BTN that plans to run the organization as a corporation, a philosophy advanced by outgoing president Kevin Maguire. "I bring a different perspective because I am going to look at this more from a corporate point of view, like we're running a business," McCormick said. "This isn't a turnaround effort. This is building on a leadership position."
McCormick's hiring was unanimously approved by the NBTA search committee of Solombrino, Carino Collection's Joe Carino, new NBTA president and Hilton Hotels travel buyer Craig Banikowski and board members and travel buyers Dianne Bradley of Tokyo Electron, Gary Polito of Bose and Shelly Lewchuk of Canadian National Resources.
McCormick previously served as executive vice president of Cendant's Hospitality & Leisure Group, which now operates as Travelport. While at Cendant, he served as president of brands including Lodging.com, Thor and WizCom. Prior to Cendant, McCormick was COO of PhoCusWright, president of Biztravel.com and vice president of global supplier relations for travel management company Rosenbluth International, where he worked for 11 years.