Northwest Airlines recently tapped managing director of reservations services Steven Sear to replace industry veteran Fay Beauchine as the carrier's next vice president of sales. A Northwest employee for 13 years, Sear is charged with overseeing Northwest and KLM sales efforts in North America, including corporate, agency, government and association airline programs.
Beauchine this month is retiring from Northwest after a 27-year career culminating in her role as leader of the sales and customer care teams. During her tenure, she helped develop Northwest's sales programs for small and midmarket companies, alliance programs and Internet-based channels for corporate and agency clients. She also actively participated in many of the carrier's other various corporate client, customer service, community outreach and distribution initiatives.
Beauchine said she is most proud of her efforts to integrate marketing functions into the salesforce, help Northwest cultivate deeper relationships in heartland communities, oversee development of such corporate programs as CorpNet and establish Northwest-KLM as a single unit, starting in the early 1990s.
"At first, customers were confused—getting on a red plane versus a blue plane—but that did not last long," she said. "The naysayers in the industry quickly went away when they flew it themselves."
Beauchine also highlighted Northwest's progress in rejuvenating its image. "We have done a lot things to get our customers to realize just how much this airline has changed over the past five or six years," she said, noting new airport facilities, aircraft and inflight products. "With all the talk of commoditization, we have done a good job establishing this brand."
Beauchine during her career also contributed to the travel industry as chair of the Greater Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Bureau and president of the Society of Incentive & Travel Executives. She also has been a long-time member of the Business Travel News editorial board and earlier this year was appointed to the Institute of Business Travel Management's Board of Trustees
(BTNonline, Jan. 18).BTN three times named Beauchine to its list of the 25 most influential executives in the travel industry. She was recognized in 1987 and 1988 for her work in Northwest's meetings and incentives area and as SITE's president, and again in 2000 for helping to restore Northwest's sales and customer service in the wake of a devastating pilots strike
(BTN, Jan. 10, 2000).Beauchine now will look to aid companies in need of fresh sales and customer service strategies. "There is almost an insatiable demand," she said, "and there are many things exportable from this industry to others. It is amazing to me how well best practices can be shared across industries."
Sear this month will take responsibility for North American sales, Northwest's sales support call centers and a team of 45 people. He joined the airline in 1992 and has held various positions in sales, alliances, distribution planning, technology development and network operations.
"He was my director of sales planning and analysis for three years, so he really understands the corporate and agency sides of the business from an economic point of view, and the needs of both of those audiences," Beauchine explained. "He spent five years in Japan and has an acute appreciation for the Asian arena, and he will easily flow into the whole SkyTeam group. He is a natural."