BTN Names Cisco Systems' Lichtenstein Travel Manager Of The Year

Business Travel News last night named Susan Lichtenstein, Cisco Systems director of travel, meetings and events, its 2009 Travel Manager of the Year.

BTN editor-in-chief David Meyer, in presenting the award, said Lichtenstein "in only two years' time has significantly transformed the company's travel program by making innovative moves in contracting and structuring air, hotel, meetings and agency services" and "combined both industry knowledge and innovative thinking to come up with news ways to improve on the way industry processes are structured."

Among those innovations was striking multiyear hotel agreements that include a hybrid dynamic pricing component with six multibrand chains to vastly simplify the hotel negotiating process. Both hotels and travel buyers now are seeking to emulate that strategy.

Additionally, Lichtenstein and her team were able to get airlines to work outside of the traditional alliance boundaries and move to point-of-origin rather than point-of-sale ticketing. This also helped with another accomplishment: consolidating the travel program to three call centers worldwide.

Lichtenstein and her team also continued to innovate online booking and social networking technology for travelers, an accomplishment that earned her BTN Best Practitioner honors last year.