Suzanne Fletcher will preside over her last International Convention & Exposition as National Business Travel Association president and CEO as her two-year term ends this week. Reflecting on her tenure, Fletcher said her most rewarding accomplishments since she took office in August 2005 were increasing the association's global presence and adding elected allied member board seats, bridging the gap in buyer/supplier relationships, as well as overseeing a more than 28 percent increase in membership.
During Fletcher's tenure, the association bolstered its global expansion by integrating with business travel associations in Canada and Australia to form NBTA Canada and NBTA-Asia Pacific. Beginning with this week's announcement of the addition of NBTA-Mexico to its portfolio, the association will take a "concentrated expansion" approach in Europe and Latin America, Fletcher said. "Most of our members now really have international involvement in their programs. To retain and remain inside our own borders was limiting our own members, but it's also not a realistic approach, " she said. "The world is getting smaller. We needed to expand globally."
Fletcher said the association also has to foster growth among its local chapters and leverage those relationships in campaigning for the interests of its members both nationally and locally on such issues as car rental taxes. "No other association has the type of foundation, the setup of a chapter program like NBTA, and that's not just in the travel industry. That's across the board," she said. "Over the last few years, we have seen a tremendous improvement in the working relationship between the chapters and NBTA. They work much more closely together. They work unilaterally now on issues. We aren't just the big office sitting in Washington, D.C. The current staff and the current structure we have really reached out to the chapters and to the grassroots. We've really utilized the grassroots structure in some of these tax issues and battles we've been having at the state and federal level."
Fostering supplier and buyer relationships has been at the forefront of the association's agenda. Fletcher said adding two board of director seats for allied members was important. Direct members voted overwhelmingly to add the leadership positions to the appointed representatives, which are the president and vice president of the Allied Leadership Council. The first election, with eight candidates, is being held this week and the winner will be announced on Wednesday. The second position will be elected at next year's convention. "The allieds have shown tremendous interest by the fact that we have so many people running for that one position. It confirmed what we always thought, that there is this need, and this 86 percent in favor certainly solidified that for us."
However, Fletcher said the association continues to be buyer-oriented and will remain a buyer-led organization, noting that nine of the board's 13 members are buyers, but the change in leadership is critical in building relationships. "I'm hoping that it will weave into the industry that we are in a big partnership. That we not only want to, but have to work together," she said. "The one thing that I will perhaps take back is the affirmation that the allieds and directs are in this together."
Fletcher attributed the 28 percent membership growth over the past two years to broader education programs, including the new graduate-level Wharton Global Leadership Professional Designation Program.
In August, Fletcher will move onto the board of directors as chairman/past president where she will serve for the next two years. She also will transition back into a full-time role for Federal Way, Wash.-based Weyerhaeuser Corp. as director of travel, meetings, food service, fleet and transportation. "It will be nice to get back into my day job and be home a little bit more, but I don't want to make it sound like sour grapes, because the last two years have been the two most incredible years of my life," she said.
Running to replace Fletcher are buyers Don Draves, Miller Brewing Co. corporate services manager, and director of travel for The Expedition Development Co. Kevin Maguire
(BTN, July 9).