Radius Exec. VP To Consolidate Int'l Sales, Ops

Radius last month created the new position of executive vice president of shareholder operations, to which it named Vicky Fernández de Larrea.

The new role gives Fernández responsibility for multinational corporate sales and account management teams as well as shareholder operations for the Washington, D.C.-headquartered international travel management network of 90 shareholder travel management companies.

Her focus is "to ramp up the success Radius has had in the last few years," she said. "We're looking at international corporate customers looking to consolidate their travel programs."

In the past year or so, Radius has become a more viable player in the competition for multinational business, signing contracts with several such accounts. Having seen some success, Radius is looking to take it to the next level. "It's not a question of changing the way we've done things, it's a question of reinforcing and enhancing what we've done and expanding it."

Fernández, who reports directly to president and CEO Tony Hughes, said Radius is taking this centrally coordinated approach to enhance communications, "strengthen standardization and delivery of service, and develop travel management programs through account management."

"The advantage of putting operations and business development under the same umbrella provides our corporate clients with a guarantee of control in terms of service through service-level agreements and the commitments that we are making from the multinational corporate sales perspective," Fernández said. "Historically, there has been some confusion in the market around the strength of the Radius network. We are not a consortium; our agencies are our shareholders. We really have control over the network. Having the same leadership for both the multinational corporate clients and operations, I believe, sends the right message that we can guarantee that whatever we are committing to deliver to you is going to be delivered."

Fernández previously worked for Carlson Wagonlit Travel, where for about four years she was responsible for a group of large multinational accounts based in Europe, as well as European pieces of accounts based elsewhere. She began her career in travel more than seven years ago, focusing on business process reengineering at CWT internally and for clients.

She now has four people reporting to her operationally, one in each of the North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia/Pacific regions and one reporting to her regarding business development, who presides over a similar regional team. "I am looking to reinforce the team further, but it is early days to highlight where," Fernández said. "We are definitely going to be enhancing the account management area and assuring that we can manage the programs of our corporate clients and proactively recommend better ways for them to move forward."