American Express Global Business Travel vice president
for global consulting Caroline Strachan has resigned after only 18 months to team
up with her former GBTA Europe and Institute of Travel & Meetings colleague
Paul Tilstone. Strachan will become an equal partner in Tilstone’s business
travel marketing and communications consultancy Festive Road from January 2016.
Strachan will head the demand side of the business by
developing communication strategies for travel managers. Tilstone, who launched
Festive Road after quitting a senior role with the Global Business Travel
Association at the end of 2014, will focus on the supply side, helping
suppliers to engage with travel buyers. Clients to date have included Marriott,
NH Hotel Group, Barclaycard, UBS and, most notably, the International Air
Transport Association, for which he has acted as an “envoy” to the buying
community.
Strachan’s career embraces both supplier and buyer roles.
BTN named her its multinational
travel manager of the year in 2013 while she was global commercial leader for
travel at AstraZeneca. She and Tilstone overlapped in industry associations from
2007 to 2012, first as chairwoman and chief executive respectively of the
United Kingdom’s ITM and then as founders of GBTA Europe.
Strachan was unavailable for comment but, asked why
she was leaving Amex so soon, Tilstone said: “She saw Festive Road as an
opportunity to focus fully on the issue she most cares about, which is
improving communication throughout the supply chain, plus she also wanted to
run her own business.”
Festive Road also said it intends to announce several
specialist associate appointments early in 2016. “They will be useful skill
sets such as communications with particular generational or geographical
segments,” said Tilstone. “There might also be different types of communication
skills, such as social media or marketing.”