Advisory Board

Business Travel Market has recruited an Advisory Board comprising leading travel industry figures from both the supplier and buyer communities. This group will help shape the event to ensure it is a relevant, dynamic and worthwhile forum for all to learn, meet, do business and network.

Emma Harris, Eurostar

Emma joined Eurostar’s business sales team in 2001 from the brewing industry, and was appointed Head of Business Sales in 2002. In 2003, she was made UK Sales Director and since 2005 she has been responsible for sales internationally. In the lead up to Eurostar’s move to St Pancras International, she also led the Change Management programme that ensured staff across all markets were informed and motivated about the move. More recently she has been made Sales & Marketing Director, taking responsibility for development of the brand and product and the UK Marketing function. She is a keen Spurs fan and is always last at the bar!

Julia Heesterman, Microsoft

Julia’s current role as EMEA travel manager for Microsoft covers almost 60 markets, as part of a global team, she and her team are directly responsible for both the strategic direction and day to day operations for over 20 markets whilst supporting all other markets from a procurement and process perspective. Having previously worked for Deutsche Bank as Regional Head of Travel Related Services, Julia has been a travel manager for the past 4 years however her industry experience spans the past 20 years and includes Account Management, Airline Sales and Travel agency operations both in the UK, Central/Eastern Europe and Asia. Julia recently joined ITM as a board member and joins the Business Travel Market Advisory board to represent the corporate buyer community.

Paul Johannes, Qatar Airways

Paul Johannes is the Vice President Commercial Europe for the award winning five star airline Qatar Airways. With a wealth of aviation experience and over 20 years in the industry, Paul first joined the carrier as Senior Manager Revenue Management in 2004, before re-locating to Hong Kong where he acted as Regional Manager for North East Asia. In 2009 Paul was promoted to Vice President Commercial Europe based in Qatar Airways’ London office. Paul currently oversees commercial operations in Qatar Airways’ 20 European offices, and has this year supervised the launch of new routes to Copenhagen, Denmark; Ankara, Turkey and Barcelona, Spain and is due to introduce connections to Nice, France; Bucharest, Romania; Budapest, Hungary and Brussels, Belgium. Qatar Airways is one of the fastest growing airlines in the world now flying to over 90 destinations across Europe and North America, the Middle East, Africa, Indian Subcontinent and the Far East.

Toby Joseph, Jumeirah International

Prior to joining Jumeirah, Toby was co-founder and partner of TJ Associates, a consultancy specialising in business restructuring and Sales & Marketing projects in the service industry. His clients included airlines, hotel companies, travel agencies and other service-related B2B companies. Toby previously worked for Eos Airlines as Executive Vice President, served as Chief Operating Officer at TQ3 Travel Solutions, a subsidiary of TUI AG, and headed Sales at Carlson Wagonlit Travel for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Herman Mensink, Prism Group Inc

Herman Mensink is an industry veteran, and is Vice President EMEA for The Prism Group Inc., a global, technology company specialising in contract management systems and consultancy for the business travel industry. Until February 2003 Herman was Director, EMEA for the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE). Preceding these positions he was Director of Worldwide Corporate Travel for Philips Electronics as well as Managing Director of the company’s own IATA travel agency for two decades. Additional to his role at PRISM Group Inc., Herman is President of Corporate Travel Association CORTAS, a joint platform initiative of the top 20 large multinational corporations in the Netherlands. In 2004 Herman was appointed professor in business travel management and airline economics at the NHTV Breda University in The Netherlands. Prior to that in 1997 he was awarded the ACTE Industry Professionalism Award for significant contributions made to the Travel Industry. In 1998 Business Travel News named him as one of the business travel industry’s top 20 most influential executives in the world. Herman serves on various advisory councils and task forces on transportation for the European Commission in Brussels.

Arja Niilekselä-Tiainen, Cargotec Corporation

Arja Niilekselä-Tiainen has during her professional career created and managed global business travel & meetings programs in a number of multinational corporations since 1995 currently holding responsibility for  Travel & Meetings category in approx. 40 countries throughout EMEA, Asia Pacific and Americas. Arja has been an active member in FBTA (Finnish Business Travel Association) since mid 90’s: contributed in several FBTA committees, acted as a Board Member and Vice Chairman. In 2001 she was elected as Chairwoman of the Association and in 2004 invited as Honorary Member. Arja joined  ACTE in -98 and is a regular attendee to ACTE Global Conferences. She has functioned as co-chair and moderator for  ACTE Helsinki Executive Forums and was appointed as ACTE´s first Nordic Country Champion in 2008. Arja truly enjoys connecting with people and facing new challenges fires her with passion!

Tony Pilcher, Pilcher Associates

Following his retirement from HSBC in June 2007 as Head of Business Travel and Expense Management, Tony established Pilcher Associates, which provides independent consultancy to the Corporate Market across all aspects of Business Travel Management. In January 2007 Tony received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the prestigious Business Travel World Awards ceremony in London and the following month was named as one of the top 25 most influential Business Travel Executives in the USA by Business Travel News (BTN) for his work in raising the profile of the impact of business travel on the environment. Both Judging Panels made particular mention of the hours Tony had spent sharing his knowledge with both travel managers and travel suppliers at formal conferences and in one-to-one briefing sessions, thereby demonstrating his influence and leadership across all aspects of Business Travel Management. Tony was chair of The Institute of Travel Management’s ICARUS Project’s Advisory Group from its inception in 2006 until he stood down in April 2009. Project ICARUS was established to promote carbon efficiency and reduction in travel management programmes throughout the UK business travel industry as well as providing guidance on wider sustainability and duty of care issues.

Jo Stevenson, Accor

Jo began her career in meetings and events with Banks Sadler 18 years ago and worked in a variety of roles, moving into the hotel sector in 1994 specialising in corporate, mice and tmc sales. Having worked with forte, and Intercontinental hotels group, Jo joined Accor Hospitality back in 2004 to head up the strategy for UK and Ireland global corporate sales and to set up a business development team for the luxury brand Sofitel. Jo is responsible for the relationships that Accor Hospitality has with its Corporate clients, partner travel management companies and delivering profitability to the brands. Accor Hospitality, head quartered in Paris, operates over 4,500 hotels world wide brands including: Sofitel - luxury hotels, Pullman hotels, M Gallery, Mercure, Novotel, Ibis, All Seasons, Etap.  

Tom Stone, Sirius Management

Tom began his career as a business travel agent predominantly looking after the requirements of the music industry. He moved into his first travel management position with CBS Records, (later Sony Music) and this was followed with global procurement roles at SmithKline Beecham, Seagram’s and Universal Music. He left to establish his company, Sirius Management in 2003; providing both outsourced travel management and project based travel procurement consultancy to a wide range of organisations. Tom has served two terms on the Association of Corporate Travel Executives Board of Governors and was Chairman of the Institute of Travel Management 2003-5. He continues to support the industry through various working parties and as a speaker/moderator.

Richard Tams, British Airways

Richard began his career with BA as a graduate trainee 18 years ago and since then has worked in a variety of roles in a number of markets across the world. These roles include Airport Manager Seoul, Cargo SVP for Western USA and Canada based in Los Angeles and Area Sales Manager for the Nordic Area and the Netherlands based in Stockholm. He returned to BA’s Head Office in 1999 as Commercial Manager Europe and then went on to fulfil a similar role in the U.K market. In 2000 Richard returned to the mainstream of UK Sales in the role of Senior Manager Multiples responsible for the airline’s key travel management company relationships. Following this, he was appointed Head of Corporate Sales in 2004 before taking on the role of General Manager UK & Global Corporate Sales in April 2006. Richard was promoted to head of Sales UK & Ireland in January 2009. Richard is on the board of British American Business Inc (BABi) and on the board of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives Global Centre. He is 40 and lives in London.

Lee Whiteing, HSBC Bank

Lee Whiteing is the UK Travel and Fleet Manager for HSBC Bank plc, with responsibility for the business travel and expenses policy for the bank's 50,000 UK based employees. He manages the relationships with the bank's main travel suppliers. Managing compliance to policy in a dynamic market where value for money and getting more for less is a constant requirement takes up a substantial part of Lee's working day.Lee is also responsible for the Bank's company car fleet of 4,500 vehicles and similarly manages the suppliers and liaises with internal customers on policy and cost. Lee has worked at HSBC since 1993 and been in his current role since December 2005, having previously worked in the fleet leasing business.

Advisory Board remit