August 31, 2009 • San Diego - The National Business Travel Association at its convention here last week announced the appointment of Mike McCormick as executive director and COO for a three-year term. McCormick joined NBTA from Hudson Crossing, a consulting firm he co-founded after serving as an executive vice president at Cendant, COO at PhoCusWright and president of Biztravel.com, a Rosenbluth International company. Previously, McCormick was Rosenbluth's vice president of global supplier relations. New NBTA president and CEO
Craig Banikowski called McCormick "the right guy for the job." McCormick replaces
Bill Connors, who announced his resignation this spring after six years in the position. In his first press statement, McCormick said, "I believe in business travel and corporate meetings as proven successful tools for advancement, and I plan to help NBTA make a case for travel in the political arena in every capital around the world."
Management.travel spoke with McCormick after his introduction to industry media.
When you were introduced, you talked about the "mandate the board issued" and "the path forward for NBTA," which includes "more aggressively" globalizing the NBTA brand, expanding services and growing membership. In what way is that different from what NBTA has been doing?
As the new executive director coming in, I don't know so much what's been done. I just know the point at which the association is today. NBTA has a strong brand, terrific history and strong balance sheet, but when I look at its membership, it is overwhelmingly North American. There have been good efforts to plant the flag elsewhere, but not compared with the number of corporations who in some way or form have involvement in other markets--no matter where they're based. It's a very different marketplace today than it was even a few years ago, and in that respect NBTA needs to continue to evolve and grow. Part of that is developing the infrastructure and more resources on the ground regionally and locally. You can't manage a global organization from one place.
There has been some disagreement in the past over how NBTA expands--particularly, whether with other association partners or on its own. Do you expect NBTA to open its own chapters in countries where a business travel association already exists?
I don't think there's one answer; you do what's most effective. But in terms of it being one approach, that kind of simplicity doesn't exist. What we will see, and part of my mandate, is to put together a comprehensive, long-range plan and get the support of the board and the membership to go do it.
That's part of the process of breaking in. Fortunately, I did get to meet many of the members and partners, and one of the meetings I did attend was the Paragon meeting. I got to hear about some issues, but it's too early for me to comment specifically. We have some great partners who I think will be a key part of everything going forward.
What do you think the organization should do when there's an issue up for debate in Washington that impacts the industry, but on which buyers and suppliers disagree?
One of the things I will be doing is to take an active interest in developing and continuing to expand our agenda in the political arena. It means that at times we will not always please all the membership. That's impossible. But if you look to the association, we have so much more we can be doing to take our message out, about what we think is important for building the case for travel and the return on investment. We have an expanded agenda.
Why did you decide to pursue this position?
It fits on a personal level. It just really attracted me. I have known the organization for a long time, back to my Rosenbluth days; it's a great organization. And for me career-wise, it just made sense. I founded Hudson Crossing and I loved that too, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I couldn't turn away.
