October 23, 2009 - The National Business Travel Association restructured staffing, including some layoffs. The group declined to confirm how many executive office employees were let go, or who they were. According to a prepared statement, the "realignment of the organizational structure is designed to maximize our effectiveness and efficiencies in implementing NBTA's winning strategy. To that end, several new positions are being created and current employees promoted to provide leadership for key facets of our business."
NBTA named Shane Downey director of public policy; Zane Kerby senior vice president for events, sponsorship and advertising; Heather Townsend Poff director of the government travel group; and Hank Roeder vice president of chapter relations.
Asked by email which positions were eliminated, a spokeswoman wrote, "NBTA does not discuss former employees." As part of a recent update, NBTA removed from its Web site contacts page the Membership department with its three personnel, the business travel and research analyst, a member of the global operations team and a marketing and communications staffer.
"NBTA is currently in the early stages of implementing our long-range plans to make NBTA even more successful in 2010 and beyond," according to a statement by
executive director Mike McCormick. "To help us move forward, we're changing our organizational structure, improving our operations, and making specific staffing adjustments. As we launch new growth plans for membership and global expansion, we will be making additional announcements about exciting changes in these areas. And as always, we will continue to work closely with the NBTA Foundation to maximize research and educational initiatives."
"In the few months I've been on board, I've been working closely with NBTA staff and the new board of directors to determine the association's direction and set long range goals for growth, enrichment and globalization," according to the statement attributed to McCormick. "To reach these goals, NBTA has taken the first steps forward, which included a staffing realignment. The new organization is now structured to not only continue to advance our leadership position here in the U.S., but to also grow and more diligently focus on international business travel communities. We will invest additional resources into local chapter relations, government travel and strategic meetings management, as well as increase our efforts to affect positive change in business travel policy in political arenas around the world."
