More than 250 delegates participated in the 2007 FFP events,
which
took place in Vancouver, Canada from 27 February - 1 March 2007, Co-
Hosted by American Express.
Delegates from more than 60 different
airlines from around the world participated in the 3rd annual FFP
Conference, 27 - 28 February, clearly strengthening its position as
the airline industry's premier loyalty marketing conference. For the
first time, delegates from hotels, rental cars, credit card companies
and banks joined their airline colleagues for the "FFP Partnership
Conference" on 1 March 2007 to discuss profitable loyalty
partnerships.
One highlight of the 2007 FFP events was the first
annual "FFP Innovation Awards" for which airline loyalty managers
recognized the best in their field. Qatar Airways took the FFP Gold
Award and Air Canada's AeroPlan took the FFP Silver. In addition to
unmatched networking with the travel loyalty marketing industry,
other highlights of FFP included keynote presentations from senior
executives from AeroPlan, Alaska Airlines, American Express, Delta
Air Lines, and Lufthansa.
FFP 2008 will take place in March 2008 in
Istanbul, Turkey, Co-Hosted by HITIT Computer Services.
Co-Chairman
Roger Williams, Managing Partner, Consulting, Airline Information
Roger has developed groundbreaking concepts for (loyalty) currency management and in 2004 co-founded the "FFP" brand of conferences and publications. Formerly Chairman of the 120-airline member ISMC organization and system manager for loyalty and alliances at Air Jamaica, Roger has solid senior management airline experience complemented by a 10-year progression of airline roles in: operations, customer service, sales, network planning, and marketing. Roger holds degrees in International Relations and Intelligence from Florida International University and the University of Salford in the United Kingdom.
Ravindra Bhagwanani, Managing Director, Global Flight
Ravindra has uniquely positioned Global Flight to assist airlines and their customers alike by offering both management-related services to airlines in the FFP/CRM field and unique Frequent Flyer services to travellers. He is one of the leading experts today in airline frequent flyer programs. His encyclopedic knowledge of airline loyalty is often consulted by the world's 'best practise' airline FFPs and the media. Ravindra is a co-founder of the "FFP" brand of conferences and serves as Editor-in-Chief for FFP Online co-produced with Airline Information and Airline Business.
Marc Trudeau, Vice President, Strategy & Business Development, Aeroplan
Marc Trudeau is the driving force behind Aeroplan’s continual innovation and evolution and leads the teams focused on strategic development and business solutions. Marc began his career at Air Canada in 1985 managing various marketing capacities, such as Product Management, Commercial and Corporate Strategy, Market Segmentation, Customer Database Management and Marketing Communications. Marc joined Aeroplan in 1994. Over the course of his tenure, Marc has been responsible for partner management and development, rewards programs, e-business solutions, brand development and he also lead the overall marketing team as well as the team responsible for the integration of Aeroplan with CPlus, the frequent flyer program of the former Canadian Airlines. Marc is an HEC graduate in Finance and holds an MBA in International Marketing from McGillUniversity. Marc speaks regularly to a wide variety of business audiences on the topics of loyalty management and marketing.
Gregg Saretsky, Executive VP of Marketing & Planning, Alaska Airlines
In additional for being responsible for the Alaska Airlines frequent flyer program Gregg oversees sales, pricing and yield management, fleet and schedule planning, airline partnerships, advertising and promotions, product development, inflight service, catering, customer relations, and reservations. In addition, he helped the airline’s alaskaair.com Web site skyrocket to its current status as one of the best in the industry. Hailing from Montreal, Saretsky spent 13 years with Canadian Airlines before joining Alaska in March 1998. While at Canadian, he served in similar capacities as vice president of passenger marketing, vice president of strategy implementation, vice president of airports, and director of Pacific and Latin America marketing. Saretsky holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees of business administration from the University of British Columbia. He also has a penchant for foreign languages and speaks Spanish, French and a little German.
As Vice President Customer Loyalty at Lufthansa German Airlines Ulrich Hauschild is Head of Miles & More, the leading frequent flyer program in Europe (with more than 12 million members worldwide). His responsibilities include program management, partner management, communication and customer service. Until October 2004 he held his previous position at Lufthansa as General Manager for direct marketing, business-to-business marketing, sport and event marketing and online marketing. Before that he worked in telecommunications as Key Account Manager and as Pricing Manager at Mannesmann o.tel.o (now Vodafone Group) and at Dresdner Bank (Allianz Group). Ulrich Hauschild studied Business Administrations at the University of Hamburg and the University of California at Berkeley, USA.
Jeff Robertson , Managing Director, SkyMiles, Delta Air Lines
Jeff leads a team of 40+ employees who are responsible for managing a 40 million member frequent flier program and over $1 billion in total program revenue. His responsibilities include all domestic and international frequent flier alliances, all non-transportation partnerships – including car, hotel and credit card partners, the elite program, elite benefits, award travel and all SkyMiles technology. Prior to this, Jeff was Director of the Customer Insight and Analytics team, where he was responsible for corporate CRM objectives, Marketing Research and Customer Analytics. Prior to joining Delta Air Lines, Jeff was a Management Consultant with McKinsey & Company. Throughout most of the 1990’s, Jeff worked with American Airlines where he led the planning, design and implementation of American’s fleet refurbishment effort, one of the largest capital efforts in the company’s history. Jeff holds an MBA with a concentration in Marketing from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, and a BS in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame. He is also a Certified Public Accountant and worked for with Price Waterhouse Coopers between undergraduate and graduate school.
Thorsten Scherzer, Head of Distribution, Air Berlin
Thorsten started his career in the Airline Business with a 3-year training program at Lufthansa in 1992. Before joining Air Berlin in August 2000 as assistant to the Managing Partner, he studied business administration at the Free University of Berlin and subsequently worked as a business consultant for transportation companies with PricewaterhouseCoopers. In January 2002 he took over responsibility as Head of Distribution & Loyalty and introduced Air Berlin's Frequent Flyer Program in November of that same year.
Volker Scheible, General Manager Customer Loyalty and Actions, Lufthansa
Volker studied marketing and communication sciences in Stuttgart and Berlin with diplomas as industrial engineer and in communication science. After various activities in advertising agencies he joined Lufthansa as a management trainee. He worked in different areas in sales and marketing, amongst others in brand management for the Lufthansa Group, in global marketing management of Lufthansa Passage Airline and as prov. head of advertising and brand management. As general manager marketing and product management Volker Scheible was jointly responsible for the start up of Germanwings, the low cost subsidiary of Lufthansa, placed in Cologne. Since 2005 he is back at Lufthansa and is responsible for marketing and loyalty activies within Miles & More.
Peter Baumgartner, Vice President, Marketing, Etihad Airways
Peter is Head of Marketing at Etihad Airways, the Abu Dhabi-based National Airline of the United Arab Emirates. As well as being overall in charge of the young airline’s marketing communication, e-commerce, guest service, and call centre initiatives, Baumgartner is also the guiding force behind Etihad’s pioneering customer relationship management and loyalty proposition, which seeks to redefine traditional frequent flier programmes by placing a strong emphasis on intuitively understanding and fulfilling Guest expectations. Having held senior management positions for Swissair, Sabena and Swiss International Air Lines, Baumgartner brings with him a wealth of experience in various aspects of the aviation business and a range of perspectives on the CRM domain.
Michael J. Bell,Global Aviation Practice, Spencer Stuart
Michael is the leader of Spencer Stuart's Global Aviation Specialty Practice and a consultant in the firm's Miami office. In this capacity, Michael and his colleagues provide top-level executive search consulting services to a broad range of clients in the aviation sector, spanning the airline, aerospace and airport sectors. In addition to his primary focus on the aviation industry, Michael also serves the executive recruitment needs of clients in related sectors such as tourism, hospitality and transportation. Michael has spoken at conferences across North, South and Central America, Europe and Africa. Michael has also authored several industry studies on leadership, including 'Crafting the Airline Leadership Team for the 21st Century,' 'The New Breed: Profiling the Next Generation of Airline Leaders in Latin America' and 'Crafting the Airport Leadership Team for the 21st Century.' Prior to joining Spencer Stuart, Michael spent six years with McKinsey & Company, the leading worldwide management consulting firm, most recently as a senior engagement manager. Michael Bell is a Canadian citizen of Lebanese origin, residing in the U.S. He holds an M.B.A. and bachelor of industrial engineering from the University of Toronto and speaks English, French and Arabic.
Debra Benton, Fmr. Director of Loyalty Marketing, Southwest Airlines
Debra Benton is the Director of Loyalty Marketing for Southwest Airlines and has worked there for 10 years. Her responsibilities include communication and programs to increase loyalty for Southwest among Customers. As such, she oversees the award-winning frequent flyer program, Rapid Rewards, and the Partner relationships affiliated with the program. Debra is also an Alumnus of the Culture Committee, an internal group dedicated to ensuring the development and maintenance of the famous Southwest Culture.
Panelist
Mary Ryding, Director, Human Resources, Alaska Airlines
Iain Webster is a highly experienced loyalty marketing manager, with a 25 year background in the global travel industry and online transactional technologies. Most recently, Iain has joined Qatar Airways as Senior Manager, Loyalty, with a remit to reposition the Privilege Club as a world class FFP, befitting the world’s fastest growing airline. For 2 years prior to that, Iain was with Points.com, as VP for Europe/Middle East/Africa, spearheading the company’s expansion in the region. During his tenure he counted Lufthansa, SAS and British Airways among the clients with whom he developed loyalty solutions. Back in 1991 he was responsible for the development and launch of Europe’s first airline frequent flyer programme, using 'Air Miles ' rewards for the British Airways Executive Club. Iain also led the cross-airline FFP working group that created the oneworld Alliance customer loyalty proposition. Iain has also undertaken brief stints of consultancy for various airlines, including Qantas, Virgin Atlantic and Cathay Pacific, as well as contributing to projects for several international hotel groups. He has also previously worked for British Telecom as Head of Transactional Services for Prestel Travel, and on secondment to Galileo in the early days of the GDS start-up.
