Interview
BBT editor Paul Revel talks to ACTE’s new executive director, Greeley Koch
Greeley Koch
Greeley Koch was most recently director of strategy development at Acquis Consulting Group, and is a veteran business executive with more than 20 years of experience in the corporate travel industry. He has held positions in all of the sectors that make up the Association of Corporate Travel Executives’ (ACTE) membership and interests, including government procurement, corporate buyers and travel suppliers. Koch has held positions with the office of the governor of Illinois, Abbott Laboratories, Bank of America, TQ3 Navigant and TRX. Additionally, he has been a member of ACTE since 1998, and has served as chairman of the ACTE Global Centre for Research and Education, and president of its board of directors.
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ACTE’S NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR was, it seems, born to live and breathe travel. “I was a young kid, around ten or twelve years old, and – this shows how nerdy I was – I had subscriptions to those OAG Guides. That gives away how old I am,” says Greeley Koch. “When we were going on a trip I’d research these booklets – they listed all sorts of information, such as movies and meals – and I’d recommend flights and aircraft to my dad. We’d all go down the travel agency together to book our trip. “When we got to the airport, my sister and I would run around all the airline desks and collect their timetables, and I’d keep them in a little filing cabinet... Oh, you’re recording this – I should keep quiet,” he laughs. The travel bug was to last beyond childhood. After graduating, an interest in politics saw Koch working for the state governor of Illinois. After a few years a position arose on “something called the governor’s travel control board. I thought: ‘That sounds interesting.’” His new role saw him setting per diems and negotiating air fares and hotel rates for the 90,000 employees under the governor’s jurisdiction. “It’s where I learnt the art of the deal, working with legislators and different members of the party. We were on the Republican side, and worked with Democrats – unlike today, we had bipartisan ways of making things happen.” Koch then gained experience as a corporate buyer with companies including Bank of America. “I wanted global experience, and they were rolling out a global programme at the time.” He later went to the supplier side of the industry, including taking senior roles at the TQ3 Navigant travel management company (since acquired by Carlson Wagonlit Travel) and travel software firm TRX. His next move was to join consultancy Acquis. Meanwhile, he had joined ACTE in 1998, as a result of a golf outing – “Remember when people had time to play golf?” – and took various volunteer roles, including planning global conferences, and serving as president for over two years. Of his new position as executive director, Koch says: “When this opportunity came up I thought: now is the time. I know ACTE from the volunteer side, and I can use my buyer and supplier experience. At Acquis I honed my listening skills –we would go to clients and really understand
their landscape before we’d propose solutions – and I think that’s helpful for me in this role. That’s what I’ve been doing: travelling the world and talking to our stakeholders – members, sponsors and the ACTE team – asking where we should be focusing and what we could be doing better.” What are his plans for ACTE?
“We ask ourselves: ‘What is our core offering, what do we do really well?’ and then we focus on those core strengths,” says Koch. “It comes down to education, networking and advocacy. Those areas are where we get the strongest feedback from members.”
GLOBAL CONCERNS What are Koch’s buyer members currently most concerned about? “Today, inventory access and booking are becoming global issues,” he says. “And issues spread faster today than they did in the past. Our members are saying: ‘We know accessing inventory and making bookings is going to change; we need to get ready for that.’” He adds: “They’re also focused on the ever-changing workforce; younger folks are coming in and doing everything on their mobiles or iPads. Buyers are concerned about how to get compliance to policies and supplier agreements so they can continue their cost-saving programmes.” Koch says this issue is reflected in the education programmes for the New York and Barcelona conferences later this year. “We’re focusing on habits, and how you can achieve compliance by engaging with your employee base, rather than the old command and control style.” Should buyers be concerned that the debate around air distribution means there is a danger of losing transparent price comparison? “I think the jury is still out, though I know there’s a lot of noise on this. But what’s also important is duty of care. Yes, everybody wants the best price possible, but they also want to be sure of traveller tracking and security if people are booking via alternative channels.” He won’t be drawn on whether mooted global distribution system alternatives such as New Distribution Capability (NDC) are a good thing or not, but does say: “We want to make sure that when these new systems come up, people understand what’s involved for corporations to adopt them. There are so many things linked together that need to be addressed, such as if you change a booking process, how will it impact
MARCH/APRIL 2013
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