The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) has appointed Suzanne Neufang as its next Executive Director, leading the combined GBTA and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE).
Neufang will take over on 24FEB from Dave Hilfman, who since July 2020 has served as the Association’s interim executive director.
“Suzanne is unquestionably the visionary to lead business travel to a complete recovery in the years ahead,” said Bhart Sarin, President of GBTA. “It will be a distinct privilege to support her as we complete our integration of GBTA and ACTE and build on the momentum of the Ready. Safe. Travel. campaign toward our annual convention in July.”
Neufang’s career has included senior leadership roles with several travel and technology companies. Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President-Americas for HRS Global Hotel Solutions and before that, Neufang worked for 10 years as an executive leader with Sabre Travel Network, GetThere and Travelocity. An active member of GBTA since 2005, Neufang led ACTE as Board President from 2012 to 2014 and as a Board Member from 2014 to 2018. She served as ACTE’s interim Executive Director during summer 2012.
“It’s not a secret that business travel is at an historic low point as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but in crises we find opportunities to be bold and to excel,” said Neufang. “Business travel has been down before and we have recovered – always coming back more technologically savvy, data-focused, and globally connected. The key questions for me are when we as an industry will recover, and how we as GBTA can drive economic and industry recovery to be even faster.”
