The Association of Corporate Travel
Executives has conferred the award of “Distinguished Fellow” on
eight educational presenters.The awards were recognition of the colleagues who presented the
most effective educational session at the organization’s Global
Education Conference in Atlanta, last month.

According to attendee-submitted evaluations, the sessions titled,
“Pandemic Preparedness Practices,” and “Optimizing Hotel Spend in a
Seller’s Market” received the highest marks for content, timing and
presentation. The session dealing with contagion was cited as one the
most critical topics of the conference, according to ACTE Executive
Director Susan Gurley, while the presentation focusing on hotel spend
was considered to be one of the industry’s most hotly debated topics.

“Each of these presenters took an innovative approach to a difficult
topic, combined it with extraordinary business sense, and worked as a
team in developing a compelling presentation,” said Gurley. “While the
ACTE Atlanta conference had its share of highly ranked sessions, these
were judged to be especially significant for content and presentation.”

ACTE’s most recent conferees of the Distinguished Fellow honor are:

. Pandemic Preparedness Practices
“Strategies that proactively addressed health threats to travelers”
Mark Kaelin, Director of Technology, International SOS
Peggy Luebbert, Infection and Epidemiology Consultant, Center of
Biopreparedness
Richard Martin, Managing Director, International Market Assessment Asia
Mark Williams, Managing Consultant, IBM Consulting

. Optimizing Hotel Spend in a Seller’s Market
“Preparing buyers and sellers for the next round of hotel procurement”
John Asselta, Senior Vice President, Partnership Travel Consulting
Maria Chevalier, Vice President, Hotel Relations & TPS Hotels, BCD
Travel
Brian Nichols, Hotel & Ground Transportation Programs Manager, Strategic
Procurement Services, Deloitte Services LLP
Steve Richard, Vice President, Global Sales Organization, Alliance
Accounts and Latin America, Marriott International
——-