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 Company: Travelocity, Southlake, Texas
Company Division/Group: Vollmer Public Relations
Company Description: Travelocity® is committed to being the traveler's champion and provides the most comprehensive, pro-active guarantee in the industry. This customer-driven focus has made Travelocity the sixth largest travel agency in the world. Travelocity also owns and operates Travelocity Business®, lastminute.com, and ZUJI. Travelocity is owned by Sabre Holdings Corporation, a world leader in travel commerce.
Nomination Category: Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Executive – Service Businesses – More Than 2,500 Employees
Nomination Title: Michelle Peluso, President and CEO, Travelocity
Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated executive
during the eligibility period (up to 500 words):
Oversaw and managed Travelocity’s continued growth in gross travel,
revenue and operating
o 2005 – Gross travel booked, $7.4B; revenue $830M; op income $27M
(adjusted)
o 2006 – Gross travel booked, $10.1B; revenue $1.1B; op income $73M
(adjusted)
Over the last 2 years, Michelle has led Travelocity’s emergence as a
global travel brand, beginning in Europe with the acquisition and integration of
lastminute.com in Europe in May 2005, followed by the buyout of ZUJI in Asia-
Pacific in 2006. In 2007, Michelle has led the introduction of the Travelocity
brand in India and Mexico.
Almost overnight, Travelocity went from a company of 2,000 employees
primarily in North America to a team of 5,000 worldwide. Michelle now manages a
nearly 24/7 global workforce.
In between frequent trips to London, Singapore and Sydney to get to
know her new teams, Michelle made sure the North America business stayed on
track as Travelocity launched ambitious customer-centric programs aimed at
differentiating itself in a white hot competitive space.
These initiatives, under an umbrella the company refers to
as “customer championship,” include the Travelocity Guarantee, the Customer Bill
of Rights, the VIP loyalty program, and a new dreaming and planning travel tool
still in BETA known as Experience Finder.
Michelle helped Travelocity become the first online travel company to
address global warming through its GoZero program in August 2006, an initiative
that has now been emulated by all other online sites. As a result of the program,
approximately 8,200 trees are in the process of being planted in the Bogue Chitto
National Wildlife Refuge, which is located 45 miles north of New Orleans, LA. Over
their lifetime, those 8,200 trees will trap more than 21 million lbs of CO2 from
the atmosphere. (nearly 10,500 tons).
Additionally, she launched Change Ambassadors in September 2006- a
program to encourage travelers to volunteer on trips (“voluntourism”). Travelocity
has teamed up with some of the top volunteer organizations in the country to
provide easy-to-access information about volunteer vacations on the Travelocity
Web site.
Key components of the Change Ambassadors program are consumer
and employee grants that will be awarded to people who wish to help others
through volunteering, but do not have the financial means to take a volunteer
vacation. The company awards two $5,000 grants per quarter to customers and
one $5,000 grant per quarter to employees.
Michelle played a key role in Sabre Holdings transition from a publicly
traded company into the world of private equity in late 2006.
She continues to serve on the boards of Technoserve, which provides
business advice and access to both markets and capital to businesspeople in
developing countries and Christa House, a not-for-profit home for the dying poor,
particularly those at end-stage AIDS located in West Babylon, New York. She is
also on the North America Board for Pemboke College, Oxford and continues to
be a “lifetime mentor” to a special inner-city family.
List the URLs (web addresses) of any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that you would like the judges to see that support your entry. IMPORTANT: List each URL on a separate line, begin each URL with http://, and enclose each URL in square brackets. For example, [http://www.yourcompany.com/pressrelease.html]:
http://www.businessweek.com/mediacenter/video/careers/559d6a9be8e8ea1d3936
ef738b3b17d1caee7304.html
http://www.aacsb.edu/publications/Archives/JulAug07/16-21%20Destination.pdf
http://www.vollmerpr.com/michelle
http://www.dmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?
sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=7155F7796F354F21
B1183937D847D6DF&tier=4&id=0A2E97D7CF7445D6AEC549EE9F04276A
http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/business/09ecom.html
Provide a brief biography of the nominated executive (up to 100 words):
Michelle Peluso became president and CEO of Travelocity in December 2003.
Prior to her appointment as CEO, Peluso served as Travelocity’s COO and senior
VP of product strategy and distribution.
In 2005, Peluso was recognized by the National Italian American Foundation with
the Special Achievement Award in Business and the Wall Street Journal in 2004
ranked Peluso #4 on its “50 Women to Watch” list.
Peluso received her master’s degree in economics, philosophy and politics from
Pembroke College at Oxford University where she was a Thoroun Scholar, and her
bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of
Business.
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