Driving Digital Transformation and Innovation. Owning and executing the roadmap for key internal products, including Expense Management and Field Staff Scheduling & Performance tools.

• Product Ownership & Strategy: Define, prioritize, and execute product roadmaps and success metrics within a larger digital transformation initiative, supporting company objectives and growth.

• AI & Operational Efficiency: Lead AI initiatives across business functions, achieving a company-wide OKR to improve operational efficiency by at least 30% in 15+ processes across the company, while delivering as good or better outcomes.

• Cross-functional collaboration: Work closely with business stakeholders, end users, offshore engineering, UX, data, and C-level team to align product strategy, optimize workflows, and deliver user-centric solutions.

• Technology & Process Modernization: Contribute to the rebuild of our in-house ERP system and guiding the modernization of our accounting software, ensuring scalable and efficient solutions.

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Conduct market research, stakeholder interviews, and data analysis to inform product development, drive feature adoption, and enhance user engagement.

• Execution & Agile Delivery: Own product-specific metrics, execute sprints, support releases, and ensure continuous iteration through Agile methodologies, balancing the long-term vision with iterative, data-driven improvements.

Ultimately unlocking each business area's ability to focus on their core strengths and passions, and deliver their best work.

Led the integration of AI and Human-in-the-Loop technologies, optimizing business processes and leveraging staff and guest data to enhance global customer experience.

• Spearheaded change management initiatives that streamlined internal department operations, resulting in an immediate 30% increase in efficiencies and providing more time dedicated to personalized guest experience, and "high-touch" service quality.

• Developed a system to quantify qualitative guest experience feedback, overcoming challenges of not only the type of data but also the volume and complexity of it. This dramatically improves our understanding of the guest experience which we can quickly view and digest from a micro to macro level, surface trends, and drive immediate actionable improvements.

• This technology implementation and showcase led to the creation of a R&D team focused on applying AI tools across various business functions. We owned (and hit) a Company-wide OKR to deliver at least 30% operational efficiency in at least 15 processes across the company, while delivering as good or better outcomes.

• Conducted company-wide quality control, crisis management, and conflict resolution for multi-day travel experiences, deploying timely strategies to address customer feedback and staff emergencies, which contributed to maintaining our record-high Net Promoter Score.

• Worked cross-functionally with Executives and field leaders to ensure superior outcomes for 60,000+ guests on 4,500+ annual trips across 55 countries, significantly boosting customer satisfaction.

Global Learning and Development, Strategic Sourcing

2022-2023: Regional Manager for the regions of Eastern USA & Canada

2020-2022: Asia-Pacific-Africa Consultant

2019-2020: Regional Manager for the regions of Asia-Pacific-Africa

• Managed remote teams on over 25 itineraries running complex logistics and staffing needs in 20 countries, with over 3500 guests per year in our HQ.

• Responsible for ~10 direct reports of Operations and Trip experts in the field, including mentorship, training, and annual performance reviews.

• Worked cross-departmentally at Backroads to achieve the highest possible quality for all trips within the set regions requiring excellent trip design, communication skills, and time management in a fast-paced environment.

• Provided real-time crisis management for on-trip issues and follow-up as needed, post-trip. Responsible for all itinerary quality control within the region to drive performance, productivity, and profitability.

• Oversaw budget & pricing process to ensure trips stayed within the forecast.

• Built and improved relationships with DMCs, hotels, restaurants, and other partners, oversaw international contract creation and negotiation.

• Researched & designed new and custom trips and identified ways to add and improve existing trips.

• Assisted with staffing schedule reviews and acted as a mentor and performance manager for field-based staff requiring strong interpersonal skills and the use of in-depth feedback loops.

• Helped Marketing & Sales with accuracy & compelling information and strategies to increase our guest count and product growth within the regions.

• Vetted and troubleshoot trip development data quality on ERP launch / IT software upgrade.

• Trained, coached, and mentored crisis management, stress mitigation, and best practices for luxury group travel leadership, project management and product management

• Supervised 10-15 employees, empowering them to reach their full potential through genuine relationship building, individualized mentoring and ongoing professional development

• Established and fostered trust-based relationships, coached and educated top talent and future company leaders, conducted performance reviews, and encouraged a reciprocal feedback-driven culture.

• Mentored and supervised staff with the Radical Candor method - caring personally and challenging directly.

• Acted as an intermediary for remote field leaders, and Berkeley-based management to provide clarity, direct feedback, and resources to resolve real-time trip, operations, scheduling and interpersonal-related challenges.

• as a team, built and maintained an enablement strategy to keep customer-facing roles aligned with the messaging, skills, and values of the company.

2019-2021: Japan & South Korea Regional Expert, Trip Expert, Operations Expert

2013-2021: Eastern Canada Regional Expert, Trip(s) Expert, Operations Expert

2017-2019: Myanmar Trip Expert, Operations Expert

2015-2017: Vietnam & Cambodia Trip(s) Expert, Operations Expert

• Autonomously pitched, developed, designed, implemented and maintained every aspect of 6-10 day active travel vacations. Held a high standard of social and environmental responsibility balanced with the delivery of exceptional client experiences

• Directly contributed to over 500% growth in Nova Scotia sales over a five-year window (2014: 10 trips, 120 guests and 6 field staff; 2018: 50 trips, 600 guests and 25 field staff)

• Responsible for maintaining budgets and contracts exceeding 1 million USD annually per region

• Defined and integrated “the magic" and substance in BACKROADS trips, which contributed to rapid growth, retention and increasing Net Promoter Scores, season over season

• Mentored new Trip and Operations Experts and trip leaders, administered training in the management of cultural sensitivity, subcontractor relationships, guest relations, contract negotiation, navigation of internal systems, software, and budgeting

• Planned and conducted regional field staff meetings and managed 25+ trip leaders through multiple overlapping trips each season

• Authored and maintained resources, documents and playbooks with proficiency on Microsoft 365 and Adobe Creative Suites for internal and external stakeholders that communicated itinerary specifics. These included, among others:

o budget guidelines and projections,

o client-focused detailed daily planners and overviews,

o engaging interpretative visual resources,

o navigation and mapping tools,

o In-depth playbooks employees rely on to lead the product independently, allowing the business to scale.

• Generated advertising content and marketing materials for use in print, web and on various social media platforms.