PHOTO: © GBTA

THE BASICS
Name: Suzanne Neufang
Title: CEO
Company, city: Global Business Travel Association; GBTA is fully remote, and I am based in New York City.
First job: County 4-H program coordinator in North Dakota
Where to next: Dallas for the GBTA Convention; Germany for vacation; Singapore for the GBTA APAC Conference; Lisbon to give a keynote at the World Aviation Festival; Brooklyn for our WINiT by GBTA Summit and Gala; and, finally, Hamburg for our GBTA Europe Conference. It will be a busy second half of 2023!

A LITTLE BIT MORE
What actor or actress would play you in a movie of your life?
Olivia Coleman

What would you be doing professionally if you weren’t in your current industry?
This sounds like two ends of the spectrum, but I would head up a consulting group or run a bed-and-breakfast in Europe, maybe writing poetry on the side. Writing has been an important part of my life and helps me find focus and balance.

What is your favorite book, movie or television show?
My favorite book is often whatever I have just read. Written by Stanford physician and ethicist Abraham Verghese, the novel Cutting for Stone takes place in Ethiopia and New York City and recently transported me to a whole other world and discipline (medCaicine).

What historical figure, dead or alive, would you love to have dinner with?
I would love to dine with literary giant and civil rights activist James Baldwin. Having lived in New York City for almost nine years, and with all the social change happening in and outside of this vast and complex city, his books speak to the long journey humanity often takes to invoke (and evoke) lasting change — finally bringing acceptance and belonging.

THE BUSINESS
What is your most recent project, and what was the inspiration behind it?
We relaunched the GBTA Foundation which focuses on two important pillars — planet and people — with the goal of driving positive change through business travel for our industry and beyond. The Foundation encompasses GBTA’s climate action and sustainability programs as well as diversity, equity and inclusion, and other talent- related topics, while aligning to our focus on community, learning and advocacy. It’s truly been a journey, and we look forward to building on the progress already achieved.

What is your favorite aspect of the job?
I’m inspired and driven by working with smart, collaborative people on a global level. Working hard and bringing great ideas to life is something I get to do every day at GBTA with our staff, members and partners around the world. What’s the biggest business risk you’ve ever taken? Many leaders might say navigating their companies and teams through the pandemic came with a lot of risk. There wasn’t a playbook, and no one knew when we might see the end or what the new normal would look like. Helping not just an association but an entire industry to survive has been the biggest risk as well as the greatest achievement.

Who is someone you admire professionally in the travel industry?
All the people who work on the front lines to make the travel ecosystem work, day-in and day-out

AS A TRAVELER
Tell us about a travel nightmare: I was stranded in the U.K. with colleagues when the Icelandic volcano erupted in 2010. Fortunately, I was in the excellent company of airlines, corporate, leisure and hospitality travel experts. Together we navigated ourselves from London to Paris to Madrid and back to our home bases in Europe, America and Asia with the help of trains, a chartered bus and eventually planes. We weren’t in danger, but each of us had an urgent reason to get home. That’s the nature of business travel, ultimately … a safe return to our families and friends.

Share a comical travel experience: TSA and international-equivalent security lines always have an amusing people-watching element — so many travelers unprepared for the rigors of modern travel.

What is your preferred method of travel — planes, trains, automobiles, cruise ships — and why? Recently, I would say train, although air travel is often the only way to go in North America. Especially in places like the U.S. Northeast and Europe, train travel is easy and convenient, offering a sustainable option also great for getting work done or just relaxing.

What has been the best example of customer service you’ve experienced during your travels? Hats off to every gate agent, hotel front desk clerk, room service attendant, housekeeper, car rental counter agent and Uber/Lyft/Grab driver. Post-COVID, I appreciate them so much more. Their jobs are hard. Every ounce of kindness they share with me as I travel, I try to pay forward to someone else I encounter.