CEO Today Business Women of the Year Awards

27 www.ceotodaymagazine.com CEO Today Business Women of the Year Awards 2018 UNITED KINGDOM SUZANNE HORNER CEO of Gray Dawes Group ABOUT SUZANNE HORNER Suzanne Horner is the Chief Executive Officer and visionary leader of Gray Dawes Group, one of the United Kingdom’s fastest growing, independent travel management companies (TMC). Ahead of her arrival, the Gray Dawes business had been struggling somewhat in the post-2008 recessional climate; historically the business had relied largely on financial services clients. Since her appointment in 2011, Suzanne’s determination and focus has delivered radical change to one of the travel industry’s oldest and most respected travel management companies and led to a significant diversification of Gray Dawes’ client portfolio. Her initial vision; to revitalise the Colchester based business, led the company back to profitability and to take the business on a journey to deliver over £100m in annual sales. Underpinning her great success has been the leveraging of skills acquired during over 30 years in the travel industry and a career spanning retail, leisure, technology and corporate travel at some of the industry’s most prominent names such as British Airways, Norwegian Cruise Lines and Egencia. Following initial success with laying solid operational and financial foundations, under Suzanne’s stewardship, Gray Dawes Group has grown rapidly since 2015 from a single-site, £27m business to a £100m+ travel group with over 160 employees across offices in five UK locations. In addition to establishing Gray Dawes as a key player in the UK travel market, Suzanne has also successfully implemented a global travel management strategy through gaining membership for Gray Dawes of the prestigious Radius Travel Network. Suzanne has also overseen Gray Dawes growing its expertise from business travel to also become market leaders in the specialist realms of corporate event management, professional sports team travel and luxury holidays. For Suzanne to achieve such a turnaround in Gray Dawes has taken passion, determination and great business acumen driven by clear, attainable and easily measurable business goals. Suzanne has used a combination of customer service focus, careful cost and process control to deliver organic growth coupled with strategic acquisitions to steer the business to being one of the UK’s top 20 TMCs. As anyone who know Suzanne well, her ambition does not rest here as she strives for further expansion and product optimisation to continue Gray Dawes growth both organically and strategically which will see the business shortly become one of the UK’s top 15 TMC’s and no doubt top 10 in the not too distant future Her reputation as a leading light in the new generation of travel industry leaders is founded upon her forthright opinions, proven business acumen and ability to deliver. As a member of the Board at the Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC) Suzanne’s voice rings clear in the industry as one focussed on progressive change and she finds herself in constant, high demand for speaking engagements at various conferences and seminars. Although Gray Dawes is a huge focus in Suzanne’s life she knows where the boundaries lie and has many passions outside of the corporate world. Most notably perhaps, Suzanne is a keen biker, having travelled the highways and byways of much of Europe, going off the beaten track and sampling local delights along the way. FIRM PROFILE Gray Dawes is one of the UK’s leading, independent travel management companies that delivers expert, 24/7 travel solu- tions to a diverse range of clients across its areas of expertise; business travel management, corporate event management, professional sports travel and luxury leisure. Gray Dawes delivers the high- est levels of service and does this through adopting a tena- cious, ambitious and confident approach to travel management that blends empowered employ- ees with pioneering technology to deliver the very best service. Flexibility and personalisation are at the heart of everything that the business does. With full travel industry bonding and accreditations and prime UK office locations in London, Cam- bridge, Colchester, Leamington Spa and Amersham Gray Dawes is also able to offer clients a truly global travel management ser- vice through membership of the Radius Travel Network. CONTACT W: www.gdg.travel E: info@gdg.travel T: 0844 855 3700