Martin Tuncaydin serves as Executive Vice President of Data, AI, and Engineering at Direct Travel. In his role, Martin leads the development of Direct Travel’s data infrastructure and AI-enabled ecosystem, with the end goal of elevating service delivery and unlocking growth opportunities.

Martin brings a wealth of experience from leadership roles at Onriva, SmileDirectClub, and WorldVentures, where he built and scaled high-performing data and engineering teams. His deep expertise spans data warehouse development, AI integration, and large-scale platform engineering.

Under Martin’s leadership, Direct Travel is harnessing the power of AI to automate and enhance data analytics, empower frontline teams with real-time insights, and deliver cleaner, more actionable data for strategic decision-making. His collaborative approach and technical depth are driving the transformation of data into one of our most valuable assets—fueling innovation, improving client experiences, and supporting the success of Avenir.

Janet Traphagen is a 30+ year veteran of the meetings and events industry. She joined the company in 1996 as an account manager and transitioned into sales in 1999. She held positions of increasing responsibility leading up to her promotion to president in 2014. Prior to Creative Group, she worked for Motivation Excellence and Cardinal Health.

Traphagen is a member of the Sales Management Summit, a board for senior sales executives; is Chairman of the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF); sits on the Four Seasons Advisory Board and frequently participates in industry panel discussions with Starwood, Ritz-Carlton and Marriott Hotels. She is also a board member for Humor for Hope, a nonprofit that provides laughter for critically ill children. She studied marketing and communications at Ohio’s Cedarville University and Illinois’ North Central College.

As President of Leisure Travel at Direct, Gerard Bellino is responsible for expanding Direct Travel’s leisure travel segment through business development and marketing. Additionally, he is responsible for the integration of the company’s leisure acquisitions along with evaluating and implementing innovative technologies that support the company’s leisure division, enterprise-wide.

For more than 40 years, Gerard has been an active travel industry professional, holding high-level positions such as Executive Vice President U.S. Leisure Travel, Vice President Supplier Management and Regional Vice President with travel companies such as Navigant International, First Travel Corp., Worldview Travel, and Carlson Wagonlit Travel.

Gerard is known for his proactive leadership approach and rapid response to changing business environments. He is driven to create initiatives that will enable Direct Travel to continue being a leading leisure provider in the premium and luxury leisure travel markets. His areas of focus include supplier management and business development for the company’s leisure sales team and rapidly growing independent contractor program.

Gerard’s knowledge and expertise in the luxury market allows him to provide invaluable guidance and advice for Direct Travel’s travel advisors. His hands-on approach to daily business, including engagement with technology, marketing, vendor initiatives and client interaction support the growth and long term success of the Direct Travel organization.

Gerard resides and works from his home in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As president of Direct Travel for Canada, Brian is responsible for leading sales and operations for more than 500 team members across multiple locations throughout the country. Under his leadership, Direct Travel has carved a niche in these Canadian markets as an industry leader in corporate and luxury travel through the marriage of good old-fashioned high-touch customer service, and innovative high-tech solutions.

In 1999, Rogers TravelPlus formed a strategic alliance with The Roos Travel Group. A year later, the two companies merged operations and Brian became President of Vision 2000 Travel Group in Ontario. At the same time, three affiliated travel companies merged in Quebec to become Le Groupe Voyages Vision Inc. In 2001, with the addition of regional offices in Alberta and British Columbia, Vision 2000 Travel Group, now Vision Travel Solutions was formed into a national company with head offices in Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec.

Brian achieved the Global Leadership Professional (GLP) designation from the GBTA Foundation – Global Leadership Program with The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and the Global Travel Professional (GTP) designation from the Global Business Travel Association. He is a member (and previous board member) of the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA), the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA).

Brian is a global travel industry insider, with a unique view on the trends and issues that shape the industry. He has contributed thought leadership pieces to various publications and regularly offers his perspective at industry conferences.

Sam DeFranco is the President of Direct Travel’s Avenir. In his role, Sam oversees all business operations including account development and client relations. Sam joined Direct Travel in 2013, and brings more than 40 years of travel industry experience to his position.

A keen observer of the business travel industry, Sam possesses a unique skillset that has allowed him to flourish in both travel management as well as in supplier sales and automation. An accomplished travel management executive, he specializes in negotiations, balancing client and corporate needs, employee empowerment and increasing profitability.

Prior to joining Direct Travel, Sam held numerous key leadership roles, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, US National Clients for Carlson Wagonlit Travel, North America. Sam came to that position as co-owner of McGregor Travel Management, which was acquired by Navigant International, and later sold to Carlson. He was instrumental in the development of the Navigant brand and played a vital role in what became the nation’s first publicly-traded travel management company. Sam also held key positions at American Airlines, in the areas of automation, revenue enhancement and sales.

Sam has served as a member of the Stamford Zoning Board of Appeals and presently devotes time to numerous charitable organizations including the American Red Cross, March of Dimes, Leukemia Foundation, Stamford and Westchester County Food Banks and United Way. Among a variety of awards and distinctions, Sam is a respected recipient of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Sam earned his Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Business through the University of Tampa. He enjoys traveling throughout the US and Europe, playing golf and spending time with his three daughters.

As President of the US, Lisa Buckner oversees all business operations and account management initiatives. Lisa is responsible for customer retention, sales growth, and overall employee relations. She is instrumental in strategic planning and specializes in building a culture that consistently gives extremely high customer and employee survey results, some of the best in the industry.

Lisa is a travel industry veteran with over 35 years of travel industry experience in various leadership positions including President, Northwestern Travel, and President/ COO of Corporate Travel Solutions. Lisa has completed an MBA from the University of St. Thomas as well as the Minnesota Management Institute through the University of Minnesota. Lisa is known for her industry expertise, experience moderating industry panels, speaking engagements and overall building partnerships with suppliers and customers.

Under Lisa’s lead, the region was named a “Small Business Success Story” by Twin Cities Business Magazine. Additionally, they are a three-time recipient of the coveted Peak of Excellence award from Sabre Travel Network.

Lisa has served on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Airport Foundation, the Delta Agency Advisory Board, Travel + Leisure Advisory Board, and is a founding member of the United Way’s Executive Leadership Council. She is active on the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) Chairman’s Advisory Council (CAC), Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), and Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), and Vistage—an executive networking and CEO business association.

Allison brings over 20 years of global marketing leadership experience to her role at Direct Travel. As Chief Marketing Officer, she leads the team in driving brand recognition and demand generation through customer-first strategies and data-driven marketing.

Allison has a proven track record of increasing adoption and delivering measurable business impact, having previously led teams at Red Hat, Docker, and most recently as CMO of Apptio, an IBM Company. There, she transformed and scaled the revenue marketing practice, aligning it with the sales team with a strong focus on driving customer value. This led to significant year-over-year growth and the company’s acquisition by IBM.

At Direct Travel, Allison is focused on building a high-performing demand engine, optimizing marketing tools and systems, and harnessing data and analytics to accelerate pipeline growth and attract and retain customers. Her significant experience in the technology sector makes her a key driver of Direct Travel’s next phase of innovation and market leadership. Allison’s forward-thinking, collaborative style is instrumental in propelling the growth of Avenir, the industry’s first end-to-end, cloud-based corporate travel platform.

Sarah Kuberry Martino serves as Chief Product Officer at Direct Travel, bringing over a decade of industry experience and a proven track record of driving innovation, transformation, and growth. In her role, Sarah leads the development of Avenir, our next-generation technology solution, and fosters strategic collaborations with technology innovators across the travel industry.

Sarah’s career began at Concur, where she spent over ten years shaping the global expense management portfolio. During her tenure, she achieved significant milestones in product management, strategy creation, and market delivery. Her most recent role as Chief Product Officer at Modern Health, a leading global workplace mental health platform, further demonstrated her ability to drive product excellence and growth.

At Direct Travel, Sarah’s vision and leadership are pivotal in advancing our market investments and in introducing Avenir to the market. Her commitment to fostering a culture of collaboration, diverse thinking, and cross-functional success aligns seamlessly with our values of innovation and teamwork. Sarah’s strong product vision and strategic approach help guide our efforts to deliver best-in-class products that meet the evolving needs of our customers.

As Chief People Officer for Direct Travel, Michelle Sitzman is responsible for leading the company’s talent strategy, focusing on enhancing employee experience and cultivating company culture.

Through creating employee-centric initiatives and promoting inclusive policies, her work impacts the engagement of our people, fosters inclusion and diversity, and drives collaboration. In her role as culture champion, she works closely with the Leadership Team to ensure our talent strategy is aligned with business goals and objectives.

Michelle brings more than 30 years of experience to the team, having worked at such transformative global companies as LinkedIn, VMware, Dolby, and Equinix. Most recently, she served as Chief People Officer at Talend, working alongside CEO Christal Bemont.

Michelle holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology from California State University – Long Beach. She has also been named one of the Top 33 Innovative HR Leaders by Business Insider.

Todd Pelletier is a seasoned sales executive with extensive experience spanning more than 50 countries. With over 30 years of experience in enterprise and cloud-based sales and management, Todd understands how to align large sales organizations to achieve success at scale.

In his role as Direct Travel’s Chief Sales Officer, Todd works with the sales leadership team to determine the people, systems, processes, and support required to exceed customers’ expectations, increase win rates, and accelerate expansion. He is keenly focused on finding synergies across regions and business lines, seeking opportunities to use proven sales motions to drive growth and profitability.

Todd is highly skilled at building and executing strategic plans. He has a successful track record of coaching high-producing teams that deliver growth while maintaining customer satisfaction and retention.

Prior to Direct Travel, Todd worked at Talend, leading some of the data management company’s key strategic accounts as SVP and GM of Enterprise Americas. Todd also had a long and successful sales career at Concur. As a leader of a global team that included sales, pre-sales, account management, and marketing, he was responsible for managing more than 200 of the company’s top customers. Todd’s team consistently exceeded quota and achieved a win rate of over 60%.

He has also served in a board and advisor capacity for multiple innovation-focused organizations, including GROUP OF HUMANS, Periodic Products, and Nova Southeastern University.

Scott Schwisow is the Chief Information Officer at Direct Travel, where he leads the expansion of technology initiatives and the implementation of Direct Travel’s technology stack, Avenir. He collaborates with Operations, IT, Finance, and other departments to drive technological advancements and improve internal systems and processes.

Scott’s expertise spans acquisition integration, go-to-market strategies, customer journey optimization, and business transformation. He excels in guiding teams through complex transformations, delivering strategic value, driving growth, and achieving operational scale.

Prior to Direct Travel, Scott led the Business Transformation team at SAP Concur, overseeing strategic corporate-wide initiatives. Joining SAP Concur in its start-up phase in 1996, he held senior roles in consulting services, cloud operations, customer success, PMO, and mergers & acquisitions. Earlier in his career, Scott spent a decade as a consultant with Accenture and Epicor Software.

Scott’s leadership and strategic vision are key to Direct Travel’s technological innovation and operational excellence.

John Coffman is the Chief Financial Officer of Direct Travel, a leading corporate Travel Management Company that provides solutions and innovations in business travel to its clients.

A Certified Public Accountant, John possesses over 30 years of experience, including 13 years of public accounting and 17 years of industry experience in various finance positions. As CFO, John is responsible for the overall financial management of the company, its financial reporting and transparency, mergers and acquisitions and long-term planning.

Prior to this position, John served as Vice President of Global Mergers and Acquisitions at Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) for five years, where he directed the completion of seven acquisitions, across four continents.

Previous to his tenure at CWT, John held key finance roles at TQ3Navigant over a period of nine years, ultimately serving as Chief Accounting Officer where he was instrumental in developing and executing the overall business strategy and growth initiatives for the company.

John also served on the Audit and Business Advisory team at Price Waterhouse for 12 years, where his excellent industry knowledge and business acumen was instrumental in managing numerous auditing and acquisition engagements. John earned his Bachelor of Science in Business through the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Steve is a prominent venture capitalist and founder of the world’s largest travel and expense management company, Concur. Over the past several years, Steve and his investment partners have sought out companies that are transforming key technology platforms in the multi-trillion-dollar travel industry, aiming to improve the corporate travel experience for the traveler, the companies they work for, and the suppliers that serve them.

In addition to serving as Executive Chairman of Direct Travel, Steve Singh is a Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group, CEO of Spotnana, and Executive Chairman of Center as well as Troop. He also serves on the public board of portfolio companies Clari and Leaf Logistics.

Steve and his family run the Singh Family Foundation which focuses on education for girls, conservation, and a number of regional charitable initiatives.

Christal Bemont is an American travel and technology business executive with over 25 years of experience scaling high-growth global companies across small, mid-market, and enterprise segments. Christal has a demonstrated track record in digital transformation, new market expansion, and creating operational efficiency. She currently serves as Chief Executive Officer and board member of Direct Travel, a market leader in corporate travel management. Christal also sits on the board of directors of Barracuda Networks, a provider of enterprise security software and services, and CoreTrust, a leading group purchasing organization and Blackstone company.

Before Direct Travel, Christal was CEO of Talend, a market leader in modern data management with over 7,000 global customers and 1,300 employees. During her three years at Talend, Christal led the company’s successful transition to the cloud and recognized market leadership in the data integration and quality segments. Christal helped steer Talend’s 19% growth as a public company before moving the company private in a deal with leading private equity firm Thomas Bravo worth $2.4B.

Previously, Christal spent over 15 years at Concur in progressive go-to-market roles. As CRO, Christal was responsible for a $2B business spanning a global footprint in 90 countries. She led 3,000 employees and the development and execution of all revenue strategies, which drove 25% sustained annual revenue growth in SAP’s Cloud Business Group. In addition to being a highly impactful business and sales leader, Christal was also instrumental in identifying, designing, and introducing successful products that launched new industries.

Before her success as CRO, Christal was Senior Vice President and General Manager of SAP Concur’s Small, Midsized, and Nationals business unit. Under her leadership, that unit grew annual revenue from $53M under management to $700M. Early in her career, Christal served in multiple capacities focused on operational and technical roles at Motorola, Extensity, and Clarify.

Deeply passionate about developing an incredible corporate culture, Christal ensures employees can bring their authentic, whole selves to work. She fosters high-functioning, accountable teams unified by a clear vision and environment that prioritizes collaboration, agility, and ownership. Christal is a member of Nine Lives, and Love Takes Root foundations. Residing in Atlanta, GA, Christal earned her Bachelor of Science in Business at Missouri Western State University.