Innovative Ikea Executive To Lead Europe For Next 2 Years
Noordwijk, Netherlands (20th September, 2011) —The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA)—the voice of the global business travel industry—today announced that Torbjorn Erling, Global Meetings & Travel Manager, has been appointed as Chairman of the GBTA European Advisory Board for the next two years.
Mr. Erling, who runs the global meetings and travel programme for Ikea, will replace Caroline Strachan, Global Commercial Leader for Astra Zeneca, as she stands down on 21st September following a two year term at the helm of the European Advisory Board.
Talking about her departure during her welcome speech to 300 delegates at the network’s European conference, Ms Strachan said, “I feel honoured to have helped lead GBTA Europe since its inception two years ago and know that I leave the network with a solid foundation for growth and innovation. Torbjorn has been a part of that process and has always provided us with insight into the true potential for travel and meetings management in the future.”
The network will be announcing a raft of new advisory board members in the coming year.
Mr. Erling said about taking on the voluntary role, “I am really excited about leading this new Advisory Board in Europe. There’s so much potential to the GBTA European network and it is inspiring to work with a group of people who also want to challenge what travel, meetings and mobility management should look like in the future.”
GBTA recently announced at its Convention in Denver that Ms. Strachan and Mr. Floyd Widener, also a European advisor, had accepted Global Advisor roles to the main GBTA board.
About Torbjorn Erling, Global Meetings & Travel Manager, Ikea Group
Torbjorn Erling has operated as Global Meeting & Travel Manager, IKEA Group, since 2007 prior to which he spent 12 months as Department Manager for IKEA Travel Services at Helsingborg. He is also member of the Digital Workplace Council in IKEA with responsibility for the area of Collaboration & Communication.
Previous roles have included ten years in marketing and sales positions at Scandinavian Airlines and as a senior level teacher in Gothenburg, Sweden. He qualified in 1985 with a degree of Masters of Education from the University of Gothenburg
About the Global Business Travel Association
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world’s premier business travel and meetings organization. Collectively, GBTA’s 5,000-plus members manage over $340 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. GBTA provides its network of 17,000 business and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers, with networking events, news, education & professional development, research, and advocacy. For more information, visit www.gbta.org
Contact
Katharine Blakemore
Marketing & Communications Executive
GBTA Europe
Katharine.Blakemore@gbta.org
Paul Tilstone
Managing Director
GBTA Europe
Paul.Tilstone@gbta.org