Spotlight on Christina Woronchak, 2021 WINiT Top 50 Women in Travel Recipient

Christina is passionate about global travel. She has traveled the world and has devoted her career to the business travel industry, leading sales and client management teams for leading global, hospitality and travel management companies. As Deem’s Chief Revenue Officer, Christina leads the sales and customer experience teams. In that capacity, she is responsible for accelerating the company’s global growth through new customer acquisition and delivering an exceptional customer experience throughout all aspects of the customer journey with Deem.

Christina began her career in Montreal in the hospitality industry. She then transitioned to business travel management, and after a 20+ year career with leading travel management companies, joined Deem and moved to Silicon Valley to pursue her passion for travel technology with mobile and online booking, a leading distribution channel for business travel.

Why is WINiT important to you?
WINiT is important to me because the organization puts a lens on women in the travel industry and serves as a voice to represent the career advancement of women. It’s a reminder that while opportunities for women in the travel industry have increased, the focus on that needs to be constant and remain a priority in our industry.

How do you feel about receiving this award from WINiT?
I am so flattered and incredibly proud to receive the award from WINiT. The fact that the nomination was submitted by incredible women that I have the pleasure of leading, mentoring and working with at Deem, means so very much to me.

Are things getting better for women in the business travel industry or is there still work to be done?
Things have improved significantly in my opinion. If I take Deem for example, the number of women on the Executive Staff has increased from 1 to 3 in the last 2 years and I have 4 women reporting to me in key sales leadership and customer experience roles. The number of talented women joining our company has been unprecedented and recent hires on my team have cited the opportunity to thrive and grow professionally as a key reason for joining Deem.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given in your career?
The best advice I ever received came from one of my male leaders several years ago during an annual feedback session. He helped me understand that advancing your career is not all about your results and accomplishments and that you need to be “visible” to the leaders of your company and you need to have “sponsorship” to advance. I was fortunate to have great sponsors who helped me advance from roles as an individual contributor to a leader with increasing responsibilities. I am paying that advice forward by actively seeking talented employees at Deem to help them achieve more visibility by introducing them to my peers, and I actively sponsor aspiring leaders in their career development and growth.