American Express recently announced the appointment of Mr. Manoj Chacko to the position of Head and Vice President, Business Travel, India and sub-continent. In this capacity, Mr. Chacko will be leading the Global Business Travel team encompassing Operations, Acquisition, Account Development, Finance, Technology, and Supplier Relations. He will also be accountable for the delivery of consistent high level travel services as well as the retention and increased acquisition of corporate accounts. Mr. Chacko will be based out of Mumbai.

Commenting on the appointment, Libby Roy, Vice President and General Manager, Business Travel, Japan Asia Pacific and Australia said, “India is the fastest growing market for Global Business Travel, and is of strategic importance in our future growth plans for JAPA, as well as the overall company growth. These are exciting times for the business in India; we believe that Manoj, with his extensive experience, is the right choice to lead the travel business for American Express in India.”

Over the last year, Business Travel has made several significant investments in India in people, processes and platforms to better meet customers’ needs and to continue to bring them the best service in the industry. The size of the client management team was doubled, and specialized functional groups were created to support the service delivery team. Significant investments were also made for better capacity planning and training.

The market responded favorably to these changes with Business Travel witnessing the most rapid growth in the emerging markets - first half sales increased by 42% in India compared to the same period in 2006.

Mr. Chacko joins American Express from Kingfisher Airlines, where he was involved since start-up and for subsequent strategy formulation as part of the key strategy team at Kingfisher. His most recent position there was Head of Global Sales, Distribution and Network Planning. In this role, he was instrumental in setting up the airline’s sales infrastructure, call centre operations, distribution, technology and processes.

Mr. Chacko has a strong background in operations, sales, business development and key account management with significant experience in leading cross functional teams. He has previously held positions at Emirates and Spencer and Company Limited. He is a Post Graduate in Management Studies from Goa University, and also qualified as a Graduate Mechanical Engineer at the Government Engineering College, Goa.