Lyons Eyes Consolidation Clients

<B> Lyons Eyes Consolidation Clients</B>

By Lauren Bielski

Travel management company and meetings veteran Mike Lyons has joined McGettigan partners as vice president and general manager of its eastern customer business unit's newly formed Meetings Consolidation Division.

The new division will call on at least 50 clients over the next year to secure meetings consolidation accounts. Although the company's initial clients have been mostly pharmaceutical companies, Lyons said this year's campaign will reach out to several industries, assessing the interest and requirements of firms in manufacturing, technology and financial businesses.

"We will be targeting firms that have spends in excess of $20 million and can get senior management approval on addressing this process head on," said Lyons, adding that the common denominator of this year's sign-ons will be their commitment to a more comprehensive approach to meetings management. "The initial interest is definitely there and so are some of the early success stories," he said. "The argument for going through the paces of consolidation has never been more compelling."

Lyons said meetings management is at the point of achieving its great savings and efficiency promoting promise, much as the travel management profession was about 15 years ago. In what he called a groundswell of interest in identifying and leveraging meeting spend, he said McGettigan has more than a dozen installations of its CORE Discovery software product in top Fortune 500 firms (<i>Meetings Today</i>, June 23, 1997). "Our product--which is now in advanced beta testing as an Internet solution--is the linchpin of those pioneering success stories," he said. "It allows companies with a variety of configurations to begin to identify that spend."

In his quest for clients, Lyons said he will focus on out of the box thinkers who aren't afraid to take some risk and face new ways of managing processes. "Consolidation is most successful when everyone opens up the books and looks honestly at how business is being done," he said.

Lyons will manage some business development accounts personally, and also will oversee the efforts of Christine Duffy, executive vice president of business development management for the eastern division. In the meantime, McGettigan also has opened new Midwestern and Western offices headed by senior vice presidents Beth Truett and Laurie Martin, respectively.

For Lyons, joining McGettigan will bring him back to his roots in Philadelphia, where he spent most of his formative years as the vice president of marketing for Rosenbluth International.

Lyons most recently served as vice president, business development for Carlson Wagonlit Travel. "After nearly 12 years away, I am delighted to be moving back to the Philadelphia area and particularly pleased to be joining McGettigan Partners at this point in its history.