International expertise
Areka’s multicultural team brings together a vast knowledge of local and global markets to offer the right expertise for your projects.
Our consultants are business travel specialists with longstanding experience in travel management and diverse backgrounds in consulting, procurement and IT.
We are already present in seven cities in Asia Pacific, Europe, North America and growing fast.
Partners
Having worked in the frontlines of business travel consulting, Areka partners share an ambition to bring fresh solutions to the market, building on proven experience and new technology.
Pascal Jungfer, CEO, Paris
Pascal has more than 20 years’ experience in business travel and consulting, with expertise in sourcing and global project management. In the 10 years before creating Areka, he set up and managed the consulting division of a world-leading travel management company, growing the team to more than 100 consultants worldwide. He also brings more than a decade’s experience in management consulting with companies including Accenture, Cap Gemini and Mars &Co. A graduate of the ESCP management school in France and the Franco British Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Pascal has worked and lived in France, Singapore and Gabon and speaks French, English and Spanish.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Aurelie Duprez, Paris
Aurelie is a specialist in cost reduction modeling and airline strategy. Prior to founding Areka, she worked for five years in the consulting division of a major travel management company, where she was in charge of projects for major global clients, negotiating air contracts on their behalf. She also has experience in the agri-food retail business in London. Aurelie is a graduate of the ESSEC business school in France, having ranked first in the national entrance exam, and the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. She speaks French, German, English and Spanish.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Mike Mannix, Sydney
Mike has worked in consulting since 2000 – first starting and leading the Hotels consulting business in Europe for a major TMC. In 2006, he moved back to Asia-Pacific to start and lead the consulting business, as well as the global Airline practice for the same TMC. He brings deep knowledge of the TMC, aviation and hotel markets and has worked with many of the world’s largest and most sophisticated corporations to design and lead strategies and sourcing projects across the globe. Mike has worked in over 40 countries and understands what it takes to successfully deploy global strategies in local markets, and what it means to integrate local needs into global strategies.
He is fluent in English and French.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Team
Natalie Barfield, United Kingdom
Natalie has over 20 years’ experience within corporate travel, spanning global account management, implementation and technology within the TMC, OBT and GDS sectors. From within the TMC environment, Natalie has managed complex and global implementations and travel programmes – with a focus on successful change management, best in class service and creative solutions. Natalie’s previous roles have also involved strategic account management as well as optimisation of tools and processes. Natalie adopts a collaborative approach in her work and thrives on working with peers and clients across different markets, embracing the nuances of different cultures. Natalie speaks English and holds a BA Hons in European Studies with French from The Open University.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Sabrina Bessard, Paris
Sabrina has more than 14 years’ experience in Office Administration. Prior to working for Areka Consulting, she was an expat for 3 years in Angola where she was responsible for the financial and accounting management.
Sabrina has experience in both SMEs and large Multinationals, which permits her to bring us skills in administration, accounting, and office management. She holds a trilingual advanced vocational diploma in Administration and speaks French, English and Portuguese. Additionally she has completed training in purchasing during her career.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com>
Mélanie Cheval, Paris
With over 5 years’ experience in the field of Business Travel consulting, Melanie has supported many international clients in the optimization of their travel costs and processes. She has acquired a strong understanding and expertise of the Business Travel market through the various missions she has been involved in, including travel and expense programs audits, TMC and OBT sourcing and implementation, global airline sourcing and travel management. Mélanie speaks French, English and Italian, and holds an MBA International Travel Management specialized in Corporate Travel, and ultra-specialized in Procurement, delivered by the ESCAET, a French Business School.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Dominique Dancik, Tours
Dominique joins Areka Consulting with 15 years of experience in the Travel Industry, particularly in Business Travel. She has managed SME (Small-to-Medium Enterprise) to large, Global client portfolios, helping them achieve their Travel Program objectives such as cost savings, streamlining processes and recommending products and technology suitable for the client’s needs. She has also held Sales and Account Management positions with a few airlines. This gives her a great understanding of many aspects of the travel industry from supplier and TMC perspectives, as well as detailed knowledge and understanding of the client view. She thrives in multicultural environments and understands cultural nuances, having lived in Asia and worked with and for international companies. Originally from the Philippines, she has lived in Singapore for 10 years and has been in France with her family since 2018.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Richelle DeGuzman, Pittsburgh
Richelle has an expertise in business travel as well as proven experience in project management working with global clients.
Richelle’s experience includes: leading TMC consolidation and negotiation projects for global clients; monitoring supplier programs and building reporting; auditing international travel and expense programs; redefining travel and expense strategy and supporting clients on global projects; creating local and global travel and expense policies.
Richelle speaks English and is a graduate of the American University Kogod School of Business School in Washington, D.C. She holds an MBA specialized in Management Consulting..
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Tiphaine Grenot, Paris
Tiphaine, joining Areka, brings to the table fifteen years of expertise in business travel, as well as indubitable experience in project management among international clients.
Previously, Tiphaine assisted customers with multiple areas of their business travel programs: designing and rolling out business travel strategies, auditing and optimizing travel processes and travel program, driving change management and communication planning, supporting clients on international projects with online booking tools, and integrating travel suppliers’ solutions.
Tiphaine speaks English, French and Spanish. She holds a master’s degree in management from Paris IX Dauphine University and a master’s degree in International Marketing from the London South Bank university.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Tauseef Hussain, Paris
Tauseef has a passion for data and analytics and has a wide variety of experience working in Business Intelligence, Business/Data Analytics and Web Development- both as a consultant and an analyst.
Prior to completing his Master’s degree in France, he worked for one of the world’s largest and most successful IT consulting firms in India- where he initially retained responsibility for the development of a number of in-house Business Intelligence tools, design and implementation of data-visualisation techniques as well as database design. Within the same firm, he was promoted to Consultant and was responsible for leading design and delivery for large and complex data consolidation, data automation and data visualization projects.
Tauseef holds a Masters in Information Systems from EPITA in Paris as well as a Telecommunication Engineering degree from VTU in Bangalore.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Jean-Michel Kadaner, Trier
Subject Matter Expert (SME), in the Travel Supply Chain, managing large consulting project over the last 20 years, after a 22 years Corporate and Operational career in Purchasing in large American (ITT) and European (Alcatel-Alsthom) multinational companies. Several times expatriated, multi-lingual, backed up by a law degree, and various executive management courses, he specializes, in particular, with large TMC, Tools (OBT, Expenses, Reporting), and payment means tenders for large scale customers as well as Travel audits and Benchmarks. Regular speaker at Acte and GBTA conferences, global and local chapters. Belgian born, living in Germany, travels intensively.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Sandrine Kurtz, Puget
Sandrine is a business driver with 20 years of experience in every corner of the industry. Starting in airline and TMC operations, she rose through the ranks to serve as EMEA travel buyer and travel manager for Bristol-Myers Squib. In addition, she served as Deputy Managing Director and Head of Sales for Hogg Robinson Group and led Key Account sales for American Express GBT.
Sandrine possesses a unique depth of industry knowledge, having led global projects related to strategy development and implementation on a broad variety of topics, including TMCs, travel technologies and sourcing. She has launched innovative approaches to supplier partnerships, expense management, online booking, and change management. Sandrine is known for her collaborative approach and thrives on embracing clients across cultures and markets. She speaks French, English and ein bisschen Deutsch (German).
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Romain Lavenne, Paris
With more than 6 years’ experience in business travel consulting, Romain has proved a wide set of skills and expertise, managing international projects for global clients. Romain worked on various consulting missions, such as global airline sourcing, online booking tool implementation, BI & reporting design, etc. He speaks French, English and graduated from NEOMA Business School in France, holding a Master in Management.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Fanny Loloum, Paris
Fanny has a 5 years’ experience in business travel. As an outsourced Consultant, she has held Travel Manager and Travel Buyer positions for several firms. Aquiring a strong expertise of the business travel environment through various global projects she has been involved in such as TMC, OBT, air, hotel and car rental sourcing, implementation, and monitoring. Fanny speaks French, English and Spanish, and holds an MBA in International Travel Management specialized in Corporate Travel.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Claudia Kusche, Munich
Claudia started her career with a major Travel Management Company and held several roles in sales, key account management and business development in Germany. Due to her success Claudia was asked to manage an important IT-client as Head of Travel, Groups and Events.
Claudia decided in 2007 to become an independent consultant in Strategic Meetings & Events Management (MICE Management). Since 2007, Claudia’s analyzing skills, strategic purchasing skills and complete service dedication created high cost reduction opportunities for some of the leading DAX companies and many other international clients. Over the last 15 years, Claudia has developed a strong relationship with many travel managers, events managers and suppliers for travel and event solutions. Claudia speaks German and English.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Thibault Maurin, Paris
Thibault is passionate about data, driving him to pursue a career in Business Intelligence and Data Sciences, and join Areka’s Data Team. His international profile (fluently spoken English, Spanish and French) has proved to be invaluable on many projects with international clients. Thibault’s experience also includes monitoring airline and hotel programs, building reporting and implementation data-visualization tools, optimizing and automating data consolidation processes, and leveraging data efficiently overall.
Always trying to improve his skills and generate new ideas, Thibault is a quick learner and a team player. He graduated from NEOMA Business School in France, after which he attained a Master and an MBA respectively in Data Science & Big Data – Data Management.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Marie Pagès, Paris
Marie has a strong knowledge of business travel. Prior to join Areka, Marie worked for a Travel and Expense tool provider where she assisted customers and TMC as a service manager. She has an expertise in customer service as well as proven experience in project management working with international clients and TMC.
Marie’s experience includes: Supporting clients and TMC on the use of T&E tools, auditing T&E tools configuration, implementing OBT for TMC and customers, optimizing business Travel process, managing change management for SBT implementation.
Marie speaks English, Spanish and French and is a graduate of the ESCAET Business School in France. She holds an MBA International Travel Management specialized in Business Travel.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Wendy Prewitt, U.S.A.
Wendy has more than 25 years’ experience in the travel, payment, and expense industries. She has held senior executive positions with several firms. She has an MBA and extensive corporate leadership background within the Corporate Payments, Professional Services, and Consulting industries supporting F500 and large global enterprises to develop customized business strategies, source complex third-party solutions, and guide major programs to success.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Jean Tan, Northern California
Jean brings over 30 years of experience in the hotel industry, with almost 20 in hotel sourcing consulting. Prior to Areka, she managed a team of consultants in the US, and working globally with the sourcing leadership team. Her expertise in hotels, development of sourcing strategies, negotiating with hotel suppliers has helped clients improve their compliance and adoption in their hotel programs.
She graduated from the School of Travel Management at the University of Hawaii. Besides English, she is conversant in a few Chinese language.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Lucie Turpault, Paris
Lucie has strong expertise in corporate travel. Her experience includes: global airline and hotel sourcing management, travel & expense audits, TMC contract renegotiation.
Prior to work for Areka Consulting Lucie worked for the consulting subsidiary of a major TMC on several project for F500 companies. She holds a MBA International Corporate Travel Management from ESCAET (school specialized in corporate travel).
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
Kate Watson, United Kingdom
Kate has over 15 years’ experience in the corporate travel industry, she brings an extraordinary understanding of the travel category having worked on both the supplier side and the buyer side. She has a wealth of experience in procurement, contract management, travel category strategy, change management, project management and negotiation across all travel sub categories. Prior to joining Areka Kate worked for Credit Suisse where she held both travel management and most recently travel commodity lead roles; prior to this Kate has spent time working for a global travel management company HRG, helping blue chip organisations to develop their travel programmes. Additionally she has experience working in the travel technology sector and hotel sectors.
Contact: contact@areka-consulting.com
