GBTA Partners with University of Virginia Darden Executive Education & Lifelong Learning to Offer Premier Education Opportunity to Association Members

Two-year partnership with top tier graduate school will bring distinguished professors to renowned business travel program

Alexandria, Virginia The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) – the world’s largest business travel association and a worldwide leader in education, research, networking, and advocacy for the industry – proudly announces a two-year partnership with University of Virginia (UVA) Darden Executive Education & Lifelong Long Learning on GBTA Academy’s Global Leadership Professional^® (GLP) Program.

The GLP program showcases world-renowned academics from high-ranking business schools and features a dynamic curriculum that integrates structured learning combined with an experiential approach that strives to solve real-life challenges and capitalize on business opportunities. The GLP is the only course for travel professionals focused on business and leadership skills.

“Our GLP program is well-known and respected for bringing in experts from top ranked business schools, and UVA Darden School of Business is highly renowned for its innovative curriculum and teaching approach, so this is a perfect partnership,” said GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang. “Using real-world examples from the travel industry, the GLP’s curriculum teaches executive business acumen to help evaluate participants all the way up to the C-Suite.”

Each of the four primary competencies of the GLP will be taught by esteemed members of the Darden School’s faculty:

1. Finance for Business Leaders (virtual), July 21-23, 2021: Associate Professor of Business Administration Paul Simko
2. Managing for Results (virtual), December 7-9, 2021: Professor of Practice Laura Morgan Roberts
3. Marketing (virtual), April 2022: Professor of Business Administration Raj Venkatesan
4. Leadership, July 2022 at the GBTA Convention: Associate Professor of Business Administration Sean Martin

After finishing the four GLP sessions, participants receive the GLP Certificate of Professional Development. Then, upon completion of a research project in a year-long cohort, participants can also be awarded the Global Leadership Professional^® Designation, the pinnacle of achievement for business travel professionals.

Participants in previous GLP programs had this to say:

“What a great opportunity for making improvements and bringing learnings back to my company, learning and keeping up with fast-moving travel industry innovations to become best-in-class, making new connections and being recognized in my company.”

• Angela S. Paulus, GLP, Pitney Bowes

“The content was taught in such a way that I can easily come back to my organization and use the methodology to further develop organizational creativity and intrapreneurship.”

• Samantha Bean, LTD Hospitality Group

“[The Leadership course taught me] there is always a different way to look at and evaluate things; two sides to every situation and you need to weigh out the knowledge completely before making a decision.”

• Toni Bonnette-Verdi, BWH Hotel Group

To help offset the cost of the GLP program, scholarships are available through the GBTA Academy’s Scholarship Program. Click here for details.

For more information on the GLP program, click here.