Makiko Barrett is currently Sr. Manager of Global Travel for Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, CA.
Makiko’s career spans over 20 years managing corporate travel, having worked as a travel manager for various internet, semiconductor and pharmaceutical companies, with a background in travel operations.

Makiko has been very active in the business travel industry.  She is currently serving the Silicon Valley Business Travel Association as their Director of Education & Professional Development.

Makiko holds a B.A. in English from the Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan.  She is originally from Japan but was raised in Houston, TX and Yokohama, Japan. When she is not at work, she is at her son’s soccer games or busy rescuing cats for the local Humane Society.

David is the Global Travel and Expense Manger for Abercrombie and Fitch, abercrombie kids, and HollisterCo.  Currently the A&F Brands have 783 stores throughout the United States and 171 stores spread across an additional 21 countries.  
With over 30 years in the travel industry, David brings his knowledge and expertise to all facets of the ever changing travel landscape.  His current responsibilities includes managing the T&E audit team, 5 on-site travel agents, and developing a best in class T&E policy.  

Tarbinlam (Tar) is currently Director of Global Travel, Meetings and Payments Procurement at Merck & Co., Inc., whose corporate headquarters are in Kenilworth, New Jersey; he has worked at Merck since September 2012.  In his current role, Tar and his team are responsible for global category strategy development/ execution and supplier relationship management for Travel, Meetings and Payments in concert with internal business partners and regional procurement peers.  Prior to his current role, he had responsibility for Global Transportation Procurement, where he led the delivery of transformational value and stretch performance in savings, working capital conversions, supplier rationalization among other procurement initiatives.
His broad experience includes several years of increasing responsibility in diverse supply chain functions in the pharmaceutical industry, including supply chain logistics, order-to-cash business operations, ERP systems implementation, project management and other procurement categories.
Tar holds an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business and both Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in Industrial Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology.  In addition to English, he speaks German and French.

Claire Langford currently serves as the Senior Strategic Sourcing Manager, Indirect Procurement for Asurion based in Nashville, TN, USA. She has been with Asurion since October 2013 and has over 20 years of experience with technology, financial and travel management organizations. Her primary responsibilities are in the administration, execution and strategic planning of the global travel, corporate card and travel technology programs. Claire has held leadership positions with several local GBTA chapters, and currently serves as Chairperson of the Tennessee Business Travel Association.  Claire, her husband, and their rescue wire fox terrier live in Brentwood, Tennessee and enjoy travel, music and good food and wine.

Roberto Ramirez is a consultant in Eli Lilly and Company’s Global Procurement organization.  He is responsible for strategic sourcing and global category management for multiple spend categories including travel, meetings, legal, and compliance. 
Roberto joined Lilly in 2011. Roberto recently led several travel sourcing projects updating Lilly’s global airline, hotel, and ground transportation programs.   His other sourcing projects have included updating Lilly’s panel of preferred law firms and securing a new global expense reporting system.  Roberto’s sourcing efforts have generated savings of over $38 million to Lilly. 
Prior to joining Lilly, Roberto practiced commercial law at Ice Miller.  Roberto earned a BFA from Ohio University and a JD from Washington University in St. Louis. 

Rick Wakida assumed the newly created Global Travel & Card Manager position at DocuSign in February 2014. He started his career in corporate travel management in 1995 and has managed travel programs for companies in the financial services, bio-pharmaceutical, semiconductor, software, and telecommunications industries.

Rick is an active leader in the industry having served as President of the Silicon Valley BTA and Chairman of the NBTA Hotel Committee. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Accounting and an MBA in Finance and, prior to entering travel management, worked for ten years in Finance at Bank of America.

Greg Wilczek has more than 25 years of corporate travel experience and is currently the Global Travel Manager for Marsh & McLennan Companies, a Fortune 500 professional services company based in New York. Previously Greg was Vice President of Travel at Bear Stearns and he has held positions in business development and operations at Carlson Wagonlit and Maritz Corporate Travel. He serves on numerous industry boards and was recently President of the NYC Business Travel Association.