Karen Ramírez is MD of Lingo – a communications agency that specialises in travel, tourism, leisure and sport. The agency has a strong digital focus and has worked with both SMEs and large international organisations in both the private and public sector.

Prior to setting up Lingo, Karen headed up the travel division of an electronic marketing company, worked for Trailfinders and on sales for a well-known travel guidebook publisher. Outside travel, she worked in Communications, and Meetings and Languages for the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development and in Citibank's Emerging Markets division. She speaks French and Spanish.

In addition to Lingo, Karen is Director of Business Against Poverty, a charity that works with businesses, engaging them on a scaleable basis so that lives are changed by releasing communities from poverty in B>P’s countries of operations.

Karen has been a member of AWTE for several years and has served on the Committee for the last 4 years. She is proud to continue as Chair for the forthcoming year and looks forward to developing new initiatives that do precisely what AWTE is all about - supporting women in travel!

Originally setting out for a career as a journalist, my path was changed by chance to join the travel industry. A year at college in Bournemouth led me to work for Toucan Travel, WH Smith Travel and then American Express in retail, business travel, foreign exchange and key account management.

However, with a growing family, I needed to find a role that would allow me to remain in the travel industry, whilst supporting my young children and so I joined Future Travel, firstly as a homeworker, then as General Manager of Personal Travel Advisors, building the business to 140 homeworkers. With remote management and strong communication skills an essential, my natural progression was to the role of brand development manager for Future Travel, coming to an end in October 2007.

Since that time I have worked as a freelance PR consultant, predominantly within the travel industry, but have had the opportunity to step outside the travel trade working with a woman in PR and business development, who has established the only accredited babysitting courses for teenagers in the UK. I am proud to have served on the Committee of AWTE for the past 3 years and look forward to continuing my role as Vice President if re-elected.

I have been very involved in the travel industry throughout most of my working life, with over 20 years' experience in both Europe and North America in the Car Rental, Hospitality and now the Airline industries.

I worked with both Hertz and Europcar as Director of Reservations & Distribution and later with Perot Systems in both Europe and America where I was responsible for coordinating the Business Process development, Testing and User Training for the Reservations function on a new National Car Rental system including the GDS function. My time in Hospitality was focused on the Design and Distribution of an on-line meetings booking tool here in the UK, and now I am working on a European project for Qatar Airways.

While with both Hertz and Europcar, I gained considerable experience working on industry Committees, holding the Chairperson position of the Association of Car Rental Industry Systems & Standards (ACRISS) on at least 2 separate occasions.

I initially joined AWTE when I came back into the travel industry after a brief sojourn 'out in the cold' working in the Telematics industry introducing vehicle tracking systems - necessary but not fun!! My reason for joining was to re-establish links with old colleagues and make new friends, both of which I am pleased to say I have been able to do and have had fun at the same time. I would now like to work more closely with the Committee and help where I can to build up the association and its popularity.

I have been a member of AWTE since the 1970s, when I worked as the Director of the Swedish Tourist Committee (now VisitSweden). I remained loyal to VisitSweden and enjoyed a long career, mainly in the UK and also in the US as the Director for a short while. From 2003 - 2007 I was Director for VisitSweden in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, based in Hamburg.

Moved back to London and started Barbro McAusland Associates, a consultancy dealing with travel and tourism matters. I am the Chair of the Committee of MidScan Travel, a Swedish based incoming company, a senior Committee member of Ehrenberg Kommunikation, a PR and PA company based in Germany and Sweden, and am also working for various Swedish regional tourist Committees and with my former colleagues in VisitSweden on smaller projects. I am an active member of the Committee of SveaBritt, a network organization in London for professional Swedish women in the UK.

Married to Duncan, we live in London and Sweden, have a global family which frequently makes us travel around the world.

AWTE has always been part of my UK network and I find that being an active member of an organization within one's trade is very rewarding professionally and personally.

With passion and motivation underpinning all her work, Debbee Dale’s enthusiasm and ability is reflected in the results she achieves. Debbee has assisted many companies in decreasing attrition and increasing sales and customer retention by helping them to develop better practice in recruitment, training and general employee relations. She encourages employees to adopt skills that help achieve and exceed company expectations, which in turn increase job satisfaction, a sense of achievement and pro-active self-evaluation.

Debbee has delivered consultancy, learning and development as well as coaching in several commercial contexts, principally in the travel and tourism industry. She has designed award-winning training solutions for ACE (Association of Cruise Experts), Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Hurtigruten.

In addition, Debbee is a mentor for various businesses, a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and the Institute of Travel & Tourism (ITT) where she is Vice Chair of Education and Training. Debbee runs the AA Graduate Programme in partnership with AA Appointments, a free service to employers offering positions to Travel and Tourism graduates. She writes a regular on-line feature for Travel Weekly, has been a contributor to People 1st and is often quoted in Travel Trade Gazette as an expert advisor.

Debbee has been on the AWTE Committee since 2009 responsible for Membership during which time she has recruited almost 70 new members. In 2010 she was awarded the Microbusiness of the Year award from SHINE People & Places and the AWTE Business Innovation Award.

Vicki Wolf joined ABTA at the end of 2000. Vicki is currently ABTA's Business Development Manager. Her main responsibilities include ABTA's Professional and Business Development Programme, including events, training and the ATP scheme.

Previous to working at ABTA Vicki worked for the Department of Transport in South Africa as a policy advisor. Vicki was born in Scotland but spent most of her life in South Africa resulting in a very mixed up accent. She studied Politics and Journalism at Rhodes University, South Africa.

Jane is Managing Director of Ionian Weddings, a company specialising in Greek Island and Cyprus weddings which she set up with her partner Andreas 4 years ago. The company now arranges more than 300 weddings a year. Jane’s philosophy is to organise beautiful weddings in unique locations at affordable prices and she constantly strives to pioneer new locations, for example her company was first to organise a wedding on the famous island of Spinalonga, Crete. Jane has achieved a wide amount of press coverage for Ionian Weddings, including a full page in the Sunday Times and an interview with one of the main Greek TV channels which was broadcast during prime time national news.

Prior to setting up Ionian Weddings Jane had accumulated 10 years of experience at senior level in the Travel Industry. Her most recent roles included Account Director at Octopustravel and Southern European Sales Manager at Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts.

Jane has a BA Hons in languages and European Studies from Bath University and speaks five European languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish and Greek). She enjoys travelling, sport and exploring local cultures. One of her ambitions is to encourage more young women in the travel industry to set up their own businesses and was recently invited to speak to Travel & Tourism undergraduates at the University of Westminster about this.

Karen Sequeira is the Director of Marketing - Europe for Millennium & Copthorne Hotels based at the Corporate Headquarters in Kensington, London. She is responsible for the Corporate Marketing department, and for providing marketing expertise for 24 hotels across the UK & Europe. This encompasses the following segments – Corporate & Business Travel, MICE, Leisure and Food & Beverage.

Karen is a Chartered Marketer with a Masters degree in Marketing Management, and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. She has considerable experience across all disciplines of marketing, and indepth knowledge of the travel industry - having worked across the hotel and cruise sectors for over 12 years.

I would like to put myself forward for the PR role on the AWTE Committee, which I have been carrying out for most of the past year. My top-notch writing skills and knowledge of how the media work have helped secure wider coverage for the AWTE before and after our events. I know exactly what journalists are looking for, and my press releases are worded to make the biggest impact.

I am passionate about promoting women in business, and would love the opportunity to continue supporting the AWTE in the next exciting stage of its development – in particular, to emphasise and demonstrate the value of AWTE membership in terms of driving more business, and in helping to get more women on the podium.

Monika Warburton spent her entire career in the airline industry, working for British Airways in Vienna and New York. After returning to her native Vienna, Monika joined Austrian Airlines, where she was the first woman to reach a senior management position. Moving to the UK in 1985, she became General Manager UK and Ireland, the first woman GM of an airline in the UK as well as within Austrian Airlines, managing the entire Austrian Airlines Group operation in the UK and Ireland, including sales, marketing, passenger services, cargo and administration, with a complement of up to 45 staff, and a sales target of around GBP 50m p.a. At the same time she was Managing Director, Austrian Holidays, the tour operator specialising in tourism to Austria, Central and Eastern Europe. Monika was elected Chairman of BAR UK, the Committee of Airline Representatives, the first woman to hold that position for several years.

Monika has been a member of AWTE since moving to the UK and has served on the AWTE Committee since 2004. She was also Secretary of the AWTE Benevolent Fund for several years. She developed the AWTE website in 2004 and has been webmaster (mistress?) ever since. Monika was awarded the Joan Richardson award in 2009.

She is bi-lingual in English and German and also speaks French and Italian, and has recently learned Serbian and Croatian as part of her history degree obtained at UCL's School of Slavonic and East European Studies after leaving Austrian Airlines. Her interests include travel, history, literature, languages and classical music, and she is passionate about promoting women in travel.

Lorraine started her career with the BBC concentrating in Events where she found her calling. Lorraine made her way into the travel industry through the Evening Standard where she began the Gold Leisure Club. Since then Lorraine has become the co-founder and CEO of the British Travel Awards. As well as being a fantastic awards night that is a “must do” date in the travel calendar, the British Travel Awards put together the largest consumer survey of the industry. Many people in business call on Lorraine for advice and insight relating to the results of the survey she produces. She is readily available and has a real talent for making people feel comfortable and empowered. Her company continues to prosper and she actively promotes from within her organisation to ensure people fulfil their potential. Lorraine also gives advice and runs events for companies throughout the travel sector.

Lorraine has actively helped people in the industry and has taken part in panel and round-table discussions to form collaborative solutions and makes herself available to all levels within the industry. Her responsibilities for British Travel Awards and the events, sponsorship and management consultancies the company undertakes means that she is able to assist and advise at AWTE Committee level across management, event, financial and general disciplines. A “floating” Committee role on a consultancy/advisory level would allow her to be as prolific and involved with the AWTE as possible.

Aileen Sweeney looks back on a distinguished career in the hotel business all over the world. She started at the Australia Hotel in Sydney where she had moved with her family but fell in love with Spain while on holiday and stayed for 6 years, even acquiring a small hotel there. Later she worked at the famous Plaza Hotel in New York where she met the leading statesmen of the time, Presidents Truman, Kennedy and Johnson, and Indira Gandhi, but also a host of celebrities such as Twiggy, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and the very demanding Bette Davis. Aileen famously saved the Beatles from being mobbed by spiriting them into and out of the hotel via the kitchen entrance. She became the first woman Conference & Banquet Manager at the New York Hilton and moved to London to open the Kensington Hilton which soon became the most profitable Hilton hotel in Europe.

Aileen's other great interest lies in teaching and training. She was a founder member of the educational arm of the American Hotel & Lodging Association and developed courses for Michigan State University and the Cornell Hotel School which became the established method at all European Hiltons.

Aileen is passionate about tennis and has met all the luminaries of the sport. Though no longer an active sportswoman herself she still drives her red BMW convertible around West London at speed.