What We Do
We help companies grow through better engagement
Why don’t you get to know our neighbourhood?
Our place, at the centre of the travel management eco-system, is built on our Network, Knowledge and Credibility. This puts us in the ideal location to help buyers with our experience and knowledge of the marketplace and continually changing industry landscape.
Or perhaps, stop and meet our people. Passionate professionals who want to drive change in the industry and love what they do and do what they love.
Welcome to FESTIVE ROAD.
Home of Travel Management.
Who we do it for
Only the brightest clients realise they need us.
Meet some of our shining examples here:

















Our Reputation
But don’t just take it from us, here’s what our clients have to say
“Our relationship with FESTIVE ROAD has deepened considerably since we initially contracted them to help with our inaugural, European customer event. Their understanding of our business and culture combined with their great network, industry knowledge, creativity and integrity has meant that we naturally turn to them to help us deliver projects of all types which benefit greatly from their external perspective.”
David Bartlett - Vice President, Global Sales Europe, Marriott Hotels International Ltd
“When we wanted to scale up our collaboration with the global business travel community around NDC, FESTIVE ROAD was the natural partner for IATA. Since then, our relationship has broadened as they continue to provide added value across all types of engagement activity and work perfectly in tandem with the whole IATA team.”
Yanik Hoyles - Director NDC Program, IATA
“We wanted to create a new travel management strategy to cater for our evolving needs and the fast-changing, global business travel landscape. FESTIVE ROAD gave us an independent perspective on our internal stakeholders and supplier developments. They walked us through a well-thought through planning process which has resulted in a clear, defined path forward and a best-in-class strategy. Having the independence and knowledge of the FESTIVE ROAD team added weight and clarity to the process.”
Mark Cuschieri - Executive Director, Group Corporate Services, UBS
“It was really important to maximise the investment we made in our inaugural customer conference at the end of 2015. It wasn’t just a case of impressing the clients, we had to show other stakeholders that it was the right decision. FESTIVE ROAD worked from the concept stage with our team from Sales and Trade Marketing to ensure we did what we needed to, and more! They helped us to maximise the opportunity for engagement, leave a lasting impression on our clients and gain buy-in for our strategy from other departments.”
Inmaculada Martínez-Ruiz - VP Corporate Sales, NH Hotel Group
Our People
Meet our FESTIVE ROADERS

Paul Tilstone
Managing Partner - London
Paul has received the UK Buying Business Travel Diamond Award for services to sustainability and was listed by the magazine in the industry’s 2013 “Hot List” as one of thirty professionals driving change in the industry. He has twice been listed as one of the world’s top 25 business travel industry influencers by the Business Travel News, USA, for work in advocacy and sustainability.
Paul is a Surrey-based Welshman with an impulsive, insightful and creative nature. He’s not afraid to say what he sees and can regularly be found lecturing his two sons on what it takes to succeed in the 21st century.

Caroline Strachan
Managing Partner - London
Her work leading travel programmes at Yahoo and Cisco is well documented and she has sat on the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Board of Directors, chaired GBTA in Europe and the Institute of Travel Managers (ITM) in the UK. Caroline has received a number of industry awards including the GBTA Luoma award in 2012 for services to the European travel and meetings industry and the Business Travel News Multinational Travel Manager of the Year award in 2013. Caroline is also the Co-Founder of LEVEL Women and Women At Work, 2 voluntary initiatives supporting women in the workplace. Caroline is often called “the most credible Business Travel expert” in the industry and was listed as an “industry influencer” in the Buying Business Travel 2016 Hotlist.
Caroline is based in Kent with her “techie” husband and twin daughters. Her home-baking obsession serves as a cover for her passion, intuition, meticulous planning and emotional intelligence in business.

Lora Ellis
Miami
As one of her clients put it so succinctly on a recent LinkedIn commendation, “her work ethic and commercial acumen was clearly evident as was her unwavering drive to consider many creative ways to identify and deliver value”.
Lora is an industry expert with tenacity, loyalty, broad knowledge and a nose for sensing the reality of situations. She enjoys life in the tropics of Miami and loves to guide both her children to find their passions in life and her mentees to navigate the corporate world, challenging people to be their best.

Louise Kilgannon
Manchester
Prior to this Louise was the Travel Buyer/Manager for corporates across a variety of industry sectors including Procter & Gamble, Infor and IBM. In each of these companies she was responsible for sourcing and managing TMC’s and other travel related services.
In addition to these roles, Louise has played an active role in the industry, sitting on the Board of the ITM and on various industry committees. She is a regular contributor to industry events both speaking and moderating sessions.

Abi Cummings
Manchester
With a passion for customer satisfaction and a tenacious approach to all of her work, she has earned a reputation for integrating seamlessly into established teams and delivering success in the areas of travel technology, crisis management, traveller engagement, process improvement and optimisation.
Abi is based in Manchester where she lives with her partner, two young children and Juno the cat. Abi loves spending time outdoors with the family, dinning out with friends and at weekends can be found watching her other love in life - Football!

Ian Jones
London
Ian held several operational and sales roles in the hotel and restaurant industry until in 2000 he joined the event management team at HBA Zibrant. Ian quickly rose through the ranks to become head of sales, winning contracts for and successfully implementing meetings management programs for large corporate organisations including Xerox, Clifford Chance, Linklaters & Accenture. In 2007 Ian joined De Vere as head of sales. His role was to elevate their reputation in the HBA and TMC market to the first-choice provider for these intermediaries. Under his tenure this income stream rose from £2.7m to over £20m, thanks to Ian’s innovative approach and use of the “emotional bank account” to create an agency fan base of the brand and drive agency engagement at every level.
Ian leads a dual life, as both a FESTIVE ROADER and a farmer, running his 42-acre family farm and outdoor learning business in the Surrey Hills.

Meredith Smith
New York
She then joined MSD Singapore in 2008 where she implemented and managed the Asia Pacific and Japan Travel and Payment program. Whilst building a talented team accountable in the region for the ongoing operations, supplier management and stakeholder engagement of all aspects of T&E, she then set her sights on the controls and standardization of Meetings for the Region.
Whilst there she sat on the Board for ACTE, United Airlines and Marriott Hotels, was a frequent speaker and thought leader with deep subject matter expertise on the unique landscape of each of those 14 countries.
In 2014, she moved to the US Merck headquarters in NJ, as Global Head of Operations for Travel, Meetings, Payments and Creative Studios. Her primary responsibility was to implement a robust Strategic Meetings Management Program and continuing to challenge the status quo on aspects of the established Travel and Payments programs. She is used to managing large organisations of 100+ people and getting the best out of her people by always listening and making rapid decisions.
Meredith is passionate about ensuring knowledge is shared, has a very energetic open direct style and sees joining FESTIVE ROAD as the perfect role for this stage of her career where she can learn from her incredibly talented peers and compliment with a different set of skills and experience.

Mike Orchard
Sydney
Previously, Mike worked up through the ranks at HRG. He ultimately led their global travel consulting practice, HRG Consulting in London, before making the move to Australia. From Sydney, Mike ran CWT’s client consulting division for Asia Pacific - CWT Solutions Group for several years. As a consultant Mike has worked with many organisations as Shell, Microsoft, News Corp, AstraZeneca and Vodafone and UBS, as well as a large number of smaller ‘national’ companies.
Mike is an active member of GBTA and sits on the ACTE Australasia council.
As “poms" living in Australia, Mike and his wife love cricket and rugby, especially when the English have a victorious tour down under. Mike is studying for a Masters of Data Science and is also a drummer, aspiring woodworker and loves a glass of Aussie red.

Sarah Van Dyke
Manchester
Throughout her career, Sarah has held Global and European management positions in consulting, client management, product and project management, supporting a variety of prestigious clients with their extensive and often complex travel requirements. Her well proven history of problem solving, client management, programme re-design and implementations gives her a comprehensive and broad outlook enabling her to identify and evaluate new solutions and strategies to increase customer satisfaction, streamline processes and/or reduce costs.
Sarah has been recognised for her strong leadership skills and is known for being forthright, fair, open, enthusiastic and honest.
Based in Holmfirth, Yorkshire with her husband, Sarah enjoys travelling and fine dining, preferring to combine the two whenever possible!

Fenella Cusack
Finance - London
She has advised public and private companies on a variety of finance and legal issues throughout her career, including a number of large UK inbound and US outbound listed groups. Specialising in international taxes, Fenella’s work has encompassed the increasingly high profile areas of tax compliance, tax advisory and tax controversy.
Her most recent role was EMEA Tax Manager for Jones Lang Lasalle Inc, a role she excelled in, before taking a career ‘break’ to raise her two small children.
Based in Royal Tunbridge Wells, she is happiest enjoying long walks in the countryside with her family (despite the protestations from little legs!), but now marries this with her alter - ego as ‘Fenella Finance’ – another important asset in the FESTIVE ROAD family.

Katie Virtue
Cleveland
Katie has shaped partnership strategies and served as a subject matter expert across various areas of indirect procurement and travel. She has created and grown travel programs spanning Car Rental, Travel Management, Meetings & Events Management, Jet Services, Ground Transportation and Corporate Housing Solutions. She works with companies to evaluate their travel needs and bring them unique insights to optimize their travel program. She also collaborates with suppliers to make sure they achieve goals through the right approach to customer acquisition and management.
Katie serves on the programs committee for the Ohio Valley Business Travel Association and is part of the GBTA Ladders program. She is also an avid fitness and nutrition coach, hockey player and loves spending time with her children.

Sandra Deregoski
London
She has an analytical and data lead approach to monitor performance and to recommend and help create the strategy to meet the client’s objectives and a proven track record of negotiating rates and closing complex contracts with global suppliers.
Keeping up-to-date on the latest disruptive technology in the travel space, Sandra has an extensive product and industry knowledge, and has helped global brands deliver complex projects in fast paced environments. She believes in creating strong business relationships based on open and honest communication, a high attention to detail and accuracy, and focusing on achieving objectives that meet the client’s needs.

Carol Peter
London
During her career, she has worked on a variety of engagements including hotel & air sourcing, programme management optimisation, policy redesign and change management projects.
Based in central London, Carol enjoys travelling, playing badminton, and loves nothing more than spending quality time with her family.

Nicola Lomas
London
She holds a postgraduate degree in Strategic Procurement Management and brings deep buyer experience in sourcing, implementing, and managing all aspects of a business travel programme from roles at global companies which include Omnicom Group and IFS. On the supply side Nicola held senior sales and partnership management roles with American Express, and American Airlines in the US, and with International SOS in Europe.
She is a former chair of the UK’s Institute of Travel Management where she received the Business Travel Professional Services Award 2017 from GBTA.
Nicola recently became a parent and is looking forward to showing her lockdown baby to the world when global travel can safety resume!

Stef Tschida
United States
Stef also leads a college essay coaching practice in the U.S., where she and her team apply the same communication principles used with companies to help high school students with their college admissions essays. Stef loves helping tomorrow’s leaders get into their dream schools.
Stef lives outside the Twin Cities in Minnesota, United States, with her husband, two young kids, and yellow Labrador retriever. In her spare time, she works through the tall stack of business and personal development books on her nightstand.

Alex Kington
London
Alex previously occupied Head of Marketing roles with two UK-based TMCs before establishing her own marketing consultancy in 2022. Despite being a relative newcomer to the industry, her impact has been significant, winning her the accolade of Best Newcomer at The Business Travel People Awards in 2018.
And in an interesting turn of events, Alex is the first Festive Road client to crossover to become a Roader!
Our Values
Credible
We say what we mean and we mean what we say. Our team have industry knowledge and experience and aren’t afraid to hear tough opinions or give them. We are critical friends to our clients and each other.
Committed
Every situation and every customer is unique and merits 100% of our attention. We listen closely and love to get details right.
Creative
We celebrate our differences and our cross-generational FESTIVE ROADER family. We welcome new ideas and relish opportunities to be imaginative.
Our Foundations
The “Brain” Sharing Economy
At FESTIVE ROAD we create “liberated ambassadors” in the people who work for us. We only take on smart people with a great attitude. We give our people the tools to do great things, amazing teammates to work with and an empowering working environment. Combining amazing brains and great personalities makes a business which can drive change.
The World Is Our Office
Apart from “FESTIVE ROAD” itself, you won’t find an office address for our company. That’s because we are a modern business which is always on the move. When each of our “Roaders” are not travelling, they work from home to ensure a balanced life. All that saving on office space means we can remain competitive whilst offering a workforce across the US, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Life’s Too Short
We have a philosophy at FESTIVE ROAD. “Do what you love and love what you do.” It means that we look at what our “Roaders” are good at AND what they enjoy doing. This means our people only work on projects they love and it shows. Who wants to spend their life working on stuff they dislike? That’s a cul-de-sac not a road…
Our Foundations
The “Brain” Sharing Economy
At FESTIVE ROAD we create “liberated ambassadors” in the people who work for us. We only take on smart people with a great attitude. We give our people the tools to do great things, amazing teammates to work with and an empowering working environment. Combining amazing brains and great personalities makes a business which can drive change.
The World Is Our Office
Apart from “FESTIVE ROAD” itself, you won’t find an office address for our company. That’s because we are a modern business which is always on the move. When each of our “Roaders” are not travelling, they work from home to ensure a balanced life. All that saving on office space means we can remain competitive whilst offering a workforce across the US and Europe.
Life’s Too Short
We have a philosophy at FESTIVE ROAD. “Do what you love and love what you do.” It means that we look at what our “Roaders” are good at AND what they enjoy doing. This means our people only work on projects they love and it shows. Who wants to spend their life working on stuff they dislike? That’s a cul-de-sac not a road…
We Smell Nice
We smell nice, well that’s what our clients tell us anyway.
And they know that because we get close to our customers. Not just in the same room you understand, but close in the sense that we take real time to understand their needs, to ask them hard questions about why they do what they do and what they want from it.
Only by getting close do we both truly understand where they need to be and how we, at FESTIVE ROAD, can help them get there. Then the rest is easy. With an in-depth knowledge of the travel and meetings sector and a passion for engagement we work efficiently to reach their goals.
Contact Us
ENGAGEMENT TAKES MANY FORMS*
Email: hello@festive-road.com
Tel: +44 (0) 207 183 0775
Carrier Pigeon: FESTIVE ROAD (they’ll know)
*(Not that type of form, we don’t like form filling as much as the next guy)
Contact Us
ENGAGEMENT TAKES MANY FORMS*
Email: hello@festive-road.com
Tel: +44 (0) 207 183 0775
Carrier Pigeon: FESTIVE ROAD (they’ll know)
*(Not that type of form, we don’t like form filling as much as the next guy)