Aimia - Knowledge - Meet Our Experts

Dave Battiston , , , Vice President & Managing Director, Global Business Development

Dave Battiston is Managing Director of International Development for Aimia. In this role, Dave is responsible for exploring new business opportunities with retailers in strategically important markets, in line with Aimia’s international expansion plans. He also manages contract negotiations during the establishment of new programs and oversees launch plans. In addition to these internationally-focused responsibilities, Dave is part of the European senior management team which operates out of the company’s London office.

Dave Battiston has a wealth of experience in the loyalty sector that spans numerous industries and regions. Dave is also a frequent speaker and participant in industry conferences. Prior to his current role, Dave served as Chief Executive Officer of Air Miles Middle East, of which Aimia owns 60 per cent. Under Dave’s leadership, Air Miles Middle East has grown to over two million members in seven countries and in excess of 150 participating companies.

Before joining Air Miles Dave held the position of Senior Business Development Manager for Loyalty New Zealand Limited’ ‘Fly Buys’, New Zealand’s largest and most successful multi-participant loyalty program. During his time at the company, Dave led the business development team in growing the business via partnerships with New Zealand’s market leading petrol, supermarket, banking and other retail companies.

Fay Beauchine , , , President, U.S. Business Loyalty

Fay Beauchine leads Aimia’s U.S. Business Loyalty team that helps corporations gain and retain enthusiastic employees, committed and aligned business partners and loyal customers. Her team plans positive experiences by using intelligent data, insightful strategies, and relevant, creative communications that influence, inspire and change behaviors.

Prior to joining Carlson Marketing in 2007, Fay was Senior Vice President, Enterprise Strategic Account Management for Carlson, where she was responsible for cross-enterprise strategies focused on driving profitable revenue growth. Before Carlson, Fay served as Vice President of Sales and Customer Care and Vice President of Reservations for Northwest Airlines. Fay directed Northwest and KLM Royal Dutch Airline’s North American passenger sales strategies targeted to corporations, the U.S. government, travel management companies, meeting and event companies, cruise lines, global tour operators, incentive companies and associations. She also was instrumental in developing Sky Team’s passenger alliance strategies within North America and was an active proponent of global alliance network value for business travelers.

Fay is a founding member of the USTravel MEI Coalition and served as past president and founder of the Site International Foundation. She is past president of the Society of Incentive Travel Executives and of the National Business Travel Association Foundation (now GBTA), and former chair of the Greater Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Association.

Fay will be inducted into the Convention Industry Council’s Hall of Leaders in 2011 as one of the most outstanding leaders and innovators in the industry, identified as a top Industry Leader by Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal in 2008, recognized three times by Business Travel News as one of the business travel industry’s top 25 most influential executives, received Hong Kong and London’s travel and tourism honors, and called one of Minnesota’s Leading Business Women by Corporate Report. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota

Evert de Boer , , , General Manager Global Business Development Travel

Evert de Boer supports Aimia's global business development efforts in travel. Having worked on both the client and agency side, and across industry verticals, Evert enjoys a unique view of the challenges that airlines face today.

Evert has more than 12 years of extensive experience in airline loyalty programs. After crossing from the airline client side to agency side in 2002, he continued to work on airline CRM solutions for a wide range of clients. Evert started his career at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in the Netherlands.

Evert has been a guest speaker at numerous events and institutions, including Cranfield’s School of Aeronautics (United Kingdom) and Toulouse ESC’s Aviation MBA (France). Evert has published a number of articles on FFPs and travel loyalty, most recently in June 2012 in the Journal of Air Transport Management on 30 years of frequent flyer programs.

Evert earned a Master of Science degree in International Business Administration at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain.

Evert is a graduate of the Berkeley-Nanyang Advanced Management Program from the Haas School of Business at University of California at Berkeley, and Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Sandra Diem , , , Vice President Global Business Development Travel

Sandra Diem leads Aimia’s Global Business Development for travel. Sandra has more than 25 years of experience developing travel loyalty programs. She has been working for Aimia for more than 15 years starting at Air Canada, as part of the small program team that separated to form Aeroplan in 2010. During that time Sandra developed the first commercial agreements between Aeroplan and Air Canada in addition to starting Aeroplan’s CRM, Rewards Management and Member Management departments. Sandra has met and worked with many airlines around the world and has been a speaker at airline loyalty program conferences. Sandra also led Aimia’s investment in the Club Premier program in 2010.

Sandra holds a Bachelor degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario (Ivey School of Business).

Rick Ferguson , , , Vice President, Knowledge Development

As Vice President, Knowledge Development for Aimia, Rick has overall responsibility for the development and dissemination of loyalty-marketing thought leadership, research and best practices for a global audience of loyalty marketers.

An acknowledged expert in the theory and practice of loyalty marketing, Rick has published numerous articles and white papers describing the characteristics of marketing programs which seek to change customer behavior. He has consulted for Fortune 500 clients including American Express, Procter and Gamble and Visa Inc.

Rick is frequently called on by the media to comment or contribute to stories on the current state of and outlook for the loyalty industry. He has been quoted as a loyalty expert in various prominent publications, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, MSNBC, the Globe and Mail, the UK Guardian, Fast Company, and Advertising Age. He has also served as a contributor to The Journal of Consumer Marketing and has written monthly columns for NACS magazine and Chief Marketer.

Rick has been a keynote or featured speaker at many industry conferences, including Card Forum, the DMA Annual, Eye for Travel, FTMA, Loyalty World, and NACS. He’s also delivered educational workshops and webinars on the principles, practices and technologies of loyalty marketing in Canada, China, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Rick currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife and son.

Peter Gleason , , , President, Intelligent Shopper Solutions

As President, Intelligent Shopper Solutions, Peter Gleason is responsible for driving the overall development of Aimia’s Loyalty Analytics products and services for retailers and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) suppliers globally. Prior to assuming his new role with Aimia, Peter was the Managing Director of the LMG Insight & Communication (I&C) business, which he helped build from scratch beginning in August 2007. In this role, Peter led the development of I&C’s groundbreaking Self Serve retail analytical tool, which helps Aimia’s retail clients including Sainsbury’s, CVS, Sobeys, Coles and Migros as well as over 150 CPG’s, derive actionable insight from shopper data to make better strategic business decisions. Under Peter’s direction, Aimia’s Intelligent Shopper Solutions business now boasts over 200 employees operating in eight countries.

Prior to joining Aimia, Peter was Managing Director of Retail Media at dunnhumby, the customer-marketing consultancy owned by Tesco PLC. Peter held several other roles at dunnhumby, including Head of CPG and Commercial Director.

Peter’s industry expertise is unrivalled, with additional experience working with Catalina Marketing UK Ltd, and well-known brands Kimberly Clark, Mars and Gillette. Peter has thorough knowledge of retail and the CPG industry, with 20 years experience providing consulting services around Category Management, Marketing, CRM, Retail Media, Supply Chain, Market Research and Loyalty Systems.

Jay Lee , , , Chief Strategy Officer, U.S. Region

As head of Strategy for the U.S. Region, Jay Lee brings together the latest loyalty thinking from Aimia’s global products, services and expertise to help companies build better relationships with their customers. He leads a talented team of professionals who design innovative loyalty strategies and programs by leveraging the latest technology platforms, analytics insight and customer experience expertise across all industry verticals.

Before joining Aimia, Jay led Strategic Partnerships and Business Development for American Express OPEN, where he crafted partnerships with innovative companies to meet the needs of OPEN’s small business owners. Additionally he led American Express into alternative payment transactions and financing, emerging distribution channels and next-generation marketing capabilities.

Prior to American Express, Jay launched numerous successful credit card products and digital businesses at notable companies like GE and FleetBoston. At FleetBoston, he launched the first multi-application smart card in the U.S. in partnership with Visa. Jay also spent the first several years of his career in Technology, where he worked in chip manufacturing for IBM and on the trading systems at JP Morgan.

Jay received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and his MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School in New York.

Kevin O’Brien , , , Chief Commercial Officer, Aeroplan Canada

As Chief Commercial Officer at Aeroplan Canada, Kevin O’Brien leads all commercial aspects of Aeroplan’s business, with a mandate to drive growth by continuing to foster strong levels of member engagement through new and innovative products and programs. He is also responsible for developing strong partner relationships and delivering value that enables Aeroplan’s partners’ success.

Kevin joined Aimia in 2009 as Vice-President, Strategy and Business Innovation for the Canadian region and VP Strategy and Planning for Aeroplan, where he played an integral role in the development and implementation of strategic and business planning initiatives for the Canadian business. He played a key leadership role in creating Aeroplan's successful corporate strategy.

Kevin joined Aimia after more than 16 years in strategy consulting - most recently as a Managing Partner of the Montreal and Toronto Corporate Consulting offices at SECOR Consulting, Canada’s largest independent strategy consulting company. Kevin co-founded Diesel Think Tank, a Canadian consulting company focused on closer integration between primary customer research and business strategy.

Kevin holds a bachelor degree from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario, and is a member of its Advisory Board. Kevin currently lives in Toronto, Canada, with his wife and their three sons.

Michael O'Sullivan , , , President, Proprietary Loyalty Services, Canada

Michael O’Sullivan was appointed President, Proprietary Loyalty Services by Aimia in Canada in August 2011. In this role Michael is responsible for all aspects of the business, with a focus on growth through partnering with clients to create, market, and deliver new loyalty models that enhance customer relationships and generate incremental revenue. Michael is an exemplary leader who is passionate about creating high performance teams that achieve remarkable results.

Michael joined Carlson Marketing in 2004 and held several executive roles from 2004 through 2011 in Asia and the USA. As General Manager of Australia (from 2004 to 2006) and Senior Vice President Asia Pacific (from 2006 to 2010), his leadership helped transform Carlson Marketing's Australian business into one of the most successful operations in its global network.

Before joining Carlson Marketing, Michael’s career encompassed mergers and acquisitions, corporate strategy, marketing and management consulting across the travel, technology, automotive and banking sectors. Outside of Aimia, Michael is a Non Executive Director of a UK based hospital risk management company that helps prevent death and injury to patients in hospitals.

Michael holds an Economics Degree and a Masters in Applied Finance. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). An Australian native, Michael lives in Toronto with his wife and three children.

Karl Schuster , , , President, Proprietary Loyalty, Asia Pacific

Karl Schuster, President for the Asia Pacific region, is responsible for building Aimia’s proprietary loyalty business across the region. Karl is based in Singapore, and is responsible for an expanding network of offices that span the region, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.

Karl brings a truly international perspective to Aimia, having worked across three continents over the course of his career. He has significant experience in integrated communications - advertising, direct and loyalty marketing - as well as agency turnaround and business strategy.

Before joining Carlson Marketing, Karl served as Director of Rapier, an independent London based integrated communications agency. During his 18 months at Rapier, Schuster was responsible for client services and a client portfolio that included Axa Direct, Schroeders and Halifax. Prior to that appointment, Karl spent ten years with WPP-owned OgilvyOne in both the UK and as Managing Director of OgilvyOne in Cape Town, South Africa. In the Nineties, Schuster was managing director of Bates Communications.

Karl received his Bachelor of Commerce degree in business studies and Diploma in Marketing from University College Dublin, Ireland.

Brian Sinclair , , , President, Coalition, U.S.

Brian Sinclair is President, Coalition U.S., where he leverages his 20 years of experiences in building businesses and developing successful loyalty programs. Brian also worked on the acquisition of Carlson Marketing and its integration.

Before joining the Aimia team, as part of the 2007 acquisition of Loyalty Management Group Limited, Brian worked for Loyalty Management Group Limited in a variety of roles including serving as Managing Director of Nectar, the UK’s largest loyalty program. Brian was a founding member of the Nectar Program. In this role, he worked with Nectar Sponsors to develop and execute their loyalty and database marketing strategies. He also served as Business Development Director, where he led the company's efforts in developing new commercial relationships.

Before joining Loyalty Management Group Limited, Brian was a consultant for Bain & Company, an international management consulting firm and was part of the start-up team for the Air Miles program in Canada.

An American by birth, Brian graduated with his MBA summa cum laude from the Richard Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario. He also holds an Honour Bachelor of Commerce from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

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Meet Our Experts