The Action Catalyst

More with Moore is Action Catalyst host Dan Moore's reflections and commentary on discussions with each of his esteemed and accomplished guests.

In this segment, Dan dissects Episode 269, with Terri Rickard, Founder and President of Southwestern Travel Group.

Terri Rickard is the Founder and President of Southwestern Travel. She began her career with the Southwestern Family of Companies in 2012 as the Executive Assistant to the CEO. In her role as Executive Assistant, she took on a major project to create an internally managed travel program for 16 operating divisions, managing over $5 million in annual travel spending.

In just a few years of collecting company travel data, intense industry research, and perfecting the vendor contract negotiation process, she achieved savings of over $500,000. In 2016, armed with a detailed business plan and the support of the board of directors, Terri launched Southwestern Travel.

Today as President, she focuses on the vision of the company, execution of the vision, and recruiting A+ people. She is also a hands-on team player actively saving clients money, training, negotiating, and ensuring all best practices are adhered to for every event or adventure planned.

Terri graduated from Belmont University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science. Her passion for history quickly transitioned to a passion for travel as she desired to visit the places she studied over the years.

When not working, you can find Terri spending time with her husband Jared and their four children who range in age from three to twelve years old. Terri and her family enjoy outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, and canoeing. They enjoy attending local community events and going to see the Nashville Predators play. And, yes, you guessed it… Terri loves to travel!

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This episode is brought to you by Southwestern Travel Group.

Southwestern Travel Group

More with Moore is Action Catalyst host Dan Moore's reflections and commentary on discussions with each of his esteemed and accomplished guests.

In this segment, Dan dissects Episode 268, with Lars Tewes, Managing Director of SBR Consulting.

Lars Tewes is the Managing Director of SBR Consulting, a leading sales performance consultancy. He has over 25 years of experience in creating sales force effectiveness in businesses around the globe.

In 2002, his passion for professional selling and sales transformation led him to co-found SBR Consulting. He tackles the issues of business development from a strategic viewpoint through implementing tailored sales and BD programs.

He has worked directly with over 250 organizations from professional service practices and entrepreneurial start-ups to global financial and engineering firms, helping build sales cultures and inspiring individuals to develop sales habits for success, while having fun doing it!

He also practices what he preaches and continues to be a sales practitioner: making sales calls, holding meetings, setting targets, negotiating and winning business, and leading by example in everything he does.

In understanding his client’s challenges and inspiring them to achieve their goals, his ultimate goal is for the SBR team to “Elevate the Practice and Perception of Sales Worldwide.”

More with Moore is Action Catalyst host Dan Moore's reflections and commentary on discussions with each of his esteemed and accomplished guests.

In this segment, Dan dissects Episode 267, with Bruce Black, entrepreneur and leader with over 40 years of C-level business experience.

Bruce Black has over 40 years of C-level business experience building several high-performance companies as a founder, leader, entrepreneur, and CEO. For the last ten years, Black has used much of that prior business knowledge to help private middle-market business owners improve their company’s performance, lower their risk profile, and achieve maximum value in a sale. Black’s firm, IBG Business, was a national finalist in 2016 for middle market strategic sale of the year and awarded the M&A Transaction of the Year in 2015 by ACG of Arizona. From 2005-2008, Black spent three years organizing, leading, and managing a 444-unit ground-up condominium project in the Phoenix valley for Chicago-based Terrapin Properties.

From 1980-2002, he co-founded McCord Travel Management at 29 and over those 22 years, he and his team grew McCord from $0 to over $600 million with 800 employees, becoming one of the largest corporate travel management firms in the US. Driven by a passion for service, McCord’s success came one client at a time and through targeted strategic market acquisitions. Under Black’s leadership as CEO and President, McCord’s business strategy was to serve the most demanding and least easily pleased clients.  Those clients eventually included some of Chicago’s, Los Angeles’, New York’s and San Francisco’s top law firms, consulting organizations, entertainment companies, movie studios, advertising agencies, national accounting groups, and architectural firms. During his time at McCord, Black was selected as an Inaugural Member of University of Illinois at Chicago Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame. McCord was successfully sold in 2002 to Atlanta-based BCD, a $3.6 billion competitor. At the time of the sale, 22 years after the start, their first client, Hewitt Associates, was still there!

If that same two-decade period wasn’t challenging enough, at the same time Black helped form Graphicorp, a recognition and inspirational awards company that eventually went on to become the public company Successories. He also led the formation of Synergi, an international corporate travel firm. As Chairman for its first ten years, Bruce led the alliance from an initial 4 countries to 54 countries that spanned the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific.

Black’s first job, after graduating from Iowa State University with double majors in political science and sociology, was in outside sales for a small specialty food manufacturing company. Black now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with his wife and their black lab where he spends time consulting with select clients, is an active mentor to startup companies, and is also an avid hiker, motorcycle rider, and mountain biker.