Spotnana welcomes industry veteran Claire Blades as Strategic Success Manager

Claire Blades, formerly Director of Global Procurement for enterprise data management provider Veritas Technologies LLC, has joined Spotnana as Strategic Success Manager, Corporate Travel.

Prior to eight years as Director of Global Procurement for Veritas, she served as Director of Travel and Meetings at Veritas for nine years. Before Veritas, Claire spent more than a decade serving in a variety of travel-related roles at cyber security provider Symantec.

Claire brings a wealth of enterprise business travel knowledge to Spotnana and will provide her deep experience managing implementation, adoption, and optimization for large travel programs at our enterprise customers.

We spoke to Claire about her views on corporate travel, why she’s excited to join Spotnana, and how providing delightful experiences to travelers drives everything she does.

Tell us about your relationship with our CEO Sarosh and why you’re joining Spotnana

I met Spotnana [Founder and CEO] Sarosh Waghmar in 2018 in Miami. We sat down, and we were supposed to have a 30 minute conversation. Two hours later, we were still talking about the endless opportunities that the industry needed. From the first conversation that I had with him, I felt an automatic sense of trust.

I realized then that Spotnana is going to revolutionize the travel industry. Sarosh told me the kinds of things that he was looking to do, and I shared with him that this is what I really believe the industry needs. Travel buyers at large enterprises have been waiting for this to happen for a very long time.

Then we stayed in touch. I believe in Sarosh, the product, Spotnana’s CTO Shikhar Agarwal, and everything that Spotnana is building. It’s time to break down silos in corporate travel.

What mindset are you bringing to your role supporting our large enterprise clients?

The main reason that I’m here after nineteen years at Veritas, is that I believe Spotnana is doing what corporates need. Transparency in the supply chain is paramount and Spotnana are making waves in this area, like building strategic partnerships with CWT, Qantas, and Lufthansa to name a few.

I’m looking forward to approaching our clients with strategic partnership in mind, whether it’s the implementation or the adoption stage, and applying every customer service optimization tool that I’ve ever used toward ensuring their program is a success. I’ve been the customer for over 20 years and therefore understand what’s on the wishlist. Let’s get this work in and bring it to reality. 

At the very heart of the matter is helping the traveler. The company is paying for the monetary cost, but the cost to the business traveler is their personal time. We’re always thinking about the traveler; my intention is to surpass their usual experience and go into the delight stage.

Let’s get it right in our technology and have travelers feel a big enough shift that makes them look at their internal travel policy, partners, and booking experience in a new way. 

How does Spotnana reflect your values?

Spotnana’s vision and mission create trust and transparency. When I first met Sarosh, he asked, why are there all these secrets in the industry?

Spotnana is penetrating the archaic approach of corporate travel to fundamentally help the traveler and travel management teams. The traveler doesn’t care about the politics that’s going on behind the scenes. They need service, whether from an online tool to white-glove service, in order to do their job. That’s what I want to bring to whatever customer that I’m fortunate enough to look after.

We need to keep evolving as an industry and I believe Spotnana is one of the trailblazers. We must  get to the point where travelers experience delight. We want travelers and travel managers to have a high level of trust, and I want to be a trusted advisor for travel managers, not just their account manager.

There are always going to be issues: it’s travel, it’s emotional. There are going to be disruptions around the world. With the right technology, services, and partnerships  we  can  move things forward and deliver world-class service to our customers.

Thanks for your time and welcome to the Spotnana team.

Interested in joining Spotnana and helping provide unparalleled experiences to travelers? Visit our careers page to see our open roles.