Advantage has created new lead roles across its three core membership propositions – standard, Advantage managed services (AMS) and business – to reflect its growing and increasingly diverse membership, which grew by 25% last year (year to 30 September 2022).

Sarah Miller will become the lead for standard members, Emily Shannon the lead for Advantage managed service members and Andy Boorman the lead for business travel members. All three have been promoted from existing roles within Advantage’s membership team.

In addition, Advantage is expanding the team with five new business development roles, which will more than double the consortium’s current level of on-the-road support. One of these five roles has already been filled, with Zoe Adams taking on responsibility for standard members in the south.

Advantage chief commercial officer Kelly Cookes explained the new structure to TTG at the consortium’s annual conference in Benidorm on Monday (22 May).

Miller will look after standard members in the north, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with support from Adams in the south and another recruit who is set to be deployed in the Midlands. Shannon, meanwhile, will look after managed service members in the north, with one of the five new hires poised to look after AMS members in the south.

"Ultimately, the needs of each strand is quite different," Cookes told TTG. "With managed service, a lot of the queries are more operational. We also deal with them differently in terms of commercial and engagement."

Cookes said the recruitment drive would also increase back office support "to make sure those people on the road have the support they need and that we always have people around to help with member queries". Another new role will be created within Advantage’s commercial team to support partnerships too.

Cookes said the rationale behind the expanded membership team was two-fold. First and foremost to provide more support and commercial benefit for existing Advantage members, but secondly to service heightened levels of interest from potential new joiners.

"We need to be able to serve both properly, and we have aggressive growth plans," Cookes added. "This is stage one of this expanded team. There will be a stage two as we continue to grow, probably in the next 12 to 18 months we’ll need to expand that team again."