Members That Made An Impact
BENOIT SAUVAGE, DMCP, CMP, CIS
PRESIDENT
The SITE 2018 Member of the Year Award is presented to a volunteer who has left an indelible mark on SITE throughout the year.
Benoit Sauvage, DMCP, CMP, CIS, works year-round to grow and promote SITE while concurrently working as the CEO of Connect DMC, located in the Dominican Republic and Mexico, with offices in Punta Cana, Santo Domingo and Los Cabos.
Winner of an IMEX Green Award, President of the SITE Florida & Caribbean Chapter and Member of the SITE Global and Events Industry Council Sustainability Committees, Benoit is also a certified Sustainable Event Professional.
Email: ben@ctsdr.com
JANE SCALETTA, DMCP, CIS
PRESIDENT
You could say Jane Scaletta had the travel bug at a very young age. Born in Jamaica she went to boarding school in her teens in England then moved to Florida in 1976 where she attended the University of Florida studying Animal Science planning on being a veterinarian.
“A car accident kept me out of school so I signed up for an online travel course, got my travel agent certification and started working in a travel agency in 1981. I worked for the 4th largest travel agency at the time—Morris Travel– in their incentive department and after the first incentive program we did for one of our clients, I was hooked.”
Email: jane@dolfindestinations.com
MAURA ZHANG, CIS, CITP
PRESIDENT
Maura is an island girl born in the Dominican Republic and resides in Miami since 1989. She has a bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management from Florida International University and is an industry leader with 20+ years in luxury-tier hospitality sales and marketing, hotel operations and travel industry sales. Maura’s hotel experience includes the top luxury hotel companies such as The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, The Biltmore Coral Gables, Noble House Hotels, Kimpton Hotels and Benchmark Hospitality, where she earned awards such as Chairman’s Club, Platinum Club and Attitude & Determination Awards.
In 2017, Maura joined Patricia Sahin and launched Synergy-Connect; a collaboration by a team of seasoned hospitality professionals, with a shared a passion for unconventional travel and emerging Destinations. Maura and Patricia met at the SITE Global Conference in Orlando in 2013. They put together their diverse backgrounds and individual skill-sets, to represent, consult, and connect providers of unique and memorable experiences, with MICE buyers in North America. They currently represent Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB and Pacific World DMC and will add new clients to the list this year.
Email: maura@synergy-connect.us
MILLIE EVANS
PRESIDENT & CEO
ALLIANCE & INCENTIVE MEETINGS, LLC
Site Membership has been invaluable to Millie for Education and Networking. When she lived in Kansas City, she did not have a local opportunity to learn about incentives. Around 1977, Millie went to Site University in New York where she met other Planners and Suppliers. Ever since then, Millie has found SITE to be very valuable. “I have been a member for about 40 years. I am fortunate to meet wonderful vendors, other planners and of course, my clients”.
Millie’s reason for starting in travel incentive industry, was when she was teaching preschool after her third daughter was born, had trouble finding baby sitters. When she finally did, she went to work with her brother’s travel company, Travel Management and Invest -N- travel. Here she was exposed to incentive travel. Once she got a taste of incentive travel, she wanted more!
After getting a divorce, what was part time, became her full time vocation. She loved meeting corporate executives and the opportunity to assist them in using Incentive travel as a marketing tool. Not only was finding the right destination part of this, but helping them structure a return on their investment with promotional campaign to excite their employees or customers.
Defining the Incentive & Travel Industry
Incentive travel is not a luxury – it’s a necessity. Our research and data prove the ROI business case for incentive travel, which is a powerful management tool that strengthens employee retention, improves performance, and fosters a culture of thoughtful motivation and success.
Over the last 40 years, SITE has grown to over 2,000 members in 90 countries with 29 local and regional chapters. We are a global home for it professionals who deliver with style on the incentive travel promise: meaningful, motivational, memorable. it Works!