■ GROWING UP IN NORTHERN MINNESOTA,
Denise Truso always wanted to see the world and
discover the different opportunities travel had to
offer. She entered the travel management industry
in 1991, primarily working on the supplier side. In
January 2009, she moved to the corporate side
and became the global travel manager at St. Jude
Medical, responsible for managing the
policies, guidelines, cost savings and
safety and security of the company’s
U.S. and Puerto Rico-based travelers. The immediate past president
of the North Central Business Travel
Association (NCB TA), Truso was one
of 10 recipients of the prestigious
Business Travel Professionals Service
Award, which was awarded this past
summer to members of the National
Business Travel Association who led
by example within the organization.
Denise Truso
Global Travel Manager
St. Jude Medical
St. Paul
“In 2010 we’re looking at consolidating all of our meetings management. When I came onboard last
January, we had an unconsolidated
travel program, so in August we consolidated all of our U.S. and Puerto Rico travelers
to one program. Based on that we’re learning
24 MN-MEETINGS.COM WINTER 2010
INTERVIEWED BY
AMANDA FRETHEIM GATES
that in a given year we may have the same 600
people going to the same city and to the same
hotel for meetings and events. We want to see
how we can really get our arms around those
types of movements.
“Because of the economy, we’ve seen a lot
of really talented, good employees lose their
jobs. One thing the [NCBTA] chapter has
done is put into place an ongoing membership, so when a member loses their job they
can maintain their membership until they
find a new job. The other thing we’re seeing
is a lot more of our professionals doing more
jobs and wearing multiple hats. At the same
time, vendors are looking for new revenue
while companies are cutting back on the
costs, so one ends up hurting the other.
“One of my goals as [NCBTA] president was to continue to improve and bring
industry-leading speakers to our monthly
programs. In the two years I was president,
we had more nationally recognized speakers
than ever before. We challenged our program
committee to go out with the budget and
said, ‘If you exceed your budget, we’ll find
the money in other categories to help you
cover those.’ Our attendance increased, the
publicity increased, we saw more first-time
members attending and we saw a lot of longtime members return.” m
