Bethany Blackburn

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT BETHANY BLACKBURN

Blackburn\'s love for international travels, culture, and people began before she was born. Her grandfather emigrated from Norway to America and, as a young girl, she listened to stories her mother told of languages, music, and customs, and engaged in activities that opened the doors of the world. Blackburn discovered her heart call early and set out to experience the world. In high school, she held a variety of leadership positions, competed at the state level in speech and debate, and was one of 20 seniors chosen for the President\'s Leadership Program at the UNC. As a college student, Blackburn completed two bachelor’s degrees in five years, receiving numerous awards and honors in the areas of leadership and academics, including: Leader of the Year, Outstanding Business Student Award, Dean’s Citation of Academic Excellence, Women in Business Award, Community Developer of the Year, and she tested in the top 5% in the nation in the ETS Business Field Test in 2014. After one semester in Rennes, France and two in Cologne, Germany, she was hooked on European business, cultures, and languages. In 2014, Blackburn landed in Antwerp, Belgium as one of 35 students-and the only American-chosen for the 1 year intensive Master\'s of Global Management. Swiftly thereafter, the journey continued on the top-rated, 18 month International Graduate Leadership Program across several business functions and countries with TUI Group. After the training concluded, she discovered a passion for organizational change with a clear focus on people and engagement. After two years as a Business Process Analyst for the destination experience sector Musement, she made the transition into corporate management with the TUI Hotels & Resorts Distribution team for a whirlwind three years to focus on strategy initiatives, project coordination, and reporting analysis for management decision-making. Handling a massive IT project through ideation, RFP and negotiation, to implementation on a global scale, IT and tech had caught her interest. In 2022, she took the plunge and swapped over to the global tech org. Ever since, she has the honor to look after the strategy and performance within different tech teams to focus mainly on topics of engagement, operational excellence, and organizational development. Days range from meeting 1:1 to shape ideas, facilitating workshops, consulting to leadership teams, or being on stage for a tech conference: never a dull day!