Jim Ruszala

What are you currently working on?

As director of marketing for Maritz Travel, I’ve always been an active incentive industry advocate. Currently, I'm working on a participant viewpoint study that is being conducted jointly between the Incentive Travel Council, the SITE Foundation and the Leon Hess Business School. This study will focus on determining what makes incentive travel motivational, meaningful and memorable from the participant’s viewpoint. Generally, I am always networking, writing, presenting and engaging others on incentive travel research, trends, practices and strategies, anything from program design to performance measurement.

What were you doing prior to joining Maritz?

I've been with Maritz for 10 years. In that time, I've been fortunate in making my rounds throughout the organization and across multiple disciplines. I've worn many hats that included the development of a market leading analytic and strategy practice for Loyalty Marketing, helping extend our performance coaching practices across multiple industries to my current role within the Travel company. Prior to Maritz, I was an advertising account supervisor in an Omnicom agency that handled a large number of McDonald’s Restaurant accounts. There, I led the short and long-term marketing strategy and execution for more than 1,000 restaurants across 17 markets. We did outstanding things that helped evolve our industry and our clients’ bottom lines during tough times.

What do you like about working at Maritz Travel?

There are two main things I really like about Maritz. The first is the company’s laser-focused level of attention on helping its clients; we don't try to sell them any more or any less than what we think they need to achieve their objectives. I've been fortunate to work with hundreds of companies over my years with Maritz, from most of the Fortune 100 to mid-level and up-and-coming organizations. In every situation, the challenges and/or objectives they were looking to address were always unique; and we always treated them as such. Maritz is committed toward effectively helping its clients achieve exactly what they set out to do - succeed.

The second thing I really like about Maritz is that it's the only company that focuses on the concept of better engagement. Whether involving employees, channel partners or customers, we live in a service-based culture. The only differentiator is to provide exceptional experiences that help build relationships. At Maritz, we do just that. We're nimble and proactive, centered and attentive. Our focus is not only on today's state-of-the-market, but on the "what's next" to help direct, assist and harness potential opportunities that exist now and in the future.