s & Panelists Sam Gilliland Chairman and CEO Sabre Holdings Jada Pinkett Smith Actress/Activist DontSellBodies.org Luis CdeBaca Ambassador-at-Large U.S. Dept. of State Amy O Neill Richard Senior Advisor U.S. Dept. of State Carole Smolenski Executive Director ECPAT-USA Sarah Jakiel Deputy Director Polaris Project Chris Kroeger Senior Vice President Sabre Travel Network
Bios in Alphabetical Order Speaker (Video Greeting) Luis CdeBaca Ambassador-at-Large U.S. Department of State In May 2009, Ambassador Luis CdeBaca was appointed by President Obama to coordinate U.S. government activities in the global fight against contemporary forms of slavery. He serves as Senior Advisor to the Secretary and directs the State Department s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, which assesses global trends, provides training and technical assistance, and advocates for an end to modern slavery. Mr. CdeBaca formerly served as Counsel to the House Committee on the Judiciary, where his portfolio for Chairman John Conyers, Jr. included national security, intelligence, immigration, civil rights, and modern slavery issues. At the Justice Department, Mr. CdeBaca was one of the country's most-decorated federal prosecutors, leading the investigation and prosecution of cases involving money laundering, organized crime, alien smuggling, official misconduct, hate crimes, and human trafficking. He was honored with the Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award for his service as lead trial counsel in the then largest slavery prosecution in U.S. history, which involved the enslavement of over 300 Vietnamese and Chinese workers in a garment factory in American Samoa. Additionally, he received the Department's highest litigation honor the Attorney General's John Marshall Award and the Director's Award from the Executive Office of United States Attorneys. He has received the leading honor given by the national trafficking victim service provider community, the Freedom Network s Paul & Sheila Wellstone Award, and has been named the Michigan Law School's Distinguished Latino Alumnus. He has convicted dozens of abusive pimps and employers, and helped to liberate hundreds of victims from servitude. Mr. CdeBaca s family settled in New Mexico in the 1500s. He was raised on a cattle ranch in Huxley, Iowa, and attended Iowa State University. Mr. CdeBaca received his law degree from the Michigan Law School, where he was an editor of the Michigan Law Review.
Sam Gilliland Chairman and CEO Sabre Holdings Sam Gilliland is Chairman and CEO of Sabre Holdings, the world's leading travel technology company, where his love of travel, entrepreneurial spirit and technical expertise inspire him to lead more than 10,000 employees in 60 countries, spanning all segments of the travel industry. He was appointed to the role in 2003. Prior to that, Sam served in several senior leadership positions at Sabre Holdings including president and CEO of Travelocity, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Sabre Holdings, group president of Sabre Airline Solutions, and senior vice president and general manager of Sabre Business Travel Solutions, a start-up venture within the company. Before joining Sabre Holdings in 1988, Sam worked as an electrical engineer for Lockheed Missiles and Space in Austin, Texas. A recognized leader in the travel and tourism industry, Sam was appointed to the President s Management Advisory Board by U.S. President, Barack Obama, in March 2011. In 2012 he was appointed to serve as vice chair during a third term on the U.S. Commerce Department s Travel and Tourism Advisory Committee to Secretary of Commerce John Bryson. Also in 2012, Sam joined the Energy Security Leadership Council (ESLC), a group of prominent business and military leaders who support long-term policies to reduce U.S. oil dependence. Additionally, Sam serves on the Board of Directors for Rackspace Hosting, Inc., the service leader in cloud computing. Sam holds an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Dallas and a bachelor s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas. Human trafficking is one of the most lucrative, widespread and fastest growing crimes, and often the travel and tourism industry is an unwilling and unknowing participant used by traffickers. Consequently, we are uniquely positioned to be a driving force in putting an end to these horrific crimes. We will look at adding useful information about human trafficking to a traveler s e-ticket receipt for example, so they can be better prepared to identify and report potential trafficking incidents. We ll also work with the travel industry and government organizations around the world to shine more light on this issue and encourage them to be part of the solution.
Panelist Sarah Jakiel Deputy Director Polaris Project Sarah Jakiel has been with Polaris Project since 2007 and currently serves as the Deputy Director and a member of the Executive Management team. Ms. Jakiel has been working in diverse capacities on the issue of human trafficking since 2004. In her current role, she is responsible for Polaris Project s national programmatic efforts, including oversight of the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) hotline, the National Training and Technical Assistance Program (NTTAP), and Polaris Project s Direct Victim Services program. Sarah also acts as the lead on all international capacity building efforts and serves as the liaison to Polaris Project s operations in Tokyo, Japan. Ms. Jakiel managed the creation of the U.S. National Hotline and advises other countries on local, national and regional efforts to build effective anti-trafficking response mechanisms. She has conducted human trafficking training with dozens of audiences ranging from social services and criminal justice to community coalitions and corporations. Sarah has developed specific curriculum for Hyatt, Hilton and Wyndham hotels and has significant experience looking at intersections of human trafficking with the travel and tourism industry. Her specific areas of expertise include training, developing collaborative partnerships, strategic planning, and leadership and management training. Ms. Jakiel has her B.A. in Political Science and French from the University of Virginia and an M.A. in Ethics, Peace and Global Affairs from American University where she focused her graduate research on both transnational and domestic human trafficking.
Chris Kroeger Senior Vice President Sabre Travel Network Chris Kroeger serves as senior vice president for Sabre Travel Network, and is responsible for product and customer marketing. Previously, Kroeger lead the Sabre Travel Network North America, Latin America, EMEA and Global Customer divisions, where he had responsibility for sales and service for leisure travel agencies, online travel agencies, travel management companies and corporations. He has also served as president of GetThere, the company's leading corporate travel and collaboration solution. Kroeger started with the company 20 years ago in market research and held subsequent positions in product marketing, sales planning and regional sales. He also led the launch and development of Jurni Network, the Sabre leisure agency consortium, and was the general manager for Nexion, the former full-service host agency of Sabre. Kroeger is active in the travel industry, having served on the ASTA Allied Marketing Council and on the NBTA Allied Leadership Council in recent years. In 2011, he was named ASTA Allied Member of the Year. He also served as Chairperson for the Sabre Holdings annual Give Together global volunteer and charity fundraising campaign in 2007. He earned both bachelor and master of business administration degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. Kroeger has given keynote addresses at numerous travel industry events, including ASTA, ACTE, and NBTA events on three continents.
Amy O Neill Richard Senior Advisor U.S. Department of State Amy O Neill Richard is the Senior Advisor to the Director in the State Department s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP). She serves as Co-Chair of the USG interagency Committee on Human Trafficking Research and Data. Previously, Ms. Richard worked as the Senior Coordinator for Reports where she oversaw the Department s Annual Trafficking in Persons Report. Her own research has earned her several honor awards, including the State Department s Swanee Hunt Award for Advancing Women s Role in Policy Formulation and the Warren Christopher Award for Outstanding Achievement in Global Affairs for her report International Trafficking in Women to the United States: A Contemporary Manifestation of Slavery and Organized Crime. This study, which was carried by the New York Times, was used to support the drafting of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, and its findings became an initial baseline for assessing early U.S. government anti-trafficking efforts. Formerly, Ms. Richard worked in the State Department s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, where she received the Analyst of the Year Award, for shedding new light on transnational organized crime. Ms. Richard received her Master s Degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University where she received the Dean s Award for Academic Excellence. She graduated from the University of Richmond Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
Jada Pinkett Smith Actress/Activist DontSellBodies.org
Carole Smolenski Executive Director ECPAT-USA Carol Smolenski, the Executive Director and one of the founders of ECPAT-USA, has been working in the field of children s rights for over twenty years. She is a long-time nationally recognized leader working to stop the commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of children. At ECPAT-USA Carol oversaw the development of the first research project on child trafficking to New York City and two other research projects about commercial sexual exploitation of children. She was the Project Director for the New York City Community Response to Trafficking Project in New York, a multi-faceted ground breaking project to inform communities at risk for human trafficking about the federal anti-trafficking law and help obtain better protections for victims. She has developed and managed projects to stop the commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of children in the United States, the Riviera Maya and Cancun sections of Mexico and in Belize and is currently overseeing a similar project in three cities in Brazil. She has spoken at numerous conferences and has presented testimony in venues ranging from the New York City Council to the United States Congress to the United Nations. Carol has a Bachelors degree from Rutgers University, a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from Hunter College and an M.Phil from Columbia University.