Snyder admits that the decision to step down was a tough one, but he is confident that it is the right thing to do.
“After three decades of doing what I love, there was never going to be an easy time to say goodbye, but this is the right time,” he said. “It was important to me to help get BCD well on the road to recovery, with the pandemic in our rearview mirror. As a testament to what a fundamentally strong company and culture we have here, we’ve maintained an extraordinary track record of client retention and sales success. We’ve rebuilt our teams with an eye on delivering the world’s very best travel solutions and customer service. And we have a clear path for our next phase of growth. I can say with full confidence that BCD’s best days are yet to come.”
Snyder turns the reins of BCD over to longtime friend and colleague Stephan Baars, a transition that speaks to the BCD culture.
“Our culture is so strong that it lets us refer affectionately to ‘boomerang’ colleagues — people who leave for other opportunities but return to the BCD Travel family, drawn back by the strength of our values and our commitment to living them,” Snyder said. “Stephan has almost 14 years of travel industry experience, and I had the pleasure and privilege of working closely with him during his 11-year tenure as BCD Travel’s CFO.
“Stephan shares my conviction that client focus lies at the heart of a successful enterprise. He also believes in the importance of people and innovation, and in long-standing relationships with business partners. His track record in steering companies through times of change and growth speaks to his skill in aligning commercial, operational, technology and central service teams toward common goals.”
A native of Hanover, Germany, Baars has three decades of executive leadership experience in the telecommunications, oil and gas production, business travel and investment sectors. In 2017, Baars left BCD Travel to become CEO of BORON, the private investment company of BCD founder John Fentener van Vlissingen.
“As founder, I am grateful to John for his role in building BCD to what it is today. And I am confident that Stephan is the right person to guide our family company into the next, next generation,“ van Vlissingen said.
Snyder’s history with BCD began in 1992, when he joined what was then called WorldTravel Advisors. In various leadership roles, he helped guide the company through periods of rapid growth, including the 2006 acquisitions in Europe that led to the creation of the BCD Travel brand and established the company as a leading global player. In the years that followed the launch of BCD, Snyder oversaw acquisitions designed to meet the needs of a growing client base. In 2013 and 2019, the BTN Group named Snyder to its list of Top 25 Most Influential Business Travel Executives for his role in fueling BCD’s growth.
During Snyder’s time as president and CEO, he and BCD have earned numerous accolades that reflect the company’s core vision to be the world’s most trusted, innovative and sustainable travel management company. Among them, BCD has received EcoVadis’s top sustainability rating every year since 2016. In 2018, Corporate Responsibility Magazine named him “Responsible CEO of the Year.” In one of Snyder’s proudest achievements, readers of The Beat have recognized BCD as the “Most Admired TMC” a record 10 times.
“In his more than three decades with BCD Travel, John has accomplished an amazing body of work that has benefited not only our company but the entire travel industry,” Baars said. “I’m honored to follow in his footsteps and build on that incredible success.”
