International Women's Day- Feature special

To celebrate International Women’s Day,TripStack wants to challenge stereotypes that limit women and girls! I caught up with 3 inspiring ladies from the TripStack crew to cover their story on how they manage, orchestrate, lead and most importantly how they choose to reject gender-biased attitudes and believe in themselves and their potential.

Welcome Courtney, take us back in time and walk us through your journey-

My path in the travel industry started in my early 20’s, with a passion to move around, to see new things and discover who I was. I originally started my journey (many moons ago) working for a Consolidator, writing and issuing airline tickets - before the days of online travel websites of course.

I’d write a ticket, make a mistake, void it out, write another one, make a mistake, use some white out… Do people actually remember “white out”? It was brutal. Fast forward 4 years and I was helping to grow an OTA startup where I embraced the ever-changing travel world (rapidly emerging). The journey has now been 15 years and counting.

Throughout the15 year journey, I have taken on countless travel roles but my heart was always in Marketing where I spent the bulk of my career growing my portfolio and learning the ins and outs of the new “digital” travel landscape. I ultimately took on the Director of eCommerce role, which I loved as it allowed me to use my passion for marketing and product with bridges into technology.

Almost 3 years ago now, I transitioned to TripStack as the Director of Product and I’m thrilled to be here. Every day brings new challenges but it’s so exhilarating to see the growth of our organization in such a short period of time. My OTA background has helped me to better relate to our clients needs while my product and project experiences allow me to propel our product development growth.

We’re doing some great things here - Ultimately, my heart just belongs in the start-up life; it’s where I thrive as a contributor to the team and to the organization so I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

“Each for Equal.” What does that phrase mean to you when it comes to your career?

Each for Equal is near and dear to my heart. To me this means that everyone in an organization should be valued the same. We are all equal. No matter what gender, race, religion (or anything that sets you apart for that matter) might be, you deserve the right to equality.

What gender-specific challenges, stereotypes, or barriers have you had to overcome during your career?

I consider myself to have been very fortunate in this regard. I hear horror stories about gender inequality at many companies in the corporate world (both large and small), however, I haven’t encounter any roadblocks during my career. I’ve always been treated very fairly and actually been empowered to grow and succeed as a woman. I’m really happy about that - to have a great team rooting for you and backing you is very powerful.

What support mechanisms have you come across at TripStack to counter some of the barriers you mentioned?

No barriers to mention. I see TripStack as an overly supportive advocate of women and especially women in tech! I truly believe that the perspective a woman brings to an organization is vital to any organization's growth.

On International Women's Day (IWD), what is the most important message you want to send out to women thinking about their careers?

Know your worth. Trust your intuition. Don’t let anyone ever tell you you can’t.

“Where there is a woman, there is magic.” –Ntozake Shange