APEX in Profile: Allison Burke
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Allison Burke
Executive Vice-President
Telefonix, Inc.
After completing her MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Allison joined Telefonix in 2004 – the company she watched grow from its early beginnings in her family home. She started her career with John Hancock financial services, where she began as a mainframe programmer, moving on to hold roles in both e-commerce program management and IT strategy. Since 2009, Allison has served as executive vice-president of Telefonix, overseeing Finance, Marketing, IT and Legal.
FAST FACTS
Location: ORD
The future of flight will be: Connected
IFE standby: I love to catch up on movies that I have missed on long-haul or international flights – otherwise I am probably watching HGTV (if available) or taking advantage of in-flight Wi-Fi.
Favorite airport: ORD
Favorite hotel: The Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas
Brand of suitcase: Tumi. (To stand out in baggage claim, I went with the dark brown and added hot pink monogrammed accents.)
Paper or electronic boarding pass? Electronic whenever possible!
Passport stamp you wish you had: Australia. It has been on my bucket list for quite some time now.
Something that never ceases to amaze you in your industry?
It is both a running joke with many people in the industry and something truly special and unique about the IFEC space:
People tend to join the industry and never leave.
In a world where many professionals change jobs every three to five years, what is neat is the number of faces that may be linked to a new business card, but have been part of the industry for many years. This creates a unique sense of trust and camaraderie within this industry that is not often found today.
Something only people working in the airline industry would understand?
Even after working in the industry for over a decade, I am still excited to see new IFEC equipment onboard one of my flights that my company was a part of bringing to market. There is just a sense of pride and excitement that the person sitting next to you on the airplane definitely cannot understand. Some of my colleagues laugh at me, but I also have an app on each of my devices to test Wi-Fi speed on each of my flights.
What are your ritual travel habits?
My friends laugh at me, but I pack from a set of different travel spreadsheets – I have standard packing lists for most trip types, lengths of stay and weather combinations. I guess I am your typical Type A traveler before my trip begins. If possible, once I arrive at my destination, I like to unpack, throw on a pair of running shoes and go for a long walk to get a sense of where I am and to think about the trip ahead of me.
What’s the one item you can’t travel without?
My fuzzy socks – I hate walking around hotel rooms barefoot.
If you weren’t doing your current job, what would you love to be doing?
Honestly, this is a pretty difficult question. I love what I do and all of the people whom I have had the opportunity to work with in my tenure with Telefonix. However, there has always been a part of me that would love to be working either in the corporate or the not-for-profit world on initiatives focused on giving back in terms of community, corporate sustainability or the environment.
What do you think is the most overlooked aspect of the passenger experience?
I still believe that there is a lot more that could be done to improve the transition from the airport to the aircraft. While passengers can distinguish the difference between their overall airport experience and their airline carrier, the time at the gate and in baggage are very much a part of their overall airline experience.
These are areas that have not seen much improvement in the last decade. The frustration of arriving at the gate only to stand in line for 30 minutes to be sure to have overhead space for your luggage is never fun. The frustration that is created between passengers, with staff and with the airline before boarding can override the overall experience created onboard for passengers.
What does your typical work day look like?
One of the things that I love about my job is that every day is different. When I am at home in Chicago, I am up early checking e-mails from Europe and Asia before having my breakfast and morning tea. Then it is off to the gym and into the office at either Telefonix or PDT, where my day could be filled with meetings and conference calls or could go the way of brainstorming sessions and working with my team on new marketing plans and content. Having a few minutes throughout the day to check e-mail and catch up with colleagues means it is a great day!
Did you choose the airline industry or did it choose you?
This industry chose me. My father started Telefonix in our basement when I was young. After graduating from undergrad, I went to work in the IT field holding various positions, ranging from programmer to IT strategist. After several years in an IT service organization, where plans and strategy were being handed down from the business to our organization, I realized that I really wanted to be at the front end of the business, so I went back to school to complete my MBA. I studied marketing strategy and strategic management at Booth School of Business (it was called the University of Chicago GSB back then) and was interviewing for corporate strategy roles at Fortune 100 companies. At this time, my father asked me to join Telefonix for two years to see if it might be something that I wanted to be a part of long term – that was 11 years ago!
What are the challenges with being a supplier to airlines? What are some of the highlights?
As we all know, there are a number of unique challenges in bringing new technology to the aircraft. Overcoming those challenges to bring passengers technology services as close to those that they can experience on the ground is what makes our jobs fun and rewarding. At Telefonix and PDT, we are always striving to integrate the latest technologies into our product platforms and custom-designed products. Doing this while also ensuring reliability, product life and a simplified upgrade path for the airlines means there is never a shortage of challenges or opportunities for creative thinking.
What’s the best seat on the plane?
It depends on the aircraft, but an aisle seat that is neither the bulkhead nor too close to the bathroom that offers in-seat storage, power, Wi-Fi and personal entertainment of some kind is pretty much perfect for me. If my upgrade goes through and I can do that with a larger seat and a bit more legroom – all the better!
Two things that you miss most about home when you’re traveling?
In this day and age, you can have almost anything on the road that you have at home, except people. So, it only makes sense that I miss my loved ones more than anything else. If I had to pick a second thing that I miss, I guess it would be the ability to change my mind about what I want to wear!
Craziest travel experience?
I don’t think you can travel as much as we do without having a few crazy stories about travel. I would have to say the craziest for me was on an international flight to Osaka, Japan. It was late in the flight when I woke to the sound of people yelling and flight crew hurrying to the back of the airplane. There was a small woman, probably in her 50s or 60s, who was screaming as she was being detained by the air marshal and crewmembers. A few minutes later, the captain came on to tell us that we were making an emergency landing in Narita to seek medical attention for several passengers. As it turns out, the woman who was being detained had been kicking the seat of the passenger in front of her and tapping on the person sitting next to her. When asked to stop, she refused, and when asked again, she became hysterical, bit the passenger next to her, and then proceeded to stand and bite two or three other nearby passengers before she was detained.