Catherine Woodward Backus began her career in the travel industry immediately after graduating with a Bachelor of Science from ISU double majoring in Urban Education and Communications. She spent eight years working for Trans World Airlines. She owned and operated tour company called “Youth Explorers”. During that time she became a mother of four boys: Blane, Brock, Blair and Blake. After the boys were in school, she began a nine year career at Club Med as the Director of US Sales.  There, she introduced travel insurance as a benefit of membership. It was very successful and inevitably lead her to integrating the concept of travel insurance into the Vacation Ownership Industry. She currently holds the position of Global Sales Director with CSA Travel protection in San Diego, CA.

Georgi Bohrod is owner of GBG & Associates Inc. Georgi’s role in changing the public perception of the timeshare industry is widely acknowledged. A designated RRP (Registered Resort Professional) with more than two decades of shared ownership industry experience, she has received awards for collateral material design, interactive media design and public relations campaigns.  A graduate of Northwestern University, Bohrod has spent most of her professional life as a writer, and public relations and marketing professional. Her primary focus is on the travel, shared ownership, and real estate industries.

A few years ago, after piloting her own company for a decade, she left to become director of marketing and public relations of Resort Communications where she spearheaded the marketing, design and public relations campaign for the merger of Resort Communications and International Resort Management into ResortCom International , a leading financial and management services entity in San Diego. She returned to the helm of her own organization in June 2004.

Recently she was instrumental in the industry brand positioning and consumer public relations campaign for the World’s Finest Resorts, an exchange organization for fractional and private residence clubs which was recently sold to Cendant as the hub of its Registry Collection.

Some of GBG & Associate’s vacation industry clients include ResortCom International, Aviatech, The Villa Group, Katana Software, Architectural Concepts, Resort ProSource, Meriwether Ranch, Mobius Vendor Partners, Playa Grande Resorts, Katana Software, FNTC America and Star Resort Group.

Melanie Gring is Vice President Marketing for Global Connections, Inc., a vacation club and resort developer with a member base of 125,000 and 28 sales offices. Prior to acquisition by Global, Melanie was the managing partner of Leisuretainment.com, LLC, a consulting firm providing product innovation, inventory management and procurement, and sales and marketing programs for the vacation industry.

During her tenure of 26 years with Fairfield Resorts, she was instrumental in the research, design and implementation of product development and enhancements to its points based vacation club as well as organized and implemented its inventory management system.

Melanie has more than 35 years of experience in the vacation ownership industry. She was President of Cooperative Association of Resort Exchangers (CARE) from 1996 to May 2000 and currently serves on the Board of Directors. Melanie is the recipient of the 2006 CARE Pinnacle Award for lifetime achievement in the vacation industry. She holds a BBA from the University of Arkansas.

Lani Kane-Hanan, RRP is the Senior Vice President of Marriott Vacation Club International (MVCI). Lani is a third generation hotelier with over 20 years in the hospitality industry. She is responsible for all MVCI’s Business Planning, Inventory and Revenue Management, Pricing, and Product Innovation activities. Her teams’ efforts support the Ritz-Carlton Club, Grand Residences, Marriott Vacation Club, and Horizons brands world-wide.

Prior to joining MVCI in 2000, Lani was part of the senior leadership team of the real estate consulting practices of Arthur Andersen and Horwath Hospitality in Miami, Florida where she specialized in development, acquisitions, and strategic planning for mixed-use real estate projects and companies.

Ms. Kane-Hanan received her degrees in Hospitality Management from Florida International University, where she served as an Adjunct Instructor. She is an active member of the American Resort Development Association, and serves as the Chairperson of ARDA’s Meetings Committee. She holds memberships in several other professional associations and is a frequent guest speaker for various universities, hospitality conferences and organizations.

Lisa Jackson is wife, mother of 3, daughter, sister, friend, neighbor and Vice President of Strategic Business Development at International Cruise & Excursions, Inc. (ICE), has never known a world where she wasn’t juggling many things at once. She also knows it would be impossible to get it all done without the help of a strong support system which is why she is so dedicated to developing the programs in WIN to help women pursue their goals, regardless of their endless responsibilities.

From a very early age, travel always intrigued Lisa so it’s not surprising that no matter what she pursued in life, travel was included. While studying at Arizona State University, she spent almost half her college career studying in Lille, France and Florence, Italy before receiving her degree in French Literature. From there she spent 7 years as a Regional Sales Manager for Cunard Line, the oldest and one of the most prestigious cruise lines in the world. She managed regions spanning the entire west coast as well as Hawaii before finally departing to raise her family in late 1997.

Using her strong cruise background, Lisa returned to the workforce in 2000 when she joined ICE, based in Phoenix, AZ, as the person responsible for negotiating globally with all cruise lines on behalf of the company. She has been proud to see ICE grow from $11 million in annual cruise sales at the time she arrived to over $350 million today. “It has been a tremendous and remarkable journey.” Today Lisa lends her expertise to managing all resort business development at ICE, seeking out new partners and ensuring those currently using the ICE programs are fully realizing the benefits.

“I feel blessed to work for amazing people who allow me to apply my expertise and own style to meet our desired end results. At ICE, we have a group of women that support each other and provide guidance and there is comfort in knowing they are there. Don’t get me wrong, I have met many great men and male mentors in my life but they might not always understand the challenges I face as a working mother or a woman in a male-dominated industry. Equally important, I have developed a strong network of women friends and colleagues outside the office. We meet once a month and just having time to decompress in a relaxed atmosphere provides a big boost and keeps me sane. Whether its neighbors, friends or colleagues, every time I spend quality time with a group of women in similar situations as me, I find strength and many time solutions, to my own challenges. I recognize the need and responsibility I have in helping to develop that for others which is why I am so excited about WIN and look forward to seeing our program develop. The initial responsible alone tells me the need is felt by so many and the time is now. What an exciting time!”

Ellen joined Bluegreen in 1995 as the Executive Assistant to the President of Bluegreen Resorts. This was her initiation into the timeshare industry and Bluegreen had only one resort - MountainLoft in Gatlinburg, TN back then. Today, she is now the Executive Assistant to the President and CEO of Bluegreen, which now includes more than 45 resorts. Ellen's responsibilities also include managing rewards and recognition for the company and overseeing the corporation's philanthropic activities.

Ellen played a pivotal role in the creation and development of the BEAR (Bluegreen Employee Action Resource) Team and its employee-based charitable work that benefits Christel House, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the American Red Cross and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. More than $ 1 million has been raised for these organizations under Ellen's leadership.

Ellen has been a member of the ARDA Awards Committee since 2003 and serves as an ARDA Ambassador.

She joined WIN at its inception and over the past year has worked tirelessly to help take the organization to the next level. She helped to create the first Florida Regional Conference held in January 2010. She is co-chair of the WIN Philanthropy Committee as well as the Chair for the Membership Committee. Ellen's hard work has paid off with her recent nomination to the Board of WIN.

Her signature themes of Responsibility, Positivity, Arranger, Adapatability and Developer make her a great fit for Bluegreen and for WIN. She looks forward to the continued growth of women in the shared ownership industry by furthering their skill sets through education and providing a forum to leverage best practices by providing life, work and balance support.

Ellen has been the recipient of the ARDA ACE Employee Award and Woman of Distinction by the Boca Raton/Deerfield Beach Soroptimist International organization. She has been honored by Bluegreen Corporation as Associate of the Year.