Rachel Pavel, 38, works in St. Paul, Minnesota, as global strategic meetings and events business partner at Abbott. As a 2017 40 Under 40 honoree, Pavel discusses her passion for the events industry.
What I do: I am responsible for managing a $10 million global Strategic Meetings Management program (SMMP) that covers the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Canada for St. Jude Medical, which became Abbott as of Jan. 4. I recently completed the customization and development of our meetings and events system. This provides a full end-to-end solution for meetings and events to include automated meeting approval processes, budget/spend tracking, attendee registration and a seamless process of automating our health care professional transactions, which ensures we are compliant with Sunshine Act reporting guidelines.
How I got here: I began my career in hotels after I graduated from University of Wisconsin-Stout in hospitality and tourism management. I spent 13 years in hotels holding many positions, the majority in meetings, business travel sales and revenue management. After my hotel career, I spent a few years as a sourcing/meeting planner with Target Corp. before moving into my current role at Abbott.
My greatest career accomplishment: I built our new meetings tool in less than six months, including conducting the training of the tool to 200 planners in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
Impressive stats: We have increased our meeting policy and process adoption in the U.S. to approximately 90 percent in less than three years. With our centralized sourcing and contracting process, we have seen our savings increase from 7 percent to 23 percent annually.
A specific improvement I’ve made: I created and implemented contract terms and conditions all planners could use when signing contracts. In 2016, we added HelmsBriscoe as our sourcing partner to assist with all meeting and event sourcing. This has provided us with a higher level of meeting visibility and assisted in mitigating our contracting risks.
What I do outside of work: My free time is usually spent with my husband and two children. We love to snowmobile, fish or go boating.
Phrases that identify me: Mother; meeting manager; friend; moviegoer; traveler
