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Christine Valls, American Airlines, Manager E-commerce Product Marketing, Latin America and The Caribbean

Valls' role may sound simple: encourage more Latin Americans to buy their American Airlines tickets online. However, her definition of aa.com is 17 Spanish-language sites, 1 Portuguese site, plus the content and enhancements to make international fliers stay loyal. This means easier calculations of the company's fares and schedules matrix, instant access to their Advantage rewards, plus creative, cost-effective marketing of the entire program's benefits. And she works in a marketplace that still faces major challenges regarding strong distrust of credit usage online, as well as limited Internet bandwidth.

Christine Valls believes that there is a dramatic shift occurring now in airline marketing. We are living in time when more people simply purchase tickets online. Future air travel growth is not necessarily about encouraging more people to fly, but rather about creating an online travel management relationship that keeps people coming back. That kind of loyalty is critical to the image and the revenues of an airline.

Christine Valls started with American Airlines as an intern 20 years ago, and she remains passionate about the American Airlines company, its people and its brand. "The E-commerce possibilities in Latin America and the Caribbean are endless. This region has been the sleeping giant that is now waking up. We can take risks and try things that have never been tried before. Our world is colorful and without boundaries. And for a marketing executive, that is the definition of Paradise."