Our focus is now on recovery and what’s ahead, but it’s also important to recognize the heroic efforts that ensured the safe migration of global talent and their family members during the crisis.
Working closely with The MITRE Corporation's relocation services manager, Wayne Conway, and their global business travel team, Sterling Lexicon’s Tara Willingham played an integral part in a series of events in mid-March that brought several MITRE employees and family members rapidly and safely back from assignments in Kuwait and Italy.
With the uncertainty surrounding the progression of the COVID-19 virus and quickly changing circumstances in both locations, MITRE's Army Portfolio leadership team made a late-night decision to return the employees to the United States on very short notice. With a 4:30 a.m. ET email, Wayne and Tara received notice that they were on their way. “One of the biggest challenges we had was that they were literally in the air when we got the word, so we couldn’t contact them until they were able to access WiFi in between connecting flights,” shared Tara. Once she reached them and confirmed their essential housing needs, she quickly got to work finding and booking suitable accommodations in San Antonio, Texas and McLean, Virginia. So quickly, in fact, that their housing was secured before they landed in the United States.
“The success we had was a great group effort, and clearly demonstrates the value of good partnerships,”
reflects Willingham, “in the end, it was really just a normal day for us.”
MITRE responded by thanking Tara and the team with the honor of their Trailblazer award, which “recognizes small teams and individuals for impactful work that aligns with (the company’s) values and behaviors.”
The award states that “Helping with flights and getting temporary living is part of your job, but your efforts here really went above and beyond. You exemplify what is great about our company and your efforts are truly appreciated.”
So appreciated, in fact, that when Wayne Conway recently decided to retire, MITRE offered the position to Tara, who now proudly serves in that role. While we miss having Tara as an official member of the Sterling Lexicon family, we think you can’t get any better validation of client satisfaction than that, and we wish her continued success!
For more examples of client satisfaction, read some of our success stories.