13 January 2021

CTM's Michael Healy Awarded OBE in Queen's New Year 2021 Honours List for services to support British nationals overseas

Michael Healy, CTM’s General Manager Northern England & Scotland, has been appointed as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s New Year 2021 Honours list.

He was recognised with an OBE thanks to the leadership he showed during Corporate Travel Management’s (CTM’s) work to repatriate 38,000 travellers from 58 countries and territories on 188 charter flights, mostly across a period of 12 weeks, on behalf of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

The project, which involved extensive scenario mapping and planning following initial discussions with the FCDO in March, demonstrated Michael’s and CTM’s ability to innovate and deliver a large-scale solution at speed.

“Back in March, the potential scale of the project was unknown,” commented CTM Europe CEO Debbie Carling. “What was understood was that, if it were to be a success, it needed to be ground-breaking with new processes and systems put in place in an incredibly short amount of time.

“It would also need a committed, expert and agile team working under exceptional leadership from Michael, who successfully united up to 180 people across CTM at any one time. Focused solely on the FCDO’s repatriation project, they were deployed across a shift pattern on a 24-hour rota to mirror that of the FCDO. This was a huge project with significant operational challenges, and complexities supporting many thousands of distressed and anxious British nationals desperate to get home. Michael and the team did an incredible job bringing it all together for CTM.”

Michael Healy commented: ‘It was an incredibly proud moment for myself and my family to be recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. It was a massive shock initially, but also hugely appreciated. Whilst the honour is in my name, I have accepted it in recognition of all of my colleagues across CTM, FCDO, Crown Commercial Service and our Airline Partners who worked in true partnership to successfully deliver a very challenging programme. Given the nature of the C-19 global pandemic, the project operated at fast pace and my award would not have been possible without the energy and passion of the wider team who demonstrated such tremendous commitment in contributing to the effective Government response to a national crisis.”

The Rt Hon Dominic Raab, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, said in a letter to Jamie Pherous, CTM’s Managing Director: “I would like to extend my personal gratitude to you and all your staff who have supported our Charter Repatriation Programme in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The scale of this repatriation effort was unprecedented for all parties. CTM’s ability to find solutions against tight deadlines, and to work in close partnership with the FCDO, were critical to our ability to operate a series of complex flights. I am grateful for the speed and flexibility with which CTM responded, and for your creativity and commitment throughout. Thanks to your efforts, we have successfully bought over 38,000 British nationals back home to the UK. Thank you for being our partner in this historic event.”

A Senior FCDO official, said in a letter to Debbie Carling: “The CTM team excelled and I am pleased to recognise this achievement. Thank you for all your hard work. The whole CTM staff deserve credit for this. I would like to recognise the personal commitment shown by Michael Healy who spearheaded this operation with the support from your teams in UK, Australia and the US. “

Michael Healy joined CTM in 2015 and has held senior strategic roles in a variety of industries for more than 30 years. At CTM, Michael is responsible for the service delivery of corporate travel requirements for a number of Central Government departments through the Crown Commercial Service PSTVS Framework.