Newly Acquired by JPMC, Frosch Goes Into Growth Mode | Business Travel News

 Frosch CEO Brian Leibman and others talk…

• JPMC acquisition
• Growth targets
• New payment solutions already in the hopper

Business Travel News: Congratulations on your merger
with JPMorgan Chase. How does it feel to have been acquired by a financial
powerhouse—and how does it change Frosch as a company?

Brian Leibman: For me and
for our family it was a great honor and I think is a great honor for all of us
associated to have a chance to become part of such a great company. I think Frosch and JPMC are both very customer-centric
organizations. And we can talk about some of the different opportunities we can
offer our clients now that we are part of this larger company… But in a broad
sense, JPMC brings our clients some tremendous resources and expertise in areas
like data security, [environmental and social governance] and obviously
payments that we are very excited about. They are looking to grow all the different
parts of our business—including all the segments we talk about as corporate
travel, whether that’s entertainment or energy
to our end-to-end services and consulting, which is where our TCG advisory business
comes in. There’s a commitment by JPMC to maintain all the Frosch brands
and to build all our lines of business—leisure as well as corporate.

BTN: Frosch itself had a significant string of
acquisitions and joint business ventures over the last two-plus years. Were you
looking to sell the business?

BL: We were not looking for this transaction. We were
approached by JPMC, which obviously shared some of their goals they have to
provide additional services to their leisure clients like offering luxury
travel servicing to high-end cardholders or to private wealth clients. When we
talked further, they asked if we would be open to a full acquisition. And the
reason we explored it was that it really was a 1+1=10 proposition when we
talked about what it would mean for our employees. It was an opportunity to
offer additional benefits to them—financial industry caliber benefits, which is
on a whole different level. And offer more stability, security and opportunity for
them. 

BTN: And what about for clients?

BL: I think it’s important to emphasize that we operate independently, with all the same great leadership and all the same brands we had going into the acquisition. Our clients still have same people they’ve been working with and that same great service and support, but
just having now greater scale, greater size, greater resources to to help support them.

BTN: Merging with a
financial institution must bring a lot of payment solution power to the table…

Judith Allen: This acquisition is most exciting for
me because it empowers us as Frosch to explore and develop and deploy payment
technologies that aren’t just ‘one solution fits all’. It’s payments and
service solutions that are customized to travel segments and market needs. They
could be global or domestic or entertainment sector, professional services
clients, meeting and events and of course our small- and midsize business
clients… they all have very specific needs. Now, by adding unique payment
solutions to our segmented technologies and along with our TCG consulting arm,
we truly offer and end-to-end solution that really the industry hasn’t seen.

BTN: So what payment innovations are in play at this
point?

JA: We just completed our corporate client advisory board,
where we met with all of our clients and all of these segments and said, “Tell
us where the gaps are, tell us what you need.” The uniqueness of this
situation with JPMC and Frosch is it’s really the expertise of Frosch driving
the conversation with JPMC empowering us to explore. So we talk about virtual
pay in the industry and certain gaps there; and what would fit better for
entertainment when you have to have local payment in different countries. So
it’s understanding that and building solutions from a travel management
perspective… rather than just handing down a payment solution to travel. It’s
really turning the process on its head.

BTN: What about outside of travel? Is JPMC looking at
opportunities to develop deeper financial or treasury relationships from the
Frosch client roster?

Graham Ruskin: The directive from JPMC is for
autonomous performance… [for Frosch to] continue to doing what it does. But we
always say business as usual means go out and perform. We will continue to do
that across the Frosch umbrella of companies. And just like after Frosch
acquired TCG, we’re now doing some really exciting things with existing Frosch
customers or clients who were both Frosch and TCG clients prior to the
acquisition. We want to listen to and learn from our clients.

What I do see, though, is a new opportunity for travel
managers. Travel management teams have always been at the table in payment, but
now it can really be a role at that table. Maybe now more than ever before [the
role] is to understand and align with the company’s broader payment objectives.
So it’s really exciting for us to hear our customers asking [about this].

BTN: JPMC mentioned in an investor call that it would
be pursuing small corporate business along with providing travel services for
that premier cardholder segment. Frosch has always played well in that SMB
market, is JPMC looking to carve out a piece of that business?

BL: We’re a JPMC company now. When they talk about
pursuing that client, they are talking about Frosch and growing that business
with Frosch, not going out independently to them, but bringing that
servicing into company through our platforms. It’s the same in the premium leisure space. We’ll
continue to grow as we have always done in the past and just scale up faster with
the opportunity of additional clients from the JPMC family.

BTN: That sounds like some ambitious growth. Are
there any numbers against that you can discuss?

BL: I can reference a presentation where [JPMC] mentioned
they are looking to achieve significant growth by the end of 2025. They published
a number of $15 billion in [trading to total volume] from a number that is $8 billion
today. So obviously, they are looking for significant growth. 

BTN: I bet that means you are hiring—along with all
the other travel management companies in the industry, though. Will the new
company give you an edge, given the employment and benefit environment?

BL: There are so many opportunities for existing and
new talent at Frosch. We have close to 300 open positions in divisions all
across agents support, different products, technology. Really, every division—and
an incredible growth opportunity.  We
believe in culture first and nd want to find the best people to make this a
home. Do we think the stability and opportunity that comes from being a part of
JPMC will give us an edge in attracting that talent? Yes, I think it will. It’s
an incredibly exciting time.