Large Business Leader: Elaine Osgood

Elaine Osgood won the WBJ Small Business Leader of the Year award in 2006 and has grown her company over the last 10 years to now win the Large Business Leader of the Year award.

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By Taryn Plumb

As the saying goes, the third time's a charm. That's particularly true in Elaine Osgood's case.

Thirty years ago, after a short career as a teacher in Worcester schools and another as an investigator with the Massachusetts Department of Department of Children & Families, Osgood was armed with a master's degree in psychology, casting around for a new, fulfilling livelihood.

Intrigued by franchise Uniglobe Travel, she soon opened a Milford office.

“Ok, sell the world?” she recalled of her piqued interest. “What's a better product than the world?”

And sold it she has.

Over the last three decades, Osgood has grown that initial franchise into the global, increasingly-expanding enterprise, Atlas Travel and Technology Group, Inc. – she dropped the franchise 20 years ago to branch out on her own. With hundreds of virtual offices and thousands of clients, that umbrella corporation comprises of Atlas Travel and Prime Numbers Technology, which together emphasize not only on the logistics and details of travel for corporate and private customers, but the analytics and metrics behind it.

“It's a very exciting, evolving industry,” Osgood said. “No two days are the same. We don't know from one year to the next what we will be doing.”

Atlas Travel, which is headquartered in Milford, has an office in London, hubs in New York and Washington, D.C., as well as roughly 200 virtual offices across the United States and the United Kingdom. Agents offer private vacation planning services, as well as management for corporate clients that includes meeting planning, and incentive, reward and recognition programs.

The company will soon roll out a division focused on consulting and fulfillment, Osgood said, that will involve back-end work on various travel apps.

Meanwhile, Prime Numbers Technology, which was launched eight years ago, offers data analytics, performance metrics and benchmarking tools that enable corporate customers to track and report travel spending, supplier usage and policy compliance.

The travel management industry is ever-developing along with technology, Osgood said. The information-gathering and reporting shifts based on what travelers want and how they want to receive it; today's travelers have a myriad of apps and devices on which to keep up-to-date on every aspect of their trip.

“Technology is critical,” she said. “We have to make sure that as the world evolves, we have the technology so that, from start to finish, we're supporting our travelers, helping them travel the way they want to travel.”

Part of Osgood's goal going forward is to re-attract younger people to the field. She stressed perceptions the Internet would eliminate the need for travel agencies have simply not come true.

“We're on a crusade to tell the world that the travel industry is alive and well,” she said, “and can provide a very wonderful, fulfilling career.”

Atlas partnered with Milford Public Schools in 2014 to create a hospitality management program. The two-year program is the first of its kind at a non-vocational high school, said coordinator Katie Maloney. Students come in as juniors, learning both in the classroom and onsite at partner companies including Atlas, and organize pertinent events.

Maloney said interest has greatly expanded in two years; the first class was nine students, the second of 13, and the incoming 2016 class will have to be whittled down from 50 applicants to 20.

Atlas is an “all-encompassing, great company to be partnered with,” she said. “They are helping these students make connections outside of Milford.”

As it helps to infuse the next generation, Atlas' evolution will be determined by the needs of tomorrow's travelers.

“Our growth is really very strategic,” said Osgood. “It's not ego-driven. It's not about reaching a certain number on the top line so we can say 'We're X millions of dollars.' It's about growing and expanding based on our customer needs.”

Read about the other 2016 Business Leaders of the Year:

Entrepreneurial Business Leader: Michael Covino

Corporate Citizen: Fallon Health

Nonprofit Business Leader: Edward H. Moore

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2016 Business Leaders of the Year: Elaine Osgood, Atlas Travel & Technology Group, Inc.